OFF: Buck and Lucky Leif

[Douglas Pearson]

On Thu, 12 Apr 2001 00:21:52 +0100, Tigger <Tigger at PUDDYTAT.FSNET.CO.UK>
wrote:
>In article <200104112251.SAA09112 at listserv.spc.edu>, Douglas Pearson
><ceres at SIRIUS.COM> writes
>>... Obviously, the
>>Tannerin makes it much easier for an untrained musician to play notes in
>>tune, since they can be marked along the track the stylus runs over - you
>>can't mark notes in the middle of thin air (well, I'm sure someone on this
>>list could find a way)!
>
>It's already been done to control a synthesizer - Jean Michel Jarres
>'laser harp' - can't think of any reason why something like that
>couldn't be adapted for a theremin.

You're correct that this would be a method to "mark notes in air" (if I
understand the 'laser harp' correctly), but the problem is that the notes
become *discrete* (aka "quantized" aka "stepped"), so that you lose the
characteristic slide between notes that distinguishes the Theremin (there
are ways to restore this, but they involve extensive realtime digital
processing [obviously not possible on an analog Theremin], a loss of the
player's expressiveness by introduction of "lag" time, or a combination of
the two).

    -Doug
     ceres at sirius.com