D-Lev Digital Theremin - Sweet Dreams

D-Lev Digital Theremin - Sweet Dreams

D-Lev Digital Theremin demonstration of "Sweet Dreams" written by Don Gibson, in the style performed by Patsy Cline. Backing track provided by and used with the permission of:

This particular theremin that I (Roger Hess) built is based on the outstanding original D-Lev concept and design by Eric Wallin. The D-Lev in this video is now being used by the professional composer, pianist, and thereminist Rob Schwimmer.

Performance of "Sweet Dreams" in this video, clinker notes and all, by Roger Hess. Other than the addition of reverb during the video editing, no audio processing or pitch correction has been performed, and no effects have been added.

The female voice variant used for this piece is entirely synthesized in the theremin and the unique parameter settings are shown in a screenshot appended to the end of this video. I created this particular female voice by starting with one of Eric's female vocals and working on the formant frequencies and how they are modulated in the software with pitch and volume. Sometimes hearing a particular character of voice leads you to play certain songs that you otherwise would not find in your repertoire, and this was the case with this Patsy Cline song.

The D-Lev (named after Lev Termen, the inventor of the theremin) is an FPGA-based theremin that was conceived and developed by Eric Wallin over the past several years before I joined in collaboration to help develop prototypes and consult on software features and additions. This was the third major revamp of D-Lev prototypes that I built and has been cleverly named the "P3"

This theremin has highly-customizable pitch and volume fields, which can be made as linear or non-linear as the player finds comfortable. The sound generation portion of the theremin consists of up to 127 factory presets and 128 user presets. The user presets can be created using oscillators, a noise generator, envelope and formant filters, and several other building blocks common in digital synthesizers. It has optional pitch correction and a full-featured pitch preview channel. The separate tuner shown in the video is unique to the D-Lev and displays pitch and volume information with no perceptible delay.

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[playingthehakencontinuumwi]

Roger! This is terrific! And that slur/fall at 1:07! Beautiful!!

[johnt]

Nice job. It sounds great and your performance was impressive. I want one of these badly.

[ardanprog]

I saw the thread on Theremin World a few months ago, but this far exceeded my expectations. How beautiful, truly amazing.
Will it somehow become available for thereminists around the globe, or is it destined to remain forever on my list of forbidden dreams?

[makipri]

Your left hand technique is interesting. A little like Pamelia Stickney's staccato technique but turned 90 degrees. I gotta acquire a D-Lev kit some day and give an attempt to construct it as well!

[gfcg]

I love this Theremin!! It looks and sounds beautiful! I love the voices and timbres. How would I go about acquiring one? I so - so want one! I'm in the UK.

[synthsynth]

Hi, Pitts8rh, I'm a thereminist, thanks for this video, this is really nice sound theremin and performance, will this theremin made by walnut wood when they release on the market later?