The Qweremin
12 days ago
- #C64
- #electronic-instruments
- #theremin
- The Qweremin is a new instrument combining a qwerty keyboard with a theremin, offering expressive control and ease of playing melodies and chords.
- Originally built a C64-based theremin in 2022, which was hard to master due to its sensitivity and lack of precision in volume control.
- Developed several qwerty keyboard instruments (e.g., Sixtyforgan, Qwertuoso) to address musical expression challenges.
- The Qweremin unifies the worlds of theremin and qwerty instruments, providing both expressive control and quick melody playing.
- Volume control in the original theremin used a feedback loop with the SID chip's envelope generator, but had limitations in responsiveness.
- Feedback from a professional thereminist (Bass Cadet) highlighted issues with slow volume control response, leading to improvements in the Qweremin.
- Added external DAC chips to improve volume control precision, addressing noise issues.
- The C64 still processes volume antenna signals, decoding pulses and sending volume levels to the DACs.
- Rob Hubbard, a legendary game music composer, signed the C64 theremin clamp at a demo party.