The Quilcom TERRORMIN: Music with your mouse!

[Spogg]

Hello dear friends!

The Quilcom Terrormin was inspired by the wonderful instrument invented by Léon Theremin, and the design was also influenced by the Moog Theremini.

You play it using your mouse, and optionally using a MIDI modwheel, pitch bend, sustain pedal and the keyboard (to select the root note for scales).

You can watch a demo video here:

https://youtu.be/amKMc77iQuI

If you are inspired to look deeper I would strongly recommend reading the included User guide. The download includes the VSTi plugin, FlowStone schematic, presets and some background information.

Download it here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/vlcuqduj5kjhk ... 0.zip?dl=0

Enjoy!

Spogg

EDIT: Kevin Brown made a lovely new GUI for it:

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=16587&p=152307#p152307

[wlangfor@uoguelph.ca]

Downloading now, Thanks Spogg . If it's anywhere as good as Your organ I'm in for a big surprise!

[wlangfor@uoguelph.ca]

This is an amazing contribution, There is a glitch though VST wise when switching to hover/click modes. But easy to avoid. If I can recreate I will and send You the URL.

So, I'm very happy with this and I'm going to practice making the old fourties-fifties spooky sounds. I've also learned how to add midi and it's possible to make nice rap melodies with Your contraption.

Expect a Youtube video showing how Your product can be used. No microphone though. However I have tts so I can sound like the man from the lifestyles of the rich and famous or something like that lol.

[BobF]

Hi Spogg,

I like this a lot! A long time ago I owned the Theremax from PAIA. This really takes me back to that time. I really like how the user interface works with the movement of the skull, very close to a real Thermin sound, plus many extras. We (a friend) and I used to put the Theremax through an "Echoplex". We got some Crazy sounding echoes. Now I can do the same with your Terrormin. I guess your in a class with Moog now.

Great work! Cheers, BobF.....

[kortezzzz]

Amazing controls there It can be not only a good independent instrument, but also a super midi controller with some tweaks

Here is an interesting story: I have an invalid friend that can move only one finger. He suffers from paralysis for entire live and he told me that he always dreamed to play on something. He can use his finger to control a laptop mouse, and I always wanted to develop something for him, but couldn't think about a proper controls that would fit his special needs. Until now This would be a perfect midi controller for people in his situation. I think you should also try this direction.

Thanks!

[Spogg]

Guys!
Thank you so much for your nice comments!

@kortezzzz
Your story about your friend really moved me.

It did occur to me to create some sort of MIDI output and indeed do a lot more. But I decided to keep it straightforward to operate; to avoid too much complexity, especially with the synth side of things. I saw it as a self-contained “instrument” which could have any number of additional effects added in the DAW, much like you would with a traditional Theremin.

I’m not sure how I would go about providing the continuous slide and glide functions in MIDI. Simple note on/note off wouldn’t be appropriate. I do know the Moog Theremini has CV and MIDI output available, but I didn’t look into how that might work. The CV bit is fairly obvious (but I don’t think there’s a gate output), but not so much the MIDI. Plus, I think it would need a considerable Ruby-based system, since the MIDI prims run in green so may cause issues. The Ruby side probably would be beyond my rather limited capabilities.

As always, if anyone would like to modify or extend the functions, please go ahead and maybe post it here.

Cheers

Spogg

[kortezzzz]

I understand. Well, maybe one of our gurus will make it . In any case, your schematic demonstrates greatly both the power and the potential of FS. Cheers!

[Spogg]

Since my last post I looked into the manual for the Moog Theremini in greater depth.

In the setup menu you have to choose a MIDI CC number for the pitch, and one for the volume. So, both make use of the Continuous Controller feature of MIDI specification, and indeed there is no gate facility, just a parallel CV output from the pitch control (or volume; you decide which).

Additionally, my system has an ADSR which can be triggered and retriggered from mouse-down or discreet pitch changes. I guess it might be possible to provide 3 CC outputs on one MIDI terminal, one each for pitch, volume and an on/off one (similar to sustain) for gating. But that leads to the next question… what would you use these CC signals for? You would need a synth that translates these MIDI signals into sound and, of course, that’s exactly what the Terrormin does (just not via MIDI)!

Maybe you could use the guts of the Terrormin to tailor a synth to your friend’s needs; the one I included is rather basic after all.
Essentially you could have a very advanced mono synth with all the features he might want. You just couldn't realistically connect to any old MIDI plugin synth, unless it can adapt to those pesky CC limitations.

As an aside, I never thought about using it with a laptop touchpad “mouse” before.

If you need any more info or help please just ask.

Cheers

Spogg

[trogluddite]

Excellent work as usual, Spogg! (and I absolutely love the name!)

The control over the way that the mouse playing area can be sub-divided for pitch quantisation is absolutely faultless and makes it a joy to play. The synth is judged really nicely too, I think - a good balance between flexibility of sound (which your presets demonstrate really well), while not being distracting from the essence of the theremin playing style which makes it so distinctive. Great manual as ever, with the little history lesson the icing on the cake. And I'd love to see your "preset comments" on more synths - oh, how often I load a patch and forget that I'd assigned the mod-wheel to a crucial feature!

It strikes me that your pitch quantisation system might make quite a nice "drop in" module in its own right for other folks to use in their schematics - it's a great function for terrible keyboard players like me!

@kortezzzz
I have a similar interest in accessibility interfaces. When I'm not hanging around here, I can often be found on autism community forums - I was formally diagnosed ASD a few years ago, which was part of the reason that I disappeared from the FS forums for a while. Dyspraxia and other motor-control problems are very common for autistic people, and it's not unusual to hear people wish that they could get involved in music making if only it weren't for the barriers imposed by physical interfaces. Now that I'm back here, it strikes me that FS has a lot of potential in this area, especially given that it also provides interfaces for cheap DIY electronics which could be used to create novel hardware controllers.

[kortezzzz]

spog

My basic idea was much more simple that that I thought about simply translating the "skull" slide into a conventional midi signal and send it through the midi output to the "out side world" (I mean a VSTI that has only a midi output and may connect then to any other VSTI that opened in the daw). Saw what's going on inside your schematic and I definitely think that it possible to establish. The "pitch" can be converted to initial values (instead of floats). The "Amplitude" can be easily translated into velocity values and then can be sent into a "midi event" primitive and then out, "to the world". So, we left with 2 challenges:

1) To send a proper "note off\note on" with the skull (I mean put proper easy controls for that. Let's say, Lmouse down turns it on, Rmouse down tyrns it off?)
2) keep the "midi event" primitive's trigger input active as long as you are on "on" mode ( already tried to connect to it the "Mouse is over" boolian output, but it didn't keep the signal "on").

I have a similar interest in accessibility interfaces. When I'm not hanging around here, I can often be found on autism community forums - I was diagnosed ASD a few years ago, which was part of the reason that I disappeared from the FS forums for a while. Dyspraxia and other motor-control problems are very common for autistic people, and it's not unusual to hear people wish that they could get involved in music making if only it weren't for the barriers imposed by physical interfaces. Now that I'm back here, it strikes me that FS has a lot of potential in this area, especially given that it also provides interfaces for cheap DIY hardware prototyping systems.

Agree with every word, trog The great potential is here. I'm sorry to hear about your problem, but as volunteer that works about 5 years with invalids with a vast of disabilities, I must say that the disability doesn't harm their ambitions and they crave to taste and experience any possible activity that technology can bring on. My friend composes with his voice. He records a hummed melody and then some friends translate it into a full production (a song... ).