It is listed as Alpha version but can not find any bugs and suchlike and am curious where this is going when it is finished as it has good sound and a decent amount of parameters already.
Can be used a theremin or with keyboard. Like that the theremin pad has the piano keys visible to know where you are notewise.
A great thing with the app used as a theremin is that you have a lot more control over the sound which is not the case with other theremin apps.
It is possible to use on a smaller screen but definitely advantageous to use on a tablet.
Yes the best of all it is for free and without pesky publicity!
Here is the user manual and also a easy way to see what the synthesizer contains:
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The program offers two operation modes:
I. Creating Sound Mode.
II. Performing Music Mode.
I. Creating Sound Mode
1. Two equal buttons «∞» («Performing Music Mode»)
Set the program to a mode designed just to perform music with the sound set up in Creating Sound Mode.
2. «Preset Manager»
It is the unit to control previously created and saved sounds (presets). It contains:
- combo box with names of presets currently available to load.
- button «S» («Save») – saves current preset with the same name.
- button «S?» («Save as…») – saves current preset settings with new auto-generated (for now) name.
- button «R» («Rename») (temporary inactive).
3. Button «Simple/Advanced Mode» (temporary inactive)
It is for altering program modes between so called «Simple» and «Advanced».
4. «Tunable Feature Selector»
When pressed opens a list of modules available to tune.
In this version available modules are: «Patch», «Delay», …(to be continued).
5. Module «Patch»
It is to create a sound timbre.
A timbre is synthesized by mixing signals of four first harmonics with a base tone signal and a signal of Noise Generator. Each of them (Harmonics, Base Tone and Noise Generator) has it’s own ADSR-curve that describes amplitude changing.
Wave shapes:
0 - no signal, harmonic is off (note: base tone can’t be turned off)
1 - sine
2 - triangle
3 - saw
4 - square
Parameters of ADSR-curve:
«Attack Time» - a time since a moment at user (player) touched the screen (KeyPad) till harmonic reaches amplitude maximum level.
«Decay Time» - a time since the end of «Attack Time» till harmonic reaches of amplitude level defined «Sustain Level» value.
«Sustain Level» - a level of amplitude (relative to maximum) that harmonic reaches at the end of decay phase. And it lasts until player released the screen.
«Sustain Fade» - amount (coefficient) of signal fading out during sustain phase. A value of «100» means that signal won’t fade out until released phase.
«Release Time» - a time since player released the screen till harmonic fades out completely.
6. Module «Delay»
Adds echo to sound played. It contains two equal sets of controls: one per channel.
- «Left On/Off» & «Right On/Off» buttons – turn effect on/off in left and right output channels respectively.
- «Delay Time» sliders – set the amount of milliseconds between repetitions of echoes.
- «Feedback» sliders – regulate the amount of effect’s output signal that will be redirected to input again.
7. Button «RND»
(experimental)This button is that drawn in random way.
When it pressed the program generates a random set of «Patch» module settings that can result in a quite interesting sound appeared. Attention! Settings made before are deleted without warning! (For now.)
8. Slider «Pan»
Allows us control a virtual horizontal position of «dry» sound (not touched by effects, such as Delay) between left and right speakers (if we have such).
9. Slider «Master Volume»
Allows us control an output level of final mixed signal (after all effects applied).Warning! Too much amount of this value can cause distortion of sound!
10. Section «KeyPad»
Contains settings for sound production area:
- «Amt Keys» (= «Amount of Keys») – amount of musical semitones emplaced at KeyPad working area. Varies from 12 to 88.
- «1st Key» (= «First Key on screen») – the first (lowest) musical tone of sound production area.
- «IM/DM» button (= «Indiscrete keys Mode/Discrete keys Mode») – toggles pitch change modes. Pitch can be changed in stepless (IM) or in stepped manner (DM), when steps correspond to the natural harmonic series.
- «BW/R» button (= «Black'n'White/Rainbow») – toggles painting modes of sound production area. Notes can be painted as black’n’white piano keys (blurred or sharpen according to «IM/DM» setting). Or it could be painted in rainbow shades (when «red» edge is for lowest tones, and purple is for… guess what…)
«H on/H off» button (= «Highlight on/Highlight off») - turns on/off the mode of highlighting touches in sound production area. In Performing Music Mode when touched frequency is equal to one from the natural harmonic series corresponding keys of small piano keyboards are highlighted with green color (yellow - in «almost equal» case when «IM» is active).
11. Small KeyPad («keyboard», sound production area)
A rectangle field one must touch to make device generate a sound of distinct pitch and volume.
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II. Performing Music Mode
1. Sound Production Area (KeyPad, «Keyboard»)
It is a full screen variant of a Small KeyPad.
The difference is two small piano keyboards, above and beyond KeyPad itself. They can help to look after pitches player touch.
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And finally some videos that does not really show the application at its best...
but like said it is for free so just download and take it for a ride.
TouchVox