Theremin - Impressive Musical Instrument
 

This musical instrument is basically a keyboard that can display one, two or three octives at one time. Then you can quickly change octive using the up/down on your "D' pad. When set for one octive, the volume of the note changes depending on where you hit the key (top, middle, bottom). Also you can do a "slide" from one note up to another! I am quite impressed. Only improvement would be to save you last settings when you exit.

Re: Theremin - Impressive Musical Instrument
 

i second that thumbs up. very fun little app. not quite as fun as a real theremin, but quite a bit more mass- and energy-efficient. ;) the lower octaves (4 or 5, i think) remind me of an old black-and-white cartoon. i wonder if they used theremins for those old soundtracks....

Re: Theremin - Impressive Musical Instrument
 

:)

Re: Theremin - Impressive Musical Instrument
 

I would love to create an orchestra out of the instruments we have for our nokias :)

the theremin has impressed me greatly as has boxar and pyano.

Re: Theremin - Impressive Musical Instrument
 

Opps, doesn't run after the last update (not even when run from terminal).

Re: Theremin - Impressive Musical Instrument
 

Hi Den,

when you run theremin from terminal is there some output about the error why it is not run?

Re: Theremin - Impressive Musical Instrument
 

I tried this a couple of weeks ago and it is very cool. The way it freaked my cat out was also very funny ;-)

fnord

Re: Theremin - Impressive Musical Instrument
 

Newest version works fine for me (fresh install). Really cool app. One thing i would like to see is an unlock from the current octave. It is useful sometimes, but other times you want to jump octaves smoothly. I love how there is really no lag on this app, that is what sets it apart from the others. So smooth...

Re: Theremin - Impressive Musical Instrument
 

I added a checkbox to options menu, now it is possible to turn the octave locking off.
Changes are already commited to SVN and will be available in next release which is 1.3

Re: Theremin - Impressive Musical Instrument
 

Would it be possible to add a 'tutor' mode. There are the examples of how to play some songs on the homepage, which is great. But it would be really cool to have the keys change colour in tutor mode so you know which key to hit. Similar to keyboards/synthesizers that have lit up keys.

Re: Theremin - Impressive Musical Instrument
 

Ok, i did something when installing the new version, and it is broken.

Terminal Says:
Please help. Where can I download this shared library?

Re: Theremin - Impressive Musical Instrument
 

Thesandlord,
what os version do you use? Chinook or Diablo?

Re: Theremin - Impressive Musical Instrument
 

Latest update not working here either (N800 / 5.2008.43-7). From terminal I get "error while loading shared libraries: libhildonmm-1.0.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory"

Hope this is helpful. Nice app.

Russell

Re: Theremin - Impressive Musical Instrument
 

Thesandlord, russell_t,

thanks for your report. Actually, at present, I have no any idea what is wrong. It works on my tablet fine, I tried updating from 1.2 to 1.3 via App Manger and I also tried uninstalling and installing again. It works fine, no problems with shared libs.
I new version of the app I had not added using of some new libs, so the old version of the app used these libs too, looks like after updating these libs got removed for some reason :-(.

Could you try uninstalling the app and then installing it from scratch? It should resolve all necessary dependencies. However, it is strange that these files were deleted on update.

By the way, do you have extras-devel repo enabled? If so, I guess it may have caused these problems, probably.

Re: Theremin - Impressive Musical Instrument
 

igagis,

Thanks for the suggestions; I disabled extras-devel then reinstalled 1.3.0-2 and still no go; installs but won't launch. Uninstalled 1.3.0-2 then tried installing all previous versions available at garage, and in each case the same missing-packages list was displayed, which halted installation:

libcairomm-1.0-1(>=1.2.0)
libglibmm-2.4-1c2a
libgtkmm-2.4-1c2a
libhildon-fmmm
libhildonmm
libsigc++-2.0-0c2a(>=2.0.2)

When I view the application details for 1.3.0-2 these six packages are displayed as well (but with varying parenthetical version descriptions).

Again, hope this is helpful information for you.

russell

Re: Theremin - Impressive Musical Instrument
 

Hi russell_t,

don't try installing deb from garage, this will not resolve dependencies automatically, so, the behavior you observed is expected.

Installing 1.3.0-2 does resolve dependencies, this is why it installs. But it is very strange why it does not work for you. I have just reflashed my tablet with latest firmware which is 5.2008.47-3, the same as you have. And tried to install the theremin, it was successful, and it works, it starts normally, right from the menu.

It's strange that in your case it cannot find the file libhildonmm-1.0.so.1. Could you examine your /usr/lib directory and see if there are some files named libhildonmm* ?

Re: Theremin - Impressive Musical Instrument
 

I apt-get uninstalled SOMETHING when i installed the .2 update. That was when the problems started. When the .2 came out on the repo, app manager said it could not install. So i went to terminal, and it installed some extra stuff, and uninstalled two things.

I uninstalled and installed from the repo. Still does not work. It launches fine, but just will not play any sound...

Looks like Tear also uses this library?

Oh, and i have
libasound_module_ctl_bluetooth.so
libasound_module_pcm_bluetooth.so

not pulse...

Re: Theremin - Impressive Musical Instrument
 

Thesandlord,

looks like you have your ALSA setup broken. I would not recommend you to install something with apt-get, use App Manager only. Once I also tried installing some ALSA update with apt-get and got the same effect, theremin was launching but did not play sound. I don't know how to fix it, I had to re-flash firmware to restore ALSA setup.

Re: Theremin - Impressive Musical Instrument
 

I've been playing around with Theremin the past fews days trying to memorize some songs on it. When I get good enough and not making mistakes I'll try and record/post some videos. This is coming from someone where the only piano experience I have is "Mary had a little lamb"

The songs I've been trying are:
"Mary had a Little Lamb" (for beginners)
The X-Men theme (which is pretty easy)
Super Mario Bros. theme music. (I've got half of this down so far... still haven't really tried the second, more quicker half)

Re: Theremin - Impressive Musical Instrument
 

Hi Nelson!

I'm looking forward for your videos, especially the Mario Bros. theme would be interesting!

Re: Theremin - Impressive Musical Instrument
 

I'm getting the "could not find libhildonmm-1.0.so.1" too. I've noticed that the dependency in the theremin deb is on libhildonmm, and the app manager installs libhildonmm-2.0. The program is actually dependent upon the 1.0 version.
isn't that the problem?

Re: Theremin - Impressive Musical Instrument
 

The tablet would not boot, so I reflashed. Not sure if this is related... Everything is super now.

Also, I used this app in a live performance in my band. It was epic. Thanks for making this app!

Re: Theremin - Impressive Musical Instrument
 

MattZTexasu,

I have no idea why app manager wants to install libhildonmm-2.0 instead of 1.0. I tried installing the app on my freshly re-flashed n810 and it was successful, before that I installed and uninstalled the app many times on somewhat not freshly flashed device and it was OK too. I have never observed such behavior on my tablet. Regading dependencies in deb, it is maemo autobuilder who sets the actual dependaecies. In the 'control' file I have "Depends: ${shlibs:Depends}" and when autobuilder builds the package it substitutes the correct dependencies. Maybe there's some error in autobuilder environment so it puts incorrect dependency, but then the question is why I do not see that problem too. On the other hand, it would be nice to resolve this problem since not only you have it, but, unfortunately, I can't investigate it since I can't reproduce it.


Thesandlord,

thank you!
I'm really interested in knowing what this app can do in skilful musician's hands and now you tell that you were using it in live performance in a band. That's cool!

Re: Theremin - Impressive Musical Instrument
 

I am pretty sure that one of the catalogs I have enabled has the 2.0 version of libhildonmm. I don't know how to tell which one it is. I would disable it and install theremin.

It seems to me that the right thing to do is to correct your deb so that it specifies the correct version (instead of specifying a versionless dependency.) That way, when the libhildonmm package gets updated to version 2.0 in the catalogs you're using, you won't have to change anything. Application manager will still pull down the 1.0 version specified in your deb.

I tried to search for the exact steps you should take; but I was unsuccessful. I didn't know what the maemo auto-builder is. It's a service that runs on maemo.org and builds your package when you want to push to the extras repo? Well, i couldn't find any information on how to add a specific dependency.

How does autobuilder know what libraries your program depends on? There's got to be a way give it a specific version.

Re: Theremin - Impressive Musical Instrument
 

MattZTexasu,

I did some investigation and here's what I found:

Current version of libhildomm package is libhildonmm-2.0.2-0 and it is in extras repository. On my tablet I have libhildonmm-2.0.2-0 installed, not 1.0.
But, although the package version is 2 it still contains the '.so' file which is named 1.0, on my tablet the file is libhildonmm-1.0.so.2.

So, we can see that it is still not libhildonmm-1.0.so.1 which is said to be missing on your tablet. And this is the question: why it looks for so.1 instead of so.2 when you installing it on your tablet.

Let's try to investigate it. First, could you check your /usr/lib on your tablet and see what libhildonmm* files you have there?

ls -l /usr/lib/libhildonmm*

For example here is the output from my tablet:
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 24 Apr 29 04:43 /usr/lib/libhildonmm-1.0.so.2 -> libhildonmm-1.0.so.2.0.0
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 270972 Sep 29 2008 /usr/lib/libhildonmm-1.0.so.2.0.0

You can also contact me via Google Talk (chat only): igagis@gmail.com
Maybe it will help us resolve the problem faster.

Re: Theremin - Impressive Musical Instrument
 

I'm just posting what I found while I was chatting with you in case other people run into the same issue.
execute this as root
This just copies the file that we do have to the file that theremin is looking for.

I don't know why or how. but it does fix the problem.

Re: Theremin - Impressive Musical Instrument
 

New version of Theremin has been released and available in Diablo extras repository, version number is 1.4.0-4.

New features:
- 2 new instrument voices: Trombone and Clarinet
- "Listen others" feature which allows listening what other people currently play.

Re: Theremin - Impressive Musical Instrument
 

Way cool...

Re: Theremin - Impressive Musical Instrument
 

One day, this has to work with the proximity sensor on n900! :D

(And while i think of this, canola2 should also use that as a volume meter and some such ... :P )

Re: Theremin - Impressive Musical Instrument
 

This is AWESOMEEEE

I felt so bad when I had to leave my keyboard when I moved overseas - I've almost got Jesu, Joy of Mans Desiring down pat... I just wish my thumbs weren't so fat

By the way: I was just getting corrupted static out of the speakers until followed MattZTexasu's suggestion

Re: Theremin - Impressive Musical Instrument
 

If it's a theremin, chouldn't this be controlled via the proximity sensor and/or the accelerometer to emulate an actual real life theremin?

See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cd4jvtAr8JM

Re: Theremin - Impressive Musical Instrument
 

overfloat
>I just wish my thumbs weren't so fat

Personally, I dont think that using thumbs is the best way to play Maemo Theremin, when I play I use 4 fingers of the right hand, I do not use thumb, see my video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIO0AiyDlx4

>I was just getting corrupted static out of the speakers...

Do you use latest OS2008? I have 5.2008.47-3 firmware flashed and I have not ever observed this problem. Possibly there is some bug in ALSA packages or dependencies, that is when installing some other application which depends on ALSA it replaces the ALSA lib which depends on libhildonmm-1.0.so.1 instead of libhildonmm-1.0.so.2. Unfortunately, this problem remains unresolved.

torspo
I think it is possible to use proximity sensor for controlling sound pitch, for example.
I did not investigate proximity sensor APIs available on maemo 5, don't know if it is possible to get distance info, rather than just two possible states close/far. Also, I have no N900 to test this on.
So, I think it IS possible to make that, but I have no plans to do it in near couple of months.

Re: Theremin - Impressive Musical Instrument
 

what an excellent idea!
yes the accelerometer gives information about the accelerations occurring on the device and tells you the orientation of the device at any moment, so it should be possible.


btw, I doubt the proximity sensor would be useful though, its range appears to be extremely limited (detecting faces in close proximity), but if you used the face camera and a quick algorithm I bet you could get the same effect.

Re: Theremin - Impressive Musical Instrument
 

Yup latest firmware - could easydebian be interfering with ALSA?

This is my new favorite game - although I still play with my thumbs :)

Re: Theremin - Impressive Musical Instrument
 

overfloat
Don't know about easydebian, maybe.

Try playing with fingers, I found it really better than with thumbs. For the first time it is hard but after you get accustomed it becomes easier.

Re: Theremin - Impressive Musical Instrument
 

You'll have to forgive my large thumbs and poor timing, but I made a video..... and i'm also not really using it like a theremin... but whatever....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4qd-W9SsGU

my playing gets progressively worse as the video goes on.... its so hard when you know you're being filmed!

Re: Theremin - Impressive Musical Instrument
 

overfloat

Nice video!

By the way, do you know that you can tune it to other pitch ranges using the Arrow keys? Left/Right is by one semitone and up/down - by one octave.

Also, I noticed that you are playing it just like it would be a keyboard. Just to let you know, I plan to add a keyboard mode in the next release of Maemo Theremin.

Also, I once caught you playing using the "listen others" feature of the Theremin, you were playing the same melody as on your video :-).

Re: Theremin - Impressive Musical Instrument
 

Haha thanks - yes a keyboard feature might help to mask my inability to hit the center of the notes ;)

Re: Theremin - Impressive Musical Instrument
 

A keyboard would be great, to set the starting pitch for each note. After that, it would be nice if you could still wobble your finger left-to-right to get frequency tremolo when you want it.

Re: Theremin - Impressive Musical Instrument
 

eiffel
I added the "add vibrato for keyboard" feature to the TODO list.

All

New version of Theremin has been released and available in Diablo extras repository, version number is 1.5.0-2.

New features:
- new instrument voices: Violin
- Keyboard mode