So yesterday (October 2 2014) I took delivery of the Moog Theremini, which is a fun and intriguing re-boot of the traditional theremin. I am sure traditionalists would be violently ill at the prospect of a tone-lockable theremin that features built-in presets, effects and a USB interface, but I had a lot of fun recording with this yesterday and it definitely has a place in the Paisley Babylon live setup.

Pros–it has built in effects which can be bypassed, it has a CV out, and can be manipulated on the fly while performing with it. Cons–it requires some fussing to calibrate, the presets range from really cool to massively cheesy, and the built-in speaker feels a bit “training wheels” to me, but no matter. Paisley Babylon has, so far, found some inventive and fun uses for the Theremini in the recording studio.

Next time I plan on outputting the CV to the Paisley Babylon Moog Little Phatty to see what that does to for the recording process. Add some echo boxes and an Electro-Harmonix Memory Boy and you have the makings for some spaced out fun in the studio.

Also, I’ll be working on some demonstration videos of the Moog Theremini–stay tuned for that.

–Joe Wallace