Chaotic Pressure Array Synthesizer

video upload by Peter Corbett

"This was my team's submission to our 4th year EE Capstone project. The synth features chaotically phase-modulated oscillators (Lorenz Attractor), and a dynamic and expressive 2 dimensional pressure input device:

X-axis = pitch
Y-axis = filter cutoff + chaotic mod index
Z-axis (pressure) = amplitude + filter cutoff

The pressure pad is comprised of a sheet of Velostat sandwiched between vertical and horizontal strips of conductive tape. Shift registers apply voltage to each column sequentially, and analog multiplexers scan each row to build an array of pressure readings for all the cells. This is driven by an ESP32, which in turn transmits UART data to a Raspberry Pi 4B.

A python script receives pressure data and parses it into note events. Higher order interpolation methods are employed to capture inter-cell peaks and improve positional resolution. The DSP synth engine is built in PureData with a TouchOSC front end."

RIP Thereminist Barbara Buchholz

Today we lost one of the great theremin players of our time. Barbara Buchholz was a master student of Leon Theremin's grand neice, Lydia Kavina. Do not miss her performances below.

via Wikipedia: "Buchholz was born in Duisburg. She studied flute, guitar, bass guitar and singing at the Bielefeld University. She earned her first success as a bass player in the German woman jazz band Reichlich Weiblich.[1] Since the early 1980s she worked on various interdisciplinary projects both as performer and composer. She produced e.g. Tap It Deep - „midified“ Steppdance and music, Human Interactivity and Theremin: Berlin-Moscow.

At the end of the 1990s Buchholz met Lydia Kavina, the grandniece of Léon Theremin; later she went to Moscow and became a master student of Kavina. In jazz and contemporary music she develops new playing techniques and experiments with various sound possibilities for the theremin. Together with Kavina, in 2005 Buchholz founded the Platform Touch! Don't Touch! for theremin. New compositions for the platform were worked out amongst others by Moritz Eggert, Michael Hirsch, Caspar Johannes Walter, Juliane Klein, Peter Gahn, Gordon Kampe and Sidney Corbett. Buchholz performed in a trio with Norwegian trumpeter Arve Henriksen and live electronics performer Jan Bang,[2] tours with Jazz Bigband Graz in the framework of ELECTRIC POETRY & Lo-Fi Cookies and conducts solo performances as well.

She played the theremin in various contemporary works, like The Little Mermaid, a ballet by John Neumeier, music by Lera Auerbach, and in the operas Linkerhand by Moritz Eggert and Bestmann-Opera by Alex Nowitz.

In 2009 Buchholz participated in the talent show - the German version of Got Talent - and succeeded in presenting the theremin to a wide audience.[3][4]

She died of Cancer on April,10th, 2012."

via Theremin World

Barbara Buchholz Talkshow Tietjen und Hirschhausen NDR.avi

YouTube Uploaded by Mr21gramm on Aug 25, 2010
The performance comes in at 5:23.

Vocalise - Barbara Buchholz (live) Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt, 19.05.2010

YouTube Uploaded by Lachos19 on Aug 17, 2010

"Barbara Buchholz performing 'Vocalise' by Sergej Rachmaninov on Theremin at a concert in the "Museum für Moderne Kunst" in Frankfurt."

Note her theremin was the tVoxTour, a Russian made theremin that is no longer in production according to Theremin World.

Update via Pedro Trotz in the comments: "Video of her performance at Sa Taronja, Andratx (Mallorca):"

YouTube Uploaded by ubikac on Oct 8, 2010

"Open Ends @ Andratx (Mallorca). Octubre 2010."