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Comment by perilunar | Hacker News Reader

The theremin is a fully electronic instrument that could sound like anything at all — so why does it sound so unpleasant?

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Originally because it produced sound by heterodyning two sine waves.

Modern ones (the Moog ones I saw 20 years ago) have tunable waveforms but still hark back to that original sound.

I like the sound. In the sonic tradition of the cello.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XdFSU8sn3mo

It was designed in 1920, before digital computers, and is made using a very small number of electronic components. So, they couldn't have made it sound like whatever they wanted, at the time.

Depends on which theremin, in which hands, with which effects, or lack thereof.

Does this sound unpleasant to you? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=62lT9XsZVio (maybe it's subjective, but it sounds very pleasant to me).

To me it does sound unpleasant, like out of tune in a bad way (and I love untuned, atonal, experimental electronic music and use my own modular synth often, as a point of reference). Like the OP, I never understood the appeal of a theremin.

I quite like the sound of a theremin played well, but that particular example sounds out of tune to me too.

The comment in the other reply to the parent comment, as well as what I've heard of Carolina Eyck's playing, do sound pleasant to me though.

The instrument and the performer.

Katica Illény doing the Star Trek theme https://youtu.be/x0NVb25p1oU

There's a mod you can get for a Moog Etherwave that extends the range and smooths out the tone. I had it added to mine and it was totally worth it.

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