User's Manual

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go-to source for otherworldly sounds and was featured prominently
in many classic Sci-Fi films. At that point in time, the only Theremins
produced were the rare RCA units.
In 1954 a teenager with a keen interest in electronics began to develop
and sell his own Theremins. That teenager was Robert Moog. He had been
fascinated with the instrument as a child—building his first Theremin at age
15. He soon began publishing his plans and selling kits, eventually moving
on to completed models. Long before he was a pioneer in the world of
synthesizers, Bob Moog’s very first instruments were, in fact, Theremins.
As Cold War tensions eased, more news of Leon Theremin began to
emerge. Upon returning to the U.S.S.R. in the 1930s, Theremin had been
met with suspicion and accused of being an American spy. He was sent to
a Siberian prison camp, where his genius had been employed for Cold-War
espionage. Upon leaving the KGB in 1966, Theremin continued his previous
work at the Moscow Conservatory of Music. By the 1970s, Theremin was
a Professor of Physics at Moscow State University, in the Department of
Acoustics. After a brief trip back to the USA in 1991, Theremin died in
Russia in 1993, at the age of 97.
Nearly 100 years after its invention, Moog Music continues the legacy of
the Theremin with the Etherwave family of analog Theremins, and the
Theremini—an entirely new take on one of the world’s oldest electronic
musical instruments.