DM Theremin Support

Support for DM Theremin, the iPhone app you play by moving your hands in the air. If you don’t find your answer here, email josh@dependentmedia.com and a human will reply.

What you need

• An iPhone with a LiDAR scanner: iPhone 12 Pro or any later Pro model. On other iPhones the app shows “This device has no LiDAR scanner”.
• Something to stand the phone on, such as a stand, a stack of books, or a phone propped against a mug.

Quick start

1. Stand the phone up sideways, with the back camera facing you. Allow camera access when asked.
2. Step back so your hands are about half a metre (a couple of feet) from the phone.
3. Raise your left hand to turn the sound on. The further it is from the phone, the louder it plays. Drop it out of view to go quiet.
4. Move your right hand toward the phone and away from it. Closer is higher, further is lower, just like a real theremin.

Modes

• Pentatonic is the easiest place to start. Every note you land on sounds good with every other, so children can make a tune straight away.
• Major and Minor snap to those scales, in any key you pick in Settings.
• Chromatic snaps to every semitone.
• Free is a real theremin: no snapping, so you find each note by ear. The meter under the note name shows how many cents sharp or flat you are.

The Find the note game

Tap Game. The app names a note and plays it. Find it with your right hand and hold it steady until the ring fills. You score more for being in tune and for being quick, and a streak multiplies your points. Tap Hear it to listen to the note again, and Stop to finish.

Questions

Pitch and volume are the wrong way round

Open Settings with the gear button and turn on Swap hands. Left-handed players often prefer it that way too.

There is no sound

Your left hand controls the volume, so make sure it is in view and not too close to the phone. Check the phone’s volume buttons, and the Volume slider in Settings.

The note jumps around

Keep other people and objects out of the space between you and the phone, since the app follows the nearest thing on each side. Play in normal room light, and keep your hands between about 15 and 80 cm from the phone. You can change those distances under Sensitivity in Settings.

Where exactly is each note?

Turn on Ladder shows centimetres in Settings. The ribbon on the right then shows how far from the phone each note sits.

Can I play a synth or another app with it?

Yes. Turn on Send MIDI in Settings. The app appears as “DM Theremin” to music apps on the same iPhone, can pair with Bluetooth MIDI instruments from the same screen, and joins network MIDI so a Mac can connect from Audio MIDI Setup. Notes are sent with pitch bend, so set the receiving instrument’s bend range to 2 semitones. Volume is sent as expression (CC 11). Turn on Mute built-in sound to hear only the synth.

Does the app record me?

No. The camera is used only to find your hands, and nothing is recorded, saved or sent anywhere. See the privacy policy.

Contact

Email josh@dependentmedia.com or call (775) 238-3425.