25
instrument is more responsive, but sometimes it picks up random data or small movements of your hand
and it plays unintended notes. High articulation values (above about 50) make the device very stable:
the instrument takes plenty of time to decide where your hand is and it seldom gets it wrong. On the
down side, the instrument is less responsive and sometimes fails to play a note which you did intend.
Your Altura MkII left the Lab with the articulation set to 30, which we think gives a good balance of
stability and responsiveness.
To adjust the articulation:
a. Turn off the Altura MkII.
b. Turn all seven control knobs to the far left.
c. Turn on the Altura MkII. The software version will display.
d. Touch the Preset Recall / Save button. The current Articulation value will display.
e. Use the Increment / Decrement (
▲,▼)
buttons to change the articulation. You can play the
Altura MkII as you go, to monitor the effect, but you will probably want to adjust the OCTAvE
knobs to something higher than Octave 1!
f. When you like the effect, press and hold the Preset Recall / Save button for three seconds, until
“
SUA
” (“Save Articulation”) appears.
g. Power the unit off and back on.
PROGRAMMING THE ALTURA MkII
The Altura MkII software was developed in the Arduino integrated development environment (IDE). If
you are an Arduino enthusiast, you can download the Altura MkII open-source code from our github
repository, edit it to your heart’s content, and upload, or “flash”, it to your Altura MkII to make your
own custom controller. Even if you don’t want to do your own programming, the ISP header on your
Altura’s PCB makes it easy to install software updates. Check out the free and handy
to obtain the latest software for all of our products.
The Altura MkII Theremin MIDI Controller is covered by the Creative Commons Share Alike / Attribution
/ Non-Commercial license. You are free to modify and redistribute the Altura MkII software as long as
you a) redistribute it under the same license as the original, b) give proper attribution to all previous
contributors, and c) don’t try to sell your work without talking to us about it first.
We host the Altura MkII source code on Github at
www.Github.com/zeppelindesignlabs
. Please go to
the Altura MkII repository page now and read the README.md file for detailed, current instructions on
obtaining and modifying the Altura MkII source code.
If you get stuck, please contact us by email at [email protected], or consult our forum at
http://zeppelindesignlabs.com/forums/.
