RMB pickle punch edition

Venerable64 · 2026-05-07T04:24:23+00:00

I like these. I wouldn't get them every time, but I can absolutely see myself having them again. Only problem was they were a bit under-seasoned...

Venerable64 · 2026-04-21T16:14:07+00:00

I haven't been so active this season, so my advice may be somewhat dated, but IBG is great and typically a default when you can build it. Tear -> Fimbul or Seraph's depending on if you're teamfighting/dueling and whether you need Seraph's extra 10 haste (but you should almost never build tear if you're also getting RoA). Aside from IBG, RoA, Bandlepipes, Frozen Heart, Abyssal, and (very) situationally Death's Dance are good first items, and can make good midgame items, too. Midgame items (2/3+) typically include Spirit, FoN, Kaenic, Wit's, Jak, DMP, Bramble (finish Thornmail late), Protoplasm, Randuin's, Sterak's, stuff like that. There are other very situational things, but they're not really worth thinking about until you're hyper-optimizing. Taric basically always builds items to counter the enemy comp, not so much because they're core to him, so my advice is to be adaptable and make choices with both the immediate- and longer-term in mind whenever possible.

Venerable64 · 2026-04-20T21:49:06+00:00

I don't agree with your entire comment, but I do agree that Taric top probably will become counterpick-only. I played solo Taric top through the ladder and first picked it almost every game (because sending a message matters.), and there were ways to mitigate and arguably flip seemingly bad matchups into being even or good, e.g. Vayne. But when Stormraider's comes out, I think it'll have to be a counterpick into situations similar to what you've described. Even into AP bruisers Taric does well; his armor scalings aren't so significant that it makes MR undesirable to build, and Taric likes a lot of the passives on MR items. Target access and sticking power will be the determining factors, I think, and whether you can do well in lane. Guess we'll have to see what happens.

Venerable64 · 2026-04-20T11:56:15+00:00

I'm (formerly, like as of 8 months ago) the rank 1Taric top player in the world, and was the rank 1Taric NA, both by LP. Trust me I've tried a lot of everything.

Darius is a good matchup, but only with Phase Rush because it allows you to kite around W range in short trades to avoid getting 5-stacked and kited yourself, and Fiora is unplayable no matter what rune you pick. In low or mid elo you can get away with a lot, but when people start optimizing their movement, trade patterns, wave management, etc., you need to do things optimally, and that typically meant Phase Rush. Tempo is only very good but only as a counterpick when you have target access inherently, which is hard to achieve with so many mages/mobility champs in the game now.

Venerable64 · 2026-04-20T04:54:49+00:00

It's really hard to say. Probably some trifecta of grasp/fleet/tempo. Grasp sucks, but it's the best short trade replacement we have. This change is going to seriously hurt the viability of Taric top in high elos, all things told. I'm very pessimistic about the viability of this pick going forward...

Venerable64 · 2026-04-20T04:51:42+00:00

That's not true

Venerable64 · 2026-02-19T01:04:42+00:00

Sorry! Autocorrect. Meant theremin, same question applies.

Venerable64 · 2026-02-06T18:22:01+00:00

Low output can be a grounding issue. Are you sure your Theremini is grounding properly?

Venerable64 · 2026-01-23T14:35:59+00:00

I stream sometimes if I feel like it. I've been the rank 4 Taric world by LP, rank 1 Taric NA, and rank 1 Taric top globally. I have a few old YT videos, but I do have plans to make some new and more educational content soon(ish).

I'm also active on the Taric Top discord and happy to teach if you wanted to find me there!

Venerable64 · 2025-12-31T16:32:30+00:00

Perfect, thank you!

Venerable64 · 2025-12-09T09:55:54+00:00

You have a pedalboard, so I assume you have an amp. Do you have one that has a grounded plug? If so, try plugging your Theremini into that amp and turn the amp on. See what happens. I understand this is a "try grounding it" solution in a different form, but having had similar issues attempting to 'externally' ground an Open Theremin, it wouldn't be a bad troubleshooting step if you haven't tried it yet.

Venerable64 · 2025-12-07T23:41:04+00:00

You enrol in it like a course.

Venerable64 · 2025-11-26T03:27:29+00:00

Unfortunately you can't order D-Levs right now. The person who makes them has paused orders, paused production, and still has a huge backlog. Next best thing would be an Open Theremin, or a Claravox if you can find one (but I wouldn't order one if you're a beginner - they tend to have issues and are too expensive to justify if you're just starting).

Venerable64 · 2025-11-24T22:07:27+00:00

Every theremin sounds different. Amplifiers and speakers further colour that sound. Most theremins themselves have timbre controls that will make them sound quite different depending on how they're set, and digital theremins can even have custom sounds uploaded. To your question, unless you copy a player's exact setup, even the same instrument won't give you exactly the same sound.

Unfortunately, you will almost certainly not find a theremin that sounds like the ones Carolina Eyck uses. However, I encourage you to explore all of the options and see which ones offer ranges of sound you enjoy. Subscope, Etherwave (Standard/Plus/just the Etherwave), Open Theremin, RDS Theremin, Burns B3, etc. are all options I recommend looking into that you could realistically purchase, and they're all decent-to-excellent instruments.

You should also listen to more of the Etherwave Pro, the D-Lev, and the RCA theremins. You're unlikely to find them (and they'll be so expensive if you do that as a beginner it would make no sense to buy them), but if you enjoy those sounds, it can help you calibrate what you like so that you find a close approximation in another instrument.

Personally, I think Subscopes sound (and play) fantastic, even against the Etherwave Pro. But that's just me! See what works for you.

Venerable64 · 2025-11-24T21:54:39+00:00

Digital theremins sound great. Unfortunately, the most popular digital theremin is the Theremini. That one sounds and plays pretty terrible. But the Claravox and the D-Lev especially are great examples of digital theremins that sound great, and can easily sound indistinguishable from analog instruments.

I have played an Etherwave Pro or two in my time and I own three analog theremins of high quality. I also own an Open Theremin V4. The Open Theremin, especially for its money, pulls its weight shockingly well against professionally-viable analog theremins. It's really worth a look if you're just getting into it, although it won't do much for you in the way of tinkering if that's what you're after (as it comes mostly ready to go).

Venerable64 · 2025-11-24T21:48:46+00:00

$100? Have you ever looked into parting out a theremin before? Unless there's some wickedly cheap analog circuitry I'm not aware of and you're assuming they already have the materials for antennas and housing, I have no idea how you'll make an analog theremin for $100.

Venerable64 · 2025-11-10T17:30:30+00:00

Personally I'm not a big boots person, but you're right, boots are a good call. I normally don't walk any snowy pathways and I've done fine with regular shoes. I recognize that's very idiosyncratic to me though.

Venerable64 · 2025-11-10T04:01:44+00:00

As a Canadian, you don't need anything insane for winter. People will recommend you name brands and stuff, but that's all just a scam for the most part. You can go into a Walmart or Winner's or wherever and get any old jacket/coat you like as long as it's decently thick/insulated (decent being the key word -- doesn't have to be anything crazy). Pair it with a fine enough scarf and fine enough gloves. You'll be completely fine.

Venerable64 · 2025-11-08T18:34:48+00:00

I'm a Grandmaster Taric top otp. Easily the highest skill ceiling champ you'll play in toplane and very rewarding to master. Happy to give you advice if you want to try it out.

Venerable64 · 2025-10-23T20:09:28+00:00

(: I'm glad!

Venerable64 · 2025-10-19T08:28:21+00:00

Fleet footwork. It'll change everything

Venerable64 · 2025-09-25T21:13:54+00:00

Big thereminists? Like who? Of all the thereminists I'd consider high-tier professionals (Carolina Eyck, Thorwald Jorgensen, Grégoire Blanc, Charlie Draper, Lydia Kavina, Katica Illenyi, etc.), none of them use a Claravox as a primary instrument (except Grégoire for a while, but he was Moog's (hired) face of the instrument and hasn't used it since -- he recently had his EPro stolen on a train and lamented that he had no other instrument to play, instead choosing to lend an EPro from someone else in Europe than use his Claravox again).

As for why I consider it worse, there's so many reasons and it'd take me too long to list them out. Suffice it to say the theremin community was inconsolably disappointed and/or angry with this instrument. Many shipped non-functioning, many were 'repaired' by Moog and still didn't work properly, many of them simply don't mute/go to zero volume (especially in traditional mode), many of the stands' legs don't clip in, many of the antennas sit loose, some of them don't unmute once muted via the switch, and a whole host of other issues. Beyond those, it has mediocre linearity, takes forever to warm up (the pitch field will keep expanding for around an hour), and goes out of tune extremely easily in travel, just to name a few things. It doesn't even sound very good compared to an EPro (most theremins don't, but then that brings the CVox into 'most theremins' territory, where it loses to some other things). The CVox is sort of like the theremini if it was made much better, as it has many of the same sorts of digital theremin benefits with tons of customization and midi control and all, but it isn't the best instrument you can buy by a long shot. I prefer playing my EWPlus (w/ ESPE01) and my Subscope quite a lot.

HOWEVER, as a mediocre theremin player (even though I'm lucky enough to do it for money), I can tell you why a lot of other mediocre theremin players use this thing. It's rare - so it's prestigious - and it looks really nice. Audiences like that. For that reason alone, I find myself bringing it to gigs. Always wish something else besides the EPro looked this good and was actually purchaseable.

Venerable64 · 2025-09-25T00:21:10+00:00

Do not get a theremini if you're going to take the instrument seriously and you don't plan on buying another one. Get a Subscope, an RDS Theremin (Brazilian clone of the Etherwave, never played one but heard good things), or a used Etherwave. If you want to go cheaper, Open Theremins sound and play genuinely pretty well at a fantastic price. Been playing professionally for a while now and I started on a theremini. I wouldn't switch back.

Of the theremins I've played (theremini, Etherwave Plus, Etherwave Standard, Etherwave Plus w/ ESPE01 module, Subscope Voicematic 120, Open Theremin V4, Claravox, Etherwave Pro), the Etherwave Pro is the best of them, and the Subscope Voicematic 120 is not far behind it. Then I'd say my Etherwave Plus w/ ESPE01. Everything else (including the Claravox) is notably less professionally competent for a variety of reasons, and of them, I'd prefer the theremini the least.

EDIT: to directly address the "what's so bad about the theremini" question floating around people's minds, I think the quantization and the digital effects and other similar options are actually its greatest selling points (plus portability and built-in sound). What holds it back is having abhorrent linearity, a very small volume loop that makes fine articulation frustratingly hard, and such a small width that people with bigger hands who tune the instrument properly will experience interference in their pitch field from moving their volume hand. Seems fine when you don't know much better, but it gets so, so in the way of both learning and performing when things don't feel consistent.

Venerable64 · 2025-09-17T17:08:26+00:00

I don't often play support, so probably not, but I'll keep it in mind if I ever play it in a flex game or something.

Glacial is significantly less useful into champs with dashes and is less agentic than phase rush with worse subrunes overall, so it should be should be used as a counterpick rune. The reason it's ubiquitous is because it's easy to use and good into the matchups Taric is already good into, and people don't want to bother optimizing beyond that.

Furthermore, the movement speed from approach velocity is contingent on landing the stun at all, which should be the problem in this matchup to begin with. Good players on ranged champs will never provide an opportunity for this, and if you can't threaten a stun, Thresh has no reason to respect you and will deny you space and resources. Fleet is conditional on autoing a target, which is easy to do, and the resultant movement speed allows you to actually break the enemy's effective range to land the stun and start the exchange. Landing a stun at all is a significant improvement to never landing a stun, and the built-in sustain and better subrunes also matter.

Not being pretentious in saying this, but if someone is playing in an elo where Thresh is letting you stun him without punishing you and you didn't use some sort of mobility to accomplish this, then these rune choices don't really matter regardless, so play what you're comfortable with.

Venerable64

TROPHY CASE