Synthesizers are cool, but the theremin is the original electronic instrument. We show you how to build one, and a master theremin player shows you what you can do with it.
While its eerie other-worldly sound may instantly recognizable, to most the Theremin's name and shape will draw blank stares. Based on amazing properties of electrical capacitance the Theremin is both a musical instrument and object lesson in the how electricity works.
Most if not all professionally used Theremins are produced by the Moog company. However, a number of companies Moog included build Theremin kits that you can assemble at home using copious amounts of solder and a soldering iron. For our purposes we went with the cheaper and less musical inclined PAiA Theremax kit. If you intend on following something approaching a career based on Theremin playing you're better off spending the additional cash on Moog's offerings.
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Posted by AlaskaLoneWolf on 11/01/2008 at 07:03:01 pm in Systm
Not to change the subject, and please feel free to shred this
if it's already been done somewhere... but couldn't you turn
one of these things into a cheap 3-D mouse. I mean, if the
individual pitch and notes are a direct function of position in
three-dimensional space, couldn't you translate that into a
real cheap, high-resolution pointing device for applications
such as model-building in nanotech and autodesk?
(Maybe even a kick ass game controller for World of WarCraft
'american sign language' macros, or something similiar...)
I mean, we've all seen the guys wearing the (very expensive)
gloves manipulating the model of DNA in 3-D. How 'bout it?
Could we actually be close to the "poor man's" design table in
the IronMan movie that I've always wanted?
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Posted by computoman on 10/11/2008 at 06:54:39 pm in Systm
*link*
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Posted by masherscf on 10/10/2008 at 04:58:05 pm in Systm
Awsome! If I had one of these, I could get all Forbidden Planet on your butt!
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Posted by Dosbomber on 10/10/2008 at 04:23:48 pm in Systm
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At least they actually built the thing. What did you want them to do, hand grind the carbon to roll their own resistors? Home-brew some capacitor dielectric goop in their kitchen? Weave and stack fiber sheets saturated with epoxy to build up their own PCB substrate? ;)
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Posted by gamerfreak on 10/09/2008 at 12:53:33 pm in Systm
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Yep.
I find it hard to believe that they're was working with the wiring like that. Our wires interrupted the frequency when jumbled as in the image.
Bit of a disappointing episode IMO -> "Here is a theramin, here is a theramin kit, here is a theramin kit after we built it." There really wasnt much content.
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Posted by OrangeBugPro on 10/07/2008 at 04:55:46 pm in Systm
Hey I built one of the Paia Theremax kits a while ago!
Couple notes:
Adjusting the field is annoying :p anything that conducts electricity can disrupt the field. You adjust the field so when you are standing next the Theremin there is no sound coming out. if you put say, a screwdriver 2" closer to the antenna, it changes the field and you have to recalibrate. Even wiggling the wires within the Theremin will change the field.
Learning how to play a Theremin requires Perfect Pitch
Because of the constantly changing field, the player must be able to Hear the changes in pitch, and adjust his hands accordingly. I've got Relative pitch, so I can play simple tunes, but playing along with anything is extremely hard.
I would post a video of me playing my Theremin, but I pulled out of a closet one day and it quit working. :( The electronics on the board are so sensitive that anything can kick them out of whack, or fry them.
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Posted by samureye on 10/07/2008 at 11:55:12 am in Systm
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What he said!
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Posted by lik on 10/07/2008 at 08:29:25 am in Systm
this was really cool, i never heard of seen such things before. good episode.
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Posted by mikec on 10/06/2008 at 10:00:12 pm in Systm
The first time I saw one of these was in the movie "The Song Remains The Same" back sometime in the '70's. Jimmy Page used them with Led Zeppelin.
In the movie "Moog", about the synthesizer pioneer there was a section about his Theremin's.
Cool device but I have trouble with a guitar, this thing probably would drive me to serious booze use.
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Posted by ieatpunk on 10/06/2008 at 08:19:27 pm in Systm
This was a great episode! It would have been cooler IMO to make the circuit board with the acid etching like you did in a previous episode and then bought all of the electronic componentry separate.
I realize you guys talked about how it would have taken too much time to do such a thing, which I understand. Just sayin' it would have been 13373r. But it was still eleeb. Later.
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