|
13 Theremin
Notes & Myths:
* The
theremin is the epitome of a technology from an era gone by, never allow
it to lose the soul
found in the original instrument.
*
Theremins respond to capacitance change between your hand and the antenna,
nothing to do with Radio Waves.
* A
beautiful theremin sound is easier to play for various reasons; for one it
encourages practice.
*
Tube/valve power amplifiers will not add what some hope to find in a
good theremin sound.
* The
need to use a large 12" speaker is to over compensate for a theremin sound
that never arrived.
* The
heterodyne signal should start as a sine wave for purity, then add distortion
it for the ideal sound.
*
Some engineers are baffled by simplicity and will overly focus on the
coils, osc or mixer,
notice I use a
simple diode detector.
* The
theremin must have a good earth ground to make full use of
the true
heterodyne audio signal and avoid unwanted noise and distortion.
*
The big coils are beautiful with style but have little to do with generating
that authentic theremin sound.
*
Ferrite core coils were not used in early radio, they have several
advantages over air core today, very cost effective.
*
Thermal
drift in transistorized theremins can be greatly reduced by
keeping any component that generates heat in a separated
compartment
from the RF oscillators. Avoid internal power transformers,
regulators, power resistors, etc.
* Oscillator
transistors must be cut from the same batch (tape) to have the
advantage of similar drift characteristics.
*
Websites that posts pictures of theremins and wave shapes with no audio samples
are pandering to the clueless.
Buying or building a
theremin design when no sound samples are posted is "stupid
is as stupid does". Forrest
Gump
Over
two dozen of my construction webpages are not seen by the general
public as I consider them sacred after 10 years. I have hoops
for the interested to jump through in order to visit my research as I have nothing to sell or prove. I am not a musician and
often must rely on
others to tell me if a new approach generates a good sound.
Having
invested over ten thousand dollars and more than ten thousand hours in my 10 year theremin journey, if I could go
back would I just buy one and be done? No, because I would have missed the
experience hidden in "original" theremin design. If your goal is to build a theremin
quick and cheap, you just might miss out on something special.
Theremin
research is personal, like having your baby in a beauty pageant,
people need to be tactful if saying she is ugly! LOL
I would like to thank you all for your visits
and hope you found my webpages interesting and entertaining.
I was invited...
Something greater than me needed a demonstration of the magic of the analog theremin
shared with the modern generation that wants
everything
quick, easy and cheap. I now admit to maybe failing and realize theremin interest
will fade away with my older generation to be a footnote
under weird musical instruments in history. In the end if I reach success
the new beginning was not achieved alone.
I
am so old fashioned (an era gone by) I have never owned a cell phone,
belonged to Facebook, Twitter, etc.
.
| In
life there are rare moments and experiences that are so
special it is difficult to recognize them in the present.
Often a man needs a great vision; the man who has it must
follow it as a Phoenix rising into the blue sky. We all
return to ashes but to break the cycle there is one myth
that must be set free, my hope is a master will recognize it
when the time comes. Levnet
- July 2013
In
November of 2003 I had a Vision, where a rumor of crystal
fountains in the garden seems to whisper to the roses,
set the myth free, the
theremin will be reborn...
Christopher
|
"Mounds
of human heads are wandering into the distance.
I dwindle among them. Nobody sees me. But in books
much loved and in children's toys I shall rise
from the dead to say the sun is shining."
Osip
Mandelstam of Russia 1891-1938
|
|
|
|
