"Greatness
is not measured by what a man or woman accomplishes,
but by the challenges he or she must overcome to reach it."
The
difficult aspect of theremin design is a Voice that is
musical. That is why many developers or sellers are reluctant to post sound. Everything else falls into second place. By nature no two
analog theremins should sound exactly alike. I consider digital
outside of Nature starting with the square wave. I do use one 555 but
for a tuning tool which turns on a LED. This aids in proper audio level
setting and eliminates the need
for an oscilloscope to tune the RF section. The beautiful
voice is a dance between all the circuits, RF to the Audio
output.
You
could use a single board of my theremin design for a
completely distortion-free $65 stand alone proximity volume control or use the
TRS
output (stereo) jack for a fluid proximity expression pedal
minus the pedal. Volume-Expression .mp3 100kb
The TRS jack is electrically isolated using an optical variable
resistor.
The
Rising Spirit of a Theremin
The
RS Theremin "Phoenix"
is the full package DIY theremin for $125 with the authentic Voice
that has virtual emotion,
Perfect Pitch Field Linearity and excellent Volume Response
& Shading. Thermal drift at 300 hz is less than one
musical note over 10 degrees F room temperature change. The
Phoenix is designed to use two identical 3"x 8.2"
pcb's (pitch/volume) which makes it ideal to fit into Lev
Sergeyevich's horseshoe U shaped cabinet. Unfortunate is the
fact the EtherWave Pro will loose it's
appeal once this original Phoenix analog theremin design is
popularized. Listen to the differences in my theremin voice
which is feature #1 compared to the Epro "whistle" without
effects added if you can find a raw sample. You would
come out ahead if you paid someone $1000 labor to build the
"Phoenix" for you.
The
voice of phoenix
.mp3 125 kb
solid state |
low
end2 phoenix
.mp3 220 kb
listen to low end vibrato
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Both
of the above are
theremin direct to sound card, no reverb or $$
add-ons.
Real
Time Timbre Shift .mp3
175kb
A bit of reverb added to a phoenix whistle
Move
Over Anthony Henk |
These
sound samples are good yet you can shape it
into your own personal sound, it gets even better.
Along
my theremin journey I found three methods of getting a
more authentic theremin sound instead of a dry whistle. (One was Armstrong Oscillators) I
now know of two methods to get perfect
pitch field linearity, one with the Lev Antenna (sine wave)
and the other using an 18" wire antenna. The latter is a
perfect triangular (not saw-tooth) breathy flute audio waveform from analog
heterodyne standard oscillator circuits. Both
methods "do not" use any inline inductors or
capacitors. I believe there is a misunderstanding of
what exactly is going on in this linearity area. The
rules found in my original Vision at the
beginning of my journey were to guide me as I am not an engineer and
have never
worked in electronics, this may be why I was preferred. Rules:
Lev's Antenna was for everyone, I could only use the
components Lev Sergeyevich experimented with in the 70's &
80's, I would
NOT glimpse how any other theremin was designed, I would not visit
LEVNET or get advice from anyone else. In turn I received the gift of
gold which would be
Clara's Voice, an idea, a treasure I did not recognize in the
beginning. "First
have music in your soul. If you have that, you will find a way
to do it." Clara Rockmore The
Phoenix was built through evolution... without the use of
modeling, schematics or
internet help,
I just listened... that is the illusion.
A
good theremin voice is no accident, get an audio sample before you
buy or build anything. If no sample is available the design is
flawed no matter how old, pretty it is, what it costs, who designed
it or who built it.
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