A musical Instrument for the kid in all of us who likes electronic adventure

 
RS Theremin - Phoenix

megabannerrbottom.gif (913 bytes)

megalogoleft.gif (4765 bytes)

 

Home

"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
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.

megalogoright.gif (5021 bytes)

 

megabottomleft.gif (3311 bytes)   megabottomright.gif (3325 bytes)