If Heterodying is the Spirit of Theremin Then…

The heart of the Theremin is in Clara and her playing style.

What I have learned the past few days is trying to heterodyne a LC solid state oscillator with a tube oscillator creates an interesting fight for dominance between them, almost like TW.

What would be the audio wave shape of a HF square wave mixed with a HF sine wave?

I will try next week one of those simple crystal "can" oscillators at 1 MHz and see if I lose all the tube characteristics, we don't want that to happen but it sure would simplify my design.

I ordered a cheap one for now but I see better crys osc with good thermal specs and a clipped sine wave?

I disagree with Thierry, (I must watch for lighting!#$%) as mixing in hum does not do anything beneficial to the tube sound that I can detect but to the delight of the audiophiles tube swapping sure does!

The trade off in authentic sound is the more in sync buzz on the low-end the better the sound on the upper end.

Christopher

We (mainly Coalport) have been saying this for how long now? (and that applies to EVERY thereminists)

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The heart of the Theremin is in Clara and her playing style.

Hey, I really love the new word: "HETERODYING".

It's what happens to you on stage when you fuck up playing the theremin.

RS, why don't you roll your own crystal oscillator using CMOS or a FET?  I'm not an expert on them, but I believe you can get a nice sine wave, and clip that if you want a square wave.  A bit more CMOS will get you register shifting.  A few more bits of logic and you're in FPGA territory (it's a slippery slope).

In terms of what a sine and square multiplied together will give, look no further than convolution.

"HETERODYING" when two theremins get intimately close to one another on stage.

Dew, if I lose the warm vacuum tube character with its rich even harmonics I have become nothing more than a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal buried in cold reverb, there is no love.

My initial experiment with LC solid state and tube demonstrated this is happening. In the remote dusty reaches of my mind I had the idea to use the shielded crystal osc to eliminate the second LC to minimize the influence of the interaction between the oscillators. In my current modular design this is a 5-minute swap out which I will try at the end of next week. I doubt it is going work as desired but it could become a $5 part vs. a $30 + board construction. The pitch side of things in the sound samples is $100 total DIY for the parts, currently.

The unpredictability of the characteristics of the vacuum tube is almost a desirable human trait. (-‘

Christopher

"The pitch side of things in the sound samples is $100 total DIY for the parts, currently."  - RS Theremin

What are you building there, a color TV?  ;-)

Dew said: “I put a few postcards from the "Jersey Shore" in an envelope this morning (plus a few other "vintage" ones that I thought might be interesting) and mailed them to you…”

I must conclude you and I could never work together on a project from your silence over the years but I always thought you seemed familiar. Have you ever finished anything? You are the type of person that would have built the Heathkit Color TV, you now mention, or a few of those Southwest Technical Products, I miss those days.

When I say there is no theremin market I will mention that second to the USA the Ukraine has the most active enthusiasts. That’s about five people.

When I mention a pitch section for $100 that is perfect pitch linearity, drift free with an authentic sound cabled directly to the sound card. Do you have a sound sample you been hiding or are you still trying to figure out how to get an oscillator to work? (-'

Christopher

Party at dewster's this weekend if anyone can find this place below, I just shut the door on dew and this is the theme!

“I put a few postcards from the "Jersey Shore" in an envelope this morning (plus a few other "vintage" ones that I thought might be interesting) and mailed them to you…”  - RS Theremin

Close!  But more like:

 i’m going out now i’ll send you some
 postcards from downtown
 i’ll show you all the apartments
 where i got my degrees
 where i’d fall like small dreams
 where i’d fade like bright leaves

(Currently on vacation in VT, staying in a rental cabin owned by Dayna Kurtz no less, and feel the irresistible urge to name drop.)

Dayna has one great set of pipes! But I gotta talk to that girl about her stockins.

.......also, she should stay away from head tones. IMNSHO, her voices loses its compelling, husky dynamism and its "edge" when she goes into her gospel falsetto. Instead of adding another level of intensity it loses its shine, but she's a natural singer and I sure hope whoever the hell it is she's singin' about reconsiders her!

If he doesn't, I WILL.

"If he doesn't, I WILL."  - coalport

I met her ex a couple of days ago when he was dropping some of her stuff off (super nice guy) so there's that.  I think she's currently down in New Orleans.  Talked to her a bit on the phone re. maintenance of the hot tub and she seemed super nice as well. 

The cottage is killer, $600 for the week because it's "mud season" in VT though there's still plenty of snow frosting things, a babbling stream runs past in the backyard, and the hot tub on the back deck looks out over the splendor of it all.  And there's wi-fi.

Take it away, Dayna!...