The theremin turned 100 years old sometime this year.
Russian inventor Léon Theremin, a cellist and physicist, was doing research for the Russian government on something called proximity sensors.
"He was just experimenting in his lab and somehow found out that you can create a sound by moving your hand in electromagnetic fields," Eyck said. "So, with the right hand, you can change the pitch the closer you get to an upright antenna, and with the left hand, you can change the volume the further away you go from a loop antenna."
That was in 1919. Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin reportedly "adored" the newfangled contraption. Léon Theremin brought his instrument to the New York Philharmonic, and his so-called "ether-wave" concerts were a hit all over Europe.
Even though the theremin isn't exactly mainstream today, it has had a big imprint in popular culture. For starters, the theremin's eerie, shaky sound figures prominently in the sci-fi classic, "The Day the Earth Stood Still."
Also at The Radio Science Orchestra, The NY Theremin Society, and Theremin World.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday October 18 2019, @03:13PM
I had this visual of some old hermit, or a sage, something along the lines of Dalai Lama, or Dolly Llama, or whatever.
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(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday October 18 2019, @03:30PM (16 children)
It must have a MIDI interface. Over USB.
And it must only allow you to move your hand in discrete semitone intervals.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 18 2019, @03:49PM (4 children)
Then just make one. It isn't hard to do.
(Score: 3, Informative) by canopic jug on Friday October 18 2019, @04:03PM (3 children)
Indeed. I built a very small and simple one as a kid but otherwise have no experience or knowledge of them beyond that.
However, kits are quite simple and there are even open source theremin kits [gaudi.ch] if you need to make a bid deal out of it.
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(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Friday October 18 2019, @04:53PM (1 child)
Back in the 60s Popular Electronics had schematics for one.
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(Score: 1) by anubi on Saturday October 19 2019, @12:58AM
It's just two RF oscillators. Their beat frequency being in the audio range. Two LC tank circuits set by one shielded tank and the other used your hand as one of the capacitor plates.
I made these by accident as the time when I was a kid. What I was trying to make was a radio.
One frequency was provided by the station carrier, my beat frequency was made from my local oscillator. And with my sloppy high school construction techniques, building a theremin was inevitable.
Except no one called it that.
"Squealing Radio" was the polite term.
But I learned a helluva lot. Even though it was a lousy radio.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by EETech1 on Saturday October 19 2019, @12:57PM
I have two of these!
Much fun:)
https://www.paia.com/theremax.asp [paia.com]
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday October 18 2019, @04:31PM (1 child)
What you describe is probably available as a digitally sampled loop, tied to the MIDI playback (also, missing the point.)
OooooooOOOOOOOOhhhhoooooooo.
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(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday October 18 2019, @05:29PM
Mentok, is that you?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 18 2019, @04:48PM
Send your CV [modulargrid.net] first
(Score: 3, Interesting) by RamiK on Friday October 18 2019, @06:23PM (1 child)
Not sure if you're being sarcastic, but Moog's Theremini has midi out and (switchable) pitch correction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bakI0ITCqQ [youtube.com]
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(Score: 3, Interesting) by RamiK on Friday October 18 2019, @06:45PM
Here's a practical demo of what I think you're talking about: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2f75sCmPIt4 [youtube.com]
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(Score: 3, Informative) by Mojibake Tengu on Friday October 18 2019, @09:13PM (4 children)
By its principe, the theremin is an analog construct. With digitalisation, you will destroy all the magic contained in it. True Chaos is too fragile to survive any digitalism enforced upon it. You cannot encode it into a midi, midi quantization is too coarse.
There is nothing wrong with the analog technology at all, http://www.strangeapparatus.com/Theremin.html [strangeapparatus.com]
Rust programming language offends both my Intelligence and my Spirit.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday October 18 2019, @09:25PM (3 children)
Vinyl records are analog. Yet they can be digitized. Then converted into high quality mp3 format. The mp3 bitrate can be bumped up to 96 Kbps to ensure it still has all the magic contained in it.
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(Score: 3, Touché) by Mojibake Tengu on Friday October 18 2019, @09:38PM (2 children)
Try to play a violin and listen an mp3 record of it and you will see the difference of true reality and imitated reality substitution.
Rust programming language offends both my Intelligence and my Spirit.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday October 18 2019, @09:57PM (1 child)
<no-sarcasm>
I can personally say that is true of piano as well.
</no-sarcasm>
The server will be down for replacement of vacuum tubes, belts, worn parts and lubrication of gears and bearings.
(Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Saturday October 19 2019, @12:27AM
Acoustic guitar, woodwinds, any analogue instrument really. MP3 is great for listening in the relatively noisy environment of a car, but true fidelity.....(giggles)
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(Score: 2, Informative) by SomeGuyOnTheInterwebs on Friday October 18 2019, @10:09PM
Here ya go. With MIDI, USB, and CV. [sweetwater.com]
-- Just SomeGuyOnTheInterwebs