Theremin Pseudo Science

Thierry -
I would like to invite you to be one of the testers of my first units - If interested, please send me your address, and I will send you the kit (free) probaby about June/July.

FredM, thank you, I'm in hurry now, but I'll contact you still this weekend.


Update: You have Email!

Just ordered some of those "expensive" AD633s ... I don't think $7.80 each is so bad compared to the price of DSP chips and good ADCs and DACs!

I have been playing with MC1496 chips and they are just too finicky for my liking.

I have 2 hartley oscillators with plenty of output voltage to spare. Having to adjust their levels to make a finicky chip happy is to troublesome.

It looks like the AD633s are much easier to use.

"It looks like the AD633s are much easier to use."..
They are! and they sound clean, and are in my opinion far superior to the other 4QM IC's available..

However, cost is an issue.. There is a huge difference between designing / building something for oneself and a few friends, and going into (even small scale) production. One is looking to reduce every penny from part and assembly costs.. if one doesnt (particularly as a small quite unknown newcomer) people will balk at an 'extra' (say) 30% on the price for quality they cannot immediately hear or see.

It is only when one gets familiar with an instrument that quality, or lack thereof, shows itself.. I have found this more with musical instruments than with anything else..

So it is a balancing act - the only way to tip the scales and get higher quality and lower prices than 'competitors' is with innovation.. And this is the route I tend to go, probably more because it is what I enjoy than for sound commercial reasons.. The time I spend will probably offset any cost savings made! I have completed a descreet 4QM which is as good as the 633, and 1/2 the price.. but will the savings justify the hours spent designing and testing? I doubt it!

There are things done for love ... then there are things done for money. Alas, I love good music but I must do things with half trained choirs for money.

I'm trying to teach my kids some basic electronics by getting and building kits -- we are also designing our own.

My husband is designing and building a set of radios he calls "the Odd Couple." The receiver is all tubes -- he even hand built the chassis and the transmitter will be all IC's.

I think we might design a Theremin that will be a differing technology for each section... one tube, one transister and one with DSP.... Hmmm... As long as the design does not require Unobtainium ...

Thanks for getting the creative process going.

And I agree about the digital vs. analog argument. Where does one draw the line?

This ain't my kind of thread, but misreading "(LC)oscillators" as "LOLscillators" made my day.

Alexander, I think you want one of these (http://cgi.ebay.com/Circuit-Bent-Laugh-Box-Ambient-Glitch-Synthesizer_W0QQitemZ310040412765QQihZ021QQcategoryZ38071QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1713.m153.l1262).

He calls it a "circuit-bent-laugh-box-ambient-glitch-synthesizer", but LOLscillator is a way better name.

I think we finally have a definition for what "unobtainium" is.

unobtainium = large sums of cash for use on fun projects. :)

Gordon, what rolls by when you ask them what clouds are?

Tumbleweed.