The 50th anniversary edition is a "normal" Etherwave Standard with board revision 211C or 211D. The only difference is the round "50th anniversary" Sticker (Gold writing on black background) on the back side (seen from the player).
There is neither a technical nor a musical difference between the anniversary edition and other Etherwaves with the same board revision.
@Jason For good or ill here's the Theremin I just bought:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/220922400913?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649
@Thierry I figured as much but you never know :-)
Oh, I was just emailed this link in case anyone is interested.
ESPE01 installation
I just had a look onto the ESPE01 installation video:
There is just a small but important misspelling by the speaker: It's not L5 but L6 which needs to be slightly adjusted! It's the middle one of the three variable coils on the circuit board as shown in the video.
Ardor, looks like you got yourself a fine instrument and at a good price too. Don't worry, if you have problems, the chances are the people on this forum can straighten things out for you. I can hardly wait to see what sort of custom cabinet you design for your new theremin.
One word of warning - make sure you clear your ideas with Thierry before building anything too outrageous. You don't want to interfere with the basic function of the instrument.
I just installed the espe01 last night, and I am very impressed, the difference it made, seemed larger in person than it was in the videos online.Thank you Theirry for making it.
I had a few questions:
a) My etherwave did not have a diode between ground and +12v, is there anything to be gained by adding one, and if so, what diode is it?
b) The volume attenae, seems like a little less responsive, its hard to tell if it is with the increased bass, i need to work on my articulation more, or if i changed something when resoldering the attenae. As, I always tend to keep the volume knob all the way to max anyway, is it possible to make the volume loop more "snappy"? Will turning L11 slightly clockwise do this?
c) And not sure if it is a good idea, but is it possible to tune the etherwave so the highest note it plays is an octave lower? I never use the top octave, and it would be nice to get the now useable lower octaves closer to the attenae while keeping the old note spacing.
a) This diode is not installed in all Etherwaves. It gives the internal power supply somewhat more stability during the power on moment. As soon as there is an additional load at the extension connector, be it the ESPE01 module or the Plus Kit or both, it may be safely removed (if it was present).
b) I think that you haven't understood the function of the Volume knob. It is not there to adjust the volume itself, but the volume response. When you turn it fully clockwise, it is normal and "behavior by design" that the response is snappy. The volume knob allows to set the height of the volume field above the loop. That means that in center position you should have a way with the left hand of about 4" or 10cm between max volume and off. This is the "normal" volume response. By turning the volume knob fully clockwise, this way shrinks down to about 1" or 2.5cm which is snappy. Turning the volume knob fully counterclockwise will give a almost infinite height, that means that the theoretical max volume will never be obtained, even without hand above the loop. Don't play around with L11, but adjust the volume knob in order to get the desired response.
c) You should be aware of the fact that the note spacing shrinks when you come closer to the pitch antenna. That's why most thereminists who come in my atelier ask me to add high notes to the pitch field in order to get the useful notes more far away from the pitch antenna, so that they fall into the more linear area of the pitch field. Tuning the top octave "away" is technically possible by raising both pitch oscillators' free run frequency by about 2.5kHz, but that means that the notes which were in the linear range before will now fall in the compressed area of the field. Thus you will not be able to keep the old note spacing.
Theirry,
No, I understand the volume knob, I just didnt explain myself well. Basically after reassembly, at the max volume knob position, it seemed max volume went from about 1.5" to about 2" away from the attena. Im at work right now, so i cant verify. But, overall, the max volume knob position became less "snappy".
c) Thanks, I was wondering if this was something easily done, if, theoretically, I wanted to play the theremin as a "bass" and have the lowest 3 ocataves as the most playable for awhile. It seems it would be easier just to be farther back. Im just overly excited.
Scott
nieradka, if you just want to play the theremin as a bass, why don't you learn the bass? It is much easier to play than a theremin, far more accurate in pitch, and in its home (bass) register it sounds much better than a theremin.
Back in the mid 90's, when all we had on the internet was the "alt.theremin" message board, there was a woman who came on line saying that she wanted to learn the theremin for one reason only - so she could play the Bach unaccompanied cello suites.
I suggested to the lady that she abandon the theremin and learn the cello. First, because it is so much easier to play than the theremin, and second because you can't play the cello suites on a theremin no matter how good you are!
People who are unfamiliar with the limitations of the theremin often get ideas in their heads about what they would like to play. They rarely listen to the advice of others who have "been there and done that", and have to go through the disappointing process of discovering the shortcomings of the instrument first hand.
I believe unrealistic expectations about what is possible on the theremin are responsible for the very high drop-out rate among theremin newbies. (I'm not saying this applies to you, I'm sure it doesn't, but it is something I have observed frequently in the past).
Well the volume problem, was solved by putting the screws i forgot back in the case, or it was just my ears, either way i was being an idiot.
Coalport, then I guess why not play any instrument pretty much over the theremin? But, while its irrelevant due to not being trivial to do, it was just an idle thought. If with the bass mod, I have 6 or octaves that sound good, a little shy of 6" per octave is a nice playable spacing for me and 18-24" of space between me and the antenna, that leaves space for 3 nicely sized octaves, and a compressed one and a bit near the antenna, unless im missing something. (backing up being not always being practical when I play with a band in less than ideal situations) I was just wondering if it was an easy tuning thing to change which three octaves those were.
"nieradka" wrote: "Coalport, then I guess why not play any instrument pretty much over the theremin?"
Because the theremin can do certain things that no other instrument can do. However, if you want to use the theremin to do things that CAN be done more easily and efficiently on some other device, such as playing a bass line, why attempt the theremin?
I hate to say it, but I've heard all this many times before. Your mind is not going to be changed by anything I have to say on the subject. That's O.K. When I was where you are now, my mind would not have been changed by anything anyone might have said from the point of view of where I am now. LTM
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