Tannerin / Ondes Martenot

Hello everybody,

because i can´t do hard work at the moment but Little Things, i have begun to build a Tannerin / Ondes Martenot "Thing".

Looking at the different instruments (also the ethervox), there are different approaches to produce the Sound.

This can be done with a simple rc oscillator / wien bridge, or like the theremin, with the difference of two oscillators.

For first tests, i have choosen the second "theremin like" way, two oscillators, one with a fixed frequency, the other will be tuned with a adjustable air capacitor.

A slider is connected to a nylon string, which will turn the capacitor. The prototype PCB´s are etched, the tests will follow.

Hello Oilspill,

My brain burned out a while back so had to retire from my theremin research. My focus was always on a sound I liked. You might find something useful on one of my many webpage.

I always figured what I hear is not what others hear so my good stuff was ignored even though I gave everything away at no cost.

Have on my pages how to get the clara sound from tubes or solid state.

Clara Sound - It seemed to me most people are more into digital gimmicks. My theremins had near perfect pitch field linearity and this sound. No one was interested in how this is done. Now too tired to help much.

I always figured my 555 sound below could also be modified by my Clara Sound add-on.

Sound Sample using a 555  There is a iron on pdf for the circuit board but unable to find it.

http://www.oldtemecula.com/theremin/opto-vco/index.htm

Christopher

Unless the controlling capacitance must be small for some reason, I would first pursue directly controlling a single RC or LC oscillator. But I'd model it first in something like Excel to see how linear the approach would be.  

My preference is to do things digitally to keep the analog portion and user I/O simple, the cost and noise low, and the precision and control over things high.  A cheap optical (or RCA) SPDIF to line-level box is an easy way to do the D/A conversion.

Good luck!

Some news after a long pause..

Tested the EW pitch oscillators with the Miller 1mH coils instead of Toko/Coilcraft coils.

I had some coils left from the 145 project.

Tank capacitor 10nF, VPO with a 5 to 35pF air cap in parallel, FPO with a 2 to 40 variable ceramic cap in parallel.

Results are not bad at all.

I know  that i could use a simple wien bridge or a 8038 with a multiturn pot instead, but i have Chosen to go this way.

Now , i´ll do the mechanics and further tests. Pictures will follow.

Happy Christmas to all :-)

"Hi   I'm trying to find a competent theremin / tannerin player to record some brief, simple parts for a project I'm doing.  I need someone who has enough of a technique to play some quite chromatic phrases accurately with a wide, old school 'scary black and white movie' type of vibrato. I can provide a music score and further details via email.    Feel free to get in touch. Thanks."

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