constant pitch

Hi eveybody,

A friend gave me a theremin (the one with a small speaker) as a gift last night. Once I took it out of the box, I placed it on a table and started playing with it. After a while I noticed that it produced a pitch even when nothing was close to the antenna.

Here a link to the model:

http://www.soundslikeburns.com/resources/Items/GS-with-Speaker.gif

Is this normal? if not, does anybody know how to solve the problem?

Thank you in advance for your help.

Sincerely,

gian

I'm no expert on how electronics work, but my bet is it's either

-reacting to the table, or
-not designed with a cutoff in mind so just produces the lowest possible pitch until the field is interrupted.

For a Theremin like that one, it seems pretty normal.

Good call Alexander, yeah looks like a pitch only theremin. It so that's not such odd behaviour.
Thanks gian for posting it, I haven't seen that one before.

Thanks for the reply Alexander! You're welcome omhoge

I sent and e-mail to the manufacturer and this is what they said:

"That theremin was not set up at the time that you encountered it. When you set up to play, you must adjust the pitch knob so that the theremin is quiet when your hand is approximately 2.5 feet away (if that's the playing range that you're looking for - most people do). Then the pitch goes up as your hand approaches the antenna, goes down as you take it away. When you get outside of the 2.5 foot range, the theremin is quiet.

The reason that you have to set up the theremin every time you have a session is that items (including people) in the room will effect the fields. Large metal objects will effect the set up, as well as dimmer switches when on."

I'll try it when I get home and let you guys know if it worked.

Hope this helps others with the same question.

Thanks!

Keep in mind that even on more expensive models there is often some drift as the unit reacts to air temperature, humidity, and the ever-changing moods and whims of the Ether Gods....