Help needed

Lev Sergeyevich had many creations that had originated from his early RF research; the modern use of the term theremin seems to have been reserved for the proper design of his most popular musical instrument.

A theremin is not a proximity triggered event of sliding doors with bells & whistles or pretty computer generated beeps, tones and whistles!  (In agreement with coalport)

This heated issue arises every time someone is creative but has no word to give a relative association to their unusual device?

Maybe call all semi-theremin like devices a Thermador after that inventive appliance maker. (-‘

Or...Thermidor the eleventh month in the French Republican Calendar. The month was named after the French word thermal which comes from the Greek word "thermos" which means heat.

I believe David built around the Theremaniac, that's not bad either.

I agree with what you are saying RS ~ still though... The bollard is not a theremin. looks like fun though! :)

How about MIDI Theremin? AFAIK, that's what it is. With some interesting processing applied to its MIDI output.

But enough with the nomenclature. That's not our prerogative.

And remember that Theremin didn't call theremins theremins. :-)

(And his name wasn't Theremin. That's just what he was called.)

Hello David,

Your creativity is fascinating and does not offend. Most at Theremin World are just grumpy old men and one beautiful lady. Your object of art up close is spectacular! I still wonder how you are off setting thermal drift or you do a periodic re-tuning. Keep up the fine work. Grumpy old men would consider the Theremaniac as a non-theremin because it lacks an acceptable volume control. I think Lev Sergeyevich Termen would be very proud of your art.

Christopher

We tend to refer to them as pitch-only theremins around here. 

Just to add to the confusion, if it is played by dancers, it could be argued that you are in terpsitone territory. 

It is elegant. Wouldn't have looked out of place in Lynch's Dune.

she is indeed beautiful!!! I am not grumpy :) I refused being called that RS. Take it back! ;)

Cool. A couple of advisory notes regarding your plans.

1. Multiple theremins - theremins are by nature solitary beasts. The distance at which they can affect each other is larger than the playing field. Typical effects of this are somewhat similar to ring modulation - I suspect (in my non-electronic engineer way) they are a result of minor variations in their radio frequencies. I am not familiar with the theremaniacs devices, but strategies which can ameliorate this include:

- ensuring there are no ground loops - theremins benefit from being earthed, but not from sharing a common earth. When working with theremin ensembles one way of avoiding this is to power the instrument via a long extension cable (a few metres) which has the earth disconnected at the end furthest from the instrument. Naturally you should confirm the safety of this procedure with an expert.

- putting a large conductor between interfereing theremins - such as the player's body (probably not applicable for your intended use),

- ensuring sufficient distance between theremins. However much that is for your bollards.

2. Dancers. The reason the terpsitone (Theremin's room sized theremin, played by dancing) was not a success was that they could not find dancers who could successfully combine dancing and playing. To be fair this was a rather different situation - the music was classical and the theremin sound not post-processed.

I appreciate that you have designed your bollards to be "easy to play" but that does not mean that there will not be scope for better playing to be achieved from practice and experimentation. The essence of theremin playing is a cybernetic feedback loop - the sound varies in response to movements, the player varies his movements in response to the sound. So - as I was advised when I first started - listen, listen, listen! That's the key. :-)