Have you seen the Electric Western all Tube Theremin?

http://electricwestern.com/theremin.html

This looks and sounds very nice.

Eric

I'm working on some revisions right now to the volume circuitry, but the goal is to make this theremin available to players. I've been making custom versions for years (tube and solid state). However, I am now a total advocate for vacuum tube or vacuum tube hybrid circuits in theremins as they generate a resonant power which can be felt and heard (without the need to use LOTS of components). Stay tuned, I plan on announcing the stock version of this instrument as soon as I can.

Right now I'm also working with thereminists to figure out what features people want. If you have suggestions let me know.

Also, I must lend a nod to Art Harison and Bob Moog. Although my circuit is different, art's layout of his tube theremin prompted me to mount the tubes on top like that. Bob's love of theremins was just contagious, and even though I only hung out with him for a week or two, he got me started & I continue to use his notes.

Lorin Parker

[i]"Right now I'm also working with thereminists to figure out what features people want. If you have suggestions let me know."[/i]

Have a listen to the theremins built by Anthony Henk around 1994 (here is a mp3 example with Lydia Kavina playing) (http://www.moderecords.com/samples/076Fantasia.mp3). I'm ready to sell my mother-in-law and to convert to catholicism if needed just in order to purchase a theremin with exactly that timbre. I know that this sound is less rich in harmonics than the RCAs have been - lots of people qualify it rather as poor - but I like it very much.

I tried already to emulate it playing around with a low-pass filter behind the Etherwave Standard but this didn't work. Harmonic content of the Henk theremin seems to increase slightly with increasing audio frequency...

Bravo!

Production model tube theremins!

Much like a tube amp, there seems to be something... beefy, for lack of a better word, about the sound of tube equipment.

A unique tube theremin sporting only pitch/volume tuning and a good, solid, natural voice in the $500 - $1500 price range (depending on cabinet) is my dream.



PS:

I randomly came across your website a few months ago and found your work quite fascinating. Keep it up.

How does it sound through a Phantastron?

Theremin plugged into phantastron:

Like a trautonium being played with a pitch antenna. I should post some audio / video. The phantastron pretty much morphs any input sound into its own thing, though, so any theremin would sound similar.

Another question to all y'all -- What type of VOLUME response do you like? Big field / gestures, small field / gestures? That is the circuit I am working on at the moment on my bench. It's getting more and more RCA-like every moment.

Would people mind a few mosefets or other transistors in the volume circuitry (not the audio path)? I couldn't call it "all-tube" but tubes would do the things they do best and fets would do the things they do best. I'm not a tube-o-phile, I just want the best instrument with available methods. And, I'm admittedly into an "old-school" sound. "Antique-School" in fact.

Lorin

I would say: The more extended the volume field, the better. Admitting that the volume loop is at the height of my belly button, maximum volume should be obtained when my hand is raised at shoulder level. This allows sophisticated envelope shaping and volume control.

Nothing against MOSFETS. Their characteristics are often more similar to tubes than to bipolar transistors.

I would have to second Thierry's post.

I'm familiar with the Anthony Henk Theremin sound. That recording is especially nice. I think it's quite important to capture the natural change in timbre that a heterodyne instrument exhibits from the low to high range. That theremin doesn't sound muddy or raspy in the low range, but does have a "coupled" sound which is more string like in the lows. It also still has those very sinusoidal highs. All of this with a very clear somewhat different tone...

I would add to Thierry's post that the volume loop should have a non-linear field, enabling large expressive movements for loud passages, and small, delicate movements for quiet playing.

The shape of the volume field is also important - in common with a fair proportion of players I play both above the loop and to the side of the loop for a Pamelia Kurstin style "plucked string" staccato - so the field should be very compressed to the side of the loop to enable this to be done effectively.