hey does anyone check this forum?

I do believe I may be the one that complained about this before. My Etherwave standard makes more of a 'chirp' sound then a pop when the volume antenna is touched. It only does this occasionally not every time I touch the antenna. Other then that my Etherwave works great. I wonder if this is just the nature of the beast and all of them do it.

Tallwes

The chirp is present on every theremin I've ever played :). When you touch it, you're grounding out the circuit, so it goes from having a capacitor in series to being shorted out. Well, there's probably some capacitance effect in the body, but the circuit characteristics change very quickly, hence the quick change in pitch frequency or chirp.

The pop is related to this effect, I'm sure, but I don't know how you could get rid of it. Maybe add a filter in-line?

Is your AC plug grounded, or are you possibly using a 3 to 2-prong adapter?

It could also depend on what else is plugged into the circuit.

Things like florescent lights, electric fans, and computers can add a hum or other oscilations into the AC circuit.

woops, I meant chirp, not pop. I only get it now and then on standard, and sometimes the Wavefront

Aren't American plugs ungrounded anyway? I was under the impression that the most common US plugs had no earth (2-pin NEMA 5-15 Plug). I use a 3-pin plug socket and 3-pin socket (as I live in Britain), and I'd hazard a guess at this being the reason why I have never experienced a 'pop' or 'chirp' noise emanating from my theremin before.

Either that or I haven't noticed it.

It really depends on the age of the building. Older buildings have 2-pring outlets. I believe the electrical code says any new buildings/homes or upgrades to old electrical systems have to be done with 3-prong adapters.

Jason is correct, most older buildings, appliances have 2 prong outlets and plugs. Just about anywhere you go now, in America, the outlets are 3 prong. There is quit a bit of new appliances and devices that use 2 prong plugs. Alot of newer things are definitely being equipped with 3 prong plugs for safety. Almost all wallwarts (transformers/ac adapters that plug directly into an outlet at the end of a device's electrical cord), in America, are 2 prong except for one exception I seen so far, the Moog Etherwave theremin which uses a 3 prong wallwart.

Tallwes

Well ill say this. Sometimes I get that pop when my a part of my arm touches the farthest point from the antenna. Its something that shoudn't impede my recording process.
After watching the Moog DVD, the CLara Rockmore/Kavina DVD and Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey.....my Standard just doesn't sound as good as those vaccum tubes.

But I think i was just pissed at my theremin when I wrote that. But it is the entry model. But i think i should stroke its ego a little while just for being a part of the entity that is Moog.


It sounds good, mimiks alot of different instruments. After 1 day i could play the circle of fifths, and after about a week im trying to play christmas songs and some classical music. Trying to get used to tuning the volume to myself.

Im thinking about just not being so traditional with it and getting a volume pedal so that i can play my synth along with it.

Really though what I like about it is that mine doesn't have to be warmed up that i notice. As soon as i turn it on it sounds damn good.

WHat a great place to discuss something that sooo isn't mainstream. I think the Moog DVD though is changing that.


By the way, if theremin wasn't kidnapped by the KGB we might be playing music with our minds.


You cats HAVE to check out this link if you don't already know about it.

http://emfinstitute.emf.org/bigtimeline/1900s.html

I think the Etherwave is an excellent instrument design, but that there are occasional manufacturing problems at Moog.

My Etherwave has always *functioned* fine, but when I left it on the stand for a while, the screws *fell* *out* of the pipe nipple they have screwed onto the bottom of it to hold it onto the stand. I rotated it a little, screwed it back on, and it stayed put.

Then the screws that were holding the control panel in place fell out. I kept pushing them back in, but the panel flopped around a lot and I was convinced, every time I moved it, that I would break it. I took it to a technician I know (I wanted someone to help me who knew enough not to break the electronics while we worked on it) and we decided to just put some short bolts with nuts in place of the screws, and that has solved that.

Clearly, somebody pre-drilled holes for the screws and made them a little too large.

These problems were easy enough for me to resolve, but I shouldn't have had to fix them.