Let's Design and Build a (mostly) Digital Theremin!

D-Lev Kit : A Traditional Layout

Thinking about how to house the D-Lev kit in a more "traditional" EW type layout:

1. The pitch and volume boxes are arranged so the "business" ends are pointing out.
2. The top of the tiny tuner and the top of the control unit are aligned.
3. The blank area below the tuner could be used for auxiliary controls.
4. The I/O panel would be located on the front face.
5. The cabinet could be a simple closed box, as removing the control panel would provide sufficient internal access.
6. The overall internal width here is about 20".
7. The entire thing could optionally be tilted towards the player via a boom mike stand.
8. Considering foil & heatshrink covered PEX tubing, and UHF connectors for the rod antennas.

[EDIT] trying to round up parts for the build. After hours on the web ran across the On-Stage UM5006 (https://on-stage.com/products/view/12056/237108) which I ordered 4 of from muzeekworld for $9 each. Plan to take the rubber thing off the back and maybe stick it on the front, then mount the whole thing inside the case.

You could fit it in a more compact width (assuming that is desirable) by standing the pitch and volume boxes on the short end, no?

"You could fit it in a more compact width (assuming that is desirable) by standing the pitch and volume boxes on the short end, no?"  - bendra

True that.  But that would put your left hand kinda close to the volume coil (and field) when adjusting the knobs (something Roger noticed on his P3).  Adjusting the misc. controls under the tuner might similarly run afoul of the pitch coil field. 

The overall width will be similar to an Etherwave, I think?  Does anyone know the width of the EW cabinet?  TIA!

My hunch is to worry more about hand proximity to the banana jack rather than the coil itself. I could be wrong about that.

"My hunch is to worry more about hand proximity to the banana jack rather than the coil itself. I could be wrong about that." - bendra

The whole end of the coil on the banana jack side is sensitive to capacitance.  You can sorta play the D-Lev this way with no antennas plugged in [VIDEO].

Interesting, and important for cabinet design!

Does anyone know the width of the EW cabinet? 

18” x 5 1/2”

"Interesting, and important for cabinet design!" - bendra

Yes, I should make a cabinet design document to help guide folks, there are lots of little gotchas, and lots of little things that might seem important but aren't really.

18” x 5 1/2”  - RSchwim

Thank you Rob!  The person you're helping may be yourself!

Data Mining

Been working for the last two weeks or so on the D-Lev software and librarian. Expanded the preset area to +/-120 and the profile area to +/-7, implemented a few commands to twist any knob on it remotely & do ACAL, and generally gave things a good cleaning. 

There is some pressure to come up with new presets to fill the new spaces, so I finally did OK sounding oboe and french horn preset, and there is a new trumpet preset that sounds a bit better to me than the stock trumpet in the kit:
https://d-lev.com/audio/2022-06-30_mighty_horns.mp3

Also made a new alien invasion preset:
https://d-lev.com/audio/2022-06-30_invasion.mp3

As well as horse clopping, heartbeat, clock, and watch presets:
https://d-lev.com/audio/2022-06-30_ticking.mp3

Hi,
In the past we had discussion about what to do when MIDI:bend[0].

Currently an initial Pitch Bend message (PB range = 2) is sent along with the NOTE ON so as the synth will play the exact starting pitch. And then no other picth bend message will be sent.

Playing with drones (Winds over Neo Tokyo) I find myself trying to filter Pitch Bend on MIDI side. Then I thought that the following implementation could be interesting:

MIDI:bend[1 to 127]
No change with current design. Send all MIDI pitch bend messages according to PB range. 

MIDI:bend[0]
Send Picth bend message = 8192 (center) along with note ON and then no other pitch bend message (quantized pitch stable)

MIDI:bend[-1 to -127]
Send initial Pich Bend message corresponding to pitch bend range and then no other message (exact played pitch stable).