Distant Voices Theremin

"but I believe Fred's is out of Germany?"

Mine could be from anywhere LOL - Russia, China, Uk, Europe.. It all depends on who is active on the Tor network! ;-) My IP is rarely "My" IP.

I usually log into TW and sites I trust using IE and without any IP modification, but when doing searches or when there is a chance that the sites I visit may be unfriendly, I go behind a Tor "shield" which presents random IP and random location.

So a visit from a Tor linked server MIGHT be from me.. But to be honest, I have no reason to visit your site, so I suspect your German visitor is someone else! - Occasionally I do get to your site as a result of some search - but usually not intentionally! ;-) ... And if I visited without Tor hiding me, I would show up as from the UK, as my ISP is in the UK only.

The recent times I have visited your site have been via links you placed here at TW - So I would not have been using tor, and should have shown up as from the UK.

Fred.

I couldn't find anything of substance about the Kovalsky theremin either, but I did find the lady playing it on Facebook. I have sent her a friend request, but her account seems mostly dormant, so perhaps northing will come of it. We shall see. I did notice that on Peter Theremin's Theremin Times website there is a notice that he intends to add some info about the Kovalsky System Theremin, so it may be worth checking there from time to time.

However, this is not important for my purposes, as what I am putting together is not a KST but a platform inspired by the KST that will enable me to try out some things that would require a third hand on my other theremins and that are best done digitally. 

(Incidentally, Fred, I'll be figuring out the range of frequencies that audulus's zero counter can handle reliably and will let you know - this would define the required pitch range for the theremin. (Once I have the audio in the iPad as a stream of frequency values it is trivial to scale it to any range I wish, so a massive pitch range will not be required.)

"My idea is to construct something along the lines of a Kowalski theremin, which consists of a pitch rod, a volume pedal and a control panel with controls to make staccato notes and in other ways modify the audio signal."  - GordonC

Wow, that's what I'm talkin' about!  I don't believe I've ever heard of the Kovalsky until this thread.  (EDIT: Oops!  Gordon, both you and coalport were trying to tell me about it over on one of my own threads! Doh!)  Makes infinite sense, right hand pitch, left hand multi-articulation (like the Electronic Sackbut and Ondes Martenot), and a "sit down" instrument to promote that statuesque pose necessary for playing on pitch.

I had an idea a while back to make something like this but using a guitar body.  I think there is a tremendous value in actually holding the instrument with your body because it facilitates proprioception.  The pitch antenna would protrude somewhat vertically from a support mounted on the lower left of the guitar body to give some space between it and the player's right hand / arm, the player's left hand would play controls on (and perhaps grasp) the lower right side of the guitar body (where the volume & tone controls are on an electric) so the arms of the player cross over somewhat when playing.  A plus here is you could add a guitar strap and be able to stand up while playing it.  One could use tighter note spacing too.  I'm not sure where the LED "tuner" would go though (on the pitch antenna itself would be ideal, but the wiring would unfortunately cause capacitive loading and the PWM some heinous electrical interference).

Would probably look dorky as all get out though (never underestimate the "cool" appearance factor).

"I couldn't find anything of substance about the Kovalsky theremin either... However, this is not important for my purposes.. GordonC

Sure - I understand that - But it bugs me nonetheless that this stuff is unavailable... It seems that Kovalski spent a large percentage of his life developing reliable theremins, and publishing articles / making this information available to the public in Russia..

Its a bit like if Bob Moog's designs / articles had dissapeared into obscurity - like if the EM article was lost and there was no EW... Smirnov only briefly mentions Lev Kovalski with reference to coil design, From the little I have seen, it is obvious to me that Kovalski deserves far more recognition and exposure.. Its almost enough to make me feel angry, and to think that a certain descendent of Lev may be speaking the truth about "the theremin institute" and have reason for his anger...

Anyway - Anyone who can read Russian - This link ftp://ftp.radio.ru/pub/arhiv/ takes you to an archive of the Russian Radio magazine from 1970 to 1998.. I tried to find theremins in this pile, but I do not even know how to type "theremin" in Russian, and typing the word in English into the search engine returns no hits... But I know there are theremins in this archive because I found some (see links given before).

I think that within this archive there will be full details for construction of some wonderful theremins - Theremins which are, at present, LOST..

So Ruslan and Ilya and others - PLEASE Start digging into YOUR technical gold mine, and stop wasting your time trying to adapt RUBBISH like the inferior Silicon Chip Designs to suit your requirements! ...... And if you could share your discoveries with us, that would be wonderful!

Fred.

"I don't believe I've ever heard of the Kovalsky until this thread" - Dewster

You are not alone on that, and IMO the fact that he is so forgotten is a disgrace!

"Incidentally, Fred, I'll be figuring out the range of frequencies that audulus's zero counter can handle reliably and will let you know - this would define the required pitch range for the theremin. (Once I have the audio in the iPad as a stream of frequency values it is trivial to scale it to any range I wish, so a massive pitch range will not be required.)" - GordonC

It may be that the Lev front-end will be best for what you want then - Its limitation is that it only gives 3 octaves in its core form - But, as AFAIC see, these are extremely linear. I should have some PCB's for these in a few weeks, and could just leave out the mixer (which is the main reason I am getting the boards, to test this) and fit a far simpler 4013 mixer... Oh, I can scale the output level to whatever you want - a couple of resistors - just define the maximum voltage (anything up to 10V and down to 100mV) and I will fit a preset to allow the level to be adjusted from 0V to this maximum.

Fred.

"Probably I'll pick up a theremaniac's one-stick once everything else is working..."  - GordonC

Is there a schematic for that anywhere?  I see the kit on Amazon for $110 with the schematic as background.  No EQ coil it seems.

Dewster, it does make a lot of sense, but losing the volume loop is a big deal - the question is, does everything that can be gained balance giving up half the magic of the theremin. For my purposes this seems like a worthwhile question to explore. For the dyed in the wool classical Thereminist, maybe not. Which may go someway to explaining why it is not more well known.

Fred, may as well give it the same maximum output level as an etherwave - I know that works. And yes to the Lev front end - it would be a bit awesome to be peripherally associated with such an exciting project. :-)

Hi all,

No one mentioned the meteorite strike in Russia, and the near miss fly by all in the same day?  Now them is some "extremely" long odds for two events, could something else be going on? Did someone lose a missile?

Dewster, I have the Theremaniac and schematic around here somewhere as it was perfect to test out with the Lev Antenna. The Theremaniac was modeled after the pitch section of the SWTP theremin from 1967. Those were some good times. Art Harrison also has this on his website.

I have verified this against the Theremaniac and its part values are even the same. I was never able to figure out where he purchased his coils from. His board has excellent response and waveform. I have used direct emitter/collector feedback at higher frequencies, FM Dial, but I never tried it below 1 MHz. I always use a coil tapped Hartley.

Schematic

Christopher

Thanks for that schematic and info RS!

Here's the pic from Amazon, you can see some of the schematic underneath:

From what I can see it appears to be the same.

The schematic you supplied looks like it came from Popular Electronics (spent literally years of my life reading that magazine).  The price list is a hoot: kit of parts & PCB for $16.50, wooden cabinet & antennas for $6!

So the Theremaniacs kit assembled is $150 which seems kind of high for a pitch only.  The Burns is only $100.  And the B3 with both antennas is $200.

I thought the schematic above looked a bit different which is possible. I went and verified my Theremaniac board part by part several years ago and it did match the SWTP exactly. My board had a big glob of silicone across several parts and two transistors, not quite sure why that was necessary (thermal drift?), it blocked me from making some experimental connections.

I built the SWTP strobe light in about 11th grade 1967. My soldering looked like a bunch of BB's. I couldn't figure out why it worked intermittently. LOL

I may still have that somewhere, I grew up poor with 4 brothers & 4 sisters so never threw anything away! Oh... I was the oldest so I got the new clothes. (-'

Christopher

Edit: Wow I just found my Mattel Vrroom Whip Racer but the string is gone.