"If you manage that the (traditional) player can act with the left hand left of the cabinet as if there were a loop but without visible loop (like on the Melodia and the Elysian theremins) I could jump over my shadow and buy one of your instruments..." - Thierry
LOL ;-) Thanks Thierry.. The irony is that I had almost discarded that idea! ;-) .. And sadly, you cannot buy one yet, and there is no promise or certainty anyone will ever be able to.. But I do promise this - If I am not able to make them, I will publish full details so someone else could - And if I die, a few people will get a postumous email from me containing all my "IP" to be made public - Although it will probably take a couple of years to wade through it all, LOL ;-)
Implementing a volume antenna into the control panel is simple..
But the problem of a "top heavy" vertical antenna mounted on a reasonably long horizontal arm, and its stability (or lack thereof) is not so simple.. Perhaps ok for a studio environment (perhaps).. but for any performance situation, for un-even floors, for the kind of vibrations and even the effect of PA loudspeakers etc, I think all sorts of problems are likely.
When I looked seriously at this idea, I thought of having a microphone stand connector on the underside of the the end of the horizontal arm, just below the antenna connection point - this way an additional microphone (or other) stand could be placed under the antenna to make the whole assembly stable ..
But getting rid of the loop, having a rod replacing it, having the pitch antenna on the theremin above the stand, so that this most important antenna was stable - well, it just seemed like the simplest, most elegant, and certainly the most cost-effective solution.
But - If people wont buy it - and that you would even think of buying the original idea.... Hmmm..
Why are people (particularly thereminists and 2bx wives ) so darn awkward !? ;-)
Fred.
I am still interested in more feedback - but so far, it is clear that people want a loop or an invisible plate, and the idea of a rod antenna sticking out the side hasnt been greeted well..
I am going to continue my present direction to get a fully functional prototype - the electronics will require minor modification for the two possible build variants, so I will include both possibilities on my PCB.. Many thanks for your help on this!
It may be that (if it ever goes to production) both "invisible loop" and "horizontal pole" builds will be needed to cater for different markets.. The "invisible loop" variant will certainly be a bit more expensive.
This is advance information on something which may never be put into production.. I give these details so that I have said all I am going to say, and can point people here if they ask questions.. ;-)
In essence, these are to be "upper mid" theremins - Register switching (4 switchable octaves - 3 on a switch, and a pedal input which will drop an octave from whatever is selected, when the pedal is closed) with controls for "span" (the number of octaves contained within the playing area, adjustable from about 3 to 6 on a potentiometer) and a screwdriver adjustable preset on the control panel to adjust the linearity profile. Volume antenna will have a lower (silence) distance adjustment control, and a seperate "gain" control to set the distance at which maximum volume is obtained (anything from about 5cm from min to max, to about 40cm) and a screwdriver adjustable preset on the control panel to adjust the volume linearity profile.
Then there are the directional antennas, and selectable muting (off, auto, on).
The theremin register switching / mixer / waveshaper (and many other functions including auto muting) is implemented mainly in one mixed analogue / digital / MCU IC I have been developing for, oh, 3 years now - Each time I complete it, some new ideas come, and I change / adapt it to cram these in - I have now used every available resource in the chip, there isnt a single block or bus or pin available for anything else.. So its time to use it! ;-) .. It gives every waveform required for obtaining almost whatever one wants.. Ramp, Triangle, Sine, Square, Pulse with PWM, all voltage controlled and mixable in synchronisation with a voltage proportional to audio frequency..
The problem is the complexity of controlling these signals - one needs a control panel like found on a Moog Modular.. So, although the power is there, these theremins will only use a tiny fraction of that power - Parameters selected carefuly from whats available. Hopefully, perhaps, future variant will accept MIDI controller messages to give access to everything.. perhaps with the ability to store preset configurations / settings.. But I think this will be implemented in a PSoC 3, and will include an additive sampling engine as well.. All depends on how this first one goes in terms of sales etc.
Once I have fully tested the chip in real life, and written the technical documentation and application notes, I plan to sell this chip for OEM's and DIY theremin builders and synth builders (it can be used in a voltage controlled synthesiser) to use.
My plan was to first use this chip for the bipolar (LOL) theremin and keep the cost of the basic unit to no more than the EW+ - A slightly below "Pro" level switching theremin (The oscillators are not, I think, to the same standard as the E-Pro, E-Vox.. The combination of voltage and capacitance for equalization does have slight drift at present - More expensive builds would be ovened and be absolutely stable - But I dont think the extra cost is justified for all but the most demanding theremin user).
