Can you make a theremin

He built the first synth. To save space on the breadboard I used a waveform generator to act as the fixed-frequency oscillator. I have a plan here to use the IN12 tubes to make a visual and sonic Theremin using plasma feedback so the tube Gnd acts as the antenna.

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Learn more. Take a listen after the break. Look like an Analog Devices commercial to me. Report comment. I suspect their keilbasas would turn and flee at the first sight of a haggis in full flight.

Star Trek the Original series- soundtrack has a Theremin in it as well. A popular misconception, Captain! Protect your insides. Insulate the insides of the metal box with tape, plastic tubing, or vinyl strips for preventing any of the electronic components from shorting out while playing your Pocket Theremin. Install the complete circuit inside the box. Mount the two CdS photocells externally on opposing sides of the box. This placement will help you control the final sound effects with greater independence and dexterity.

Now fix the speaker to the front of the box. Power up. Connect the 9V battery to the battery snap. The Pocket Theremin should immediately begin to make some noise. You can control the volume of the speaker by adjusting the 5K potentiometer. If you're uncertain, look at the Open. Theremin's schematics , which show you which Arduino sockets aren't in use.

Use the Arduino Desktop IDE one more time to check out the calibration process, which, hopefully, will offer more confirmation that things are going according to plan. Here are the detailed instructions. What you're doing here is monitoring the calibration process. This isn't a real calibration because you haven't attached the antennas, and you'll have to recalibrate whenever you move the theremin.

But this should give you an indication of whether the theremin is basically working. Once you press the function button for about a second, the yellow LED should start to blink slowly, and the output from the Arduino's serial monitor should look something like the image below, which shows typical Open.

Theremin calibration output. The main things that indicate a problem are frequency-tuning ranges that are either just zeros or that have a range that doesn't bound the set frequency.

To finish the hardware, it's easiest if you separate the Arduino from the shield. You'll probably want to screw some sort of mounting plate to the back of the Arduino for the self-adhesive tripod mount you'll attach. Attaching the tripod mount works much better on a plate than on the Arduino board itself. Furthermore, I found that the mount's adhesive didn't work very well, and I had to use stronger glue.

Next, attach the antennas. The loop antenna goes on the left. The pitch antenna goes on the right the shorter leg connects to the shield. Attach the supplied banana plugs to the antennas.

You need to use enough force to mate the two parts that you'll want to do it before attaching the banana plugs to the board. I found the kit's hardware extremely frustrating to tighten sufficiently to keep the antennas from rotating.

In fact, due to the volume antenna swinging around, it ended up grounding itself on some of the conductive printing on the PCB, which led to a bit of debugging. In any case, the hardware listed in the parts list at the top of this article made it much easier for me to attach the antennas.

Attach the tripod mount to a tripod or stand of some sort, connect the USB to a power source, plug the Open. Theremin into a speaker or headset, and you're ready to go. Well, almost.

You need to ground it. Plugging the theremin into a stereo may ground it, as may the USB connection powering it. If the person playing the instrument i. But if these circumstances don't apply, you need to ground the theremin by running a wire from the ground pad on the board to something like a water pipe. You can also connect the ground pad to the player with an antistatic wrist strap or equivalent wire. This gives the player strong capacitive coupling directly with the theremin, which works as an alternative to grounding the theremin.

At this point, recalibrate the theremin. You probably don't need to fiddle with the knobs at the start. Volume does what you'd expect. Pitch changes the "zero beat" point, i. Register is similar to what's called sensitivity on other theremins. Timbre selects among the different waveforms programmed into the Arduino. There are many theremin videos online. It is not an easy instrument to play well, but it is certainly fun to play with. The open nature of the Open.

Theremin project has enabled collaboration that would have been more difficult otherwise. For example, Gaudenz received a great deal of feedback from people who play the theremin well, including Swiss theremin player Coralie Ehinger. Gaudenz says he really doesn't play the theremin but the help he got from players enabled him to make changes to make Open. Theremin a playable musical instrument.

Others contributed directly to the instrument design, especially the Arduino software code.