Bo/Ann/Theremin

[John Nebel]

Bo was curious how a Theremin worked and Ann gave him a demo.

[morbo!]

did she do the beach boys thing??????:D

[morbo!]

boath her hands are clearly visible so why is bo`s face so red?:D

[John Nebel]

Ann did say that she would reply about Beach Boys.

The Theremin setup with a 4430 outside is used on Halloween for making spooky noises for the witches and goblins and can be heard blocks away.
(JBL SPL!)

[morbo!]

just a bit of usless maybe not correct info
but i belive theremin was a russian scientist working on a proximity alarm when he came up with this little oddity and it was earlyier than you would think i cant remember the date exactly and am to lazy to look it up but i think it was like 1918 or something like that

morbo

[cantelow]

Hi! Nope, I didn't do the Beach Boys, but that's certainly something one thinks of. A San Francisco group called Project Pimento did a nice version of the Star Trek theme on a cd of lounge music, heh, another ditty one thinks of.

To be a purist, the Beach Boys didn't have a theremin. They instead used a "tannerin", invented by one Paul Tanner for the occasion, i.e. for the recording of "Big Vibrations". And, the Star Trek theme was a human voice, IIRC.

I like doing little folk songs, but have my dark side of love of wild electronic music in my brain :rockon2: that hasn't found its way out onto the theremin yet.

Best, Ann

[Ian Mackenzie]

Very clever.

Be nice if you could attach a wav file John.

So what's Bo doing with an empty wine glass? :hmm:

Ian

[cantelow]

Well, there's more theremin music than anyone could ever want here:

http://spellbound.purplenote.com/mp3lister.php

That's a list of 1-hr radio shows of exclusively theremin music.

My own less interesting and very amateurish efforts are here:
http://www.cantelow.com/vanity/theremin

These are all mp3 files, might not be the fidelity you're looking for.

Best,
Ann

[morbo!]

wow i didnt mind the inactivists


thanks ann

[boputnam]

Howdy, buckaroos...

Been on the road with the 30th anniversary of my band, and was hoping - just hoping - Ann and Theramin might wander down that way and sit-in. No such luck... :(

The Theramin is about the strangest thing I've seen. Ann does a GREAT job - really mastered the thing. The musician cannot move their torso at all - any movement will change the relative position of the hands to the sensors.

So, one stands there, statue-like and with very careful, nearly calibrated hand motion forms tones, controls pitch and gain. Infinite possibilities. I was too freaked out to even try a scale... :blink:

It all sounds better through JBL... :p

[morbo!]

that opening track on the last link is !friggin beautiful!
and im not the sorta person to say that!
is that clara rockmore?


morbo!

[cantelow]

that opening track on the last link is !friggin beautiful!
and im not the sorta person to say that!
is that clara rockmore?


morbo!

I think you must mean the opening track on the last list selection found at the purplenote link, which is currently the program dated in July, 05. If you mean the opening theme song, my memory has it that that is Dorit Chrysler, doing the Spellbound movie theme- and I agree it's way cool! If you mean the first song after that, that's Peter Pringle doing the Bach Air on G.

[morbo!]

thankyou ann
yes the openening track
unbelievable
morbo!

(increse your wordiness)

[toddalin]

A Theremin was the first electronics kit I built, back in the 60's. Popular Electronics published the plans and Southwest Technical Products (?) kitted the parts, including a nice wooden case about the size of a shoe box. The antenni were triangular copper-clad pc boards. It was an iffy proposition when it worked and most people (from the magazine write-ins) couldn't even get them to work.

And my God, here it is from 1967!:bouncy:

http://www.swtpc.com/mholley/PopularElectronics/Nov1967/PE_Nov1967.htm

And here's a guy who's improved on it!:coolness:

http://home.att.net/~theremin1/144/144.htm

[sonofagun]

Just in case anyone is mis-informed regarding this - this was NOT used to create the soundtrack for the movie "Forbidden Planet".

Ann, what do you know about the Barron's who did this groundbreaking soundtrack?

[Cyclotronguy]

My first kit project was from SWTP too, and the follow up to their Therimin.

Thought I was a pretty good solder slinger until I tried to build the SWTP Kit. So many DPDT switches.... so many white wires...... so many off value resistors.

Sorry, can't remember their kit name (their version of a Moog Sonic 6, simplified)only worked in private, was never able to show it running to a living soul.

My best friend built the their therimin, he was one of the folks that wrote to Don Lancaster at Popular Electronics seeking assistance.

All in all it was big fun.... and we're both still slinging solder well on 30 years later!

Cyclotronguy

[cantelow]

Just in case anyone is mis-informed regarding this - this was NOT used to create the soundtrack for the movie "Forbidden Planet".

Ann, what do you know about the Barron's who did this groundbreaking soundtrack?

Hm, interesting stuff on the Barrons here: http://eamusic.dartmouth.edu/~wowem/electronmedia/barron.html (http://eamusic.dartmouth.edu/%7Ewowem/electronmedia/barron.html)
I don't know if I've even seen that much info about the Barrons come out on levnet, the theremin mailing list, where there are lots of great experts, both on building and playing.

And I was wrong, Morbo, the Dorit Chrysler piece in discussion above is a composition of her own called "Tesla," not the theme from the "Spellbound" movie, nor of "Forbidden Planet." More of her compositions are here, under the subheading "sounds": html://www.doritchrysler.com/toc.html.

Toddalin and Cyclotronguy, you might enjoy this link: http://www.thereminvox.com/article/articleview/159 . It describes a little bit the restoration of an old "RCA" theremin. Art Harrison's page at http://home.att.net/~theremin1/ (http://home.att.net/%7Etheremin1/) (scroll down to articles) is also of interest to builders.

Another amazing link, you can hear Lev Theremin himself play the theremin here: http://www.theremin.ru , under the selection, "MY3bIKA", and then the second heading under "TEPMEHBOKC" (it's in Russian, in Cyrillic). The unmatchable Clara Rockmore is the first heading under "TEPMEHBOKC" there.

Hope that's satisfying to y'all that are curious about theremins.

Best, Ann