Hi all!
I want to know if it is do-able to greatly extend the distance sensitivity of a theremin. Years ago I made an art-work which is five and a half feet tall, made of wood and perspex and already has a theremin built into it. I have always wanted to make it more interactive; when approached (by one person at a time) lights and audio volume increase in a linear fashion. Ideally I would like pitch and volume to start increasing five to eight feet away. Apologies if this info is already out there but I have spent half a day trying to find posts on this site but have only found cryptic references to experiments that people were doing years ago by RStheremin and Torceador claiming this sort of distance , but also other posts saying that there is a maximum of two feet realisticly achievable. I could use ultrasonic detectors, but they are too directional and all the circuits I've seen give a stepped output rather than a linear response. I had given up on the idea of using the theremin and was looking at using an x-box Kinect, but that involves programming which I hate and I would dearly love to keep everything analogue and use the magic of the ether, which is kind of what the art-work is about. The theremin is used for sci-fi sound effects (with a digital delay) rather than for music. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated, thanks. p.s. I do have a fair bit of experience with electronics.
Greatly extended pitch antenna range
Re: Greatly extended pitch antenna range
Hi Sakurasanta (do you really mean 'Sacred Cherry? combination of Japanese and Italian?)
You may get more response posting to the theremin list, but here goes...
Not from the engineering side, but practice-oriented. I use my EWave with extended pitch range (playing it with my body, so that I can play a shakuhachi at the same time). For me, this is as simple as putting a metal plate (aluminium sheet) about 10cm square on the right-hand side of the case, but not touching the pitch antenna. A CD blank also works. This changes the sensitivity a lot, and may, with some experimentation, put it into the range you require. It means though, that something within pitch range will also change volume. I haven't tried modifying the volume range, so you'd need to experiment here as well. Possibly you could remove the volume loop and replace it with something more distant from the case but connected by a wire, and a different shape, to get the right kind of interactivity. Best to simply try things out.
Hope this helps a little.
JimF
You may get more response posting to the theremin list, but here goes...
Not from the engineering side, but practice-oriented. I use my EWave with extended pitch range (playing it with my body, so that I can play a shakuhachi at the same time). For me, this is as simple as putting a metal plate (aluminium sheet) about 10cm square on the right-hand side of the case, but not touching the pitch antenna. A CD blank also works. This changes the sensitivity a lot, and may, with some experimentation, put it into the range you require. It means though, that something within pitch range will also change volume. I haven't tried modifying the volume range, so you'd need to experiment here as well. Possibly you could remove the volume loop and replace it with something more distant from the case but connected by a wire, and a different shape, to get the right kind of interactivity. Best to simply try things out.
Hope this helps a little.
JimF