I will be adding pages to this site ASAP..

It was never my intention to produce a pitch-only “starter” Theremin (These are, in fact, not truly Theremins - Only an instrument with both Pitch and Volume antennas have the “right” to be called Theremins) but I could not turn down the opportunity - And I am glad that I did this event - I learned a lot, and introduced hundreds of people to the “Theremin’

PROTOTYPE DEVELOPMENT

The SkyWave H1 Theremin, based on my H1 pitch board which I plan to release / sell in the near future.

This is a standard heterodyning Theremin which does not implement my active equalization - Linearity was not a requirement for this commission.

I have, however, fitted a low-spec Equalizing coil.. I simply could not bear the idea of putting another nasty non-linear Theremin on the market.. This Theremin is quite playable.

16 of these Theremins will be in a public area of the Royal festival hall, London (part of the South Bank Arts complex - the largest arts center in the world) between April 14th and April 28th (exact dates unconfirmed).

These Theremins have extensive tone palette (there is the standard analogue Theremin heterodyne waveform with control over wave-shaping this, and also digitally generated waveforms including a sub-oscillator for stunning bass response, and square wave with adjustable triangulation, two sets of low-pass filters, one high pass filter, and overdrive allowing frequency dependent soft clipping) , and they will be set up so that they produce a range of tones as visitors interact with them. The Theremins also have headphones to allow private playing while other events are occurring.

One novel (unique?) feature is “wrong-side-of-null-point” muting.. I believed this to be a requirement, particularly for an event like this - but it is a feature which will be on all my Theremins - it allows extremely easy setting of sensing distance.. There is a large bi-colour LED which goes red when the Theremin is automatically muted, and green when within the correct playing area.

This Theremin is entirely self contained, having 30W (RMS) amplifier, two woofers and tweeters, built-in power supply etc.

There are sockets to allow Theremin output to be taken to external PA or effects units, and a Amplifier input. A separate volume antenna unit (under development) can use these connectors and allow a full Theremin to be realized.

My plan is to add my equalization scheme to greatly improve linearity (at present, linearity is better than many respectable Theremins) and release this as my low-end “starter” Theremin.

With only minutes before the end of the event, I play one of the Theremins for the last time.. I am quite sad to leave them - they have been wonderful reliable instruments despite the abuse they were sometimes subjected to.

I will be updating this site, and intend, particularly, to give a lot more technical information on the construction of the Theremins, and tricks I employed to enable 16 Theremins to play in a confined area without interaction.

Please check HERE  as this is where I will paste links.