next time you hear to Beach Boys' Good Vibrations, listen for the sound...

The Theramin was also used on The Beach Boys' recording of Good Vibrations. I built one of these devices way back in the 60's when analogue synths were just starting to appear. It takes a great deal of skill to play - something which I never really mastered - I eventually dismantled it and re-used the components. However, it was quite an interesting project.

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Willum

Hi Bill and Alec,

I will look for that Beach Boys album. I can see me sitting in the church listening to the Theramin as clearly as if it was yesterday - but it was in the early 40s. The musician playing it could create a vibrato by waving his hand back and forth and I remember one note sort of "slurred" into the next. It produced an eerie sound so I'm not surprised it was used by Alfred Hitchcock in his films. I can understand you having trouble mastering it, Bill, for I suspect it would be a very difficult instrument to play.

Happy Easter to both of you.

Chuck

Hello,

Yes, It is like you say, al depends on what you need and the publicity do evereting to let us now we need greater and bigger hardware. The tric is to be happy with what you have and like there are many expantion boards on the market there is always a way to please ourselfs with nothing more than a little waverom board with over 400 extra sounds!

presumably with valves, Willum? The heterodyne principle was discovered by the radio pioneers, but Theremin thought of using the resulting beats to get audio frequencies. You had one hand for volume and one for pitch I seem to remember, so by waving hands you could get tremolo and vibrato.

I always thought the problem was one of sine waves, and the relative blandness of the sound compared to the overtone rich sound we are used to from acoustic instruments. Thus the resulting incredible skill required to hit a pure note on perfect pitch, since the slightest shift either side would give a swooning effect that soon tired the ears, and that is why it was so difficult to play. The instrument was the king of portamento!

I believe the ARP synthesizers lasted into the 90s although I'm not positive. The list in the link above only includes up to, and including 1989

My first portable electronic keyboard was a Cordovox. Cordovox made both portable keyboards and accordians. Cordovox had a distinct mello sound .."groovy".. as they use to say. I also recall that Cordovox were bought out by Moog.

Robert Moog started in 1961 and built and sold Theremin kits, and later became a Giant in the Electronic Keyboard Industry.

Whatever happened to Moog and my Cordovox ?

SeeYa,
Larry Hawk

Hi Larry,

I don't know what happened to Moog, but I still have a Moog Prodigy synth in storage along with an ARP Quartet synth.

Chuck

Hi Alec, You're right, I did use valves for the first one I built - EF80s if I remember correctly and two telescopic aerials recovered from scrap portable radios - as you say - one for pitch control and the other for volume control. I revisited the project, in the late 70s, at the request of a friend, but used transistors and ICs on that occasion. I've lost touch with him, so can't determine if it's still alive
If you fancy a bit of fun with a simulated version, follow the 'bbc' link on my 'Theremin' post.


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Willum

When I think of Moog..I think of Flower Child, VW. Bus, Woodstock, Hippies and other groovy things.

METAMORPHOSIS?