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Music & Sound FX / I've built an analog synth! ... sort of ...

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Lucifer
18
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Joined: 26th Dec 2005
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Posted: 8th Aug 2008 04:39 Edited at: 8th Aug 2008 05:13
What i originally planned to make was a theremin, and that's what i did. I found some good schematics for building a theremin and i bought a soldering iron, the parts, solder, wires and everything. I probably spent about 10 hours, posibly more in making this thing, and in the end.. it didnt work! All it does is give short bursts of click noises. and if i slide the controller in the front of it gives different clicks.. yeah, great.

You might think i'd give up working on this since it doesnt work and there are over 75 wire connections and 32 parts but in my desperation of trying to get any sound from it i decided to connect it to my mixer, turned the "theremin" on, and recorded whatever sound i could make in it. I'm going to skip telling about all the testing i did in this since it was ALOT, but in the end i found out the short clicks of noise were actually very very cool Waveforms i could load up in the 3xOsc synth (or any synth that can load .wav waveforms) and play like i might do with any wave. And when i say cool, i mean it makes actual sounds, not noises.

This is just great! I've got this little mystery machine that can generate wave's to use! This actually widens the range of what i can do in the 3xOsc, because now i have more than 6 different wave choises! So yes, i think i can call this an Analog synth since it does make a sound.. just one that plays really really fast and sounds like a noise unless i cut the noise short and get it into the 3xOsc so it sounds like.. well, not noise


Here are some pictures! I took the pictures after i put it into the box, and taped the box tight, so now i cant get into it

Front:


Dramatic side view:


Back: (notice it kinda looks like somehow it should be able to open, well, it is, there's a screw inside there i would be able to turn to change the pitch* (*That is of course if the theremin worked properly))


Edit(Attached a better example)
Attached : A sample of a waveform i recorded, used in the 3xOsc with a melody and effects and everything, very cool

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Rudolpho
18
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Joined: 28th Dec 2005
Location: Sweden
Posted: 8th Aug 2008 11:46 Edited at: 8th Aug 2008 11:47
Way cool man!
(I've intended to build a theremin too, but I don't have the electrical skills... yet)

It's a bit odd that it doesn't give you a continous sound, no?
(Again, I hardly now anything of electrical circuits and the like). Might a fuse be cutting the power because it's too great?

By the way, it seems that your creation lacks the volume antennae... or am I wrong?

Also, supreme casing

(By the way, the attached sound sounds like a mix of a triangular (or poissibly sinusoid) waveform, to later blend into some sawtooth / pulse mix. Am I right? ).

"I kören hörs de brummande busarna Björnligan och Gondolen"
Grandma
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Joined: 26th Dec 2005
Location: Norway, Guiding the New World Order
Posted: 8th Aug 2008 21:46
That's pretty cool.

Theremins are awesome, but very hard to use I would suspect as you need some very precise movement of your hands for the pitch to fit.

This message was brought to you by Grandma industries.

Making yesterdays games, today!
Lucifer
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Joined: 26th Dec 2005
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Posted: 9th Aug 2008 04:27
Rudolphio : It's alot of fun to do this stuff and if you're interested you should just go ahead and do this, because it's very cheap and alot of fun I chose a theremin with no volume antenna because it seemed like alot more work, but.. it doesnt work anyway so i guess there's no point of the one i have now, except if i touch it and move it around i record strange noises

It could be so much that's wrong with my theremin, i'm just not going to bother trying to fix it it's fine the way it is anyways.. Thanks for complimenting the case, of couse i put alot of work into that and 90% of the time went into making it. Your description of the waveform is very... well i guess the word would be complicated all i know is that it sounds like no wave i've ever heard that could do this with only one Osc.

Grandma: Yeah i guess it's not easy playing this thing, i tried one once and i just had fun making sounds with it never would i dream of playing it.

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