Michael's Texas Embrace

You know, I am pretty darn sure I can build a sweet-ass theremin. I just needs time. Just time. That's all I needs.
 

Heck, according to Paia, anyone can build a sweet theremin with their handy kit. You just have to know how to solder. Ha ha, but they don't recommend learning to solder with their theremin kit, or I guess you could end up with a theremin that sounds like a dying baby being attacked by a smoking cat, and then your theremin explodes. That would be sad.
 

if someone could spend hours teaching me to make a machine which sounded like a dying baby attacked by a smoking cat, i would spend hours learning how to make that machine. at any rate, this sounds like something fun to do over the summer. all murf's housework has already inspired me that i need to learn some electrical skills, this may push me over the edge, what all.

oh, and i can't get that moog simulator to work on my office computer, so i can't comment on it yet. i'll figure it out.
 

Here's an idea:

Instead of buying a kit, why don't we all find an online circuit diagram of a theremin, email it around to the rest of us (so we have multiple ones), gather what parts we can in our respective corners (I can get the soldering iron and rarer parts...surely RadioShack can supply the rest), and then sometime this summer we can all bring our boxes to Austin, and we can sit in a circle and all build the theremin together!? I am a level 79 solderer, knowing such moves as Weld-Beam and Flux-Attack and even Lead-Free-Sonic-Flying-Uppercut. Michael, just imagine what your upstairs neighbor will think when we crank up the dying baby noises through all your equipment and amplify them for ALL the lone star state to hear!

ZA-HA!
 

Well, that sounds like a grand idea! Actually Paia provides the schematics for their theremin for free on their main page! Go to http://www.paia.com/index.htm and in the top right corner there is a thing that says "free Manuals" the .pdf files have all the infromation you get if you order the kit, minus all of the parts. They seem to be a very helpful company, and want the world to have theremins.
 

THIS COMMENT IS THE ABSOLUTE TRUTH! I can take that schematic (which is using outdated 1980s thru-hole technology) and reroute the board using smaller, surface mount compontents and newer IC's. I can build that theremin in a quarter of the size, and maybe add some sweet features. I may even be able to talk my dad into letting me use some of the parts around here (I think I have 98% of those components within five feet of me as I type this), and I can professionally lay out the newer, smaller board for... maybe $30. Plus, if it works, I will be able to mass produce those boards for all of us, very easily.

So, if I just stop being lazy, I should be able to get us all nice, small, theremins by the time we all meet up again. Imagine a quintet of theremins! Just the thought of that is so cool that I have to go to the bathroom right now!
 

OMG...now I see the tru power of electrical engineering. Do you think there is a reason it uses older technology? I wonder if that changes the sound? I guess the only way to find out is to build a newer, smaller theremin and see if it works! As far as features, gosh, I think that theremin is supposed to already have more features than some others, but man! Features rock! And a bunch of theremins! Now I have to go to the bathroom!
 

i see it! a hat-mounted theremin! my every move could be theremined with this miniaturized theremin! theremin!
 

oh, and such a nice new name-image you have! this would make 9 comments, we must all be very excited about the theremin prospect...
 

i hate to make three comments in a row, but it's not my fault that i'm avoiding doing work which i should really be doing instead of posting comments.

anyway, the other day i used a bag to carry some papers to school, and in a pocket of the bag was a Golden Roast paycheck to Michael Allen for 116.67, dated, coincidentally, 4/20/2003. It's been signed by a boss, so I'm going to go cash it and buy myself some fancy pants.
 

Wha... a paycheck... That's not true! Although, I do remember having to get a check recut once. Hmmm. What? How about there-shoes-amins. Whoo-eeeee! Step!
 

I started offical theremin circuit board schematic building this evening. If I do a little every night, it should get done eventually. But will it work?!? I'll have to find where to get those coiled oscillators.

ROFLMAO.
 

Coiled oscillators! Sweet! Oscillators are sweet. Oh man, I have to go oscillate now.