Make your own Simple Theremin
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 17 ก.ย. 2024
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More project information (schematic, pictures,....) on Instructables: www.instructab...
Theremin website shown in the video: www.strangeappa...
Parts list (affiliate links, incomplete, see Instructables for more):
Aliexpress:
1x CD4093 NAND IC: s.click.aliexp...
1x MCP602 OpAmp: s.click.aliexp...
2x 100pF, 1x 1nF Capacitor: s.click.aliexp...
1x 4.7µF Capacitor: s.click.aliexp...
6x 10k, 1x 5.1k, 1x6.8k Resistor: s.click.aliexp...
2x 10k Potentiometer: s.click.aliexp...
1x Antenna: s.click.aliexp...
1x Power Jack: s.click.aliexp...
1x Audio Jack: s.click.aliexp...
Ebay:
1x CD4093 NAND IC: rover.ebay.com/...
1x MCP602 OpAmp: rover.ebay.com/...
2x 100pF, 1x 1nF Capacitor: rover.ebay.com/...
1x 4.7µF Capacitor: rover.ebay.com/...
6x 10k, 1x 5.1k, 1x6.8k Resistor:
2x 10k Potentiometer: rover.ebay.com/...
1x Antenna: rover.ebay.com/...
1x Power Jack: rover.ebay.com/...
1x Audio Jack: rover.ebay.com/...
1x Housing: rover.ebay.com/...
In this project I will show you how the electronic instrument Theremin works and how we can create a simple version of it with the help of 2 ICs and only a few complementary components. Along the way we will talk about oscillator types, body capacitance and much more. So let's get started!
Music:
2011 Lookalike by Bartlebeats
Ecstatic Wave, Jens Kiilstofte
machinimasound...
That sounds like I'm at the dentist's office.
Wow. Can't believe how much circuitry I've forgotten since I last had to build a circuit! 33 years ago this would have seemed so simple to me, now...
I was searching for a easy circuit of theremin for my whole life finally I got it. thank you very much great scott. I am building the prototype now and its working perfectly
Those drawn hands alone are worth an upvote.
1:30 Will you teach us how to draw such realistic hands?
It is easy. Never listen during art class in school. That is at least how I draw them.
I actually prefer the one at 1:27
This. is. art! :D
As realistic are his hands, is realistic is theremin.
@@greatscottlab LMAO
These videos are what keep me from falling off the edge.
as a professional theremin player you just changed the way that i look to theremin not because of the complicated structure .no no no no. because of your professional playing :)
Can you play I just wasn't made for these times? I just love how they made the theremin sound like a voice
Theremins are fun. Years ago I built one after a schematic from the net that utilised a CD4069 hex inverter and a CD4046 phase-locked loop. I had no clue how, but actually worked, although somewhat unstable. The frequency always drifted higher and it became unusable after a couple of minutes.
You will get better sound if the output wave is a sine wave (with minimal noise) and you calibrate the max and min distance to 18khz to 50hz. In that way you can get a better sound response. Try it, really play theremin isn't hard. All you need is practice the distance.
I'm a recent subscriber (some of your arduino videos helped me a ton), and just realized this is the same GreatScott as the one on the flier I have hung on my wall for your HackRF One. It's been a goal of mine to own one ever since seeing it at Denver Maker Faire last month. Thank you for being amazing!
I think that the problem is mainly with the schematics, not with your playing skills.
Such circuits REALLY have to be well-shielded, elsewise they output too much noise. I think, that is the reason why your theremin sounds like squeaking.
Second, how does the differential opamp even work in such configurations? Subtracting two frequencies never gives a frequency difference unless some distortion occur, is it connected in a comparator mode? If not, try increasing the amplification.
I've made a project that was about hearing inaudible ultrasonic frequencies - basically, a frequency mixer of a heterodyne and a mic, which is very similar to this situation. During my experiments I've found that the cheapest and simplest, yet good-sounding solution is to use an analog switch like 4053 to switch between the first signal and the first signal inverted at a frequency equal to the second signal frequency. Maybe you should try this configuration and replace on of your oscillators with a real colpitts oscillator. I can give you the schematics for my ultrasonic sound project if you want to.
can you share thos schematics comrade?
send it to rob scallion, he can make it sound good... right?
CJLOLZ I second that 😂😂😂
he can play anything, so......
I would go for andrew huang
I would check out Angelo Moore from the band fishbone
Wait a minute, Great Scott! is promoting the simple schematic???
Doesn't sound anything like a theramin, you need an even sine wave for a theramin, tuned to a set frequency (such as A, 440Hz) - then when you move your hand, that frequency changes, creating the notes
a square wave just sequeels...
"simple" was his main goal
Yes, but it was "Simple Theremin". Maybe he built something simple, but that is *not* a theremin. Sorry for farting in the bath, but that's a fail.
Exactly, this is a simple noise creator, not a simple Theremin.
Totally agree. As a "distance" detector maybe it work but isn't a theremin. Too much noise and high freq.
The LP filter needs set much lower, like 1-2KHz max to be musical, and subtract the unwanted harmonics of the square waves.
The nicest hand drawn schematics and blueprints on TH-cam. But that drawing of a hand......
I graduated the last year so now I m electronic engineer, and I m in the same age as you but I m still learning from you and wait for your videos every week , keep going my friend (y)
Thanks for the feedback. I try my best.
so if you're interested in music, creating your own midi instrument/controller may be a project for another video
I put it on my to do list
+GreatScott! You could make a 3D printed piano keyboard, or make a capacitive touch keyboard =)
I made a capacitive touch midi controller a while back that I hook up to bananas, cucumbers and apples and a Roland synth. Its pretty popular at our local maker fest.
It's also fun to make those with conductive ink on a piece of paper :)
Mathieu Clement Or pencil marks
Really loving this! Been looking around for small sized theremins in order to build one into my electric guitar, and this might do the trick!
Lol same
I'm glad to see that I'm not the only genius who plays the guitar in my style. ;)
That would actually make a great mini proximity detector. Make an electronic controlled mouse-trap or a snack-snatching alarm. If anyone tries to grab a snack, it triggers a siren horn. Attach it to a door handle and you have an anti-tamper alarm detector. Put it in your wall, where the doorbell should be, and you have a 100% waterproof, touchless door chime. Add it to a robot and the robot can sense when you are about to grab it. Add three and the robot can detect you and run the other direction, where is doesn't sense you. :)
I just realized you're left-handed like me, double thumbs up!!
*notices person is a fellow southpaw and spends the entire video in a fervor of happiness about this.*
I love your handwriting.
I think you might find it worth revisiting the XOR gate which will mix the frequencies, unlike the op-amp which is mixing the voltages.
I agree. In therory you need an korrelation circuit between fixed and variable frequencies. XOR is an simple "digital" approximation to this. Linear adding voltages does this not. But if the amplitudes are to high and nonlinear effects occur, it seems to work.
@@joergfoerster8043 someone probably told him he should use an SA602 Double-balanced mixer, but he substituted the OpAmp 🙂
@@Chris-ZL Yes, in HF-technik an mixer is in my option an multiplier - in audio-technik a mixer is an adder. Or, shoud i say: Even in an audio-technik-mixer each input-signal is multiplied with their volume-control and then the signals are added.
As an electrical engineering: This is fascinating, remarkable and inspiring.
As a musician: This is an excellent instrument for annoying people!!!!
I believe you got this idea from Sheldon Cooper right?
Well, he can definitely play it better than me.
3 minutes ago, but 32 comments! Wow! Great job!
I LOVE THE HANDS YOU DREW! MAKE A DRAWING FULL OF HANDS
What if you use the triangle-ish waves from the capacitors instead(they have lower harmonics), by subtracting them with an in-amp? Maybe it'll sound nicer since it's easier to filter the harmonics
What do I need to learn in order to know what he's talking about?
Logic gates.
"Not complicated enough yet?"
me: pls. stop
Just idea, plug output into ATmega32u4 a make cool MIDI instrument
Never worked with MIDI before. Might have to do a little research.
CZ/SK?
greatscott asi nemec
ja nemyslím greatscotta ale teba xD
Or just use an Arduino with Atmega16u2 built-in and flash de LUFA midi firmware. Cheap and simple.
Everything is so well written and drawn, damn
Like Jimmy Page. He played it in Led Zeppelin.
Dwayne Wladyka Page fucking sucked playing the theremin
i love your handwriting!
OMG those hands symbol made my day !!
Very good tutorial.....I won't need a mixer, just going to feed it directly to the power amp and play some music for my dog.
i love this channel
The best would be to do 2 levels for this kind of projects, an easy circuit and a more advance one, but it will take a lot longer to make.
Btw nice video, as always
+Frost Might be a good idea. I put a more complicated, better sounding theremin on my to do list.
Hi greats Scott could you make a synthesizer using some oscillater like the 556? That would be awesome!
It is on my to do list
GreatScott! Or you could make a quad oscillater circuit using the 4093
There's a great 3 part TH-cam tutorial on how to do a full on synth starting here
th-cam.com/video/FaoJaLmZaL4/w-d-xo.html
I didn't make these videos I just think it's a great tutorial
GreatScott! Atari Punk Console? So classic.
*closes video tab*
*opens ebay tab*
*types in ''cheap theremin''
i tried guys.... i tried lol
Nice!
Just a question: why are you using NAND gates with an input pulled to HI instead of simple NOT? Wouldn't you get the same result?
@@__MINT_ The easiest way would be to use a ring oscillator.
@@__MINT_ You could, you just need an uneven number of gates.
I don't get why this guy haven't reach 1m
In my amazement that they built a Low Frequency mixer in the circuit, so i went in the theremin site and found out what it was, just a capacitor. Obviously, for a crude experiment no one wanted to design a mixer with high specs.
Wow, perfect😍😍 brasilian here
Hi ..I enjoyed it .I'll surely going to try this
Great Scott! You maybe could add an lm386 amp to increase the output volume! 📡🎶
can you make something like a led suit like a costume using led strips
never clicked so fast in my life
do u also play N-game that is how i got quick reflex
Black turbine nope
now i can prank my friends. can't wait
send this to andew huang. please, Im sure he'll make an awesome music out of this
lol, true, the only problem is that shipping this to space is probably going to be kinda expensive
But....there's only one antenna!
Using a Stabilo pen right now, I have trust in you!
Wow, that's really nice! :D Fantastic work, man!
Why did you use ex nor gate for the oscillator when you have one input connected to vcc you could have just used a not gate.
this is more "how not to build a theremin".
I understand the concept of "keeping it simple". But if the functionally is reduced to beeing totally useless, then it's simply futile to spend any components (or time) on it. Apart from the soldering practise.
That's exactly what I was looking for. A bit complicated though but still awesome
I was waiting for it
This is a very nice circuit tutorial, but the net result makes this theremin hardly worth the trouble. If you want to make a simple pitch theremin using CMOS ICs, then I suggest the "101 Minimum Theremin" or the "102 Minimum Theremin," which you can Google.
Nearby every Video begins with "When it comes..."
:D
i came looking for answers and i leave with questions, thanks.
Fantastic
7:49 Why not Hot glue?
I had to use two component adhesive for the antenna anyway. So I just used it for all the parts.
Because hot glue does not sick well to metal.
A tip for hot gluers. Use a heat gun to pre-warm all the surfaces. Then the hot glue is less prone to making spider webs and the glue will flow onto the surfaces. The reason it does not stick to metal easily is the rapid cooling caused by the cold metal.
What is that material to glue?
Prety so cool!
go check out Keystone Science's version of this. I'm sure you can find the improvements you are looking for.
With all the square wave action going on, this would probably sound better through a low-pass filter with a much lower frequency of cutoff... maybe make a simple variable LP filter, with a range from like 100Hz to 2KHz.... Cheers!
I thought the same thing as I saw those square waves
Congratzzzz 666k subz
The nand gate reminds me of a shmitt trigger
build in an hour, that means it'll only take me 1 or 2 weeks!
Tolle Idee, aber so etwas könnte ich niemals umsetzen 😂👌👍
you hit those guitar strings harder than 200kvolt would
really nice work man!
Im here just for fun and I would make it analog.But cool idea ! :-)
Thanks for you attention
reminds me of Transformers Sfx. nice👍
nice !!!. intereted in making an electric guitar humbucker/pickup
Great Scott, he's a southpaw
Het great scott! Please make a guitar pickup... or cigar box guitar..
it's not a Moog theremin but it will do
Big like 👍 👍 👍
Awesome video as always😉
I simply screamed
But i learned somthing
sadly in its current form this theremin is unplayable, a Theremin has 2 antennae, one for the pitch (as above) and the other is for volume and shapes all of the sound. a conventional instrument has its own volume envelope shaping. its useless for music until you make a more tactile volume shaping system.
Sometimes i wonder if people actually watched the video. He explained that and why he removed it. 🤷♂️
If I wanted to build a Theremin with a 10 foot pitch antenna, what changes would I need to make?
Good Job boss !!
you could easily get a better timbre for your theremin by lowering the cutoff frequency to get rid of those high harmonics created by the square wave. Maybe put a variable resistor instead of a simple resistor in your low pass filter ?
it sounds too high. is there a change that would lower the pitch an octave or two. it sounds mostly abover 10khz... it might sound nicer in the 500hz to 8khz range... could a different component somewhere change that?
I would use a Frequency Divider and a lower capacitance (
you should build a synthesizer with square, triangle and sine wave generators
It is on my to do list
Might sound better with a passive buzzer than with a speaker.
XOR would be a better choice for the mixer, you need to multiply the signals to get heterodyne products, not just subtract them. Unfortunately you can't throw out too much complexity from the Theremin and keep it sounding like an instrument; square waves sound very harsh because of all the harmonics. The lack of a volume control is less important, but makes it much less useful musically. Narrowing the pass-band on the post mixer filter would help make it sound better, but the timbre will change a great deal over its range.
I agree. In therory you need an korrelation circuit between fixed and variable frequencies. XOR is an simple "digital" approximation to this. Linear adding voltages does this not. But if the amplitudes are to high and nonlinear effects occur, it seems to work.
I dont understand why you use an opamp here? They make terrible RF mixers. You are looking for a non-linear mixer like a jfet or even a bjt if nothing else... linear mixers are right out!
I agree. In therory you need an korrelation circuit between fixed and variable frequencies. XOR is an simple "digital" approximation to this. Linear adding voltages does this not. But if the amplitudes are to high and nonlinear effects occur, it seems to work.
This thing is is as cool as it is annoying! I would love to see an update where you lowered the output to a more "musical" range of frequencies.
You know the ZOOM H1 also has an input audio port? This way you can directly record the audio signal. Afterwards you can always amplify the recording with Audacity.
Keystone Science has a great video on a DIY Theremin if anyone is interested
Great video! Using Schmitt trigger as an oscillator is much better than the ne555 circuit and should be the future of hobbyist electronics. s4:30 One outputs. Yeah! I 've even got a gramma warning here.
What about electric kalimba with set frequencies for each note? using the same principals as the theremin.
A Thermin also adjust the volume with an antenna. So one for the pitch and one for the volume. And as might be good to have a separate LP filter which can be tuned.
Don't bother with a midi convertion. It would be like trying to make a midi interface to a violin or bandless base guitar. A Thermin like a violin doesn't have fixed band and notes.
Interesting projekt, with potentials. :-)
The differential amplifier will not produce an effective heterodyne. You have confused the concept of the linear subtraction of voltages with the concept of heterodyning. The exclusive-OR gate is a better method, and a suitable low-pass filter will remove the unwanted sum frequencies. Some comments claim that the noisy, low-fidelity output of this circuit is due to a lack of shielding. However, the poor fidelity is mostly due to the inherently-low "Q" factor of the relaxation oscillators, since interference is coupled directly into the variable oscillator through the antenna. Similar schemes using CMOS relaxation oscillators can be achieved with much better performance.
I agree. In therory you need an korrelation circuit between fixed and variable frequencies. XOR is an simple "digital" approximation to this. Linear adding voltages does this not. But if the amplitudes are to high and nonlinear effects occur, it seems to work.
Could you make a RF audio transmitter
It's been a long time since high-school physics, but couldn't you take the final audible square wave and make a sine wave from it, with an RC circuit? Maybe be a bit more musical... (yes, I will be trying this myself)