WEBVTT - TechStuff Classic: How Theremins Work 0:00:04.120 --> 0:00:07.160 Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from how 0:00:07.200 --> 0:00:14.200 stuff works dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:14.240 --> 0:00:17.159 I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer at 0:00:17.160 --> 0:00:20.080 how Stuff Works and I love all things tech. And 0:00:20.160 --> 0:00:24.720 it is a Riday that means it's time for a rerun. 0:00:25.600 --> 0:00:28.040 I'm sorry, I mean a classic episode. That's what you 0:00:28.080 --> 0:00:33.320 call it, classy. This classic episode originally aired on August 0:00:34.040 --> 0:00:38.280 two thousand eleven. This is how Thereman's work, and I 0:00:38.320 --> 0:00:40.879 thought it was appropriate because we're coming up on Halloween 0:00:41.320 --> 0:00:43.600 and I always think of theremans as being sort of 0:00:43.600 --> 0:00:47.440 a halloween ish kind of musical instrument because it makes 0:00:47.440 --> 0:00:51.559 that why noise. You'll hear a lot of me doing that, 0:00:51.640 --> 0:00:54.560 and also Chris Palette, my co host when we recorded 0:00:54.560 --> 0:00:58.680 this episode. So enjoy because this is one of those 0:00:58.760 --> 0:01:02.520 crazy invent chins. I can't believe someone thought of it. 0:01:03.520 --> 0:01:08.840 It involves electro magnetism and lots of careful movements. It 0:01:09.000 --> 0:01:11.120 is very easy to make noise on a theramin. It 0:01:11.240 --> 0:01:14.440 is much harder to make music on one. And I 0:01:14.480 --> 0:01:16.800 got to see someone make wonderful music on it just 0:01:16.840 --> 0:01:19.800 the other day. So I hope you guys enjoy this episode, 0:01:19.880 --> 0:01:22.559 and I'll talk to you again in a moment. First, 0:01:22.760 --> 0:01:25.480 let's get into why we're going to do this episode. 0:01:25.520 --> 0:01:28.480 This comes to us courtesy of a Google Plus suggestion. 0:01:35.120 --> 0:01:38.120 This suggestion comes to us from Mary who and I'm 0:01:38.120 --> 0:01:40.160 going to truncate her message a bit because she actually 0:01:40.200 --> 0:01:42.760 had quite a long with lots of different suggestions, but 0:01:42.880 --> 0:01:46.240 starts off with you may be interested to know. I, 0:01:46.360 --> 0:01:48.960 for one, am not tech savvy, at least compared to 0:01:48.960 --> 0:01:51.400 the crowd of early adopter types here on Google Plus. 0:01:51.720 --> 0:01:54.240 I'm a rhetoric major, should have graduated when I was twenty, 0:01:54.320 --> 0:01:56.080 but in one class short of might be a for 0:01:56.240 --> 0:02:00.560 financial slash academic red tape reasons with miners in French 0:02:00.760 --> 0:02:05.640 and German guten tag Mary. Aside from being a pro vocalist, 0:02:05.720 --> 0:02:08.959 my real job is teaching English to disadvantaged and academically 0:02:09.000 --> 0:02:13.400 struggling eighth graders, which is amazing. I also tad college 0:02:13.480 --> 0:02:17.040 level rhett comp to and have private students tutoring clients, 0:02:17.080 --> 0:02:19.600 mostly college students, some high school, a few middle school 0:02:19.720 --> 0:02:23.240 primarily seeing me for writing instruction or literary interpretation analysis 0:02:23.400 --> 0:02:27.920 and historical analysis with embosses on reading comprehension. Apparently I 0:02:27.960 --> 0:02:31.000 need to take that at any rate. Mary then goes 0:02:31.040 --> 0:02:35.240 on to give several suggestions, the last of which is finally, 0:02:35.440 --> 0:02:37.920 more music stuff for those of us who missed the 0:02:38.080 --> 0:02:41.480 B side, r I P programs like able to end 0:02:41.520 --> 0:02:45.440 pro tools, HD electronics like d being Thereman, and the 0:02:45.680 --> 0:02:49.160 very awesome react table you can see on YouTube worthy 0:02:49.200 --> 0:02:51.440 of its own podcast. While all of that is true, 0:02:51.480 --> 0:02:54.600 we are going to do a Thereman podcast. And I 0:02:54.639 --> 0:02:56.560 know that stuff from the Beast. I did one as well, 0:02:56.840 --> 0:02:59.080 but we're really going to dive down and talk about 0:02:59.080 --> 0:03:02.240 with Thereman. It's his story how it works, uh, and 0:03:02.360 --> 0:03:06.280 you know the what's the basis behind? It's pretty interesting stuff. 0:03:06.520 --> 0:03:08.840 And as I said, the song I quoted at the 0:03:08.840 --> 0:03:14.520 beginning actually does feature a Thereman. Oh so and and uh. 0:03:14.960 --> 0:03:17.800 Just to help people who want to learn more about 0:03:17.840 --> 0:03:20.280 some of the stuff we're talking about today on how 0:03:20.320 --> 0:03:22.840 stuff works. We don't have how Thereman's work yet, although 0:03:22.880 --> 0:03:25.200 I do believe it's actually gone out as an assignment. 0:03:25.440 --> 0:03:27.840 We do have how amplifiers work, and that's going to 0:03:27.919 --> 0:03:30.240 be a very important part of our conversation. At some point. 0:03:30.320 --> 0:03:32.680 We do have an article on the Thereman However, yes, 0:03:32.720 --> 0:03:35.160 we do have articles on the Thereman, just not one 0:03:35.200 --> 0:03:38.960 that specifically breaks down how it works. Yet, like I said, 0:03:39.000 --> 0:03:41.160 I think by the time this podcast goes live, we 0:03:41.240 --> 0:03:44.280 may that may have changed. But I know that there 0:03:44.320 --> 0:03:46.880 is an assignment out there somewhere, floating out in the ether. 0:03:47.000 --> 0:03:48.880 It's not me. I'm not the one writing it so 0:03:49.120 --> 0:03:51.360 or at least it hasn't been assigned to me. So 0:03:51.440 --> 0:03:54.200 let's let's start talking about the history here. You wanted 0:03:54.240 --> 0:03:58.680 to UH talk about our buddy Leo Leon Thereman, actually 0:03:58.960 --> 0:04:04.000 Lev Sergeyevitch Terman, who was a scientist and inventor. UM. 0:04:04.040 --> 0:04:08.640 I got a little information about Mr Thereman from Britannica, 0:04:08.760 --> 0:04:12.480 always a good source for the biographical on these inventors. Um. 0:04:12.560 --> 0:04:17.560 He lived in UH in St. Petersburg and uh Florida, Russia. 0:04:17.839 --> 0:04:20.559 He was well, he was born there in and died 0:04:20.600 --> 0:04:27.719 in Moscow, Florida, No, North Dakota in nine three. I 0:04:27.720 --> 0:04:31.039 wonder if there is a Moscow not anyway. UM. So yeah, 0:04:31.200 --> 0:04:32.680 it's funny that you would say out of the ether 0:04:32.839 --> 0:04:36.440 because the original name for this device was the ether 0:04:36.520 --> 0:04:40.240 a phone, but it was later renamed to be the Thereman, 0:04:41.120 --> 0:04:44.960 and UH basically it's it's known for the way you 0:04:45.000 --> 0:04:48.680 play it, unlike pretty much every other kind of instrument 0:04:48.680 --> 0:04:50.760 I can think of where you actually need to touch 0:04:50.800 --> 0:04:53.000 it to do this. The thereman, you specifically do not 0:04:53.120 --> 0:04:55.760 touch UM. I knew a lot of people who have 0:04:55.880 --> 0:05:00.960 that same policy. But yes, no, you're you're absolutely correct. 0:05:00.960 --> 0:05:04.120 Derriman has played without touching it. Yep. And he actually 0:05:04.120 --> 0:05:07.400 played it for for Lenin in nineteen twenty two and 0:05:07.400 --> 0:05:13.040 and for Albert Einstein in UM patented the instrument in 0:05:13.040 --> 0:05:17.840 in New York in UM, and then he went into 0:05:17.839 --> 0:05:21.080 a lot of other stuff. He UH tried to work 0:05:21.080 --> 0:05:25.080 on other musical instruments and UH worked on an electronic 0:05:25.080 --> 0:05:29.200 security system for prisons. UM ended up in a Siberian 0:05:29.279 --> 0:05:34.479 labor camp in the Soviet Union. Yeah, it's uh. He was. 0:05:34.640 --> 0:05:36.880 He did work did some work for a in a 0:05:36.920 --> 0:05:39.920 military lab during World War Two where he was working 0:05:39.960 --> 0:05:46.120 on UH naval tracking systems and remote controls UM and 0:05:46.160 --> 0:05:50.320 even on spy technology and eavesdropping device for the KGB. UH. 0:05:50.360 --> 0:05:54.920 He got the Stalin Prize for that. UM. Smart guy 0:05:55.000 --> 0:05:57.600 is what we're talking about here. Yeah. Yeah. He became 0:05:57.839 --> 0:06:01.919 a professor of acoustics at the Moscow conservat tory Um 0:06:01.960 --> 0:06:04.479 and uh, you know, had done a lot of a 0:06:04.480 --> 0:06:07.680 lot of different kinds of electronics work. So certainly Um 0:06:08.240 --> 0:06:11.280 a very interesting person. But you know, I think he's 0:06:11.279 --> 0:06:13.560 probably best known. I don't think anyone would argue that 0:06:13.600 --> 0:06:15.520 he's best known for the ether a phone, I mean 0:06:15.800 --> 0:06:18.279 the Thereman. Yes, since it does, since it does actually 0:06:18.360 --> 0:06:21.159 bear his name, or at least the Western version of 0:06:21.160 --> 0:06:22.920 his name. And before we go any further, I think 0:06:22.920 --> 0:06:25.800 it might might behoove us to to have a little 0:06:26.080 --> 0:06:30.320 a little listen to to what a thereman sounds like. 0:06:30.400 --> 0:06:39.680 So this is the sound of the Theoreman. Now, listeners 0:06:39.720 --> 0:06:44.240 may have recognized that from various songs, and really I think, 0:06:44.400 --> 0:06:47.840 I think what that always reminds me of as all 0:06:47.880 --> 0:06:51.000 all those like nineteen fifties science fiction films and TV 0:06:51.200 --> 0:06:55.000 series that either used a theoreman or use some sort 0:06:55.040 --> 0:06:59.320 of other effect to create a theoreman like sound as 0:06:59.320 --> 0:07:02.000 part of the sound track. Because not everything that that 0:07:02.200 --> 0:07:06.039 sounds like a theremin is in fact a thereman. In fact, 0:07:06.040 --> 0:07:09.479 one of the most famous songs that people tend to 0:07:09.600 --> 0:07:13.280 say had a thereman and it did not is Good 0:07:13.360 --> 0:07:18.880 Vibrations by the Beach Boys, almost said beast boys, this 0:07:18.960 --> 0:07:22.120 is that's for you yet, I haven't had enough coffee. 0:07:22.480 --> 0:07:25.160 Is good vibrations by the Beastie Boys and that would 0:07:25.160 --> 0:07:30.320 have been hilarious and wrong. But anyway, yeah, that's not 0:07:30.560 --> 0:07:32.800 that's not a thereman used in that song. It's a 0:07:32.880 --> 0:07:36.440 it's a totally different instrument. Actually, it's called tannerin although 0:07:36.480 --> 0:07:38.680 I mean it does it does have a similar sound 0:07:38.680 --> 0:07:40.840 to it, but you actually do play that by touching. Yes, 0:07:40.960 --> 0:07:44.040 you slide your finger on it, and depending on where 0:07:44.040 --> 0:07:46.559 you're touching it, it it you know, produces a different sound. 0:07:46.640 --> 0:07:48.480 And if you were to look at a theorem and 0:07:48.720 --> 0:07:52.560 you would immediately see that the I guess the most 0:07:52.560 --> 0:07:55.680 notable feature is that it's you know, depending upon the 0:07:55.720 --> 0:07:57.360 design of it, it's gonna look like some sort of 0:07:57.400 --> 0:07:59.640 a box. But from that box, you're gonna see a 0:07:59.720 --> 0:08:05.400 pair of antenna and one traditionally, one antenna is vertical 0:08:05.640 --> 0:08:07.640 aligned to the box, so it's it's up and down, 0:08:07.960 --> 0:08:10.320 and then a second antenna seems tends to come out 0:08:10.320 --> 0:08:12.200 the side of the box. It's horizontal and it's in 0:08:12.200 --> 0:08:16.400 a loop. And using your hands moving them close to 0:08:16.560 --> 0:08:19.520 and further away those antenna that's what controls the sound 0:08:19.720 --> 0:08:24.440 that comes out of the theoreman. Yeah. You you know, 0:08:24.520 --> 0:08:26.520 it's always good to adjusted a little bit to the left, 0:08:26.760 --> 0:08:29.720 you know, get the get the picture just right right. 0:08:30.200 --> 0:08:32.000 Oh wait, I'm sorry, I was thinking of a different 0:08:32.040 --> 0:08:33.880 kind of antenna. Yeah, no, it's yeah, it's not a 0:08:33.960 --> 0:08:36.880 rabbit ears. Um. Yeah. In fact, that's a good point. 0:08:36.920 --> 0:08:39.280 We should mention that this is these antenna are not 0:08:39.360 --> 0:08:42.120 designed to pick up any sort of radio frequency. That's 0:08:42.160 --> 0:08:44.400 not the purpose of the antenna. We'll get into that 0:08:44.400 --> 0:08:47.720 when we start getting into the actual uh ways that 0:08:47.800 --> 0:08:50.360 the the theoreman works. So do you said you wanted 0:08:50.400 --> 0:08:52.920 to talk a little bit at one point about songs 0:08:52.960 --> 0:08:55.480 that you may have heard or perhaps even other ways 0:08:55.480 --> 0:08:57.800 that you may have heard a thereman. Well, yeah, I 0:08:57.840 --> 0:09:02.160 mean I wasn't really a subscriber to XM Radio, the 0:09:02.200 --> 0:09:06.000 satellite radio service here in the United States, and they 0:09:06.080 --> 0:09:08.200 used to have a channel called Special X where they 0:09:08.200 --> 0:09:11.160 would play all kinds of strange and unusual things. And 0:09:11.160 --> 0:09:14.880 they actually had, believe it or not, a whole show 0:09:15.000 --> 0:09:18.439 devoted to music from the Theoreman. And so they were 0:09:18.480 --> 0:09:21.680 all these and again, you're right, period records from like 0:09:21.720 --> 0:09:25.240 the fifties and stuff where there were uh, you know 0:09:25.559 --> 0:09:29.679 thereman songs that they were playing entire pieces on the 0:09:29.679 --> 0:09:32.280 theorem and and actually you could find a lot of 0:09:32.280 --> 0:09:35.360 the stuff on on YouTube. I've seen people I've seen 0:09:35.840 --> 0:09:41.400 theremin orchestras, wow, where there are different people playing songs 0:09:41.480 --> 0:09:44.000 and they have different parts. So everybody's got a different 0:09:44.000 --> 0:09:47.200 purpose of doing it. And it's it sounds kind of 0:09:47.280 --> 0:09:50.319 random when you just hear the sections and segments and 0:09:50.600 --> 0:09:52.920 other songs and pop songs and things like that. But 0:09:53.080 --> 0:09:55.480 you you know, people you can actually play this as 0:09:55.480 --> 0:09:57.920 a musical instrument. And so I've I've heard a lot 0:09:57.920 --> 0:10:00.800 of that kind of stuff. Uh, I'm trying to think 0:10:00.800 --> 0:10:03.559 of something specific. Do you have a favorite thereman song 0:10:03.640 --> 0:10:05.679 other than the one that you quoted before, other than 0:10:05.720 --> 0:10:08.719 the one I quoted before and not really, um, but 0:10:08.760 --> 0:10:12.520 there are other songs that have used it. They're actually uh, 0:10:13.080 --> 0:10:15.000 like I said, it's for me. The thing that I 0:10:15.000 --> 0:10:16.960 think about are all those those like The Day the 0:10:16.960 --> 0:10:19.439 Earth Stood Still? That would be a famous film that 0:10:19.559 --> 0:10:22.640 used a theoreman as a sound effect. Uh. There there 0:10:22.760 --> 0:10:25.839 was a theremin used at least in some versions of 0:10:25.880 --> 0:10:28.480 the theme to Star Trek, although most of the time 0:10:28.480 --> 0:10:31.000 that was actually a vocalist who did that effect. But 0:10:31.040 --> 0:10:33.720 I believe in in one or two versions of that 0:10:34.120 --> 0:10:38.560 you can hear a thereman being used. Um So, I 0:10:38.559 --> 0:10:42.800 mean that there are bands that experiment and they'll throw 0:10:42.840 --> 0:10:44.800 that in the mix, and it may even be that 0:10:44.880 --> 0:10:48.040 it's it's a minor part of the song where you know, 0:10:48.080 --> 0:10:51.280 it's not meant to take the forefront of the melody 0:10:51.360 --> 0:10:54.000 or anything like that. It's just another another layer of 0:10:54.080 --> 0:10:57.520 complexity within a song itself. Chris and I have more 0:10:57.559 --> 0:10:59.720 to say about how thereman's work in just a second, 0:10:59.720 --> 0:11:02.760 but let's take a quick break to thank our sponsor. 0:11:10.559 --> 0:11:13.920 So I guess we can now talk about what a 0:11:14.000 --> 0:11:16.560 theoreman does, like how does it make that sound? Like? 0:11:16.760 --> 0:11:19.640 Why is it that when you put your hand closer 0:11:19.720 --> 0:11:22.920 to or further away from, one antenna changes the pitch 0:11:23.040 --> 0:11:26.240 and the other one controls the volume. That's by the way, 0:11:26.240 --> 0:11:29.920 the vertical one is the pitch antenna and the horizontal 0:11:29.920 --> 0:11:35.120 one is the volume antenna. Awesome, Actually it's uh it's 0:11:35.120 --> 0:11:39.200 funny because uh, typically you think of making music with 0:11:39.240 --> 0:11:42.200 an instrument as you wanted to sound as clear as possible. 0:11:42.760 --> 0:11:46.000 Um And in the opportunity to play a thereman, you'll 0:11:46.000 --> 0:11:50.719 realize that uh uh, it's actually all about creating interference 0:11:51.280 --> 0:11:57.040 because these uh, these antennae um actually have an electromagnetic 0:11:57.080 --> 0:12:00.400 field that and you're interfering with that by coming closer 0:12:00.400 --> 0:12:05.000 and moving farther away to different degrees. So really what's 0:12:05.120 --> 0:12:07.400 what you're hearing is the sound of the interference with 0:12:07.440 --> 0:12:11.000 the machine. Yeah, it's actually to to dive down into this. 0:12:11.120 --> 0:12:14.480 The way this works is that you've got coils of 0:12:14.559 --> 0:12:18.320 wire inside the theorem and that are generating electromagnetic field 0:12:18.600 --> 0:12:21.760 and that is propagated along the antenna. And so with 0:12:21.840 --> 0:12:24.880 the case of the pitch antenna, you have two different 0:12:25.440 --> 0:12:31.240 um uh like two different oscillators creating this electromagnetic field. 0:12:31.360 --> 0:12:33.280 One of them is a steady frequency, the other one's 0:12:33.360 --> 0:12:37.040 variable frequency, and the variable frequency all depends upon your 0:12:37.080 --> 0:12:40.199 hand coming into contact with or not contact but coming 0:12:40.200 --> 0:12:44.480 closer or are moving further away from the pitch antenna. Uh. 0:12:44.640 --> 0:12:47.880 What will happen then is that the frequencies from these 0:12:47.960 --> 0:12:54.079 two different oscillators will mix. And this is a process 0:12:54.120 --> 0:12:58.840 that we call heterodyning. And heterodyning is you you process 0:12:58.920 --> 0:13:03.240 these these signal and you take uh. Typically you can 0:13:03.360 --> 0:13:08.000 get lots of different um um results from combining signals, 0:13:08.000 --> 0:13:10.280 but typically you look at the sum and the difference, 0:13:10.840 --> 0:13:14.840 and uh, you choose, you filter one out and you 0:13:14.960 --> 0:13:17.439 focus on the other. And in this case we're talking 0:13:17.480 --> 0:13:20.319 about the difference because the the frequencies that are generated 0:13:20.679 --> 0:13:24.480 by these oscillators are too high for human hearing. But 0:13:24.559 --> 0:13:28.040 the difference is not um So if you are creating 0:13:28.040 --> 0:13:30.960 a variation in one frequency and the other frequency is 0:13:30.960 --> 0:13:35.480 remaining constant. Uh, when you take the difference of that 0:13:35.600 --> 0:13:38.560 and you take that signal, that signal is then within 0:13:38.640 --> 0:13:40.960 the range of human hearing. And because you've got that 0:13:41.000 --> 0:13:44.600 one variable frequency, you can change the pitch. So and 0:13:44.640 --> 0:13:47.240 it all has to do with, of course the capacitance 0:13:47.280 --> 0:13:49.719 that we have. You know, human beings, we have a 0:13:50.280 --> 0:13:54.680 capacitance and uh, it's really most mostly based on body mass. 0:13:55.000 --> 0:13:57.640 So um. There's another interesting point is that if you 0:13:57.679 --> 0:14:00.400 have two different people playing the same theraman, they're going 0:14:00.440 --> 0:14:03.400 to quickly find out like to let let's say take 0:14:03.480 --> 0:14:07.120 one tiny little person and one huge person. So you've 0:14:07.160 --> 0:14:09.960 got ham hands and you've got little dainty fingers. Little 0:14:10.040 --> 0:14:12.280 dainty fingers comes up there and starts playing the theraman 0:14:12.640 --> 0:14:15.880 and realizes that when they when their dainty fingers get 0:14:15.920 --> 0:14:20.120 within a certain distance of the antenna a particular pitches played. 0:14:20.800 --> 0:14:23.720 Then ham Hands comes up and starts to play, and 0:14:23.760 --> 0:14:27.440 then realizes very quickly that it's a different distance for 0:14:27.480 --> 0:14:30.000 ham hands to get to that antenna to to make 0:14:30.040 --> 0:14:32.520 that same pitch. And it has to do with the 0:14:32.560 --> 0:14:36.920 mass of the of of ham hands. So uh, you know, 0:14:37.080 --> 0:14:39.720 it's two people playing the same theraman are going to 0:14:39.800 --> 0:14:43.640 find out that they can't mimic one another's motions and 0:14:43.680 --> 0:14:46.040 get the exact same sound. It's going to be different 0:14:46.880 --> 0:14:50.680 based upon the actual size of the musician and all. 0:14:50.920 --> 0:14:52.160 Like I said, that all has to do with the 0:14:52.160 --> 0:14:57.400 capacitance that we as humans actually have ourselves. So we 0:14:57.440 --> 0:15:00.840 interfere with that electromagnetic field the frequency combine in the 0:15:00.840 --> 0:15:04.640 heterodyning process, as I've said, As I mentioned, we filter 0:15:04.760 --> 0:15:08.320 out the sum we take the difference of those two frequencies. Uh, 0:15:08.360 --> 0:15:11.600 and that signal is what creates the pitch. Now, even 0:15:11.600 --> 0:15:15.320 though it's within the range of human hearing, Uh, you 0:15:15.360 --> 0:15:18.040 can't really hear it very well unless you put it 0:15:18.040 --> 0:15:20.760 through an amplification process, which we'll have to talk about 0:15:20.800 --> 0:15:24.920 in a second. And the second antenna. The volume antenna 0:15:25.120 --> 0:15:27.960 really just has the one oscillator and then there's a 0:15:28.240 --> 0:15:32.160 steady uh voltage being applied further in. And what happens 0:15:32.160 --> 0:15:34.720 is when you move your hand closer to that antenna, 0:15:34.800 --> 0:15:38.000 you are interrupting the first the signal from the first oscillator, 0:15:38.040 --> 0:15:42.000 that electromagnetic field. And as you interrupt the electromagetic magnetic field, 0:15:42.200 --> 0:15:47.440 the signal becomes weaker, which ends up being a control 0:15:47.440 --> 0:15:49.720 on the volume. So, in other words, the closer your 0:15:49.720 --> 0:15:53.720 hand gets to that second antenna, the quieter the sound 0:15:53.720 --> 0:15:56.160 will be. You might think that, you know, you would 0:15:56.200 --> 0:15:57.960 want to get your hand closer to make the sound 0:15:57.960 --> 0:16:01.160 go up, but it's exactly the opposite. So if you 0:16:01.240 --> 0:16:03.160 put your hand close to the antenna, that sounds going 0:16:03.200 --> 0:16:05.840 to be very low. And as you take your hand 0:16:05.920 --> 0:16:10.560 away from that antenna, the horizontal antenna, the volume increases, 0:16:10.960 --> 0:16:14.120 so the pitch will remain the same, assuming that your 0:16:14.160 --> 0:16:17.360 other hand is is steady. And and also I should 0:16:17.360 --> 0:16:20.080 mention when you watch people play the theremin, especially people 0:16:20.120 --> 0:16:22.800 who have just started to play, you might notice them 0:16:22.880 --> 0:16:26.280 moving their hands up and down the the length of 0:16:26.320 --> 0:16:29.440 the vertical antenna that really doesn't have much of an effect. 0:16:29.840 --> 0:16:31.840 It can change the pitch a little bit, but the 0:16:31.880 --> 0:16:34.600 real change in pitch has to do with the distance 0:16:34.840 --> 0:16:37.600 from the antenna. So you can keep your hands steady 0:16:37.720 --> 0:16:42.880 at the same level respective to the vertical antenna and 0:16:42.960 --> 0:16:46.280 just change the the distance your hand is from that 0:16:46.320 --> 0:16:48.280 antenna and that would change the pitch. You don't have 0:16:48.360 --> 0:16:50.080 to move your hand up and down the length of 0:16:50.080 --> 0:16:52.600 the antenna in order to change it. Because you really 0:16:52.600 --> 0:16:56.600 need both hands to operate the well, yeah, I mean 0:16:56.640 --> 0:16:59.080 because you have to. I mean because otherwise you would 0:16:59.120 --> 0:17:02.760 just have a steady volume time, right, So you need 0:17:02.800 --> 0:17:05.520 you need to be able to, uh, you know, have 0:17:05.640 --> 0:17:08.760 both hands free to operate the theoremans. You know, both 0:17:08.800 --> 0:17:13.000 the pitch and the volume. Um. And you know, I 0:17:13.040 --> 0:17:15.560 think it can also depend not only on the person, 0:17:15.640 --> 0:17:18.040 but on the instrument itself. No, sure, yeah you can. 0:17:18.119 --> 0:17:20.719 You can actually tune a theoreman as well. And that 0:17:20.720 --> 0:17:22.760 that all has to do with the electronics that are 0:17:22.800 --> 0:17:27.120 inside the theoremin because depending upon the electronic components you've 0:17:27.119 --> 0:17:30.919 put in there and the the frequency difference between the 0:17:31.000 --> 0:17:35.120 variable frequency and the steady frequency. Uh, you you will 0:17:35.240 --> 0:17:38.560 have a certain octave range that that thereman is capable 0:17:38.600 --> 0:17:41.760 of playing and uh, and sometimes that octave range can 0:17:41.800 --> 0:17:46.440 be quite uh large, very large range. But that means 0:17:46.440 --> 0:17:48.760 that you have to have even more control when you're 0:17:48.760 --> 0:17:52.240 playing it. Uh, that that tiny changes in the distance 0:17:52.280 --> 0:17:55.399 between your hand and the antenna will result in fairly 0:17:55.440 --> 0:17:58.439 significant changes in pitch, which is why the theremin is 0:17:58.480 --> 0:18:01.040 one of those instruments that's know, you can step right 0:18:01.119 --> 0:18:04.000 up and start playing it uh and have fun making 0:18:04.040 --> 0:18:05.760 weird noises, but if you want to be able to 0:18:05.760 --> 0:18:09.159 actually play a tune with with regularity, it takes a 0:18:09.200 --> 0:18:12.960 lot of practice. It's one of those really difficult to masterpieces. 0:18:13.600 --> 0:18:16.040 And uh. I actually have a list of some of 0:18:16.040 --> 0:18:18.080 the components that are in a typical theraman if you 0:18:18.080 --> 0:18:20.320 would like to hear. Sure. Okay, so we've got the 0:18:20.320 --> 0:18:24.240 two antenna. As I mentioned before, the the volume antenna 0:18:24.280 --> 0:18:27.600 is actually a loop. It looks like a semicircle that's 0:18:27.600 --> 0:18:30.560 attached to the horizontal side one of the horizontal sides 0:18:30.560 --> 0:18:35.040 of the theremin itself. There The reason for that design 0:18:35.560 --> 0:18:40.280 is that the old thermans were all based on vacuum 0:18:40.320 --> 0:18:44.639 tube technology, is before solid state technology was really a 0:18:44.760 --> 0:18:48.760 thing at all. The first Theraman and so um in 0:18:48.840 --> 0:18:52.159 order to be able to make this antenna and have 0:18:52.240 --> 0:18:54.240 it fit with the old system, you actually had to 0:18:54.240 --> 0:18:56.920 create this loop so as you had the right antenna 0:18:57.040 --> 0:19:02.200 length without interfering with the other electronic components of the device. 0:19:02.400 --> 0:19:06.480 So even though we've reached a point now where most 0:19:06.520 --> 0:19:09.960 modern theramans still use vacuum tubes at least in some capacity, 0:19:10.000 --> 0:19:13.000 and we'll talk about that a little bit. Ha Hey, 0:19:13.480 --> 0:19:15.680 But Chris, I'm sure we'll have something to say about 0:19:15.760 --> 0:19:18.919 using vacuum tubes as opposed to solid state. Being the 0:19:19.000 --> 0:19:21.720 musician you would, you would know more about this than 0:19:21.760 --> 0:19:23.840 I do. But in general, it has to do with 0:19:23.880 --> 0:19:26.359 sound quality. So there are still vacuum tubes used in 0:19:26.440 --> 0:19:29.840 most modern theramans, but they also involve some solid state 0:19:29.840 --> 0:19:32.760 electronic components now, which means that you no longer would 0:19:32.760 --> 0:19:36.000 have to do that loop um to achieve the same effect. 0:19:36.000 --> 0:19:37.560 But I think a lot of a lot of theramin 0:19:37.640 --> 0:19:39.600 designers like to use it anyway, just kind of as 0:19:39.600 --> 0:19:43.000 a throwback to the original theraman. So it's almost like 0:19:43.119 --> 0:19:46.359 it's almost like a traditional thing at this point. I 0:19:46.400 --> 0:19:49.840 hope you guys are enjoying the spooky classic episode the 0:19:49.840 --> 0:19:52.919 Bupha Thereman's work. But though we're going to listen to 0:19:52.960 --> 0:20:04.600 a word from an advertiser. Boh. So inside the theremin, 0:20:04.640 --> 0:20:08.840 you're going to find typically a pair of chassis. One 0:20:08.920 --> 0:20:12.360 chassis is gonna be for your electromagnetic components, and this 0:20:12.440 --> 0:20:15.879 is where this is what generates that electromagnetic field for 0:20:15.920 --> 0:20:19.440 both of the antenna UM. You would normally find three 0:20:19.480 --> 0:20:22.480 oscillators in there. You would find two oscillators for the pitch, 0:20:22.480 --> 0:20:27.520 one oscillator for the volume. UH. The this chassis often 0:20:27.560 --> 0:20:29.440 called an upper chassis, and a lot of the theramans 0:20:29.440 --> 0:20:32.120 I've looked at UH is has to be separated from 0:20:32.119 --> 0:20:36.000 the other chassis, which has the amplification and power UH 0:20:36.160 --> 0:20:39.520 elements to it, because otherwise the electromagnetic field would interfere 0:20:39.600 --> 0:20:43.320 with the operation of those elements. All right. So the 0:20:43.359 --> 0:20:46.040 lower chassis where you get the power coming into the 0:20:46.080 --> 0:20:51.639 device UH, and you have the amplification oscillators and usually 0:20:51.640 --> 0:20:56.360 we use triodes and that you probably have heard of diodes. Diodes, 0:20:56.359 --> 0:20:59.080 of course, are those electronic components that allow electrons to 0:20:59.119 --> 0:21:01.720 pass through one way but not back yet. It's a 0:21:01.760 --> 0:21:06.400 one way lane. It allows electron UH flow in one direction. 0:21:06.440 --> 0:21:10.200 Only Triads are a little different. Triads are well, it's 0:21:10.200 --> 0:21:14.960 a kind of vacuum tube and and from a superficial level, 0:21:15.080 --> 0:21:18.920 they resemble a light bulb. And the way a triode 0:21:18.920 --> 0:21:22.200 works is that there are typically three elements within a triode, 0:21:22.480 --> 0:21:25.360 which makes sense when you hear the name. You've got 0:21:25.400 --> 0:21:28.040 the cathode, which is the part of the triad that 0:21:28.400 --> 0:21:32.480 that will shed electrons. You've got a grid of some 0:21:32.600 --> 0:21:36.320 sort that will control the flow of electrons. It kind 0:21:36.320 --> 0:21:38.840 of acts as like a gate in a way. And 0:21:38.880 --> 0:21:41.080 then you have the anode, which is where the electrons 0:21:41.119 --> 0:21:43.719 want to get too, because it has a positive charge. Now, 0:21:43.720 --> 0:21:47.720 remember electrons have a negative charge, so negative wants to 0:21:47.720 --> 0:21:50.280 be attracted. It is attracted to positive. So you have 0:21:50.320 --> 0:21:52.879 a positive element on one side, a negative element on 0:21:52.880 --> 0:21:54.639 the another side, and a gate in the middle to 0:21:54.720 --> 0:22:00.480 control the flow. And that's the basis behind um the triode. Now, 0:22:00.560 --> 0:22:03.159 in order to control the flow of electrons, what you 0:22:03.160 --> 0:22:05.359 have to do is you hook up that gate to 0:22:05.960 --> 0:22:08.960 a source of electricity. All right, Now, if you're generating 0:22:09.000 --> 0:22:12.200 electricity and you're you're putting a current through that gate, 0:22:12.640 --> 0:22:15.439 that means you're putting negative electrons through the gate. Now 0:22:15.480 --> 0:22:18.040 that's going to repel the electrons coming out of the cathode. 0:22:18.359 --> 0:22:20.359 All right, so you've got the cathode. Let's imagine that 0:22:20.359 --> 0:22:22.480 the cathodes on the left hand side, and in the 0:22:22.520 --> 0:22:25.000 middle is this gate that has electrons running through it, 0:22:25.240 --> 0:22:28.640 and on the right you have the anode. Now, the 0:22:28.640 --> 0:22:30.720 the current that you're putting through that gate is going 0:22:30.760 --> 0:22:34.080 to vary because that's your input. That's that's the signal 0:22:34.160 --> 0:22:38.160 that's going into like when you're making a sound electronically 0:22:38.480 --> 0:22:41.520 speaking into a microphone or playing a musical instrument that's 0:22:41.520 --> 0:22:46.040 plugged into this amplifier. So it's a variable frequency again, 0:22:46.040 --> 0:22:49.200 a variable current and uh and so sometimes the current 0:22:49.280 --> 0:22:51.240