WEBVTT - How Theremins Work 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.840 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:06.880 It's ready. Are you hey there, Text Stuff listeners, This 0:00:06.920 --> 0:00:09.200 is Jonathan Strickland and I have got a request for 0:00:09.240 --> 0:00:11.440 all of you. Now, Chris and I have decided that 0:00:11.440 --> 0:00:13.720 we're going to try and experiment. We're doing our first 0:00:13.920 --> 0:00:17.400 crowd sourced episode of tech Stuff and we want to 0:00:17.400 --> 0:00:21.480 know what your pick is for the worst video game 0:00:21.720 --> 0:00:25.600 of all time. Now, nominations you can. You can make 0:00:25.680 --> 0:00:28.479 one nomination. You nominate one game, and you need to 0:00:28.480 --> 0:00:30.639 tell us the name of the game and the platform 0:00:30.760 --> 0:00:32.839 it was on. And it could be any platform. It 0:00:32.840 --> 0:00:37.000 could be an arcade game, it could be a PC, Mac, Xbox, 0:00:37.040 --> 0:00:41.360 PS three, Nintendo handheld console. It can be web based 0:00:41.840 --> 0:00:43.839 if you like. But just you let us know what 0:00:43.840 --> 0:00:45.560 the platform is so we can make sure we count 0:00:45.600 --> 0:00:49.440 that as the votes. So you can nominate your game 0:00:49.600 --> 0:00:53.920 either through email, which is tech Stuff at how stuff 0:00:53.920 --> 0:00:58.320 works dot com, or you can nominate through Twitter or Facebook. 0:00:58.720 --> 0:01:01.560 And we're gonna put a cut off date on this. 0:01:01.680 --> 0:01:03.640 I want to have the episode go up by the 0:01:03.720 --> 0:01:07.720 end of September of eleven. So let's say you need 0:01:07.800 --> 0:01:12.960 to get your nominations in by September eleven, So if 0:01:12.959 --> 0:01:15.880 you get those nominations into us, we will make sure 0:01:15.920 --> 0:01:19.240 we include those in the process, and we will have 0:01:19.280 --> 0:01:22.640 an episode where we give you the worst video games 0:01:22.800 --> 0:01:25.800 of all time based upon the votes of our listeners. 0:01:26.040 --> 0:01:30.840 Thanks a lot. Can't wait to hear from you. Get 0:01:30.840 --> 0:01:34.039 in touch with technology with tech Stuff from how stuff 0:01:34.040 --> 0:01:43.160 works dot com. Hello, everyone, Welcome to tech Stuff. My 0:01:43.240 --> 0:01:45.039 name is Chris Poet, and I am an editor at 0:01:45.080 --> 0:01:48.240 how stuff works dot com. Sitting across from me, as always, 0:01:48.320 --> 0:01:51.480 is senior writer Jonathan Strickland. How about the power to 0:01:51.640 --> 0:01:56.360 kill a yak from two hundred yards away with mind bullets? 0:01:56.600 --> 0:02:02.400 That's telekinesis Kyle. That is a first. We have never 0:02:02.520 --> 0:02:07.160 quoted them before. I probably shouldn't have just then, but 0:02:07.800 --> 0:02:10.920 I'm gonna do it anyway. And there's a reason why 0:02:11.000 --> 0:02:13.200 I quoted that, but we'll get into that first. Let's 0:02:13.240 --> 0:02:15.800 get into why we're going to do this episode. This 0:02:15.880 --> 0:02:25.480 comes to us courtesy of a Google Plus suggestion. This 0:02:25.560 --> 0:02:28.560 suggestion comes to us from Mary who, and I'm gonna 0:02:28.639 --> 0:02:30.760 truncate her message a bit because she actually had quite 0:02:30.760 --> 0:02:33.600 a long with lots of different suggestions, but starts off 0:02:33.639 --> 0:02:36.880 with you may be interested to know. I, for one, 0:02:36.919 --> 0:02:39.520 I'm not tech savvy, at least compared to the crowd 0:02:39.520 --> 0:02:42.160 of early adopter types here on Google Plus. I'm a 0:02:42.200 --> 0:02:44.600 rhetoric major. Should have graduated when I was twenty, but 0:02:44.639 --> 0:02:47.000 in one class short of might be a for financial 0:02:47.080 --> 0:02:51.160 slash academic red tape reasons with miners in French and 0:02:51.280 --> 0:02:55.840 German guten tag. Mary. Aside from being a pro vocalist, 0:02:55.919 --> 0:02:59.160 my real job is teaching English to disadvantaged and academically 0:02:59.200 --> 0:03:03.000 struggling eighth graders, which is amazing. I also t aid 0:03:03.200 --> 0:03:07.280 college level rhet comp to and have private students tutoring clients, 0:03:07.280 --> 0:03:09.760 mostly college students, some high school, a few middle school 0:03:09.919 --> 0:03:13.480 primarily seeing me for writing instruction or literary interpretation analysis 0:03:13.600 --> 0:03:18.160 and historical analysis with embusses on reading comprehension. Apparently I 0:03:18.200 --> 0:03:21.240 need to take that at any rate. Mary then goes 0:03:21.280 --> 0:03:25.480 on to give several suggestions, the last of which is finally, 0:03:25.639 --> 0:03:28.160 more music stuff for those of us who missed the 0:03:28.280 --> 0:03:31.680 B side. R I P programs like able to end 0:03:31.720 --> 0:03:36.440 pro tools, HD electronics like dB Thereman, and the very 0:03:36.480 --> 0:03:39.480 awesome react table you can see on YouTube worthy of 0:03:39.480 --> 0:03:41.760 its own podcast. While all of that is true. We 0:03:41.800 --> 0:03:44.960 are going to do a Theoreman podcast, and I know 0:03:45.040 --> 0:03:46.760 that stuff from the Beast. I did one as well, 0:03:47.040 --> 0:03:49.800 but we're really gonna dive down and talk about with Thereman. 0:03:49.880 --> 0:03:53.280 It's history, how it works, uh, and you know the 0:03:53.920 --> 0:03:57.120 what's the basis behind It's pretty interesting stuff. And as 0:03:57.160 --> 0:03:59.960 I said, the song I quoted at the beginning actually 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:05.280 does feature a thereman. Oh so and and uh, just 0:04:05.360 --> 0:04:08.120 to help people who want to learn more about some 0:04:08.120 --> 0:04:11.040 of the stuff we're talking about today on how stuff works. 0:04:11.040 --> 0:04:13.240 We don't have how Thereman's work yet, although I do 0:04:13.320 --> 0:04:15.920 believe it's actually gone out as an assignment. We do 0:04:16.000 --> 0:04:18.279 have how amplifiers work, and that's going to be a 0:04:18.360 --> 0:04:20.640 very important part of our conversation at some point. We 0:04:20.680 --> 0:04:23.000 do have an article on the Thereman however, Yes, we 0:04:23.040 --> 0:04:25.479 do have articles on the Thereman, just not one that 0:04:25.560 --> 0:04:29.200 specifically breaks down how it works. Yet. Like I said, 0:04:29.200 --> 0:04:31.360 I think by the time this podcast goes live, we 0:04:31.440 --> 0:04:34.479 me that may have changed. But I know that there 0:04:34.560 --> 0:04:37.120 is an assignment out there somewhere, floating out in the ether. 0:04:37.240 --> 0:04:39.080 It's not me. I'm not the one writing it so 0:04:39.320 --> 0:04:41.880 or at least it hasn't been assigned to me. Let's 0:04:42.080 --> 0:04:44.560 let's start talking about the history here. You wanted to, 0:04:44.680 --> 0:04:50.200 uh talk about our buddy Leo Leon Thereman actually Lev Sergeyevitch, 0:04:51.680 --> 0:04:54.520 who was a scientist and inventor. UM. I got a 0:04:54.520 --> 0:04:59.480 little information about Mr Thereman from Britannica, always a good 0:04:59.520 --> 0:05:03.239 source for the biographical on these inventors. Um. He lived 0:05:03.240 --> 0:05:08.120 in uh in St. Petersburg and uh Florida, Russia. He 0:05:08.160 --> 0:05:11.040 was well, he was born there in and died in 0:05:11.040 --> 0:05:17.880 in Moscow, Florida, No, North Dakota, uh in nineteen I 0:05:17.920 --> 0:05:21.280 wonder if there is a Moscow anyway. UM. So, yeah, 0:05:21.400 --> 0:05:22.880 it's funny that you would say out of the ether 0:05:23.040 --> 0:05:26.640 because the original name for this device was the ether 0:05:26.720 --> 0:05:30.440 a phone, but it was later renamed to be the Thereman, 0:05:31.320 --> 0:05:35.159 and uh, basically it's it's known for the way you 0:05:35.200 --> 0:05:38.880 play it. Unlike pretty much every other kind of instrument 0:05:38.920 --> 0:05:40.960 I can think of where you actually need to touch 0:05:41.000 --> 0:05:44.640 it to do this, the Thereman you specifically do not touch. UM. 0:05:44.720 --> 0:05:48.080 I knew a lot of people who have that same policy. 0:05:48.800 --> 0:05:51.720 But yes, no, you're you're that's absolutely correct. Therriman has 0:05:51.760 --> 0:05:54.680 played without touching it, yep, and he actually played it 0:05:54.720 --> 0:05:57.960 for for Lenin in nineteen twenty two and and for 0:05:58.000 --> 0:06:03.520 Albert Einstein in and UM patented the instrument in in 0:06:03.839 --> 0:06:08.240 New York. UM and then he went into a lot 0:06:08.320 --> 0:06:11.680 of other stuff. He uh tried to work on other 0:06:12.080 --> 0:06:16.040 musical instruments and UH worked on an electronic security system 0:06:16.040 --> 0:06:20.040 for prisons. UM ended up in a Siberian labor camp 0:06:20.080 --> 0:06:24.680 in the Soviet Union. Certainly not yeah, Uh he was. 0:06:24.839 --> 0:06:27.080 He did work did some work for a in a 0:06:27.120 --> 0:06:30.159 military lab during World War Two where he was working 0:06:30.160 --> 0:06:36.320 on UH naval tracking systems and remote controls UM and 0:06:36.360 --> 0:06:40.520 even on spy technology and eavesdropping device for the KGB. Uh. 0:06:40.560 --> 0:06:44.880 He he got the Stalin Prize for that. UM. Smart 0:06:44.920 --> 0:06:47.479 guy is what we're talking about here. Yeah. Yeah, he 0:06:47.560 --> 0:06:52.080 became a professor of acoustics at the Moscow Conservatory. UM 0:06:52.160 --> 0:06:54.680 and UH, you know, had done a lot of a 0:06:54.720 --> 0:06:58.160 lot of different kinds of electronics work. So certainly, UH 0:06:58.440 --> 0:07:01.520 a very interesting person. But you know, I think he's 0:07:01.520 --> 0:07:03.960 probably best known. I don't think anyone argue that he's 0:07:04.000 --> 0:07:06.960 best known for the ether phone, I mean the Thereman. Yeah, 0:07:07.000 --> 0:07:09.400 since it does, since it does actually bear his name, 0:07:10.040 --> 0:07:11.800 or at least the Western version of his name, and 0:07:11.840 --> 0:07:13.840 before we go any further, I think it might might 0:07:13.920 --> 0:07:17.080 behoove us to to have a little a little listen 0:07:18.440 --> 0:07:21.440 to to what a thereman sounds like. So this is 0:07:21.640 --> 0:07:31.120 the sound of the theoreman. Now, listeners may have recognized 0:07:31.160 --> 0:07:34.920 that from various songs, and really, I think, I think 0:07:34.920 --> 0:07:38.480 what that always reminds me of is all all those 0:07:38.520 --> 0:07:41.920 like nineteen fifties science fiction films and TV series that 0:07:42.360 --> 0:07:45.679 either used a thereman or use some sort of other 0:07:45.920 --> 0:07:49.800 effect to create a thereman like sound as part of 0:07:49.800 --> 0:07:53.080 the soundtrack. Because not everything that that sounds like a 0:07:53.120 --> 0:07:56.440 thereman is in fact a thereman. In fact, one of 0:07:56.440 --> 0:08:00.840 the most famous songs that people tend to say had 0:08:00.840 --> 0:08:05.240 a thereman and it did not is Good Vibrations by 0:08:05.280 --> 0:08:10.400 the Beach Boys. Almost said Beastie Boys. This is that's 0:08:11.160 --> 0:08:14.960 I haven't had enough coffee. Good Vibrations by the Beastie Boys, 0:08:15.000 --> 0:08:20.240 And that would have been hilarious and wrong. But anyway, yeah, 0:08:20.240 --> 0:08:22.680 that's not that's not a theoreman used in that song. 0:08:22.720 --> 0:08:24.800 It's a it's a totally different instrument. Actually, it's called 0:08:24.880 --> 0:08:28.120 tannerin although I mean it does it does have a 0:08:28.160 --> 0:08:30.240 similar sound to it, but you actually do play that 0:08:30.280 --> 0:08:34.000 by touching you slide your finger on it, and depending 0:08:34.000 --> 0:08:36.080 on where you're touching it, it it you know, produces a 0:08:36.080 --> 0:08:38.160 different sound. And if you were to look at a 0:08:38.200 --> 0:08:42.440 theorem and you would immediately see that the I guess 0:08:42.480 --> 0:08:45.560 the most notable feature is that it's you know, depending 0:08:45.640 --> 0:08:47.200 upon the design of it, it's gonna look like some 0:08:47.280 --> 0:08:49.360 sort of a box. But from that box, you're going 0:08:49.440 --> 0:08:53.800 to see a pair of antenna and one Traditionally, one 0:08:53.840 --> 0:08:57.280 antenna is vertical aligned to the box, so it's it's 0:08:57.360 --> 0:08:59.920 up and down, and then a second antenna seems to 0:09:00.080 --> 0:09:01.440 is to come out the side of the box. It's 0:09:01.480 --> 0:09:04.960 horizontal and it's in a loop. And using your hands 0:09:05.080 --> 0:09:08.439 moving them close to and further away those antenna that's 0:09:08.480 --> 0:09:13.640 what controls the sound that comes out of the theoreman. Yeah, 0:09:13.840 --> 0:09:15.800 you uh, you know, it's always good to adjust it 0:09:15.800 --> 0:09:17.760 a little bit to the left, you know, get the 0:09:18.200 --> 0:09:21.280 get the picture just right right. Oh wait, I'm sorry, 0:09:21.280 --> 0:09:23.240 I was thinking of a different kind of antenna. Yeah, no, 0:09:23.320 --> 0:09:26.199 it's yeah, it's not a rabbit ears um. Yeah. In fact, 0:09:26.320 --> 0:09:28.400 that's a good point. We should mention that this is 0:09:28.480 --> 0:09:31.080 these antenna are not designed to pick up any sort 0:09:31.080 --> 0:09:33.600 of radio frequency. That's not the purpose of the antenna. 0:09:33.880 --> 0:09:36.040 We'll get into that when we start getting into the actual, 0:09:36.640 --> 0:09:40.000 uh ways that the the theoreman works. So do you 0:09:40.000 --> 0:09:41.640 said you wanted to talk a little bit at one 0:09:41.679 --> 0:09:44.720 point about songs that you may have heard or perhaps 0:09:44.800 --> 0:09:47.920 even other ways that you may have heard a thereman. Well, yeah, 0:09:47.960 --> 0:09:51.920 I mean I was an early subscriber to XM Radio, 0:09:52.320 --> 0:09:55.439 the satellite radio service here in the United States, and 0:09:56.120 --> 0:09:58.280 they used to have a channel called Special X where 0:09:58.320 --> 0:10:01.320 they would play all kinds of strange and unusual things. 0:10:01.320 --> 0:10:04.800 And they actually had, believe it or not, a whole 0:10:04.800 --> 0:10:08.480 show devoted to music from the Theoreman. And so they 0:10:08.480 --> 0:10:11.760 were all these and again you're right, period records from 0:10:11.800 --> 0:10:15.440 like the fifties and stuff where there were uh, you know, 0:10:15.800 --> 0:10:20.200 thereman songs that they were playing entire pieces on the theorem. 0:10:20.240 --> 0:10:22.520 And and actually you could find a lot of the 0:10:22.559 --> 0:10:28.440 stuff on on YouTube. I've seen people, I've seen theremin orchestras, wow, 0:10:28.559 --> 0:10:32.080 where there are different people playing songs and they have 0:10:32.160 --> 0:10:35.120 different parts. So everybody's got a different purpose of doing it, 0:10:35.120 --> 0:10:38.240 and it's it sounds kind of random when you just 0:10:38.320 --> 0:10:41.680 hear these sections and segments and other songs and pop 0:10:41.720 --> 0:10:44.200 songs and things like that. But you you know, people 0:10:44.440 --> 0:10:47.120 you can actually play this as a musical instrument. And 0:10:47.160 --> 0:10:50.320 so I've I've heard a lot of that kind of stuff. Um, 0:10:50.360 --> 0:10:52.480 I'm trying to think of something specific. You have a 0:10:52.679 --> 0:10:55.360 favorite thereman song other than the one that you quoted before, 0:10:55.480 --> 0:10:58.720 other than the one I quoted before, and not really um, 0:10:58.760 --> 0:11:01.400 but there are other songs that have used it. They 0:11:01.440 --> 0:11:04.599 are actually uh, like I said, it's for me. The 0:11:04.880 --> 0:11:06.720 thing that I think about are all those those like 0:11:06.760 --> 0:11:08.880 The Day the Earth Stood Still, That would be a 0:11:08.920 --> 0:11:12.079 famous film that used a thereman as a sound effect. Uh. 0:11:12.120 --> 0:11:15.080 There there was a theremin used at least in some 0:11:15.240 --> 0:11:18.400 versions of the theme to Star Trek, although most of 0:11:18.440 --> 0:11:20.840 the time that was actually a vocalist who did that effect. 0:11:21.160 --> 0:11:23.640 But I believe in in one or two versions of 0:11:23.679 --> 0:11:28.600 that you can hear a theremin being used. Um. So, 0:11:28.679 --> 0:11:33.000 I mean there are bands that experiment and they'll throw 0:11:33.040 --> 0:11:35.000 that in the mix, and it may even be that 0:11:35.120 --> 0:11:38.280 it's it's a minor part of the song where you know, 0:11:38.280 --> 0:11:41.480 it's not meant to take the forefront of the melody 0:11:41.600 --> 0:11:44.200 or anything like that. It's just another another layer of 0:11:44.280 --> 0:11:47.880 complexity within a song itself. Uh So I guess we 0:11:47.920 --> 0:11:51.800 can now talk about what a theoreman does, like how 0:11:51.880 --> 0:11:54.240 does it make that sound? Like why is it that 0:11:54.280 --> 0:11:57.640 when you put your hand closer to or further away 0:11:57.760 --> 0:12:00.240 from one intend it changes the pitch and the other 0:12:00.240 --> 0:12:03.600 one controls the volume. That's by the way, the vertical 0:12:03.679 --> 0:12:06.839 one is the pitch antenna and the horizontal one is 0:12:06.880 --> 0:12:13.200 the volume antenna. Awesome, Actually it's uh it's funny because uh, 0:12:13.400 --> 0:12:16.800 typically you think of making music with an instrument as 0:12:17.120 --> 0:12:19.640 you wanted to sound as clear as possible. Um, But 0:12:19.720 --> 0:12:24.600 in the opportunity to play a thereman, you'll realize that, uh, 0:12:25.120 --> 0:12:29.280 it's actually all about creating interference because these uh, these 0:12:29.320 --> 0:12:35.160 antennae um actually have an electromagnetic field that and you're 0:12:35.200 --> 0:12:38.200 interfering with that by coming closer and moving farther away 0:12:38.440 --> 0:12:42.760 to different degrees. So really what's what you're hearing is 0:12:42.800 --> 0:12:45.120 the sound of the interference with the machine. Yeah, it's 0:12:45.120 --> 0:12:48.240 actually to to dive down into this. The way this 0:12:48.280 --> 0:12:52.400 works is that you've got coils of wire inside the 0:12:52.400 --> 0:12:55.680 theorem and that are generating electromagnetic field and that is 0:12:56.160 --> 0:12:58.960 propagated along the antenna and so with the case of 0:12:58.960 --> 0:13:03.640 the pitch antenna, you have two different um UH like 0:13:04.080 --> 0:13:08.439 two different oscillators creating this electromagnetic field. One of them 0:13:08.480 --> 0:13:11.199 is a steady frequency, the other one's variable frequency, and 0:13:11.240 --> 0:13:14.520 the variable frequency all depends upon your hand coming into 0:13:14.559 --> 0:13:17.880 contact with or not contact but coming closer or or 0:13:17.960 --> 0:13:21.600 moving further away from the pitch antenna. UH. What will 0:13:21.640 --> 0:13:26.120 happen then is that the frequencies from these two different 0:13:26.280 --> 0:13:30.800 UH oscillators will mix. And this is a process that 0:13:30.840 --> 0:13:35.800 we call heterodyning. And heterodyning is you you process these 0:13:35.840 --> 0:13:40.200 these signals and you take UH. Typically you can get 0:13:40.240 --> 0:13:44.719 lots of different um um results from combining signals, but 0:13:44.760 --> 0:13:47.679 typically you look at the sum and the difference and 0:13:48.160 --> 0:13:52.000 UH you choose, you filter one out and you focus 0:13:52.040 --> 0:13:54.320 on the other. And in this case, we're talking about 0:13:54.360 --> 0:13:57.520 the difference because the the frequencies that are generated by 0:13:57.559 --> 0:14:01.360 these oscillators are too high for human here. But the 0:14:01.400 --> 0:14:04.760 difference is not um. So if you are creating a 0:14:04.880 --> 0:14:08.080 variation in one frequency and the other frequency is remaining 0:14:08.320 --> 0:14:12.360 constant UH, when you take the difference of that and 0:14:12.400 --> 0:14:15.360 you take that signal, that signal is then within the 0:14:15.480 --> 0:14:17.839 range of human hearing, and because you've got that one 0:14:17.960 --> 0:14:21.360 variable frequency, you can change the pitch. So and it 0:14:21.440 --> 0:14:24.000 all has to do with, of course, the capacitance that 0:14:24.120 --> 0:14:27.640 we have. You know, human beings, we have a capacitance, 0:14:28.200 --> 0:14:31.600 and uh it's really most mostly based on body mass. 0:14:31.640 --> 0:14:34.280 So um, there's another interesting point is that if you 0:14:34.320 --> 0:14:37.040 have two different people playing the same theraman, they're going 0:14:37.080 --> 0:14:40.320 to quickly find out like to let's say, take one 0:14:40.760 --> 0:14:44.000 tiny little person and one huge person. So you've got 0:14:44.000 --> 0:14:46.960 ham hands and you've got little dainty fingers. Little dainty 0:14:46.960 --> 0:14:49.480 fingers comes up there and starts playing with theraman and 0:14:49.680 --> 0:14:52.760 realizes that when they when their dainty fingers get within 0:14:52.760 --> 0:14:56.720 a certain distance of the antenna, a particular pitch is played. 0:14:57.440 --> 0:15:00.400 Then ham hands comes up and starts to play, and 0:15:00.400 --> 0:15:04.080 then realizes very quickly that it's a different distance for 0:15:04.160 --> 0:15:06.760 ham hands to get to that intended to make that 0:15:06.880 --> 0:15:09.560 same pitch. And it has to do with the mass 0:15:09.920 --> 0:15:13.560 of the of of ham hands. So uh, you know, 0:15:13.720 --> 0:15:16.360 it's two people playing the same thereman are going to 0:15:16.440 --> 0:15:20.280 find out that they can't mimic one another's motions and 0:15:20.320 --> 0:15:22.680 get the exact same sound. It's going to be different 0:15:23.520 --> 0:15:27.360 based upon the actual size of the musician and all. 0:15:27.560 --> 0:15:28.800 Like I said, that all has to do with the 0:15:28.800 --> 0:15:34.040 capacitance that we as humans actually have ourselves. So we 0:15:34.080 --> 0:15:37.480 interfere with that electromagnetic field. The frequencies combine in the 0:15:37.480 --> 0:15:41.280 heterodyning process as I've said, as I mentioned, we filter 0:15:41.400 --> 0:15:44.960 out the sum. We take the difference of those two frequencies, UH, 0:15:45.000 --> 0:15:48.200 and that signal is what creates the pitch. Now, even 0:15:48.240 --> 0:15:51.960 though it's within the range of human hearing, UH, you 0:15:52.000 --> 0:15:54.680 can't really hear it very well unless you put it 0:15:54.720 --> 0:15:57.400 through an amplification process, which we'll have to talk about 0:15:57.440 --> 0:16:01.560 in a second. And the second antenna, the volume antenna, 0:16:01.800 --> 0:16:04.600 really just has the one oscillator and then there's a 0:16:04.880 --> 0:16:08.800 steady UH voltage being applied further in. And what happens 0:16:08.800 --> 0:16:11.400 is when you move your hand closer to that antenna, 0:16:11.440 --> 0:16:14.680 you are interrupting the first the signal from the first oscillator, 0:16:14.680 --> 0:16:18.640 that electromagnetic field. And as you interrupt that electromanetic magnetic field, 0:16:18.840 --> 0:16:24.080 the signal becomes weaker, which ends up being a control 0:16:24.080 --> 0:16:26.360 on the volume. So, in other words, the closer your 0:16:26.360 --> 0:16:30.360 hand gets to that second antenna, the quieter the sound 0:16:30.360 --> 0:16:32.840 will be. You might think that you know, you would 0:16:32.880 --> 0:16:34.600 want to get your hand closer to make the sound 0:16:34.600 --> 0:16:37.800 go up, but it's exactly the opposite. So if you 0:16:37.920 --> 0:16:39.680 put your hand close to the antenna, the sound is 0:16:39.720 --> 0:16:42.200 going to be very low. And as you take your 0:16:42.240 --> 0:16:47.200 hand away from that antenna, the horizontal antenna, the volume increases, 0:16:47.600 --> 0:16:50.800 so the pitch will remain the same, assuming that your 0:16:50.800 --> 0:16:53.960 other hand is is steady. And and also I should 0:16:54.000 --> 0:16:56.760 mention when you watch people play the theremin, especially people 0:16:56.760 --> 0:16:59.480 who have just started to play, you might notice them 0:16:59.520 --> 0:17:02.960 moving their hands up and down the the length of 0:17:02.960 --> 0:17:06.080 the vertical antenna. That really doesn't have much of an effect. 0:17:06.480 --> 0:17:08.479 It can change the pitch a little bit, but the 0:17:08.560 --> 0:17:11.240 real change and pitch has to do with the distance 0:17:11.480 --> 0:17:14.280 from the antenna. So you can keep your hands steady 0:17:14.359 --> 0:17:19.520 at the same level respective to the vertical antenna and 0:17:19.600 --> 0:17:23.440 just change the the distance your hand is from that antenna, 0:17:23.520 --> 0:17:25.080 and that would change the pitch. You don't have to 0:17:25.080 --> 0:17:26.800 move your hand up and down the length of the 0:17:26.840 --> 0:17:29.400 antenna in order to change it, because you really need 0:17:29.440 --> 0:17:33.920 both hands to operate them. Well, yeah, because you have to, 0:17:34.119 --> 0:17:36.600 I mean, because otherwise you would just have a steady 0:17:36.920 --> 0:17:39.919 volume time, right, So you need you need to be 0:17:39.960 --> 0:17:43.359 able to uh, you know, have both hands free to 0:17:43.440 --> 0:17:48.680 operate the Theoreman's you know, both the pitch and the volume. Um. 0:17:48.720 --> 0:17:51.320 And you know, I think it can also depend not 0:17:51.400 --> 0:17:54.040 only on the person, but on the instrument itself. So sure, 0:17:54.119 --> 0:17:56.600 yeah you can. You can actually tune a thereman as well. 0:17:56.880 --> 0:17:59.160 And that that all has to do with the electronics 0:17:59.200 --> 0:18:03.119 that are inside the thereman, because depending upon the electronic 0:18:03.119 --> 0:18:06.640 components you've put in there and the the frequency difference 0:18:06.680 --> 0:18:11.439 between the variable frequency and the steady frequency, uh, you 0:18:11.440 --> 0:18:14.640 you will have a certain octave range that that thereman 0:18:14.720 --> 0:18:17.960 is capable of playing and uh and sometimes that octave 0:18:18.040 --> 0:18:22.639 range can be quite uh large, very large range. But 0:18:22.680 --> 0:18:25.000 that means that you have to have even more control 0:18:25.040 --> 0:18:28.359 when you're playing it. Uh, that that tiny changes in 0:18:28.400 --> 0:18:31.200 the distance between your hand and the antenna will result 0:18:31.240 --> 0:18:34.439 in fairly significant changes in pitch. Which is why the 0:18:34.440 --> 0:18:36.840 thereman is one of those instruments that's you know, you 0:18:36.880 --> 0:18:39.760 can step right up and start playing it uh and 0:18:39.840 --> 0:18:42.000 have fun making weird noises, but if you want to 0:18:42.040 --> 0:18:45.280 be able to actually play a tune with with regularity, 0:18:45.320 --> 0:18:48.120 it takes a lot of practice. It's one of those 0:18:48.119 --> 0:18:52.320 really difficult to masterpieces. And uh actually have a list 0:18:52.359 --> 0:18:54.520 of some of the components that are in a typical thereman, 0:18:54.560 --> 0:18:56.720 if you would like to hear. Sure. Okay, so we've 0:18:56.720 --> 0:19:00.160 got the two antenna. As I mentioned before, the the 0:19:00.240 --> 0:19:03.399 volume antenna is actually a loop. It looks like a 0:19:03.400 --> 0:19:06.480 semicircle that's attached to the horizontal side, one of the 0:19:06.480 --> 0:19:11.040 horizontal sides of the theraman itself. There. The reason for 0:19:11.080 --> 0:19:15.359 that design is that the old thermans were all based 0:19:15.400 --> 0:19:20.600 on vacuum tube technology, is before solid state technology was 0:19:20.920 --> 0:19:24.959 really a thing at all. The first Theraman and so um. 0:19:25.280 --> 0:19:28.600 In order to be able to make this antenna and 0:19:28.720 --> 0:19:30.800 have it fit with the old system, you actually had 0:19:30.800 --> 0:19:32.920 to create this loop so that you had the right 0:19:33.119 --> 0:19:38.199 antenna length without interfering with the other electronic components of 0:19:38.280 --> 0:19:42.000 the device. So even though we've reached a point now 0:19:42.040 --> 0:19:45.720 where most modern theramans still use vacuum tubes at least 0:19:45.760 --> 0:19:50.040 in some capacity, and we'll talk about that a little bit, hey, 0:19:50.119 --> 0:19:52.320 But Chris, I'm sure we'll have something to say about 0:19:52.440 --> 0:19:56.160 using vacuum tubes as opposed to solid state. Being the musician, 0:19:56.600 --> 0:19:58.679 you would you would know more about this than I do. 0:19:59.000 --> 0:20:01.480 But in general has to do with sound quality. So 0:20:01.520 --> 0:20:04.200 there are still vacuum tubes used in most modern theramins, 0:20:04.240 --> 0:20:07.880 but they also involve some solid state electronic components now, 0:20:08.040 --> 0:20:10.000 which means that you no longer would have to do 0:20:10.040 --> 0:20:12.760 that loop UH to achieve the same effect. But I 0:20:12.840 --> 0:20:14.840 think a lot of a lot of theramin designers like 0:20:14.880 --> 0:20:17.600 to use it anyway, just kind of as a throwback 0:20:17.800 --> 0:20:20.200 to the original theoreman So it's almost like it's almost 0:20:20.240 --> 0:20:25.080 like a traditional thing at this point. UM. So inside 0:20:25.080 --> 0:20:29.040 the theremin, you're going to find typically a pair of chassis. 0:20:29.760 --> 0:20:33.199 One chassis is gonna be for your electromagnetic components, and 0:20:33.240 --> 0:20:36.639 this is where this is what generates that electromagnetic field 0:20:36.680 --> 0:20:39.800 for both of the antenna UM. You would normally find 0:20:40.280 --> 0:20:43.240 three oscillators in there. You would find two oscillators for 0:20:43.280 --> 0:20:46.640 the pitch, one oscillator for the volume UH. The this 0:20:47.119 --> 0:20:50.040 chassis often called an upper chassis, and a lot of 0:20:50.040 --> 0:20:52.399 the theramans I've looked at UH is has to be 0:20:52.440 --> 0:20:55.080 separated from the other chassis which has the amplification and 0:20:55.160 --> 0:20:59.760 power UH elements to it, because otherwise the electromagnetic field 0:20:59.760 --> 0:21:03.520 would interfere with the operation of those elements. All right, 0:21:04.160 --> 0:21:06.720 So the lower chassis where you get the power coming 0:21:06.760 --> 0:21:11.560 into the device. Uh, and you have the amplification oscillators 0:21:11.600 --> 0:21:16.159 and usually we use triodes and that you probably have 0:21:16.200 --> 0:21:19.160 heard of diodes. Diodes, of course, are those electronic components 0:21:19.200 --> 0:21:21.880 that allow electrons to pass through one way but not 0:21:22.080 --> 0:21:25.160 back yet. It's a one way lane. It allows electron 0:21:25.440 --> 0:21:30.040 uh flow in one direction only. Triads are a little different. 0:21:30.040 --> 0:21:33.960 Triads are well, it's a kind of vacuum tube and 0:21:33.960 --> 0:21:37.480 and from a superficial level, they resemble a light bulb. 0:21:38.680 --> 0:21:41.120 And the way a triode works is that there are 0:21:41.119 --> 0:21:44.720 typically three elements within a triode, which makes sense when 0:21:44.760 --> 0:21:47.720 you hear the name. You've got the cathode, which is 0:21:47.760 --> 0:21:51.359 the part of the triad that that will shed electrons. 0:21:51.840 --> 0:21:55.000 You've got a grid of some sort that will control 0:21:55.119 --> 0:21:58.080 the flow of electrons. It kind of acts as like 0:21:58.320 --> 0:22:00.880 a gate in a way. Then you have the anode, 0:22:00.920 --> 0:22:03.520 which is where the electrons want to get too, because 0:22:03.560 --> 0:22:05.760 it has a positive charge. Now remember electrons have a 0:22:06.080 --> 0:22:10.000 negative charge, so negative wants to be attracted. It is 0:22:10.040 --> 0:22:12.719 attracted to positive. So you have a positive element on 0:22:12.720 --> 0:22:14.840 one side, a negative element on another side, and a 0:22:14.920 --> 0:22:17.320 gate in the middle to control the flow. And that's 0:22:17.359 --> 0:22:22.119 the basis behind um the triode. Now, in order to 0:22:22.160 --> 0:22:24.639 control the flow of electrons, what you have to do 0:22:24.720 --> 0:22:28.520 is you hook up that gate to a source of electricity. 0:22:29.040 --> 0:22:31.440 All right. Now, if you're generating electricity and you're you're 0:22:31.520 --> 0:22:34.520 putting a current through that gate, that means you're putting 0:22:34.560 --> 0:22:37.520 negative electrons through the gate. Now that's gonna repel the 0:22:37.560 --> 0:22:40.040 electrons coming out of the cathode. All right, So you've 0:22:40.080 --> 0:22:42.159 got the cathode. Let's imagine that the cathodes on the 0:22:42.240 --> 0:22:44.680