MOTM

I had Emailed Tom G some time ago about obtaining a few of these boards. He
did reply eventually, but gave incomplete answers to my questions (such as
leaving a few digits out of his address when I asked where I should send the
check!), and finally he stopped replying, so I never did get any of the
boards. Maybe he was busy and I caught him at a bad time or something, but I
was left with the impression that he wasn't real eager to sell me a few of
these boards. If anyone has better luck obtaining this PCB, I'd love to hear
about it; I'd still be interested (Tom, if you're lurking...?).

I'm one of those people who never got his Theramax working. Not one peep.
I'd consider getting the Big Briar model, but only if I knew I could get CVs
out; alone the Theremin is limited, but as a CV-producing gestural
controller, I think it's an exciting device.

-----Original Message-----
From: J. Larry Hendry
....I know more than one person who was never able to get theirs to work.
the tuning range is also in the AM broadcast frequency range. So, they have
been known to pick up AM broadcast stations. The bonus for the T-max is
that is features CV outs.

The Big Briar Etherwave is in a totally different class than the T-max.
It is a fine stand alone instrument. I still have mine. I can't play
it for s**t. Harry Bissell from Synth DIY (and a lurker here I think)
made a very nice PCB based on the Bob Moog circuit (with permission) to
adapt CV from your Etherwave based on pitch-to-CV. I have seen Harry's
wife use the pitch to CV coupled with a Miniwave for quantizing and
scaling to play a modular. It is an interesting twist.

I have one of the PCBs, but have yet to get the project off my "to-do"
list. However, I thought this would be a good project to put into MOTM
format. Harry had about 50 of the PCBs made. I think there are still
plenty available. I cannot remember the price, but seems like it was in
the $15-16 range. Tom G of EFM has these PCBs if anyone else is
interested in this when I finally turn it into a project with
instructions and a Stooge panel, you might want to go ahead and pick up
a PCB (if you have patience).

> I'm one of those people who never got his Theramax working. Not one peep.
> I'd consider getting the Big Briar model, but only if I knew I could get CVs
> out; alone the Theremin is limited, but as a CV-producing gestural
> controller, I think it's an exciting device.
>

Another way to approach getting a CV from a Theremin is to use some existing pitch
to voltage converters. Since the output from a Theremin is usually a fairly
consistent waveform, it works quite well as the input to a pitch to voltage
converter although tracking accuracy is not quite as important if you are just using
the Theremin outputs as a modifier CV instead of a pitch CV. I believe the Korg
MS-20 has a P2V converter in it as does the Roland SPV-355. Anyone know of others,
particularly built into a synth? Yes, there is the old Serge Gentle Electric P2V if
you can find and afford one.

Eric



__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Send your FREE holiday greetings online!
http://greetings.yahoo.com

You can get Harry's Pitch to CV (PV-1) PCB from EFM for
$14. http://www.ele4music.com/ It works fairly well.
dave

At 08:26 AM 1/1/2002 -0800, you wrote:

This one isn't built into a synth but looks pretty good (whatever that
means.) <A HREF="http://home.earthlink.net/~wavefront/">Wavefront Technologies
</A>

By the way, Happy New Year to all!
Rob Schwimmer

>I'm one of those people who never got his Theramax working. Not one peep.
>I'd consider getting the Big Briar model, but only if I knew I could get
>>CVs out; alone the Theremin is limited, but as a CV-producing gestural
>controller, I think it's an exciting device.

I have a perfectly working Theremax boxed up in my garage. Yes, the CV
outs are terribly weak, but that's the way it was designed. Paia later
came out with an add-on board to boost the CV outputs. What amazes me is
how they allowed themselves to sell these things the way they were in the
first place. All they had to do was hook up a single voltmeter. Is that
too much design testing for a commercial product?!?

I have not seen the schematics for the add-on board, but I doubt it would
take more than an op-amp, a piece of perfboard, and a couple of resistors.

Anyway, the audio output works just fine, so it should work with any
pitch-->CV converter. If anyone would like to buy my Theremax, just make
me an offer, as I'm definitely not using it. I also have a broken EML 100
(not 101) if anyone is interested.