![\"theremin_sx150\"](\"http:\/\/www.adamsonic.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/theremin_sx150.jpg\" "\\"theremin_sx150\\"")
<\/a>Mini Theremin and SX-150<\/p><\/div>\n
A Theremin is a truly amazing musical instrument that is played without touching it.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s most commonly associated with old Sci-Fi movie sound effects and the “oooweeeeoooo” sound in the Beach Boys’ hit song, “Good Vibrations.”\u00c2\u00a0 When I was working on the Destroy All Humans video game franchise, we incorporated the sound of the theremin into the movement of the UFO.<\/p>\n
According to Wikipedia<\/a>,<\/p>\n The theremin was originally the product of Russian government-sponsored research into proximity sensors<\/a>. The instrument was invented by a young Russian physicist named Lev Sergeivich Termen (known in the West as L\u00c3\u00a9on Theremin<\/a>) in October 1920[2]<\/a><\/sup> after the outbreak of the Russian civil war<\/a>. After positive reviews at Moscow<\/a> electronics<\/a> conferences, Theremin demonstrated the device to Bolshevik<\/a> leader Vladimir Lenin<\/a>. Lenin was so impressed with the device that he began taking lessons in playing it,[3]<\/a><\/sup> commissioned six hundred of the instruments for distribution throughout the Soviet Union, and sent Theremin on a trip around the world to demonstrate the latest Soviet technology and the invention of electronic music<\/a>. After a lengthy tour of Europe, during which time he demonstrated his invention to packed houses, Theremin found his way to the United States<\/a>, where he patented his invention in 1928 (US1661058<\/a>). Subsequently, Theremin granted commercial production rights to RCA<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Analog Synthesizers are also very cool.\u00c2\u00a0 While the theremin is a type of analog synthesizer, the SX-150 offers greater control over the effecting and processing of it’s noise source.\u00c2\u00a0 It includes a low-pass filter, resonance, attack, decay and both square and sawtooth noise generation.\u00c2\u00a0 An 1\/8 inch external input and output are also built in although I had a bit of trouble with getting the input to function correctly as did a few others<\/a> who built the same kit.<\/p>\n Both kits were very simple to build.\u00c2\u00a0 No soldering was required.\u00c2\u00a0 The directions were all in Japanese, but there were detailed illustrations that made it so that anyone familiar with following instructions from a Lego set could construct one of these.\u00c2\u00a0 Assembly required a very small phillips head screwdriver and 4 AA batteries each.<\/p>\n Both kits may be purchased from the Maker Shed<\/a>.<\/p>\n