Meteorites Play The Theremin

Playing the theremin using two meteorite slices on my new modular rack designed for this purpose (extended jam for Youtube). The pallasite on the left - containing olivine crystals formed in space - is controlling pitch, while the muonionalusta slice on the right is controlling vowel modulation. These can of course be routed to whatever parameters are desired within a Eurorack modular system. I don’t know if anyone has ever done this before, but it’s one my most straightforward geosonification experiments yet - also the most playable and satisfying. I have a bunch of additional setups planned with this new rack, which is specifically built for dual theremin use with unconventional antennae/capacitance. In case anyone's curious, I thought I'd provide a basic overview of how a theremin circuit works (with the caveat that while I am an engineer, I am not an electrical engineer, at least not yet). Like all robust science, this is replicable by anyone with the right equipment and materials. No slight of hand, no clickbait. You can do this safely at home with any sufficiently conductive material. There are two oscillators, one constant and one (high frequency) that is connected to an antenna - in this case, a conductive iron alloy meteorite. This second oscillator is modulated by variation in capacitance. The meteorite acts as one plate of a capacitor, with the air as the dielectric, and the hand acts as the other plate of the capacitor. Varying the distance between the two changes the electrical charge on the antenna and thus the frequency of the oscillator circuit connected to it. This is compared to the other oscillator's constant frequency (in a process called heterodyning) and the difference is output by the circuit. This is traditionally in the audible range, but in the case of my Doepfer A-178 modules, it is output as a control voltage source at 1V per octave. Though it's one of the oldest electronic instruments and I understand the essentials of how it works, it still feels like magic anyway. Hope you enjoy! - Skytree