I turned my C64 into a Theremin (with a spoon, a clamp, and six more components). 

40 years after its introduction, you're still making breakthroughts with Commodore 64!

I thought the moving diagram of electrons through the metal wire was just a well crafted looping gif, but then I saw how they were piling up and pushing away from each other so realistically in the cut wire diagram. I wonder if that whole thing was a simulation programmed just for this, or if it was made in a physics simulation program or something.

This is the best explanation of capacitance I've ever seen. It's always been a complete mystery to me. Thanks!

That hand waving joke was tops.

If ever there was a combination of talent and hardware ready for the C64 adaptation/demake of Trombone Champ, this is it.

The way a "classical" theremin would work is: you run that oscillator at a much higher frequency, so that the "just a few percent" of change still spans something like 10kHz. Then you build a second oscillator which doesn't have an antenna for a capacitor, and tune it so that its frequency matches the frequency of your antenna oscillator when no hands are nearby. Then you mix the signals from the two oscillators so that you get sum and difference frequencies. The sum will be way out of the audible range (and easily filtered out), and the difference will be a tone that gets higher the closer you move your hand to the antenna.

"you can buy precision made gaps" Wow. That clicked with me. Thanks for the wonderful explanation and entertainment.

Could you also have the left hand volume mapped to open the low pass filter? So higher volumes are bright and lower volumes soft. That would add to the expression especially with an 8580 sid, imo. Great work anyway. Always love your videos :)

Your sense of humor is subtle, yet exhilarating when combined with your knowledge and understanding of both music and tech. Cheers!

You are a brilliant person. Thank you for letting us be a part.

The commodore 64: The most versatile computer despite it's ancient 1970's/1980's technology.

While the C64 Theremin is pretty neat, the video itself is what impressed me. So entertaining and well explained! And also talking about how it's applied to everyday items like a smartphone touch screen makes it so much more engaging. I wish all educational videos were like this. Well done!

A man of culture and science...

SID and Theremin -> Perfect match! Thanks for this great video

That’s cool! As a thereminist but also a C64 fan I have dreamed of designing a SID theremin. But I wasn’t sure if the envelope mechanism would be flexible enough for that. But you got there first! Although it’s a quite low-tech approach antenna-wise. I’d love to get to play that. Are you planning to bring it to Revision or some other party or share the schwmatics and the code? Also it’s great that you explained the theory behind it in a very layman understandable way. I have wondered why different people, engineers and thereminists have told completely different explanations behind the phenomenon. I guess that adding radio waves just makes it sound more magical.

At 9:10 it seems as if you are desperatly trying not to laugh, but your expression continues like that. I congratulate you on maintaining your composure for so long.

This is fantastic LFT, I can see the potential of recording vibrato params with a hand. Also video production is great, loved the black and white digression 👌🏻

Probably the most enjoyable random video youtube has recomended, I loved every detail and the amusing way it was presented a huge thumbs up from me.

Genuine thanks for explaining how theremins work. Never been able to understand before, and I'm not sure I understand it now either, but I'm closer than I was.

Absolutely amazing. Not only musical very gifted but and electronical wizard as well. Thanks a lot for the concise explanation.

My man needs a PBS show

It is not just technically impressive, I like it that it is your most personal(y) involved video (production, jokes,...).

Mad props to you, Sir! All this wonderful work really deserves to go viral!

I learnt more than just how a Theremin works in this video. I always thought capacitors worked by collecting a charge on the Anode and then releasing it all on the cathode once the concentration of electrons got high enough.

Your knowing the pulse-counting and relaying that to the C64 sidchip frequency.. is so cool it made me dizzy for a moment. Been a while since that happened. thanks

That's a great project. Nice history and explanation of how it works!

Brilliant! I loved the black and white section about touchscreens :)

I'm impressed that you explained a capacitor to me far better than my physics professor. So many physics teachers get so caught up in the math that they never explain what's actually going on!

Every video, every blog post tickle my curiosity! What a great improvisation of a theremin!

The bits in this video are amazing, and the explanation you gave on theremin operation cleared up a lot of my misconceptions. Thank you!

great video I love when I get explanation like this with very good abstraction and analogy.

Fantastic video. Really appreciate all your efforts here and and on the article!

Lev Termen's original Theremin used three oscillators running at radio frequencies, one of the three oscillators operated at a fixed frequency and was used as a reference oscillator, the other two oscillators were connected to an antenna, the signal from the reference oscillator was mixed with the signal from one of the two other oscillators, the capacitance effect between a human hand positioned near the antenna de-tuned the oscillator, the sound that the Theremin makes is due to the difference in frequency between the reference oscillator and one of the other two oscillators connected to antennae (the pitch antenna), the other oscillator is used as a volume control, the reason why the frequency of the oscillator connected to the pitch antenna is because of capacitive loading effects.

Great video! I loved your explination on capacitance. Very interesting

Thank you for a very clear and concise explanation of capacitance.

Last time it was a C64 accordian. This time a theramin. Next time will be a Harpejji, and then after that an instrument yet to be dreamed of.

Excellent crash course in electronics. Thank you.

You brilliant bastard - I would not be surprised if you wrote a 128 byte program on a wristwatch that generated this entire video while emulating a C64 just for the hell of it ... And since you have probably unified quantum theory and relativity already, I would love to see your take on Veritasiums misconceptions about electricity video. (Excellent video by the way! :) )

wonderful project and explanation

wow great vid! Glad I got recommended your channel!

Väldigt kul! Jag byggde en theremin för cirka tio år sedan som mitt gymnasiearbete, som använde CMOS-inverterare till oscillatorkretsarna. Minns det som en oerhört lärorik om än frustrerande process.

I'm not sure if I ever knew the basics of how a theremin works. But this is an amazing explanation. And this was an amazing video. What a delight!!

This is such a patient and detailed explanation. Your videos are so different now from your early videos with the Chipophone.

This was hilarious. Thank you for the performance!

This is amazing stuff! Very entertaining and informative :)

Thank you for the hard work and dedication. I really enjoyed this video

Excellent explanation and musical talent as always!

Wow, what an amazing video explaining the theremin. Really interesting that all other electrical devices tries really hard not to be a theremin ;)

Cool! and great explanation of the Theremin.

wow. i haven't seen you since breakpoint but i have been in love with your work and music ever since. this is amazing! and what a video...

Absolutely brilliant explanations!!

This is one of the coolest things I've ever seen.

Loved this video! Especially the explanations and twilight zone part haha

You never cease to amaze me Linus. Shear genius.

Amazing! :o Thanks for the explanation of how the theremine works aswell!

Beautiful explanation 😊👍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Thank you for the explanation and performance!

A wonderful presentation.

Some absolutely amazing writing in this video. Not something I've said on a RU-vid video before

You are a mad genius in all the right ways. 😁

Excellent presentation!

A genius man, you are. I'm stunned.

Fascinating, a really clever project

You are very good educator! Thanks.

Excellent explainer video, sir. You don't fail to conquer new territories. Greetings from Norge! (excellent project as well but I guess Im spoiled when it comes to your videos)

Really interesting and well made! :-D

Neat hack, and perhaps even more impressive musical skills!

This is AMAZING. Love it

A master at work. Done. Love it.

That's pure genius. I want to have a go!

Theremin is one of first Analog Synthesizers ever created

Very informative.

Perhaps a combined waveform of Triangle and Pulse would make a more authentic sound. You can easily do this, even in BASIC, by setting the waveform bit for both channel by selecting any 3 possible waveform bits and adding them before POKEing them in. Noise is the only waveform the SID can't combine.

3:05 🤣

I tried one once, it's extremely hard ! Good job ;-)

"Amazing Grace" on a Theremin is not what I thought I needed, but if at the end of my road I rate a funeral from those I'll have left behind, I'd rather that than on bagpipes.

Thank you :) - great work!

Thank you! So much fun, and again the C64 :)

i'm excited for the one man commodore band you'll form some day

Very nice video! I tried to build a proper (simple) Theremin a few years ago, but I kind of rushed it and could never get the coils balanced properly. I don't have a C64, but I'm pretty sure I could get an Arduino Duo + 2 555s to do the same thing.

Genius as always!

Sounds like 80's Tom Waits. Great!

Very cool, nice work! Plus it had bounus laughs.

You are brilliant!

Yes, an LFT video 🎉 🎉 🎉 today is a good day.

I landed here because I googled "complete badass"

Can't say I've seen a sid used like this before. Interesting

When you changed to Rod Serling, I grasped the big picture.

Love it!

So cool!

Amazing!!!

You are a genius👏👏👏

My Theremin watches this video when I’m out of the house😍

No words! ❤❤❤

very nice!

So you can't really play your theremin in outer space? how are you we supposed to call aliens with it?! 😆

1:17 - The mosquito when it sees I left my bedroom window open.

Это потрясающе! Огромное спасибо!

amazing :)

This solution is very interesting, I really liked it. The use of the NE555 with a field capacity is also very imaginative. I also built an all-solid Theremin without coils, but it didn't require a C64. You can also see a replica of the original RCA Theremin at my channel! Thank you for the video!