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Theremug recipe

Instructions for turning a mug of tea into a Theremin:

1 Prepare some tea
2 Expose the L/R leads on an 1/8" cable
3 Immerse leads in tea
4 Plug cable into audio input
5 Start up max/pd/processing/etc. and average every 735 samples (882 if you're in Europe/running on 50Hz)
6 Scale value and drive oscillator

(The tea should not be neglected, be sure to drink it once you're done making noise.)

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Posted by clementine 

Comments (7)

Jan 07, 2009
Eric Larson said...
And this is one of coolest things I've read!
Jan 07, 2009
really cool. fortissimo!
Jan 07, 2009
Eileen Rivera said...
Isn't this dangerous? be still cool.
Jan 07, 2009
clementine said...
no danger don't worry, it's a little enjoying experiment:)
Jan 08, 2009
Emily McManus said...
This is amazing!
Jan 09, 2009
robert said...
you've left out some essential information necessary for replication.
1 Prepare some tea
- This step is not a problem, the instructions are on the bag or in a cookbook.
- The next 3 steps could be problematic:
2 Expose the L/R leads on an 1/8" cable
3 Immerse leads in tea
4 Plug cable into audio input
- From viewing the video, we can see that the 1/8" refers to the thickness of the wire, and apparently the other end will have a stereo plug that goes into a device of some sort. You don't mention whether it is a computer audio recording software device or just an audio amplifier (stereo tuner?), or something else.
- Your hands obscure the placement of the leads into the tea, but we assume both wires are in the liquid.
- Again, the device the cable is plugged into is off screen and is not described so we don't know what it is - which makes it difficult to replicate.
5 Start up max/pd/processing/etc. and average every 735 samples (882 if you're in Europe/running on 50Hz)
6 Scale value and drive oscillator
- right. What specific amplifier are you using and do I need to use the same one or will this work with any old amplifier device?
- does the liquid have to be warm? will coffee work? tepid tea? lemon juice? water? does it have to be acidic or alkaline in ph?

This is a cute little trick, but you could improve your written instructions so that others might be able to actually build their own little theremugs.

Jan 11, 2009
clementine said...
thanks Robert:)

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