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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.)

My camera's been acting funny, hence the jitter.

See the Max patch for a more in-depth explanation: flickr.com/photos/kylemcdonald/2126494098/

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  • Ellen 4 years ago
    Does this have anything to do with it being tea? Does the tea have to be hot? Does it work with other beverages? What about something like pudding or jello?
  • Kyle McDonald plus 4 years ago
    It should work for anything conductive, I just thought tea would be humorous (variation: aluminum shot glass). I bet Jello would work since it's mostly water.
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  • Caroline Martin 4 years ago
    I wish I had all those items in my apartment.
  • Kyle McDonald plus 4 years ago
    Not even a bottle of water? Find some dead headphones from a friend, cut the wire, and you're set -- the rest is just software :)
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  • Floris 4 years ago
    very interesting
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  • Steve Holt 4 years ago
    How cool is that. You gotta go pretty deep to have figured that one out.
  • Kyle McDonald plus 4 years ago
    The main epiphany was that 44100 Hz (standard audio sampling rate) is evenly divisible by 60 Hz (mains power frequency). Beyond that, I'm pretty sure it was just the tea.
  • Steve Holt 4 years ago
    I'll have to stick with the tea.
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  • Dave Moob 4 years ago
    I really like the music and chai combo. My friends Gooner and Toon would laugh if they knew that I had bought one.
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  • sanddunesandsea 3 years ago
    WOAH! i'm definitely trying this.
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  • Josh Bertsche 3 years ago
    awesome!
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  • PARANOIDKARMA 3 years ago
    I will do it with beer xD AHAHA :D n1
  • Kyle McDonald plus 3 years ago
    Ah yes amazing. Perhaps that will be my next feat, attaching multiple channels to beer pong cups?
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  • Euan Preston 3 years ago
    Oh my goodness...I got all the makin's right here. All I need is a place to cook!

    My cats ought prepare to be driven nuts.
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  • batuhan 3 years ago
    Ah so simple and great.
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  • Rodger M. Nugent 3 years ago
    Fun.
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  • Daniel Hayek pro 3 years ago
    ah the theremin, modernism meets feedback
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  • Increase Mather 3 years ago
    brilliant.
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  • Winston Parker 3 years ago
    Nice Max/MSP work!!
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  • stacey 3 years ago
    haha love it
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  • AgênciaClick Isobar plus 3 years ago
    style
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  • kerry foster 3 years ago
    now I'm even more deaf.
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  • Michael Benjafield 3 years ago
    I'm not clever enough to know how this works but its amazing none the less.
    Once i find out how to rate it i will =]
    x
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  • Croytaque plus 3 years ago
    What sort of tea?
  • Kyle McDonald plus 3 years ago
    Doesn't matter, you just need some kind of conductive substance. I was using a tea from mighty leaf, if you're super curious :)
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  • Ron Rodenmeyer 3 years ago
    Pretty cool even if it's not my cup of tea! R D R R.
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  • Robert-Jon Eckhardt 3 years ago
    How does it work? Does the electromagnetic field of your hand alter the conductivity of the fluid?
  • Kyle McDonald plus 3 years ago
    That would be really neat if our electromagnetic fields had such a strong effect on fluids!

    One way I think of it is that our body acts like an antenna, and the wire + tea acts like an antenna. Our body is grounded to an electrical "plane" that is vibrating at 60 Hz or 50 Hz, and as we get closer to the wire we "transmit" (are capacitively coupled with) the wire + tea. Check out the original -- the theremin -- for more info on the theory. I really only have a strong intuition for the ideas, and not a scientific understanding.
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  • Etrap 3 years ago
    I have to try this :)
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  • Ryan 2 years ago
    I got it working... And I also got some crazy distortion for my guitar too. If only I knew how it all worked... Do you know anywhere I can get tutorials, that actually explain what's going on? The ones on the Cycling 74 site are good... But not for beginners.
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  • Turtle 4 months ago
    Have you tried with Coke?
  • Kyle McDonald plus 4 months ago
    nope, but most liquids should work fine :)
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