How do you make a musical Tesla coil?

Answer 1

Solid state coils are particularly well suited to audio modulation because of the very high level of control over the operation of the tesla system. There are many ways of modulating a SSTC (solid state tesla coil), the 2 most popular being AM (amplitude modulation) and what i will call "PRF Modulation". PRF stands for pulse repitition frequency. The reason these 2 modulations exist, is because there are 2 (actually more) distinct types of SSTC. Those that can produce a continuous spark output (that is, a flame like plasma that exists at 100% duty cycle) and those that make what appear to be a continuous spark, but are rather producing sparks at several hundred times per second with a rest between each spark event. The first (continuous) type of SSTC lends itself to audio modulation. Normally the output spark is a silent plasma flame. By modulating the amount of power put into the plasma flame, we can modulate the physical volume of the plasma. Modulating the size of the plasma will cause the expansion/relaxation of air surrounding the plasma, thus producing sound waves.