gakken sx-150 analog synthesizer is a hacker’s delight

September 27th, 2008 comments stumble it! digg it! by: technabob

The Gakken SX-150 is a little analog synthesizer kit that came packaged in a recent issue of a Japanese DIY science magazine. Now, these funky mini synths have started to show up around the globe, leaving all sorts of interesting beeps, blips and squeals in their wake.

Originally included in an issue of Otonanokagaku (Science for Adults), the compact synth offers up a variety of basic sound adjustments including attack, LFO, pitch, attack, decay and cutoff. A metal stylus provides you with a decent range of expressive control over the sounds produced.

And since the synth lets you plug in an external analog audio source and then modify those waveforms, the sky is the limit for the sounds you can produce. A built-in speaker means the SX-150 can produce totally self-contained audio madness.

A simple search over on YouTube for “SX-150” turns up all kinds of crazy and creative sounds coming from the rudimentary analog synth. Here are a just a few of my favorites…

And with such a simple circuit design, it’s proved to be really easy to hack. Check out some of these creative uses for the SX-150…

The good news is that with a little luck, you can still get your hands on one of these compact audio wonders over on eBay from about $50 to $80 bucks.

[photos via Flickr]

[SX-150 assembly manual]

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filed under:  audio hacks + mods technology

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tags: analogaudiogakkenhackjapansoundsynthesizer

September 27th, 2008 comments: stumble it! digg it! by: technabob

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