12 thoughts on “Testing The Gakken SX-150 Analog Synthesizer”

1. All instruments are 'noise making devices'.

2. It may be a pretty limited instrument – but it's probably more interesting as a platform that musician hackers can build on.

3. "All instruments are 'noise making devices"

   Yes, but not all noise making devices are instruments.

4. Sounds like you had a pretty awesome birthday.

5. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRsdlRRCISA

   The Gakken SX-150 stylus gets the CV and GATE information from the ribbon-like slider pad.
   I just connected the Novation BassStation Rack CV and GATE out to the stylus and voilà! – have my MIDI controlled Gakken.
   The cheapest way to do this is to cut a patch cable in half, took the plastic bits off the wire coming from the tips of the jacks, roll them together and stick the Gakken's stylus into.
   You may notice that it only works if the BassStation's CV type set to '00' (Roland/Sequential/Arp) – because of the voltage and plug the Gakken SX's out to a mixer rather than using the built in speaker – this is needed as the ground.

   I believe this works with other MIDI-to-CV converters too.

6. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRsdlRRCISA

   The Gakken SX-150 stylus gets the CV and GATE information from the ribbon-like slider pad.
   I just connected the Novation BassStation Rack CV and GATE out to the stylus and voilà! – have my MIDI controlled Gakken.
   The cheapest way to do this is to cut a patch cable in half, took the plastic bits off the wire coming from the tips of the jacks, roll them together and stick the Gakken's stylus into.
   You may notice that it only works if the BassStation's CV type set to '00' (Roland/Sequential/Arp) – because of the voltage and plug the Gakken SX's out to a mixer rather than using the built in speaker – this is needed as the ground.

   I believe this works with other MIDI-to-CV converters too.

7. Cool!

   Here's that video:

   [youtube WRsdlRRCISA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRsdlRRCISA youtube]

8. Cool!

   Here's that video:

   [youtube WRsdlRRCISA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRsdlRRCISA youtube]

9. Cool!

   Here's that video:

   [youtube WRsdlRRCISA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRsdlRRCISA youtube]

10. Cool!

    Here's that video:

    [youtube WRsdlRRCISA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRsdlRRCISA youtube]

11. I would say it is an instrument.

    I used it to cover a Sepultura song pretty convincingly (a bit arrogant there).

    The only other instrument is a midi-programmed drum:

    [youtube muGeGz4aJU4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muGeGz4aJU4 youtube]

12. [youtube muGeGz4aJU4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muGeGz4aJU4 youtube]