ThinkGeek is now offering the Analog Synthesizer SX-150 Mark II – a ‘fully functional’ toy synth – for $100.
The Analog Synthesizer SX-150 Mark II features a stylus controller and built-in speaker, like a Stylophone, but also lets you tweak 10 parameters.
Details and demo video below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH6cmhUgIHM
Features:
- Fully-functional analog synthesizer
- Four octave range
- Vibrato, tremolo, and “wah” effect with VCF and LFO buttons.
- 10 Parameters to control: cutoff, resonance, attack, decay, pitch ENV, LFO wave, LFO rate, LFO depth, VCF modulation, and LFO modulation
- Tunable
- Line in and line out (standard 3.5mm headphone jack size)
- Batteries: 4 AA (not included)
- Dimensions: approx. 6.5″ x 4.75″ x 1.5″
The Analog Synthesizer SX-150 Mark II is available for $99.99 at ThinkGeek.
Gakken…i have seen their products before sprinkled around in ebay when i search for synths under $100 lol, this thing is kinda cool! i would like to see them make more fun products.
i enjoy the speaker on it.
…and then you can transform the toy in a fully functional analog midi synth:
http://beatnic.jp/manuals/SX-mk2/index-e.html
Thanks Motohiko San!
Its like a dubsiren 😉
Just add delay
As the previous commenter mentioned, these are made in Japan by Gakken. They’re usually sold as kits, requiring assembly, and have extensive instructions (in Japanese, naturally).
The original SX-150 is still available in kit form, actually, at half the price of the “Mark II”. There’s a large community of hardware hackers and lots of mods available.
It may be a “toy” synth, but you can actually go quite a ways with it.
It’s ok. I got a bunch of the original SX-150 kits for a workshop with kids. They are snap-together kits (no soldering). They are pretty fun to play around with for kids.
My only complaint was that the build quality was a little poor. Cold solder joints on most units. Out of 14 kits, one did not work.
It would be interesting to know what the improvements are for the Mark II
This looks cool , but for a few bucks more you can get a Mutable Instruments Shruthi-1 kit!
Right now ThinkGeek is offering 25% off all orders over $100.