Photo courtesy of MakerShed

December 3rd, 2008 – As you know, I’m one of those geeks that loves the idea of playing music on home-made instruments. When it’s something like an analog synthesizer, where cute little electrons (I imagine them to look like the sparks from Super Mario brothers) rattle around inside, and create awesome crunchy sounds, even better.

This SX-150 synth from Gakken features a super simple, and easily controllable, design that even an electronics noob like myself could build. Not only that, but the case can be customized with included decals (a case is what’s missing from the Hack-A-Day kit, although it is only 20 dollars worth of components). SWEET! Just looking at all that extra space on the case, and inside, makes me imagine the customizing possibilites, from upgraded internals, to a bright paint job. The best thing about it? It’s only 46 bucks. It’s the holiday season coming up…I wouldn’t mind one in my stocking…*hint hint*.

SX-150 at MakerShed

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008 at 1:05 am.
Categories: Asides, Engineering, Gear, Hardware Review.

3 Comments, Comment or Ping

  1. pablo

    hi

    this sx-150 looks a cool kit

    do you have any further/spec info and soundclips?

    is it midi and is it suitable for a novice to build?

    what else do you recommend please?

    thanks
    p

    Oct 17th, 2009

  2. Sean

    @Pablo : You can get it from the gadget site MakerShed which is linked at the bottom of this article. It is very easy to build but it does not support MIDI out of the box. However, someone has created a MIDI supported modification using the Arduino platform. You can find more information and sound clips at his website here : http://mrbook.org/blog/2009/06/27/sx-150-synth-mod-schematics/

    Enjoy!

    Oct 21st, 2009

  1. Gakken $50 Synth controlled via Arduino | Key Of Grey - Jun 20th, 2009

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