Key Of Grey

November 28th, 2009 – I’m sure that post headline is more exciting if you don’t know what an SX-150 is since it’s the easiest synth to build in the history of synths. As many of you know, I was in Japan a month ago. While I was there, I went on a hunt for the mythical unicorn: the analog synthesizer that is attached to a keyboard magazine. I read about it all over the internet and on the second to last day before I came back home, I found it.

If you haven’t heard what it can do, check out Mrbook’s Arduino hack of the SX-150. Well I finally decided to crack open the box and put it together. It’s solder-less and even though I can’t read Japanese, following the picture instructions was a snap. All it pretty much entailed was putting the board into the case and screwing it down. The hardest part was probably cutting the piece of cardboard off the box to make the back casing. I never could cut straight lines.

Sorry, no samples of it playing yet as I don’t have any batteries. Isn’t that always the way it is? I’ll post a demo video when I can power it up. If you’re interested in getting one, MakerShed sells them but I don’t think include the magazine. That’s too bad because the magazine is pretty cool (even though I can’t read it). It has a history of the synthesizer, and artists that are known for using them. Also, they gave the SX-150 to a whole bunch of big Japanese electronica artists who then proceeded to rip it apart and modify it. There are some pretty crazy mods like a keytar, and a drum machine. If I can figure out how to Arduino control it from Mrbook’s instructions, I’ll be super stoked.