Gakken Analog Synthesizer. SX-150.

Gakken are an educational company based in Japan who among other things produces a magazine line where the reader gets a project each issue. Unlike the tat English equivalents where you build a boat over 100 issues these contain the full project and an encyclopedic style guide with Hello magazine style interviews with Japanese celebrities who demoed the project.

The issue I bought was the SX150, an analog synth gakken had built from scratch.
Its very easy to assemble (screw the wires onto the board and plug in batteries), the magazine had lovely pictures and histories of analog synths but I don’t read Japanese so its wasted on me, but the synth is what I wanted to demo.

The size is that of a Stylophone and control is similar, there are no specific notes (vague black arrows pointing towards low/mid/high) on a pitch based ribbon controller (a carbon strip you touch the pen on).

You can set the Low Frequency Oscillator (LFO) to Triangle (higher tones) or Sqaure (bassy tones) and the Rate it works at (the LFO section tends to be my personal favourite piece of any synth). The Attack and Decay effect how quickly the sounds start and end respectfully. Pitch Env controls how much the pitch is affected, low is minimal and high gives crazy lows to highs. Cutoff sets the sound filter as does the Resonance, which both effect the overall sound. There is a 3.5mm output jack and 3.5mm input jack to use the synth as a kind of filter type guitar pedal. Finally a power of low and high is also provided, low uses a lower current draw that gives less amplitude but saves on battery power.

Having owned analog synths (MS10 and CS10) and a stylophone I was very excited to find it is like having a crazy etchasketch style analog synth in the palm of your hand.

Admittedly the number of controls are limited but given the value and size of it is a lovely thing to have. Its not going to replace your analog synths and would be a toy in comparison but to someone who would like to get into analog this could be for you, a nice gateway into that world esp if you don’t plan to use it as a main instrument.

Dare I say it Moog enthusiasts this is more fun than the Theremin, gives a better range of sounds and probably better value for money.

In Section K we use the Gakken SX150 as an additional synth to the MicroKorg (boo hiss, digital!) both have their advantages and disadvantages, one is £200 more expensive, wooden paneling and can store sounds!

Having said that plug through a pedal chain and a looper box you could get some great tunes out of this beast. Well recommended.

On another note Gakken have several other musical projects including a pitch based
Theremin and 8 Bit Computer that you can use as a sequencer! Check them out.