There’s a Japanese magazine called “Otona no Kagaku” (meaning, so I understand, “Science for Adults”) which apparently comes, often or always, with some cool stuff. Volume 17 came with a kit for a mini theremin, for instance; and a special issue came with an analog synthesizer kit. In ovember 2008 the latter became available at MakerShed.com.
Seeing that brought back semi-fond memories of another little synth: the PAiA Gnome. I bought one of those back in 1977, and so did my friend Major Zed. (”Semi-fond” because, well, to paraphrase what I recall Zed said to me in a letter at the time, “Did you think it was a bitch to put together? I didn’t. I thought it was a bitch and a half. Maybe two bitches.”) Like the Gnome, the SX-150 has a single audio oscillator, an envelope generator, a low frequency oscillator, and a continuous pitch controller. It lacks a noise source, though, and a trigger, and has fewer knobs — on the other hand, it does have an input for external signals and a built in speaker.
And my recollection is that the Gnome cost something in the $75 to $100 neighborhood at the time — in the ballpark of $300 in 2008 dollars. The SX-150 costs $45.99 at MakerShed.
I dithered a bit. It’s not like one of these would fill a real need. There are plenty of software synths on the market (and even some free ones) that’ll do a great job at a fraction of the cost of a hardware synth. The SX-150 is little more than a toy by comparison.
But after some thought I sent in my order. My Gnome’s long gone, and at that price how could I turn down a synth with real knobs?
It’s fun. Way limited (considerably more so than the Gnome) but in some ways less so than a softsynth, in that grabbing controls and moving them in real time is easier. (Unless you’ve got a softsynth coupled to a knobby MIDI controller, I guess… but at that point your softsynth has a considerable degree of hard in it.)
Took about 20 minutes to put together. (No soldering; the populated circuit board is supplied, the only electrical connections to make are the connector to the batteries and the three for the strip controller which are made by screwing wire lugs down.) Case and knobs look not too rugged at all. Strip controller works fine, better than the Gnome’s in that the resistive strip is narrow and nearly flush to the surface, so you can get good effects by “strumming” the probe back and forth across it.
Some nice photos in the magazine — it’d be nice to be able to read it.
It prompted me to go to the library and check out a couple of books on synthesizers, including Analog Days: The Invention and Impact of the Moog Synthesizer. Not the best written book I’ve seen, but some interesting history. I had no idea the Moog synthesizer was invented and for some years built in Trumansburg, NY! That’s a tiny village a bit under two hours drive from here, on the other side of Ithaca. A good friend of ours, a morris musician, lives there and we’ve been there a number of times.
Getting back to the SX-150, I’ve seen a number of web sites dealing with hacks of it — but most of them are in Japanese. Maybe now that MakerShed is carrying it we’ll get some in English.
