Japanese Magazine ships with Analog Synth

[griffin avid]

There was a bit of buzz on VSE about a music mag that ships with DIY music gadgets. The most recent issue shipped with an analog Synthesizer so I ordered a bunch, after having the page translated by a friend. I just finished assembly which took about 20 minutes. You'll need a very small phillips screwdriver. It takes 4 AA batteries and has an audio In and Out along with built in speakers. I couldn't get the Output to work, plugging it in kills the onboard speaker (as expected) but nothing coming from the outs. It takes 'motherboard soundcard' jacks. I'll keep troubleshooting (or jack into another units audio outs) and get some kind of AC adapter. I'm also contemplating bending it with that Radioshack experimental lab joint.



^ This the bookstore in Manhattan New York, where I ordered it from for ~45USD.


^There they are on the counter. They come in a box and the magazine is attached to the underside.



^^ Easy to follow instructions in Japanese.


^The box showing the board.



^^ The underside showing the few wires that need connecting.

I did leave a single unit at the store for anyone else interested and they said they could easily order more.

I had to record the audio straight into a microphone so the quality is live.

http://www.producersedgemagazine.com/mp ... SX-150.mp3

The clicks are me juggling the unit, mic and the wand. The wand generates different pitches along the ribbon controller. I didn't get much from the attack or Pitch Envelope. The Cut off...really cut off the volume.

[enx]

Cool, I was thinking of buying one for myself

[JayEm]

Man, I'm glad I didn't buy that.

[KillerSynth]

Hey you guys, out there
Can you read the Japanese manual

[Tyler2000]

you bought 5 for yourself? (or are you reselling them?)

[crystalmsc]

that's cool, $45 mag with a free synth (with in/out!) thrown in..hard to beat.

[griffin avid]

you bought 5 for yourself? (or are you reselling them?)

1) Well, I didn't know if soldering was involved and I thought I might destroy one in the process.
2) I was thinking about circuit bending and wanted some for raw parts alone.
3) Another Producer mate over here wanted one
4) I got a PM on VSE so one is for them.

Reselling shouldn't be necessary since they can easily be ordered.
I didn't fancy myself as any sort of middleman as any bookstore should be able to place an order.
I didn't put all this out there earlier because I wanted to be sure they would deliver and it wasn't a total piece of junk- although some people are apparently expecting a minimoog sound. Actually, I think it sounds better than I expected.

[JSRockit]

So wait, is there soldering involved?

[kvnvk]

I was looking into possibly getting one last week and from what I can tell there is no soldering involved. I decided against purchasing one, though it does appear to be a fun little toy from the various youtube videos I watched.

[griffin avid]

So wait, is there soldering involved?

I jusy thought there might be.

It's snap together (or screw together)
Very simple assembly. I just looked at the pictures.
I had one pause at the color of two wires. Green looks a lot like Blue in the magazine blueprint.
Nothing too bad.
As they say overseas "It was a doddle"

They have images of this synth being run into/out from all the other free stuff from previous issues.
Some of the other gadgets look pretty wickid.

And their photogallery has classic pictures of synths on stage.
Herbie, Devo etc...
They seem to be doing a feature on Hard Verse Soft with in studio audio comparisons.

This looks like an awesome magazine. I have a friend that reads Japanese so I might have this whole thing translated. Plus, this unit is on like a dozen pages so they're apparently showing all the way it can be combined with other gear. And there's an interview with its designer.

[soundxplorer]

I ordered one on Ebay last week (from user Cinnemix), and today the seller refunded my money saying "they are out of stock". Not cool (taking orders before they had them).

The worst part is this seller still has 4 more SX-150s up for auction on Ebay. Still selling them after cancelling my order? Even less cool.

Oh well. I'll take it as a sign that the money should be put toward a FreqBox instead.

[Bitexion]

Jesus, that thing sounds like those bad driving games on my old C64..

Would be like buying a Donald Duck magazine only to get the c**p plastic toy gun inside.

[polardark]

I ordered one on Ebay last week (from user Cinnemix), and today the seller refunded my money saying "they are out of stock". Not cool (taking orders before they had them).

The same thing happened to me with this seller. Disappointing. Then again to be perfectly honest i dont actually *need* more junk at home

[mute]

Jesus, that thing sounds like those bad driving games on my old C64..

Would be like buying a Donald Duck magazine only to get the c**p plastic toy gun inside.

FAIL.

[JSRockit]

Thanks to griffin avid... I will have one soon. It should be fun to f around with... nothing serious.