The SX-150 Mark 2 is an analog synth. You set some knobs, grab the metal pencil-like thing and touch the strip on the bottom. It gives you about 4.5 octaves of range depending on where you touch it. I’m assuming you already hit the play button above to hear what it sounds like. I was quite surprised at exactly how clean the output of this little thing is. It gives a wide array of early doctor-who sounding effects, which is quite cool.
Awesome things:
– It is really cheap. I got mine for $21.50 on amazon.
– It is really fun. Even if you don’t know what the knobs do… they all do something, and it is a blast just fiddling.
– It can sound like a robot! The touch strip is pretty expressive.
– It will annoy your family and friends (and possibly confuse your pets).
– Built in speaker!
Less than awesome things:
– The knobs are not super well made – I expect good knobs in a two thousand dollar instrument… I guess this is what you get for 20 bucks!
– Manual stickers – You need to put all the stickers on yourself. I guess if you’re a sticker person, this is a plus.
– The built-in speaker is ALWAYS ON. You can’t practice with headphones.
You should absolutely get this if you’re doing sound design on a retro video game. You get super street cred for using a real analog synth, and it is way more fun than debugging level 5.
You should probably get this if it just sounds like fun to play with… because it is… and it is only $20.
If you are annoyed by the demo, and this unit will be accessible to 12-year-olds who live with you… DO NOT GET THIS! It is addictive and does not have an easy learning curve for producing beautiful music. So you’re going to be up at all hours listening to bleeps. You have been warned!
Requires 4 AA Batteries (not included).