MAKE | HOW TO – control a Gakken SX-150 via MIDI

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By Collin Cunningham
Posted 2008/07/30 @ 4:12 pm
Category Electronics, Music

The SX-150 was just released today and there’s already an excellent mod! Frankie writes -

Today Gakken released the kit of the SX-150 analog synth (a perfect match for the new Nintendo DS Korg DS10 analog synth card!).
RJ, a Japanese MAKE magazine reader, a couple fo weeks ago posted a guide to create a Midi interface for the Gakken SX-150 (so it has been hacked even before the release date!)!

- SX150 synth MIDI mod (scroll down for the SX-150)

- Gakken Analog Synthesizer SX-150 Mod. (RJ’s original post in Japanese)

More:
Gakken analog synth kit

BY Collin Cunningham

Born, drew a lot, made video, made music on 4-track, then computer, more songwriting, met future wife, went to art school for video major, made websites, toured in a band, worked as web media tech, discovered electronics, taught myself electronics, blogged about DIY electronics, made web videos about electronics and made music for them … and I still do!

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2 Responses to HOW TO – control a Gakken SX-150 via MIDI

Anonymous on February 28th, 2009 at 11:41 pm said:

Does anyone have the (required) code for the PIC? I assume it’s on the Japanese page somewhere but I’m not seeing it.

Reply ↓
leftie on January 6th, 2010 at 1:09 am said:

The Gakken SX-150 stylus gets the CV and GATE information from the ribbon-like slider pad.
I just connected the Novation BassStation Rack CV and GATE out to the stylus and voilÃ ! – have my MIDI controlled Gakken.
The cheapest way to do this is to cut a patch cable in half, took the plastic bits off the wire coming from the tips of the jacks, roll them together and stick the Gakken’s stylus into.
You may notice that it only works if the BassStation’s CV type set to ’00′ (Roland/Sequential/Arp) – because of the voltage and plug the Gakken SX’s out to a mixer rather than using the built in speaker – this is needed as the ground.

I believe this works with other MIDI-to-CV converters too.

Reply ↓