I love the retro look & sound of this. I might get one. I still love my old Monotron delay. And this is close to the original, but perhaps more usable. Thanks for sharing this with us, Gaz & SonicState.
Great video, good to see someone properly reviewing the product itself and not just comparing it to things far more expensive. For someone new to synths and their capabilities, it was brilliant having the jam at the end.
I love the limitations of this instrumemt. It forces you to be far more creative than someting that is overly feature ladened. Great vidski Gaz . Nice little instrument . Might get one for me n my daughter for those l9ng car journeys or M25 traffic jams lol.
There's a great lesson in there for when you're struggling to do anything creative. I find myself quite often crippled by choice. So artificially limiting yourself can often be enough to get you going and open up the creative motor. There's a viral level video hit waiting to happen with four people in a car, each with their own little thing on their lap. At least that's what I pictured when you mentioned M25 traffic heh
Clay Mann Yes when i first bought the monotribe i loooved it . Then its novolty wore off. Then started to try things from a diffrent angle and actually bled so so many good unique sounds from it. Haha yeh i had an idea all 3 little synths and one portable drum machine all linked in to a audio splitter into the input of the car stereo . Volume up loud !!!!!!
Oho, this takes me back to the projects in electronics music class I took that had an ARP 2000. I think I want one of these now. I loved the jam at 14:40!
Thanks for telling us the price. For some reason so many reviewers on youtube feel the need to withhold item costings. This unit is surely coming to a playground near you soon , as the original did in the 1970's. Thanks for the info
Love it! That jam was sick bro! I'd been considering a Monotron for my son to go with a Pocket Operator for Christmas but I think he'd learn a lot more about synthesis from this little beast. Great vid, from one Gaz to another.
After seeing that jam with the drums I'm definitely picking up one of these. It's also reminded me that the S2 exists and is something I also really want.
The intro tune reminded me of very early Dr Who ,, was expecting the cybermen to turn up . Great demo/review .. sounds way bigger and fatter than i expected !! The jam at the end was brill :-) let me the tour dates !!
Batteries, Beats, and the Great Outdoors Yes imagine what you could do by multitracking recording it. Think there should be a future Stylophone track competition. Your only effects allowed , reverb and delay . ( Maybe not even that ? ).
What a fun little device! Reminds me of how much fun I had with the Monotron Delay... my first synth. I must say as a comment for this video, the volume disparity (between the synth and Gaz's voice) had me reaching for the volume knob quite often.
Brilliant as always, Gaz! I love your passion and enthusiasm for creative tools - especially the more affordable ones. Often the instruments with the limitations are the ones that inspire the most creativity on our part. It makes sense that you would be drawn to such options. Keep up he great work and thanks for sharing! Peace.
If Id not already signed up for the Dubreq mailing list for this after NAMM, Gazs review would have made me do so, then that Drum Jam would have made it an Insta-Buy! Will go nice with my Monotribe, OG Stylophone and Stylophone Beat Box (just need to pick up an S2 now)!!!
Oh very nice Euan! Just found a lead on a cheap-ish S2. How is the 350? I *think* thats would be all Im missing then for a full set :-) Yeah the POs thru the filter would be cool too!
For the price of a decent guitar effects pedal; you get a source of analogue sounds, drones and "sample ready" glitch tones... As well as an additional external analogue delay with a filter. Even with just that - it worth the cost Couple this with a Korg volca sample, with a bit of synth ingenuity.... Think we got a pocket studio winner!
Awesome review Gaz! I will definately get one. The intro song and live jam with the drummer, im amazed. Have the original one, and it has been so much fun jaming with accoustic instruments, and everyone who starts to play it is amazed and can not put it down in the parties and stuff. When you bring one to a jam and everyone wonders what is that sound in a good surprise way. Its a lot fun. The original one could sound kinda like lead solo, and the GenX1 will be the bass addition to that. Plus LFOs and delay
Hi all I am having a hard time tuning this little synth. While adjusting the pitch with the bottom potentiometer isn't a problem, I can never completely and accurately "span" the keyboard using the trim potentiometer on the back of the synth,. I go back and forth "pitch - span" several times and it gets pretty close, but some notes are still off. Am I doing something wrong, or am I missing a step in trying to tune it? I am aware this little synth is far from ideal and there are some tolerances involved but the manual doesn't suggest anything about possible imperfections that may affect tuning . Any input or help will be greatly appreciated.
How about a Stylophone v Gakken Smackdown? Maybe some statistics on how long you spend tuning it versus playing it? I'm pretty sure I can replicate most Stylophone sounds with my voice and a broken microphone. Does Rolf Harris have one yet and what does he poke with the stylus? So many issues unexplored!
Nice Jam!You,guys,can form new electronic rock band "Stelophone Mode"(I am big "depeche mode" fan),get female vocalist and ollilaboratories with all his sinth and gadgets(check on his jams on YT,realy good)and you wil rock!
Gaz, excellent jam. Thanx for the review. I have: monotron delay and duo and a monotribe. In your experience, do you think that makes sense to buy a Stylophone? Thanx again.
I hoped that you would demonstrate how to smash the drums sound through this little box input :) Would be really interesting to see how it fares more as an analog sound-exploder :D
Did you ever get that intonation in tune? I can't seem to get mine in tune properly. I accurately got the middle and lower C notes in tune like in the user guide but other keys are still way off, like the middle and upper B for example, and if I push those in to the correct tuning the others fall back out again. I find this an odd issue since my regular Stylophone only has the one tuning pot but yet it tunes up dead perfect all the way on every note.
Hello. I am new to analog gear, so I would like to ask a question about tuning. In this video, on 9:00 there is a tuning issue that surprised me. The first 7 notes are intonating well, while the 8th is completely out of tune. I thought that the tuning knob on such devices is used to fine-tune all keys at once, so how does it actually work? Unfortunately, I can't find any instruction manual online. This issue is the only thing stopping me from buying the device. Also, I might be wrong, but if under "regular Stylophone" you are referring to modern Stylophone S1, the case might be that this instrument is virtual analog, unlike Stylophone Gen X-1.
Any chance of adding Midi in and out next please? Or does it have it? Another thought is to put it in eurorack with stylus hanging off it & add a handful of c.v & other sockets.
That jam sold me... I started out looking for something for a... I dunno, synth-punk project and need something cheap to just make a wall of noise at certain parts of certain songs. So korg monotron delay? Oh, but this could also play a melody and you just f**k it up while you play? Okay!
The delay reminds me of the Monotron Delay but with A LOT less hiss. It's still there but not near as pronounced. I might need to get this just for the line-in. Little dub monster on the cheap. At 14:02 Yes please.
nice Rage at the end, I would be pleased if you could chain it with Elektron Analag Drive, if someone has one around you. I'd be curious if you could make it sound like a 303 ? cause of the really high range for the resonance
I think I signed up for that already but it was so long ago. I thought I'd missed it. Thanks for the info. Does he just have one because he has a synth RU-vid channel? That's probably it.
I had the old one way back, but dont remember it going out of tune.. think this is even more a toy, and the S2 is more of a synth -- but the jam was nice!
tonalaxis, Not sure if that was meant ironically, but it does have pitch CV, of some sort - it would take a bit of hacking, but not much. Circuit Ben looked into it, which was discussed in one of the comments here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-CKlQg_232yM.html The tip of the stylus is a CV input. Probably not 1V/octave though, and you might want to add a buffer, e.g. a simple one op amp unity gain stage, or maybe one with adjustable gain so you could tune it a bit more.
