Gakken SX-150 sequenced via Novation BassStation

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 voilà! - 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.
This video is to show that it works, not a musical statement.
Have fun!

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Gakken
• SX
• 150
• analog
• synthesizer
• synth
• sequenced
• by
• elektron
• machinedrum
• sps-1
• UW
• MID
• MIDI
• to
• machine
• via
• Novation
• BassStation
• Rack
• CV
• GATE
• converter
• bass
• techno
• electronic
• electro
• analogue

[gasteropodica]

I just bought a Bass station... so I'm gonna try this. But I have one question, these patch cables look strange, which part did you connect to the sylus, the ground or the + ?

[thelefthandedheroes]

If you open a patch cable you see it has two wires in it. You need one of them (the one comes from the tip of the jack).

The stylus is one piece of steel. It has only one connection to the PCB. That part :)

[33six]

awesome! Do you know if it would be possible to use my guitar/bass signal to trigger the synth?

great work man : )

[thelefthandedheroes]

You can trigger it with control voltage, If you can turn your guitar signal to that? I dont know. Maybe a Midi guitar plugged to a Midi-to-cv converter then like on the video...

What you CAN do is to filter your guitar sound through its input!

[aoleft]

Trigger with machiendrum？

[thelefthandedheroes]

Yes, a Machinedrum midi machine plays the melody. This midi info is translated by the novation basststation to control voltage information.

[spazmo68]

Did you use tip, ring, sleeve patch cables or instrument patch (tip, sleeve)? I tried it with the TRS cable and wasn't able to get it to work (tried using the copper wrap cable, white and red cables).

I've got a moogerfooger that receives CV/Gate. I'll try that to make sure I'm getting the proper CV sent out of the bass station.

Thanks for posting this!

[AlphA202303]

"CV and GATE out to the stylus" really? and it works? I would think that connecting the cv/gate together alone would be bad for the bassstation. I'd probably throw a few diodes in there to be safe (unless the bassstation already has internal diodes at the outputs). it's cool that it's working for you though.

[CrossovrMstr]

wow the first part sounded like the music for the Jurassic park game on Sega!

[VacTrooper]

Wait.  Damn! That thing sounds phat. A lot.

[samambaiadearte]

I use my bass statio0n to control my SH-101. It works perfectly! Nice drones!

[gasteropodica]

Works perfectly! made a custom patch cable with one plug on the end and added a female connector to the sx-150 which connects directly to the pcb. I only hope short-circuiting the cv and gate like this won't damage my Bass Station...

[33six]

How would I go about filtering my sound through it then?

Sorry about all the questions - I'm a little slow!

[gasteropodica]

thanks a lot! I didn't get the part with the tip.. now I got it.