Stylophone GEN X-2 Expands on its Predecessor

 Oops! I did it again. I bought a piece of musical gear that I wanted but really didn't need. This time it was the new Stylophone GEN X-2 portable analog synthesizer, which replaces the apparently discontinued GEN X-1.

Why didn't I need it? For a couple of reasons: I already have the Stylophone GEN X-1, which is mostly identical in both form and function to the GEN X-2. And because the most significant new features of the GEN X-2 are its CV (Control Voltage) capabilities.

If you aren't familiar with CV, it is a simple system that allows synthesizers and related analog electronic components to control each other remotely. For example, pressing a key on a CV keyboard can send two voltage signals to a modular synthesizer. The pitch CV signal instructs the synth to play a specific pitch or note, and the gate CV signal controls when to activate or deactivate the sound. A third CV signal can also be used to adjust the value of a corresponding knob, such as modulation depth or filter cutoff.

CV control is 1960s technology, but it still works, and it's still pretty cool. CV is essential for communication and interaction between most of the current Eurorack synthesizer modules. And that's why I didn't really need the GEN X-2. I've been trying to downsize my life over the last year or two, getting rid of things that no longer felt essential. In the past, I definitely suffered from Gear Acquisition Syndrome, buying far more stuff than I ever learned to use properly. So last year, I sold the vast majority of my Eurorack equipment. Now, I only own a few standalone synth items that have CV connectivity. And really, I don't even need those because I am not a professional gigging musician or recording artist. I am mostly a hobbyist, and I play my synths to amuse myself occasionally. So, I don't need an elaborate setup like I once had.

I bring this up because I want to emphasize that if you already have the GEN X-1 and love it, but don't have other CV-capable synthesizer products, then the additional features of the GEN X-2 will be of little to no benefit. However, if you do want to get into Eurorack, then the GEN X-2 can definitely be part of your introduction to that whole world. Just keep in mind that the CV features of the GEN X-2 require some other piece of compatible gear. Unlike the Stylophone GEN R-8, the GEN X-2 is not designed for self-patching* between components within a single instrument. So, you will need a sequencer, a semi-modular synthesizer, a keyboard controller, or a Eurorack system to take advantage of the GEN X-2. When you do have it patched up with another compatible product, you can play the GEN X-2 keyboard with the stylus to control the sound of the other gear. Or you can do the reverse, and use the other product to play the sound of the GEN X-2.

I did some experiments to see how well the CV connectivity performed. (This required a few 3.5mm TS mono audio patch cables, not included.) As a controller, the GEN X-2 definitely can be used to play other synths, but I found the same challenges associated with any stylus instrument. I had to look at the metal keyboard surface as I played to make sure I was hitting the right notes, and I had to make a conscious effort to firmly press down on the stylus for a good electrical connection. I much preferred using the GEN X-2 as the sound source controlled by other gear. It performed well with the Korg SQ-1 sequencer. And I could control it effectively with the Stylophone GEN R-8 with both the touch keyboard and the on-board sequencer.

Results were less satisfactory with a Behringer Swing controller keyboard. At least with my particular Swing and GEN X-2, there seemed to be a mismatch with the CV Gate voltage. The sound was not stopping when I stopped pressing a key. To fix this, I had to route the CV Gate signal through an attenuator module on my Behringer Neutron semi-modular synthesizer and adjust the corresponding knob until everything seemed to work correctly. I have not been able to find the voltage rating of the Swing's CV Gate output, so I don't know exactly what is causing the problem when connecting directly to the GEN X-2, but the attenuator did fix it. (FYI - There is more than one standard voltage for CV gate signals. So this is always a risk if you don't know the specs of your instruments before you buy them.)

I also had an expected problem when using a Moog Werkstatt-01 as a keyboard controller for the GEN X-2. In this case, it was the pitch CV signal from the Moog that was an issue. For some unexplained reason, the Werkstatt was not designed to output the more-or-less standard 1 volt per octave pitch CV signal. There is a note about this in the Werkstatt owner's manual that says an attenuator is required to get it to play pitches correctly with other gear. So, once again, I had to route through the attenuator on my Neutron to get the GEN X-2 to play an in-tune chromatic scale. (Gate CV, by the way, worked just fine when patched directly.)

As you can imagine, patching three portable or standalone synths to get something musical out of them can be rather cumbersome and not very portable. So, I see the CV capability of the GEN X-2 as an introduction to CV control and a tool for experimentation, but probably not something that will serve as your primary controller or sound generator in a large Eurorack setup or as part of your traveling gear for performing on-stage.

Still, the Stylophone GEN X-2 is a fun, but limited, analog synthesizer that you can throw into a purse or backpack with a pair of headphones to compose, jam, or just make funny noises almost anywhere. If you don't already have a GEN X-1, I think it's worthy of your consideration.


QUICK TIP

* One self-patch that does seem to work is to connect a cable between the GEN X-2 pitch out jack and the filter in jack. The filter cutoff frequency will shift up or down as you play different pitches across the keyboard.

Dubreq gets busy: New (x2), Newer, Newest

Dubreq, Ltd., the company behind the Stylophone brand, has been super busy of late. In recent weeks they have shipped two products that were announced about a year ago. They have put out another new product with very little advanced notice. And this week they have announced the sound shaper of things to come. Here's a quick overview:

NEW 

In late 2024, the UK-based company started delivering the long-awaited Stylophone Theremin that it first teased a year ago at Winter NAMM Show 2024. The entry-level noisemaker combines a pitch-only theremin with a simple slider-pot-controlled synthesizer. The theremin half of the instrument works fairly well, considering its low price. It makes for a nice intro to the instrument category for music makers who want to experiment with the antenna-controlled device but don't want to invest hundreds of dollars more for a more serious, professional-quality, instrument. The synthesizer half of the Stylophone Theremin works much like an Electro-theremin or Tannerin, and is somewhat reminiscent of an Ondes Martenot. The slider is easier to play with some degree of accuracy than the theremin, and the sound is more stable and pure. However, the two sides of the instrument can modulate each other if noise is your thing. I purchased a Stylophone Theremin and I have enjoyed messing around with it, but it will probably not be my go-to theremin when I want to record or perform live. (Just like I wouldn't use a basic model Stylophone keyboard in place of Hammond organ.) The slider synth, though, could come in handy for more precision playing.

I recently featured an interview with Jake Rothman on my Theremin 30 podcast. Jake designed the prototype units of the Stylophone Theremin.

ALSO NEW

Also, in recent days, Dubreq began shipping the DS-2 Analog Drone Synth, its first compact portable modular synthesizer. Like the Stylophone Theremin, the DS-2 was announced in conjunction with the Winter NAMM show last year. The DS-2 is packed with oscillators, sub-oscillators, LFOs, and other analog controls for a rich, keyboardless drones. I haven't purchased the DS-2, but I look forward to hearing what creative musicians will do with it.

NEWER

At the end of 2024, Dubreq released the Stylosette Keys keyboard with little fanfare. Unlike its flagship product line, the Stylosette Keys instrument doesn't employ a stylus. The touch-sensitive keyboard is built into a circuit board designed to resemble an old-school compact cassette audio tape. (Remember those?) It shares some similarities with the Open Music Labs Mixtape Alpha synthesizer (2012) and the MicroKits Synth-A-Sette (2023). Like both, the Stylosette Keys fits neatly in an audio cassette case and uses touch surfaces instead of physical keys. And like the Synth-A-Sette, it includes jumper cables that can be connected to conductive objects, making them substitutes for the touch keys on the built-in keyboard. Built-in features include variable-speed vibrato, octave shift, adjustable delay, volume control, a tiny speaker, and a headphone jack.

NEWEST

Finally, in time for Winter NAMM Show 2025, Dubreq has announced the second entry in its compact portable modular series, the DF-8 Analog Dynamic Multifilter. In the same form factor as the DS-2 synth, this new unit provides multiple envelopes, filters, and noise sources. Also like the DS-2, it can be used as a portable tabletop device or installed in a Eurorack environment. Dubreq is building a waiting list that does not require a deposit. The delivery date is unknown, but I expect it to be in the second half of this year, based on how long it took for the DS-2 to reach the market.

 

E.T. Drone Home!

You can get yourself lost in space with the alien sounds of the Stylophone CPM DS-2, just unveiled by Dubreq at the 2024 Winter NAMM Show in Anaheim, California. 

With two-oscillators, two sub-oscillators, an LFO, reverb, delay, a mixer, and 12 modular patch points, this synth has plenty of sonic tools in a compact footprint.

Powered by AA batteries, it work as a standalone compact portable modular (CPM) instrument. Or you can patch it into a Eurorack system. I would love to plug it into my Stylophone Gen R-8 synthesizer to create some thicker keyboard-controlled sounds or to power the DS-2 with the arpeggiator of the Gen R-8.

The expected list price is $259 USD. You can pre-order now, with no money due until they are ready to ship at https://stylophone.com/ds2-pre-order/

Check out the teaser video here:

MicroKits goes retro-future with the Synth-A-Sette

MicroKits makes a fun little theremin electronics kit for kids that I recently featured on the Theremin 30 podcast. After that interview, MicroKits founder and designer David Levi let me try out the company's second product, the Synth-A-Sette. As of this writing, the first batch of Synth-A-Settes are already sold out, but more will available soon.

This cool little keyboard shares some characteristics with the Stylophone, so I thought I should feature it here.

The Synth-A-Sette is a monophonic keyboard instrument built with a form factor nearly identical to an audio cassette tape. (Remember those?) In fact, it is packaged inside a plastic cassette box. The non-moving keyboard is part of the circuit board. There is one full octave of touch-pad keys, but an octave jump button raises all the pitches to give you a second octave. 

The range of the instrument can be transposed with a tuning wheel in one corner. It has about two octaves of adjustability, so you can set up the instrument to play in just about any major or minor key (or most of those weird modes you learn about in music theory class.)  This is particularly handy when you want to jam with other musicians and keep your Synth-A-Sette in tune with their instruments.

Another rotary control adjusts the volume. One switch turns the power on and off. Another toggles a vibrato effect. There's also a headphone jack for private listening or to connect to external audio gear.

It's cool to see all the tiny electronic components on the bottom. Some of them are labeled so you can know what they do. A pair of AAA power the instrument for portable play. There's also a USB C jack for AC power. To save on batteries, there is also an automatic shut-off feature.

The little obround holes along the edges of the keys are meant for use with alligator clip cables. A set of cables is included in the package. With them, you can connect the eight "white" keys (think of a piano here) to everyday household objects. For example -- eight bananas, or whatever fruit you have handy.  Then with another cable connected between the grounding hole and your own body (don't pinch yourself with an alligator clip!) you can touch each banana in sequence to complete the circuit and play a melody. Metal objects will work best, of course, but experiment with other objects or eight of your best friends to see what else will make beautiful music.

And how does this instrument sound? Well, its analog tone generating circuit sounds similar to an electronic organ or a classic Stylophone. There is only one patch available, but running the headphone output signal through some guitar effects pedals could create some wild new timbres!

You can learn more about the MicroKits Synth-A-Sette, hear some sound samples, and get on the waiting list for the next batch of instruments at https://microkits.net/products/synth-a-sette.

New! A photo-realistic Stylophone GEN R-8 patch sheet

One of the biggest challenges with using most analog synthesizers is coming up with a reasonable way to save patches. The Stylophone GEN R-8 is no exception. Yesterday, because I had to stay at home all day due to COVID-19 restrictions, I decided to do something about that.

First, I spent multiple hours manipulating photos of my GEN R-8 to create a rather elaborate patch sheet template in Photoshop.  Buttons lights up when you turn them on. Knobs can be rotated. Even patch cables can be connected between four output jacks (SQR2 out, both LFO outs, and Env out) to any other input jack, with each source getting a different color of cable. It's a really cool tool for making a photo-realistic patch sheet for saving and sharing via computer and the web.

It's not so good if you want to print it and manually mark it with a pen, then save the sheet in a 3-ring binder.  So, today, I made some further modifications and came up with this more simple version:

You can draw lines on the knobs to indicate their positions, and write "ON" or make a check mark on the buttons that are turned on.  To indicate patch cables between two jacks, you can color them in with highlighter pens using a different color for each cable.

You are welcome to download and print blank copies of this patch sheet for your personal, non-commercial use. (Don't sell the blank document but you may share it for free. Don't remove the row of copyright and website information at the bottom.) Click this link  or the thumbnail image above to get the .pdf document.

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UPDATE July 8, 2020 - I received some feedback that my template isn't ideal for printing because it uses too much black ink.  So here is a revised template that does away with the photo realism and allows room for two patches on a single sheet of paper.

The label text is less sharp than before, but I think you should still find it useful. Click this link or the thumbnail image above to get the revised .pdf document.

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UPDATE August 4, 2025 - Back in 2020 on the Stylophone Official Facebook page, Markus Schroeder shared a template he just made using vector graphics and text.  It is much sharper and cleaner than mine.  He has recently made improvements and invited me to share the latest version. There's a link on my blog entry for August 4, 2025.





The Stylophone GEN R-8 printable patch sheets by Rick Reid are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be requested at https://www.rickreid.com.

Stylophone Gen X-1 Portable Analog Synthesizer

The newest addition to the Stylophone Museum is the Gen X-1, a fun little analog synthesizer that sells for about $70 USD.

The Gen X-1 is true to its heritage, retaining much of the quirky, awkward charm of the standard model Stylophones.  It can be played with a wired stylus, has the distinctive 1960s visual design of the original, and can make similar (some would say irritating) electronic organ sounds if you tweak the knobs just so.  But the Gen X-1 does a lot more. With 16 knobs and switches to dial in pitches and timbres, it can produce a surprisingly wide range of analog bloops, bleeps and more conventional musical tones. It is especially good at producing Moog-like analog bass and sustained lead synth patches, sci-fi sound effects like sirens, flying saucers, and noisy outerspace drones. The built-in speaker isn't very loud or hi-fi, so plug in a pair of headphones or an external amplifier to get the full effect.

With the built-in ribbon controller, the Gen X-1 can be played a bit like a theremin, a trombone or a fretless string instrument. The ribbon allows for playing the pitches between the standard notes of western scales. It's especially useful for more experimental, sci-fi style patches that sweep smoothly from high to low frequencies, or vice versa. A wiggle of the fingertip will generate some subtle vibrato, too.

Another cool feature is the analog delay circuit. It can be tweaked to simulate the release stage that the included envelope generator doesn't have. (It only has attack and decay.) Or the feedback level can be cranked up to generate cascades of interesting noises.

I find the tuning knob on the bottom of the instrument to be particularly useful.  Rather than allow only fine-tuning of the instrument's pitch (to match A440 or to be in tune with other instruments, for example), this knob can shift the keyboard up or down the full frequency range of the oscillator.

One funky and probably unintended feature of the Gen X-1 is that the instrument will function as a very weak microphone.  If you hook up the headphone output to an amp or recording device and really crank up the amplification, you can tap on or slap the plastic cabinet and hear the corresponding sound at the output.  It can even be manipulated by the delay circuit to produce some weird, noisy, percussion feedback.

Is the Gen X-1 perfect?  No.  It's still basically a toy, although this model is bigger and seems to have a more sturdy build than the classic models or the S1 reboot. The metal keys can be a bit frustrating. Accidentally resting the stylus between notes will produce an unintended pitch in a higher octave. The stylus wire seems as restrictive as ever.  And, as with all Stylophones, it can be a challenge to play the right notes unless you constantly keep your eyes on the keyboard and tip of the stylus. But at about $70, the Gen X-1 really is a great value with a ton of musical potential. Its feature set and playability far exceed its nearest competitor, the Korg Monotron pocket synthesizer range.

I like the Gen X-1 so much that I have three of them: one to play now, one as a backup, and one as a backup to my backup!