The Synthetone SX-1000 is an old Italian basic mono-synth. It has a single analog DCO with three waveforms: sawtooth, square, and PWM (Pulse Width Modulation). There is an analog filter (12dB/octave) with cutoff, resonance, and LFO modulation. There is also a simple ADSR envelope for shaping your sounds. In addition there are also white/pink noise generators a glide effect and a vibrato effect. It's known for fairly stable tuning too. Probably its best sounds are the lead ones, the basses aren't that deep but it sure can scream!

What it doesn't have is MIDI, CV/Gate or any other form of control. MIDI retrofits can take care of this however. Unfortunately there is no patch memory, and there is no way around this limitation. Its knobs are boldly colored and well layed-out for easy hands-on access; but you'll need a Polaroid camera if you want to store your patch settings! Also lacking are an arpeggiator, sequencer, pitch/mod wheels, and effects. Nevertheless, this Italian vintage synth is a very cheap entry-level analog synth that has some unique sounds and characteristics worth checking out if you find one. It's been used by Future Sound of London, LFO, Nexus 21, Altern 8, Eskimos & Egypt, Fillmore, Man Machine, Tim Simenon, Broadcast, Plone, Luke Vibert, Ladytron, Prodigy and Herb Legowicz of Gusgus.

DON TULIO

February 6, 2012 @ 11:28 pm

THIS SYNTH IT´S GREAT i have korg ps 3100, ms 20,polysix,system 100m, etc, but the only synth with sound with charm, funny and funky, the bass its really good sound, not moog or arp, but this synth its special very very like them.
jen its no more option how semi modular or modular synth, but sound amazingly
it´s you mod with new sun oscilator and new lf for send to diferent parameters and think the invesment make happy your ears and your heart.
this synth with the monomachine sound great couple.

jen only one things special
pwm or noise or crazy lfo with vibrato make the difference

Lorien

January 7, 2012 @ 6:07 pm

any idea what one is worth max?

Ben

September 19, 2011 @ 5:14 am

I never really took this synth seriously until I was in a recording session and a Jen showed up. I was surprised how good it's filter sounded at high resonance settings. I think this machine has character, is cute and also cheap. Worth every penny.

the mouse box

September 1, 2011 @ 7:53 am

i have one my favorite instument :)
but its bit limited, nice sounds though.

Andy

August 8, 2011 @ 10:44 pm

My father, god love him mistook this for a Moog and had me on a wild goose chase to the music shop, only to find it was a JEN SX1000. How disappointed was I? That is until I started playing this synth. It had all the cards, so I tweaked and then played around. I loved it. 30 years on, with a few issues with the Pots (they need cleaning or replacing). It has a very sweet Square wave and the filter is not that bad, white and pink noise and 3 Waves to choose from, LFO and a 3 octave Keyboard. I will never part with this synth, even though I have a couple of Moogs. I love it. Get one if you can.

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