If you’ve ever dreamed of owning a JEN SX1000 Synthetone then you can officially stop trawling the small ads and boot sales because, thanks to Audiothing, you can now own a perfect recreation of this lost gem within your DAW or iOS device.
For all its diminutive size and simplicity the JEN SX1000 Synthetone was something of a synth landmark. While not exactly a classic, and of limited functionality when compared to the far costlier hardware both available at the time of its production and produced subsequently, it does, however, have its own unique sound.
And, as one of the first truly affordable synths, has a place both in history and the heart of any synth fan.
The Italian-made SX1000 was first released in 1978 and quickly found favour with musicians on a budget, bringing the possibility of owning a synthesiser within reach for many for the first time. Nailing that all important sub-one-hundred £99 price tag it successfully spent years upon the pages of the famous (for its time) Kays Catalogue being its affordable in-house synth of choice. Thus, for synth fans of a certain age, seeing this new, virtual take on Jen’s classic will doubtless evoke memories of hours spent calculating how many paper rounds would be required to make its monthly payments…
It is, of course, monophonic. There’s a single oscillator on board, sporting sawtooth, square, and pulse waveforms, and a noise generator offering both white and pink sources. Audiothing have worked hard to emulate the JEN’s MM5837 digital noise source which, despite its tiny price tag, was also found in the Sequential Prophet 5, Korg MonoPoly, and Oberheim OB-X.
And, fittingly for a synth that was easy for enthusiasts to dismantle and mod, Audiothing have done just that, expanding their virtual SX1000 to be fully polyphonic, adding a sub oscillator with a -3 octave range and adding additional controls for legato modes, velocity, and more – all essentials for getting the most out of this budget synth.
The filter section features a 24dB/octave resonant low-pass filter capable of classic self-oscillation, with two ADSR envelopes for volume and the filter.
There’s also an LFO for vibrato, tremolo, or filter modulation, which has been expanded with additional waveforms, and sync mode and there’s even an arpeggiator this time around too, being ‘borrowed’ from the iconic arp on board the Roland Juno 60.
It features up, up & down, down and random mode, a four octave range, adjustable rate and sync, hold/latch mode, note order mode (both pitch and key pressed) and a chord mode.
Finally the SX1000 magic has been further expanded via four on board effects. There’s a tape echo (based on their own Space Echo emulation Outer Space), a spring reverb, a wave folder and a flanger. And you can even change the order of the effects in the chain with a simple drag and drop.
And given the original synths diminutive stature it's entirely appropriate that the SX1000 is available on iOS via the App Store in addition to being an Audio Unit, VST2 & 3, CLAP and AAX plugin and a standalone desktop app.
And you can even download a save disabled demo (with timed, three-second silences) to give it a spin before you buy.
It’s yours in a limited time offer for just €49. Find out more from Audiothing here.
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