Incredible Japanese paper-powered minature pipe organ kit

You may have heard about the Japanese magazine Science for Adults (Otonanokagaku), which recently came with a $30 analog synth kit. I'm now completely in love with the magazine, whose Japanese only website is full of wonders. There's a great little pipe organ - be sure to watch the video at the bottom of the page. The magazine itself looks great - page after page of stuff about organs, waveforms, and building the kit (you can even download extra punch cards). Admittedly it's not quite as elegant as this all-paper pipe organ, but it looks a bit more practical.
Gakken, their parent company, also produce many other great things, including these awesome electronics kits, which look like EMS synths. (Thanks, Paul)

Posted by Tom Whitwell.

Comments:

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# posted by

Peanut : 11:23 am

Does anybody know how to get this magazine in the UK? I'd quite like to build that little synth / theremin! :-)

# posted by

Peanut : 11:23 am

The SX-150 looks to me very much like a PAiA (http://www.paia.com) Gnome (http://www.synthmuseum.com/paia/paignome01.html) with a few bits missing, perhaps.

# posted by

Anonymous : 1:36 pm

Oh no, your links are hosed. I can't find the organ on their website and I desperately want to.

# posted by

Anonymous : 5:19 pm

I wonder if the little clicks and pops in the audio of the video were coming out of the organ or just poor engineering/encoding?

# posted by

Unknown : 5:20 pm

@hans fugal

Click on the "magazine itself" link and you will see a linked picture of the organ.

# posted by

Unknown : 5:22 pm

I picked 2 of these up the day it came out (Thursday), and built one right away. It was quite easy and it's a lot of fun. Sure, it's a little cheezy and very much toy-like, for about $33, it's very much worth it.

# posted by

Keith : 6:24 pm

Whoops, my comment was directed towards the synth, not the organ kit. I don't have that yet, but I love the synth.

The Theremin was great too. I built one last October. It was hard to get for a while, but now they're everywhere in Japan.

# posted by

Keith : 6:25 pm

Can the magazine be purchased or imported in the UK? I'd like to build one of the projects! :-)

# posted by

Peanut : 6:51 pm

The synth is available on ebay, e.g. http://tinyurl.com/5euyfp

Search Gakken SX150 on youtube for some samples of it in action.

# posted by

Anonymous : 7:13 pm

GENIUS! Great find! Thanks :-)

# posted by

Peanut : 11:30 pm

Proof that Theatre Tibia's should not be built on a 6" scale. Goodness.

# posted by

NCWdigital : 10:19 pm