Stylophone: Monotron's big brother?

I've been using the Korg Monotron Delay & Duo for a while now. I've used them a little bit in my band Kattalax. I've used them a lot in my other project Gordon Gallant Most people consider these to be mostly toys but, I've found if you play them carefully and add the right effects they can sound more interesting then any $1000+ synth you could buy.  (Send in the synth nerds with pitch forks).

Monotron & Teenage Engineering Robot.

In their defense, these are very limited sound wise. It's basically one sound that you can tweak many different ways with the slide keyboard and the various knobs. I've just loved that you can get so much out of so little with these. They are a blast to improvise with but lately I've been looking around for something that may be a step up from these. Maybe something with the same tweak-ability but with perhaps a few more built in sounds to play with.

After a bit of searching it seems that it might be something that only I'm looking for. There is not much in between the $50 monotron and the $100-$150 synths that are more like full fledged bargain sythns with built in midi and step sequencers. These are nice but they are overkill for what I want to do. I do all my sequencing in my DAW and I don't really do that sort of thing in a live setup.

After a bit of searching I eventually was led to the Stylophone. Specifically the Gen X-1 The Stylophone is similar to the Korg Monotron's with the addition of added tweak-ability, built in effects, and the ability to go over several octaves. This is especially great if you want a gritty synth sound that can be tweaked on the fly go really low at the same time.

It also has two different kinds of input methods. The main keyboard is played with a built in stylus that you can tap and drag along the keys. There is also a sliding keyboard right above it where you can get the nice sliding and tapping effect. When plugged into a sound source the stylophone sounds much more rich and thick compared to the sound of the Monotrons. It sounds much closer to a real synth. It's going to sit in the mix in a different place which I'm going to have to adjust to. I've always used the Monotron as a back round filler in many songs but the Stylophone stands more in the middle or front. The bottom end is much more defined and could easily be used as a bass machine. I think with some effects I will be able to find a spot for it in places the Monotron just can't go but a full synth may not be tweak-able enough to get the sound I want.

I was going to make a video of the Stylophone but there are already many examples on line. These two video's are a good start:  Here and Here

Overall I'm glad I have all three of these mini synths. Each one fills a unique void for me and all of them are very inexpensive.