[sdiy] Polymoog

[ChristianH]

On Fri, 27 Jul 2001 14:50:22 +0100 Tony Allgood wrote:

> I have only got about 90%
> of the keys to work. And the velocity response is zero. 

I have to admit that I haven't played the Polymoog for some time
(however, due to its flat top, it makes a good work bench for reparing
other synths ;-) , but I think that not all of the presets actually use
velocity.

> Is it all worth
> it??? I really don't know. 

Well, when I got mine acouple of years ago, I was a bit disapointed as
well. It really sucks when compared to, say, a Prophet or an OB. But I
kind of like it _because_ it is different. And the triple resonance
filter can be fun - I still haven't fully understood the phase relationships
between the different mixable signals. I suspect some of them are in and
some are out of phase. So the resonance filters seem to actually cut
(instead of boosting) at times.

> The keyboard is so heavy. Is it supposed to
> be like that? It reminds me of the piano we used to have in the practice
> room at school. After ten minutes of playing, your hands ache all over.
> If this cannot be fixed the whole thing is going to spare parts.

Ah no Tony, you wouldn't dare...

> So my question is: is the keyboard problem a spring problem or a feature
> of the keyboard itself. Do they go bad? I know barbed wire goes stiff
> after a few years out in the open. Florian, Gene, are yours this bad?

Yep, my Polymoog's keyboard action is quite stiff as well. I think this
was intended to give something like a weighted action (IIRC, there _are_
weights inside the keys - there _must_ be something adding up to 90
pounds).
Back then, velocity sensing was quite new, and they probably tried to
make it like a "real" keyboard instrument, i.e. a piano.
Of coarse later synths (notably the DX7) completely redefined velocity
sensitivity to another dimension...

cu
Christian