Hi Jose and Poly fans,
Well, let me just first say that I really, really appreciate these sorts of emails because this is really a project that is going to take a huge effort and has little chance of making a buck. So I need all the encouragement you can give me to keep this up. I don't really have much "free time" on my hands so I sneak time into this project only after having looked after everything else in my life and that is family, work etc.
This is truly a labor of love for me. Looking at ebay we could all just go and buy a Korg DW-8000 or EX-8000 for maybe $300 or so bucks and we would have more functions than the Poly 800 ever will. In particular, you cannot beat the eight VCF's that are used in the 8000. I am hoping there will be a day in the future where we'll be able to replace the DCO's and the filter on the Poly entirely. If anyone has an 8000, I would like to know what processor is used in it. I find it difficult to believe that a 80C85 CPU could be in there but it would be really nice to know that it was using an 80C85.
Anyway it really is a lot of fun to be poking right inside the guts of a keyboard like I am able to. The Poly design itself is very clever and Korg really squeezed a great deal out of a bunch of multiplexors, digitally controlled switches and a single Digital to Analog convertor.
And now having spent some time working on rebuilding the entire keyboard functions myself, I have even more respect for the engineers who developed the software that fits into that little 8Kbps ROM.
At this point in the project, I am still contemplating the situation where I have learned so much about the existing code that is in the keyboard, it seems a bit of a shame to have to rewrite so much of it. But the more time I spend learning how Korg wrote all of the functions, the more I think it could become completely impossible to patch new functions into the existing code.I already have a nice way to boot up the keyboard in two different modes. But using that method requires that I rewrite the entire code base from scratch and then add new functions into that base. At my rate of progress it could take a year or two just to do that alone. So I am thinking that the upgrade board will use EEPROM and we will provide a mechanism to upgrade the EEPROM with new firmware via SYSEX. Then, I could write some of the primitive functions and get us all up and running on them with the option to continue to upgrade the firmware when new functionality comes out of the works.
So my focus right now is on writing my own SYSEX functions that will allow me to dump the code into the new EEPROM and RAM.
Anyway, enough for now. I'll keep you all up to date as we progress.
Mike H.
Jose Curvo <homem_eletronico@ hotmail.com> wrote:
Hi Mike,
I'm glad you took this route. Even loving my Poly800 as much as I do it was
a bit unconfortable seeing someone who could actually understand what makes
the beast tick to settle for it's twenty years old technology. Many of it's
features were compromises to keep prices down. No syx on the original Poly,
no velocity, no calibration of the joystick (mine sends cc with low values
all the time), only on or off for each waveform, only one filter...
I choose one instead of a Synclavier, Fairlight or PPG, guess why? ;-)
Twenty years after I think you can do it better than it ever was. I would
love a ROM OS on a piggyback card with a socket for the old one and a soft
switch that allowed me to choose wich to enable. So a could have the stock
I'm used to and the small things I wish it to do, like syx.
I'm a dumb when it comes to programming. But you are right on the spot when
you feel free to create ∗from∗ what was a good thing. I don't know what can
be done, midi delays? arppegiators? harmonizers? Most hardware itens weren't
good sellers but what would they cost today?
Just think of sockets. So we don't ruin our belove printed circuits trying
the new season's OS. If it's simple to be done and cheap, maybe we all get
as hooked as guitarrists are to pedals (just this last one). May be not. But
easy and cheap are allways good selling points.
Maybe in the near future you could even get rid of hardware limitations, I
mean there must be chips that can make better DCOs than those on the Poly.
Why not? They were chosen with both eyes on the bottom line. Time has
changed and the makers of those days' best ones must be happy to sell a few
more units before declaring them obsolete. Maybe a open plataform hardware -
need more voices? add a card.
I don't know what can be done. Or how much it would cost. Just wish it could
be done.
Just think that as much as we all loved the poly it doesn't need to be the
stick any synthesizer should be measured with. It was just the best synth we
could buy, and maybe that's what made them a great synth.
You are doing great. There are at least 600 of us crossing our fingers and
waiting for the 800III. Sometimes the only help we can give is spare you
from long useless e-mails.
Thank you,
Jose Curvo
>From: "korgpolyex800" <korgpolyex800@ yahoo.com>
>Reply-To: korgpolyex@yahoogro ups.com
>To: korgpolyex@yahoogro ups.com
>Subject: [korgpolyex] Code update
>Date: Wed, 29 Nov 2006 02:24:02 -0000
>
>A few weeks ago I decided to just rewrite the code from scratch. I
>mean, there might be some Korg lurker on this list just waiting to
>take a law suit out against me so I figured it better to just rewrite
>the code.
>
>OK, at this point, I've got a ROM ready that allows me to send a SYSEX
>to the EX800 that pokes a byte (or bytes) into any RAM location/s I
>want to.
>
>Very nice!
>
>So far, I've identified several performance parameters that can be
>adjusted through the sysex command that I've inserted into the code.
>Only drawback is that you no longer have the tape functions.
>
>If anyone would be interested in using such a ROM in their EX800's,
>just let me know. Depending on the response I will post my new ROM
>onto ebay at a price around 20 bucks or so.
>
>This is just the beginning!
>
>Mike.
>
>PS: Excuse my previous rant, I was feeling a Clash of
>Civilizsynthesizat ions!
>
>
>
>
>
>Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
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