Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: Korg Poly800/EX800 Users

Hey folks, I'm really glad I found this forum! Nice work everyone.!


EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: I love this synth! But, I'm missing the joystick and need some info
on rigging up some resistors to run in tune without it.


(Ok first, I'm not totally illiterate, just really excited by good/fun hardware synths)

So, I recently was given a tattered old poly-800 mk1 from a friend...Free is a really good
price!

I was really skeptical about this unit when I read about it and even more skeptical when I
got my hands on it and was loading it into my car because it felt like a total cheap piece
of sh∗∗t. Plastic unit with crappy buttons and that stupid programming reference stencil
area that should have been filled with a million knobs and switches...anyway...

I got it home, hacked together a power supply to turn it on...and you know the
story...nothing, no sound...........oh wait if I hold the keys down I heard some kind of low
fequency something coming in on a really slow envelope...I think...So I quickly referenced
the manual, which amazingly was part of the deal, to put it into programming mode and
set up everything to make a simple square wave, unfiltered, sane adsr settings...and sure
enough...success...major success!!! It actually worked...nice!

Oh dear, then I read about the battery issue in the manual....WHAT? NO INTERNAL
BATTERY? You must be kidding me, seriously? come on...so I unplugged the dc power,
plugged it back in, sure enough, everything was erased...no really, come on, really?
seriously? come on korg...really? YES REALLY.

First order of business 3v lithium mod... (THANKS GUYS!)...works like a charm... Yes one
step closer to a "real synth"...

Anyway, this synth, for certain applications, absolutely kills! I love it to death...the factory
presets are ridiculously bad...seriously all of them (even patch 15 ;) This thing sounds
best when you open it right up loud and pure...I REALLY, REALLY, love the oscillators on
this thing...and the filter sounds really good, but I'm going to do the 12db mod asap, I
don't like 24db filters personally for the music I make...I prefer the more acidy sound of
12db...

I have a Jupiter-8 and a Juptiter-6, and I hate to admit it, but this thing will make killer
sounds not possible on those two machines...very complimentary...Retro Electro
madness!!!!!...

Maybe you can tell...I love old keyboards...YYEEEEAAAAAAAHHHHHHH... <happy dance>

I'll upload some good "housey-technoy-elctroey-acidy-discoey-psy-ee" patches for
everyone soon...

Ok, long, long, story short. (Thanks for listening)...


THE REAL MEAT OF THIS MESSAGE:

I'm missing the joystick unit completely, its not just broken, its gone, the whole unit... I
can stare down the square hole and see the connectors hanging there.

1) I think the pitch of the unit is being thrown off because there's no resistance on the
pitch mod joystick, it's sounds about 5 tones off, yeah?

2) Would somebody be kind enough to tell me what resistors I should wire up to what
leads to simulate the joystick being in the center? Please? I'll buy you a case of beer or
lunch, or write you a song, or something...I promise.

3) Does anybody want to sell me a joystick unit? or know where I can get one?

Peace everybody, happy synthing... :) :) :) :) :) :)