I've learned alot about the nature of polyphony since my earlier post, from reading this:
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/dec00/articles/synthsec.aspMaybe a better description of the Poly800 is "Polyphonic DCO and Paraphonic VCF"...
Guess I do play chords on my EX800, or else use it as a monophonic synth. Guess I automatically went that route, cause that's how it 'wants' to be played. Guess I never properly thought about about the 'why' before now...
Everything you describe about the limitations of this synth, well first I thought "OK so this is why this synth cost me so little", then thought "OK this synth is probably not worth having", then thought "It's part of the charm, and the unique sound possible, that the three envs aren't the usual AR/ADSR, and that the amp and filter envs aren't retriggered when playing legato"... And remembered that, whatever about the physical limitations of the synth due to its architecture, I just like the sound of what I have programmed it to do so far... Has that quite-simple 80's sound I associate with happy days from my youth nailed to a tee, a noise source, a great filter, and the oscs are quite good - well, I don't have a problem with their sound, but yes I would indeed love some detuning action in dual mode for decent unison, or PWM...
Would introducing a modulated delay line, maybe into a simple overdrive/clipping circuit, in the outputs of each osc bank not 'simulate' harmonic richness before it hits the single filter?
I do like putting an overdrive pedal after my EX800 for adding aggression on monophonic sequenced bass lines, adding power to the dual mode, possibly putting it thru a filter after; or sometimes thru a nice analog chorus (Boss CE3 into an Ibanez SC10 is what I have - and the stereo outputs from these pedals means I can switch off the EX800's chorus), coaxing richness out of it for wide pad sounds.
In other words, it can sound smooth, does nice string-type sounds, it's polyphony at the oscillator level overrides its limitations in the envs and filters (loads of mono analogs out there these days), its easy to coax aggression out of that filter if you program it right, and has a sufficiently simple architecture that means it's OK to program from the front panel.
Would I like a JX8P? Yep! Would I miss the EX800? I think I would! Would I miss the few-hundred extra cost difference between the two? Right now, you betya.
Thanks, Eanna