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Subject: Re: [korgpolyex] Re: hi all

From: <backshall1@...>
Date: 2015-04-17

My guess would be sysex is not going to work at all. If it had the EX-800 ROM in it, the keyboard keys would not work. Obviously yours work. Another thing to note is that the Hawk kit will replace the ROM and RAM and keep patches in flash RAM which requires no battery. No, velocity sensitivity will never be part of the factory keyboard. It is not physically capable. The Hawk kit can’t change the sensors under the keys, but it can make the Poly-800 respond via MIDI to velocity data from another keyboard that does sense velocity. I’m not aware of any high pass filter/splitter type mod for the Poly-800 but I suppose something like that could go before the stereo chorus. As far as I know, it’s just one mono signal until it gets to the chorus. I would suggest not modding anything until you get the Hawk kit in. Save your soldering iron for that. Also consider the AtomaHawk kit (sold separately, ask Mike about this). It essentially gives you software and MIDI control over the three most common hardware mods (MoogSlayer, FM-800, 12/24db filter switch). It doesn’t give you knobs and switches to control them, but I think you can modulate them with LFOs and Envelopes, save these settings in memory, and modify them over MIDI. It can still be used together with the knobs.
 
Sent: Friday, April 17, 2015 10:02 AM
Subject: Re: [korgpolyex] Re: hi all
 
 

Oh, it's already up there?
 
Ok, I'll take it down, right now
 
So I guess trying a sysex dump/ load will tell me what I'm dealing with as well as opening it up?
 
Also, I'm dying to get velocity sensitivity out of the keyboard, I think this is part of the Hawk mod, No?
 
Would also love to split the signal at some point in the circuit with everything over 900Hrz going through  pot controlled distortion, and everything below remaining untouched, then remix the signals later on in the circuit. Basically get some more nastiness without losing all the bottom end, I realize this might be a phase nightmare however, Phase pot maybe? That could produce some craziness, forgive me if what I suggest is impossible, I'm very new to electronics.
 
Any interesting little mods you can suggest? I've got my solder gun ready to go!
 
On Fri, Apr 17, 2015 at 5:33 AM, backshall1@... [korgpolyex] <korgpolyex@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
 
If the patches are still there, it means you probably have an internal battery that is keeping the memory chip alive. Patches go in RAM, not ROM, so no ROM chip can do this. You would have to open up the Poly-800 to see if there is a CR2032 lithium coin cell in there. You should probably do this anyway so you can check the voltage on this battery if it is there. There’s no point in depending on an old battery that is about to die anyway. There is also a fairly large electrolytic capacitor on the power to the RAM chip, so you can usually turn it off for a couple of seconds without losing the patches. If it can keep patches overnight while turned off, then you definitely have a battery in there somewhere. You need to remove ALL screws and bolts on the bottom to open it up, so it can take a while. If you are going to install the Hawk kit, you are going to have to do some work in there anyway, so get used to opening it up.
I believe the idea of using the EX-800 ROM chip is so you can do MIDI SysEx Dumps/Loads instead of using wav files through the tape interface. The Poly-800II can do this but the old Poly-800 Mk1 cannot. The firmware bug was that if you sent MIDI data too fast, it could trash the patch data. Since you are only using the Tape interface, this is not causing your problem loading patches.
 
By the way, I see you uploaded the wav file to Files->Common. I guess you didn’t notice that this is the same file that is already in Files->Poly-800->Patches and patch dumps folder since March, 2006.
 
Don B.
 
Sent: Friday, April 17, 2015 5:24 AM
Subject: Re: [korgpolyex] Re: hi all
 
 

This might be a redundant message, just not sure whether my replies are being displayed in the right place,

 
Anyway, My P800 LIVES! Somewhere around 5 am last night  got it right!
 
SO, I turn it off, no batteries in it, then turn it on and the factory default aches are still there, does that mean I have the ROM chip? If not is there some other way to tell?
 
Oh, and anyone who needs the factory default cassette in WAV. format, just let me know and I'll send it to you.