HI, Mr. Toerag!
First, the Polysix and Mono/Poly, although contemporaries (ca. 1982? - 1985), are two VERY different machines, meant to do quite different things.
The Mono/Poly was Korg's brilliant answer to to the magical lure of the Minimoog... only much more versatile. It used SSM VCOs (4 of 'em!) and an SSM Moog-style ladder LPF, but has much more flexibility in control voltage routing. It also has two independent LFOs, two full ADSR (Korg design (envelope generators, the ability to sync or FM the VCOs with one another, and a wealth of patch points on the rear panel. Aside from complaints that the envelopes lack "snap" (I believe that's because they're "cleaner", with no pause between Attack peak and start of Decay, as in the Mini), and the filter's not up to the Mini's (Well, the SSM is about as close as one could get at the time without a patent violation - Korg learned well from ARP's little boo-boo!), I think that the sound is fat, full and lush. Plus, you can play up to four separate notes on the keyboard, albiet with only the one filter/VCA. It has an arpeggiator that most mono-, and many polysynths didn't have, and
notes can be latched and transposed using the keyboard. VERY well thought out!
The Polysix, on the other hand, was designed to bring analog polyphony within reach of the average musician jonesing for a synthesizer. At the time, the main/almost only competition was the Sequential Prophet 5, which listed in the $4,000(!!) range. The Korg people managed to introduce the Polysix at around $1,500, and jumped through some imaginative hoops to reduce it to that level without sacrificing sound quality.
The Polysix had only six single VCOs (which were linear, Not exponential, as with Moogs, ARPs, etc), but offered no external FM control. The filters, six of 'em, were the same Moog-type SSMs as the Mono/Poly's single filter, so the sound was quite warm. The filters can be modulated by an external source, as they respond to 1V/Oct CVs. It has a single LFO, and a single ADSR (SSM) per voice, but it also has a Chorus/Phaser/Ensemble circuit using analog delay lines that gives it a Very Full sound. It has a 32-patch memory, and a factory MIDI retrofit was available -- once upon a when.
The Mono/Poly has no patch memory (WISH it did!), so no backup battery was needed. (Also wish it had a Sample/Hold function, but that's easy to add). The Polysix, like many other polysynths of the era, used a "state-of-the-art" Nickel-Cadmium rechargable battery for patch memory backup. We have since learned, in our folly, that NiCads are dangerous to the environment (It's the Cadmium - a heavy metal), and need to be disposed of as hazardous waste, and... They're prone to LEAKING when aged! This corrosive crapola that comes out of 'em is what "re-etches" the Main Processor board, and sends otherwise healthy Polysixes to the scrapheap. If you find one, the Very First Thing to do is: REMOVE THE TICKING NI-CAD TIME BOMB AFFIXED TO THE PROCESSOR BOARD!!! IMMEDIATELY!! THOROUGHLY CLEAN the board, and all the nearby traces. The Old Crow
http://www.oldcrows.net/~oldcrow/synth/korg/polysix/index.html has an Excellent article illustrating how to replace the battery, clean
the key contacts, etc. Plus, there's a standard Service Manual there, too.
I've heard some complaints about the less-than-silent VCAs in these two dudes. Korg saved some $$ by brewing up their own VCAs out of a matched(?) pair of transistors, and of course, analog delay lines are, by their nature, prone to be noisy. I've heard of people substituting VCAs-on-a-chip... Juergen Haible did this to a Mono/Poly, and said it made a noteworthy decrease in noise. Me, I run my Mono/Poly through an old Alesis Noise Gate. Works great -- and it's adjustable! ;->
Hope that helps you out some. It's hard to assess the two machines without a listening test. A great source of info. for the Mono/Poly is:
http://monopoly.highspies.com/. Some info. on the Polysix, and a small audio demo can be found at:
http://www.vintagesynth.com/index2.html, http://www.keyboardmag.com/story.asp?storycode=16209 and
http://www.synthmuseum.com/korg/korpolysix01.html. Old Korg Freak,
Dave Garf
----- Original Message ----
From: toerag_man <
toerag_man@yahoo.com>
To:
PolySix@yahoogroups.comSent: Tuesday, January 30, 2007 9:51:09 PM
Subject: [PolySix] Does the Mono/Poly sound better than the polysix?
1. Does the Mono/Poly sound better than the polysix?
2. Does it suffer the same infernal battery problem, line noise etc.?
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