Thanks for your replies. Interesting, I was unaware
that the Mono/poly has no patch memory.
I actually do have a polysix. I bought it just over a
year ago. It is fairly noisy but makes dreamy sounds.
The old battery has not been replaced yet however. I
was going to get it done but wasn't sure it was worth
the time because it seemed the lfo and octave section
suddenly failed one day.
It remained unused for about 6 months (too busy) until
this week and now everything is working fine again.
And I realize, after wasting hour upon hour of
playing, I love this synth.
Also, the main reason I haven't attended to it
properly is due to a problem I hope someone could shed
some light on.
When I use my headphones to monitor (through the
'phones' jack) the synth sounds fantastic. A little
noisy, but not so much I wouldn't use it to record as
this often seems to make the sound warmer and pleasing
to the ear.
∗BUT∗ whenever I use a 1/4 inch cable from the PolySix
ouput to the line in on my USB audio interface and
monitor through the interface there is a loud and
fairly deep 'hum' that occurs. The 'hum' keeps on even
if I am still listening with the polysix turned off.
Only unplugging from the wall stops it. When I record
this stunning instrument, this infernal 'hum' ruins
the recording.
I'm going to recording arts school and want to make an
album, I need to record this beauty!
Can anyone help me with this.
Also, if I muster the courage to follow OldCrow's
guide to changing the battery is there a possibility I
might kill the synth even if I do the procedure
correctly? I would be upset obviously.
Thanks,
toerag_man
--- Niels Ott <
niels.ott@web.de> wrote:
> Hi Dave,
>
> great info, thanks for sharing this!
>
> It is unfortunate that those nice devices now become
> old and tired. My
> Trident MK2 (which I was gifted!) has a dropout of
> one voice (only VCO
> 1) and I'll hopefully find the time soon for the
> surgerey. ;)
>
> Still I'm using it a lot and the longer I own it the
> more amazed of the
> sounds I am. (And the more I start hating the
> noise.)
>
> Nowadays there are many cool and reliable
> "digital-analog" synths out
> there, even quite affordable ones. But they don't
> have this kind of
> personality.
>
> Best,
>
> Niels
>
>
>
> Dave Garfield schrieb:
> > 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.com Sent: 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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> >
>
=== message truncated ===
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