Hi there,
Congrats on the new keyboard, it's a fun one. As mentioned, take the old battery out right now! Get some clippers and cut it off the board, even if it'll be a few weeks before you can get it repaired. You do not want to risk a leak if it's in good shape. Don't be tempted to leave it in while you're waiting for repairs!
If you're handy with a soldering iron and have and hour to spend you can do it yourself. The instructions on Old Crow's site are excellent and detailed, easy to follow.
Total cost for me to swap the battery was ~$10 at a Radio Shack. Battery, holder and resister (I already had the soldering iron).
I lucked out with my Polysix and the battery had only leaked down the stems, but the vapors can still do harm. On my synth the key contacts were dead, probably because of the toxic vapors from the battery. I cleaned them by hand but they went south again shortly thereafter. So I bought the little key contact sticker kit (
http://sounddoctorin.com/synthtec/parts/key.htm#polycontacts) for ~$25 and it's good as new. No key contact problems in the last three months. I also cleaned the rest of the keyboard's guts in an effort to rid the thing of any residuals from the battery vapor.
$35 + 3 hours of work to resurrect a classic vintage synth. Awesome!
Here's a reasonably priced midi solution (I've never used it, but it's the one I'd get):
http://www.chd-el.cz/index.php?id=399&lngid=enIt will only provide key on/off input and sync the arp to a midi clock but that's plenty. Especially since it costs an extra $400 for a better kit just so you can dump patches and record filter sweeps in midi.
Good luck!
--Mark
--- In PolySix@yahoogroups.com, "stillbirth120385" <stillbirth120385@...> wrote:
>
> Greetings. Just bought a polysix on Monday and I'm loving it. Never heard anything that sounds quite like it. Anyway I posted these questions on another message board yesterday and got some great responses but figured I should post it here as well and see what people had to say!!
>
>
> Battery
> So far it seems like the battery is holding up fine. However I doubt it's been changed. Is there any easy way to determine if this is the case? Would I notice something immediately if there was a problem with the battery? Should I get it changed as soon as possible to avoid corrosion? If there is corrosion before I get the battery changed, will there be irreparable damage? What kind of battery should it be replaced with and how much should this end up costing? Will this prevent me from having to change the battery again in the future?
>
> CV/Triggers
> Is there anything that I can send to clock the arpegiator that could cause any harm to the synth? Should it work fine with a gate , trigger, or clock from any euro module; namely things like the MFB Seq 02, RCD, Maths, or even Wogglebug? Should it work fine with the Dr-50 drum machine?
>
> What can I do with cv'ing the filter?
>
> There's no way to control the pitches from an external source without getting a midi mod right?
>
> The polysix itself can't control anything externally via cv or any other method right?
>
> Midi
> Would most agree this is a good place to get the parts for adding midi? http://www.chd-el.cz/index.php?id=399
> Any other comments regarding midi?
>
> Saving patches
> Forgive me for being dense. I can really just hook this thing up to a normal tape recorder and record patch data to a regular cassette tape?? Blows my mind?
> Also I saw on another form somebody mentioning saving patch data simply to their computer? What program would I need to do this in?
>
> I'm sure I'll have plenty of other questions as time goes on.
> Forgive me if I'm dense or the questions are redundant. If they annoy you, you can just not respond instead of calling me a dumb ass.
>
> Any answers are greatly greatly appreciated.
>
> Thanks a ton,
> Luke
>