Korg Poly800/EX800 Users

On Mon, 21 Apr 2008, patrioticduo wrote:

> Don't get me wrong, I am definitely going to TRY to duplicate your mod's 
> with digital pots. I just don't know how long it's going to take for me 
> to get to that. What if I fail at it anyway? There has got to be at 
> least some zipper affect that the pots will never have.
===================

for me, it depends on how much zipper there would be. for someone who 
wants *real* analog, even 14-bits isn't enough resolution to make them 
happy, in which case they shouldn't bother with a poly-800. for me, and 
considering that this is a hybrid synth from the 80's, i think 7 bits 
would be reasonable. at self oscillation, yeah, it's gonna step; but for 
me the 800 is for making techno noises and running them through effects so 
i don't mind. if i was trying to emulate a guitar or piano it would be a 
problem, but IMHO that's not what the 800 is for.

don't forget that this synth was born with most parameters having a 
resolution of 5-6 bits and a pair of up/down buttons to adjust them. with 
that in mind, i'd happily part with $50 to add a second board to control 
some hardware mods with 7 bit resolution. we can always add a switch to 
select between 7 bit control via digital pots or *analog* control with 
~real~ pots. problem solved.

seriously, a little delay can hide a lot of zipper.

another possible solution is to have the option (per patch, ideally) to 
either have the digital pots track the changes in real time, or have them 
update only when new notes are played. considering the block diagram of 
the poly800 (all voices sharing a common filter) this wouldn't hide the 
zipper as much as it would on other synths, but for some sounds and 
playing styles it would do the trick.

OTOH, it wouldn't be the end of the world if i had to tweak some knobs 
that aren't on my PC-1600x, and just having MIDI control over the standard 
parameters (not to mention new parameters) breathes new life into this old 
synth.


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