Korg Poly800/EX800 Users

I can help with some of this because it's basic olde-synth 
fundamentals:


> 1) I've opened up the unit - just off centre there's 2cm ish 
> diameter  silver thing - is this the battery?
> 
> 2) If yes, it's  soldered in - do i need to rip it out and solder 
a  
> new one back in?

Look closely at it and see what it says.  Do the posts have a "+" and 
a "-" next to them?  Have you done a search for some pictures of the 
circuit board just to help confirm?  I know there are pictures here 
and on the net that will help you identify what you're looking at.  

The kind of battery that's in there, as far as I can tell from 
reading, is the coin battery kind that is soldered directly to the 
board.  You don't "rip it out" at all!  Be careful in there.  You 
need to cut the posts to get it out.  The new battery will have the 
posts already connected to it since YOU CAN NOT AND SHOULD NOT TRY TO 
solder directly to the battery.  You'll have to remove the old solder 
and posts from the pc board before installing the new battery.


> 3)If it's not the battery i'm confused. am i really bad at editing 
> the sounds as  although i  try and edit a patch it  still maintains 
> an element of 'whooshyness' and it won't let you edit some of the  
> parameters? it let's you change simple things like octaves but not 
> much  else.

Sounds like you might have other things going on in there.  Usually a 
dead battey will mean the sounds sound fried but would allow you to 
edit and save them while the power is turned on.  Perhaps a trip to 
your tech is in order.

> 4) There's a EX800 syx file in the files section - how do i upload  
> this to the unit to see if it's just the patches that need updated 
> and not the battery? In  fact,just to confirm, does the syx file 
> contain all patch information? If  the answer is 'via a sequencer' 
> how do i actually do  this?
> 

Via a sequencer through MIDI cables.  Read the help files for your 
sequencer to make sure it can manage SYSEX and then learn how to use 
that function.  It's easy and it takes less time to read the help 
file there than to type and read messages here.  Find the manual for 
the Poly mkII or the EX and that will tell you how to load the SYSEX 
file into the machine.

> 5) Perhaps I need to reload the patches via a sound file?  How can 
i 
> get hold of this? There seems to be some confusion whether the Poly 
> wav file works with the ex800 - has anyone actually done this with 
> the poly file successfully?

There are EX waves in the file section here if I'm not mistaken, and 
if not I've seen about a half dozen with a simple Google search.  
Just run a cable from the line out of your computer to the tape in on 
the EX.  Once again, finding and reading the manual to your machine 
is much quicker, easier, and enlightening than typing, waiting, and 
reading here.