Korg Poly800/EX800 Users

Hello all,

I just joined the group, lots of interesting and valuable stuff
here.  I am an original owner of the first generation Poly-800 that I
bought back in 1984.  This is the one that does NOT have the MIDI
System Exclusive function.  But I still use it along with my other
vintage synth equipment in my 80's cover band.  Anyway, after getting
the dreaded "H5" display and suffering with an old cassette player that
no longer rewinds (although my old Bic pen still works for that), I did
some searching online and discovered that apparently there was a ROM
Upgrade that came out that allowed the original Poly-800 to send and
receive SysEx signals.  I think this was before the Poly-800 mkII was
released.  I looked through the files and messages here in the group,
but I didn't find anything specifally about this upgrade.  Does
anybody have any information on it?  Thanks!

Greg C.

Hey Greg,

I think the ROM mod you are asking about is an image of the EX800 ROM that you piggy back into the Poly800.

You switch/boot up one or the other(two different ROM chips inside your Poly).. original Poly ROM has support for the keyboard/joystick,  the EX800 image does not have support for the keyboard(it used up that memory for the sysex support).

So I think the trick was to use the EX800 image to load patches in.. shut it off, reboot with the Poly ROM and play the patches.

Not much of an improvement..  and all that work for such little return??

The invasive work needed is similar to what you'd do with the HAWK kit.. I'd just do the HAWK mod and be better off in the end.  
A much better machine with sysex dumps, CC# controling, NRPN control for every single parameter and more.

Honestly, forget that EX800 ROM.. that's what was done before the HAWK.  It's an obsolete mod IMHO.


-Blaine

--- In korgpolyex@yahoogroups.com, "Gregory" <GregCoben@...> wrote:

>
> 
> Hello all,
> 
> I just joined the group, lots of interesting and valuable stuff
> here.  I am an original owner of the first generation Poly-800 that I
> bought back in 1984.  This is the one that does NOT have the MIDI
> System Exclusive function.  But I still use it along with my other
> vintage synth equipment in my 80's cover band.  Anyway, after getting
> the dreaded "H5" display and suffering with an old cassette player that
> no longer rewinds (although my old Bic pen still works for that), I did
> some searching online and discovered that apparently there was a ROM
> Upgrade that came out that allowed the original Poly-800 to send and
> receive SysEx signals.  I think this was before the Poly-800 mkII was
> released.  I looked through the files and messages here in the group,
> but I didn't find anything specifally about this upgrade.  Does
> anybody have any information on it?  Thanks!
> 
> Greg C.
>

There was also the "MDK" upgrade for the Poly-800.

I looked at it once and it is one of the worst upgrades I've ever seen. Many cut tracks on the main board and all sorts of wires and a crappy little board with a bunch of insane logic chips and a larger EPROM.

Both the EX-800 ROM piggy back mod and the Korg MDK upgrade kits don't give you anything more than the EX-800 sysex dump/receive feature.

As bimmerfan says, the HAWK mod is probably the way to go. And since I produce the HAWK and AtomaHawk kits, you get current tech support for those kits.

Mike



________________________________
 From: bimmerfan222 <bperkins211@...>
To: korgpolyex@yahoogroups.com 
Sent: Monday, May 27, 2013 2:13 PM
Subject: [korgpolyex] Re: ROM upgrade for original (1st-generation) Poly-800?
 


  


Hey Greg,

I think the ROM mod you are asking about is an image of the EX800 ROM that you piggy back into the Poly800.

You switch/boot up one or the other(two different ROM chips inside your Poly).. original Poly ROM has support for the keyboard/joystick,  the EX800 image does not have support for the keyboard(it used up that memory for the sysex support).

So I think the trick was to use the EX800 image to load patches in.. shut it off, reboot with the Poly ROM and play the patches.

Not much of an improvement..  and all that work for such little return??

The invasive work needed is similar to what you'd do with the HAWK kit.. I'd just do the HAWK mod and be better off in the end. 
A much better machine with sysex dumps, CC# controling, NRPN control for every single parameter and more.

Honestly, forget that EX800 ROM.. that's what was done before the HAWK.  It's an obsolete mod IMHO.

-Blaine

--- In korgpolyex@yahoogroups.com, "Gregory" <GregCoben@...> wrote:

>
> 
> Hello all,
> 
> I just joined the group, lots of interesting and valuable stuff
> here.  I am an original owner of the first generation Poly-800 that I
> bought back in 1984.  This is the one that does NOT have the MIDI
> System Exclusive function.  But I still use it along with my other
> vintage synth equipment in my 80's cover band.  Anyway, after getting
> the dreaded "H5" display and suffering with an old cassette player that
> no longer rewinds (although my old Bic pen still works for that), I did
> some searching online and discovered that apparently there was a ROM
> Upgrade that came out that allowed the original Poly-800 to send and
> receive SysEx signals.  I think this was before the Poly-800 mkII was
> released.  I looked through the files and messages here in the group,
> but I didn't find anything specifally about this upgrade.  Does
> anybody have any information on it?  Thanks!
> 
> Greg C.
>

Sure you can store your patches to any other gear that can record audio signal.

E.g. your PC.

That's the easiest and inexpensive way.

The Hawk kit gives you all the sysex functions plus a lot more and will
greatly expand the functionality of your Poly-800. On the other hand, if you
need to reload patches when there is no computer around, just put the .wav
file on an iPod or other small audio player. You can also convert it to mp3
or any other format your little device supports. There is no reason to use a
cassette tape.

Don B.

 

  _____  

From: korgpolyex@yahoogroups.com [mailto:korgpolyex@yahoogroups.com] On
Behalf Of pan.ryba@...
Sent: Thursday, September 12, 2013 7:14 AM
To: korgpolyex@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [korgpolyex] RE: ROM upgrade for original (1st-generation)
Poly-800?

 

  

Sure you can store your patches to any other gear that can record audio
signal.

E.g. your PC.

That's the easiest and inexpensive way.



--- In korgpolyex@yahoogroups.com, <korgpolyex800@...> wrote:

There was also the "MDK" upgrade for the Poly-800.

 

I looked at it once and it is one of the worst upgrades I've ever seen. Many
cut tracks on the main board and all sorts of wires and a crappy little
board with a bunch of insane logic chips and a larger EPROM.

 

Both the EX-800 ROM piggy back mod and the Korg MDK upgrade kits don't give
you anything more than the EX-800 sysex dump/receive feature.

 

As bimmerfan says, the HAWK mod is probably the way to go. And since I
produce the HAWK and AtomaHawk kits, you get current tech support for those
kits.

 

Mike

 

  _____  

From: bimmerfan222 <bperkins211@...>
To: korgpolyex@yahoogroups.com 
Sent: Monday, May 27, 2013 2:13 PM
Subject: [korgpolyex] Re: ROM upgrade for original (1st-generation)
Poly-800?

 

  



Hey Greg,

I think the ROM mod you are asking about is an image of the EX800 ROM that
you piggy back into the Poly800.

You switch/boot up one or the other(two different ROM chips inside your
Poly).. original Poly ROM has support for the keyboard/joystick, the EX800
image does not have support for the keyboard(it used up that memory for the
sysex support).

So I think the trick was to use the EX800 image to load patches in.. shut it
off, reboot with the Poly ROM and play the patches.

Not much of an improvement.. and all that work for such little return??

The invasive work needed is similar to what you'd do with the HAWK kit.. I'd
just do the HAWK mod and be better off in the end. 
A much better machine with sysex dumps, CC# controling, NRPN control for
every single parameter and more.

Honestly, forget that EX800 ROM.. that's what was done before the HAWK. It's
an obsolete mod IMHO.

-Blaine

--- In korgpolyex@yahoogroups.com <mailto:korgpolyex%40yahoogroups.com> ,
"Gregory" <GregCoben@...> wrote:

>
> 
> Hello all,
> 
> I just joined the group, lots of interesting and valuable stuff
> here.  I am an original owner of the first generation Poly-800 that I
> bought back in 1984.  This is the one that does NOT have the MIDI
> System Exclusive function.  But I still use it along with my other
> vintage synth equipment in my 80's cover band.  Anyway, after getting
> the dreaded "H5" display and suffering with an old cassette player that
> no longer rewinds (although my old Bic pen still works for that), I did
> some searching online and discovered that apparently there was a ROM
> Upgrade that came out that allowed the original Poly-800 to send and
> receive SysEx signals.  I think this was before the Poly-800 mkII was
> released.  I looked through the files and messages here in the group,
> but I didn't find anything specifally about this upgrade.  Does
> anybody have any information on it?  Thanks!
> 
> Greg C.
>

I don't think you can use MP3 for this type of digital data. MP3 was  
invented for digital audio, and use compression on the base of some  
psychoacoustic science.

It's loss compression, probably it will somehow damage digital data.

Daniel Forro

On 12 Sep, 2013, at 8:29 PM, backshall1 wrote:

>
>
> The Hawk kit gives you all the sysex functions plus a lot more and  
> will greatly expand the functionality of your Poly-800. On the other  
> hand, if you need to reload patches when there is no computer  
> around, just put the .wav file on an iPod or other small audio  
> player. You can also convert it to mp3 or any other format your  
> little device supports. There is no reason to use a cassette tape.
> Don B.