Korg Poly800/EX800 Users

> > which! Could also wire up some LEDs that come on when write is
> >enabled... ooh, blue ones, now that would be cool...! ; )
> > PPS. Your wiring efforts are a hell of a lot neater than mine. ;
> Nice idea with the additional LEDs. But I'd prefer red ones, it's more
> vintage-synth-alike, red means "warning - memory changes!" and it fits to the red
> display LEDs.

I'm kinda trying to make mine look more modern - hence the red paint job etc. ; )
Problem being blue LEDs seem to be hard to get hold of lately...

> But, I think surfers also like neon yellow, pink, and so on, so it's ok if you choose
> blue ones ..... 8-)

That's, like, SO 1985 ; )
Personally, most of my stuff is black...

> *them* as resistors? would spare the hassle to measure them and buy
> resistors of the same capacity.... just a thought....(so don´t "just
> destroy them before you damage the PCB!" hehehe)

The problem I found is that they are a REAL pain to unsolder unless you've got 4 pair of
hands... probably easiest to measure them, then physically break them apart before
trying to remove them, 'cause it's damn near impossible to unsolder 3 different legs in
3 different places at the same time! (ever tried unsoldering an IC? almost as bad...)

> anyway, i read somewhere that there are even more trimpots which could be redirected
> to external pots, here´s a list:
> VR1 - DCO Pitch adjust
> VR2 - VCF Frequency adjust
> VR3 - White Noise level adjust
> VR4 - DCO Fine tune adjust
> VR5 - VCF resonance adjust
> does it make sense to , err.. whats the word.... "externalise" the other three?

Not really, they aren't of too much use unless maybe you want to keep screwing around
with your tuning - hehe, make like a guitarist and take a few minutes out to go to
drop-D... ; )
The noise doesn't seem like it would be very useful either. I don't know in what
situation you'd want to fade noise in and out... maybe at the end of a song, fade to a
full "end of transmision" static...?

> i´m eagerly waiting to get my poly800 delivered (thinking of all this
> without even having one :) ), i´ll let you know what i did to it when
> it´s here.... hehehe modding all over.....

Hehe... I'd been imagining it for years, it's amazing how you always find out what you
can do with something after you no longer have it...


PS. Out of interest - does anyone know if DCO means the actual oscillators are digital,
or are they analog oscillators being digitally controlled??

hello again!

> I'm kinda trying to make mine look more modern - hence the red paint

job etc. ; )
yeah, red is a damn fine color!
how did you manage to preserve the inscriptions (is that the right
word?) on top of the poly? (you know..... where the parameters are
written..... all of them....the scale of the volume knob etc....)
if you just sprayed it they would sure be gone.... if you covered them
with tape or something similar it would not look very good... (i
think, at least) -> got a photo?
or did you apply completely new writings? how?
i am thinking of repainting mine as well (you know, there is something
about the poly that makes it look so .... dunno.... BONTEMPI?)
ok, one might argue that that´s just the way the poly looks, but given
that there are at least five knobs and two switches that can be added,
the parameter-section would sure give enough place for that. so i
would make new writings in a different style (to make it look more
modern, as you said)

> The noise doesn't seem like it would be very useful either. I don't

know in what

> situation you'd want to fade noise in and out... maybe at the end of

a song, fade to a

> full "end of transmision" static...?

yeah definitely!

>
> PS. Out of interest - does anyone know if DCO means the actual

oscillators are digital,

> or are they analog oscillators being digitally controlled??

the manual says on page 13 that they are digitally controlled.


regards, christian

>PS. Out of interest - does anyone know if DCO means the actual
>oscillators are digital, or are they analog oscillators being >digitally
>controlled??

DCO can mean several different things....it can mean a digital clock signal
sent to analog circuits to create the waveform (I think the Juno works like
this), it can mean digital waves that come from wavetables( PPG), or it can
mean the waves are digitally synthesized within the chip (SID chip). I
think the Poly 800 is the last type. As far as I know, the chip is only
capable of making square waves so the Poly 800 only roughly approximates the
saw wave. They sure cut a lot of corners but the result is a pretty
interesting synth. Also I think the DCO chip was also used in some 80's
arcade games.

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>PS.  Out of interest - does anyone know if DCO means the actual
>oscillators are digital, or are they analog oscillators being >digitally
>controlled??

DCO can mean several different things....it can mean a digital clock signal
sent to analog circuits to create the waveform (I think the Juno works like
this), it can mean digital waves that come from wavetables( PPG), or it can
mean the waves are digitally synthesized within the chip (SID chip).  

 

 

Another option - a normal analogue oscillator which doesn't so much have a voltage controlled input stage, so much as a 'ladder' digital to analogue converter, whereby say 8 bits are used to select resistance sums, the resulting voltage through which governs the centre frequency of the oscillator.