Korg Poly800/EX800 Users

Hey there.  I'm totally new to the art of digital noise and I was 
hoping someone could help me out.  I've been a musician most of the 
20 years of my life, mainly on guitar.  I came across a Korg ex-800 
in a thrift store for $20.  I don't have a keyboard with midi 
capabilities, but I figured there must be some way for me to make 
noise using this thing.  If I couldn't, then I figured I could 
probably make my $20 back on eBay.  So, I purchased it, brought it 
home, and plugged it in.  It appears to be in working order; the 
display lights up and the buttons to change the program, parameter, 
and value all seem to work.  Setting the parameters and values is 
pretty self explanatory, but beyond that I'm clueless.  Any ideas 
how I can get some noise out of this thing, using tapes or 
whatever?  Is there a way?
Thanks for reading and double thanks for any suggestions.
-Mike

If you have a midi interface for your PC, or a midi cable to plug into
your soundcards joystick port, you can sequence it from the PC. The
EX-8000 actually has a trigger button on the front if it, for tuning,
but I'm not sure about the 800. If I remeber correctly though, the
EX-800s have a 256 step sequencer built in, and, if so, just press
play and start tweaking. If no sounds come out when you press play,
just start pumping all the values up, like OSC volume, and filter
cutoff....if it starts to work, then the battery is probably just dead
(or nonexistant).
Byron

On Tue, 27 Jul 2004 18:40:35 -0000, beatlemyk <beatlemyk@...> wrote:
> Hey there.  I'm totally new to the art of digital noise and I was
> hoping someone could help me out.  I've been a musician most of the
> 20 years of my life, mainly on guitar.  I came across a Korg ex-800
> in a thrift store for $20.  I don't have a keyboard with midi
> capabilities, but I figured there must be some way for me to make
> noise using this thing.  If I couldn't, then I figured I could
> probably make my $20 back on eBay.  So, I purchased it, brought it
> home, and plugged it in.  It appears to be in working order; the
> display lights up and the buttons to change the program, parameter,
> and value all seem to work.  Setting the parameters and values is
> pretty self explanatory, but beyond that I'm clueless.  Any ideas
> how I can get some noise out of this thing, using tapes or
> whatever?  Is there a way?
> Thanks for reading and double thanks for any suggestions.
> -Mike
> 
> 
> 
> Yahoo! Groups Links
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 


-- 
For your electronik listening pleasures 
http://www.limbikfreq.com
---
Mindset Studio Music and Media
http://www.mindsetstudio.com

Nope, you need a midi controller.  Does your PC's soundcard have MIDI out (usually via the joystick port)?  You can also get plain controllers pretty cheap, or assuming you're serious about making noise, another synth would be a good investment as the EX800 sounds will probably get boring after a while.

If that doesn't interest you, you'll get a good bit more than $20 for it on ebay.

Cheers!

On Tue, 27 Jul 2004, beatlemyk wrote:

> Hey there.  I'm totally new to the art of digital noise and I was
> hoping someone could help me out.  I've been a musician most of the
> 20 years of my life, mainly on guitar.  I came across a Korg ex-800
> in a thrift store for $20.  I don't have a keyboard with midi
> capabilities, but I figured there must be some way for me to make
> noise using this thing.  If I couldn't, then I figured I could
> probably make my $20 back on eBay.  So, I purchased it, brought it
> home, and plugged it in.  It appears to be in working order; the
> display lights up and the buttons to change the program, parameter,
> and value all seem to work.  Setting the parameters and values is
> pretty self explanatory, but beyond that I'm clueless.  Any ideas
> how I can get some noise out of this thing, using tapes or
> whatever?  Is there a way?
> Thanks for reading and double thanks for any suggestions.
> -Mike

I changed the battery and it works beautifully.  Thanks for the 
advice, folks.