Discussion about the Korg PolySix synthesizer

Hi Dave,

great info, thanks for sharing this!

It is unfortunate that those nice devices now become old and tired. My
Trident MK2 (which I was gifted!) has a dropout of one voice (only VCO
1) and I'll hopefully find the time soon for the surgerey. ;)

Still I'm using it a lot and the longer I own it the more amazed of the
sounds I am. (And the more I start hating the noise.)

Nowadays there are many cool and reliable "digital-analog" synths out
there, even quite affordable ones. But they don't have this kind of
personality.

Best,

  Niels



Dave Garfield schrieb:
> HI, Mr. Toerag!
> 
> First, the Polysix and Mono/Poly, although contemporaries (ca. 1982?
> - 1985), are two VERY different machines, meant to do quite different
> things.
> 
> The Mono/Poly was Korg's brilliant answer to to the magical lure of
> the Minimoog... only much more versatile.  It used SSM VCOs (4 of
> 'em!) and an SSM Moog-style ladder LPF, but has much more flexibility
> in control voltage routing.  It also has two independent LFOs, two
> full ADSR (Korg design (envelope generators, the ability to sync or
> FM the VCOs with one another, and a wealth of patch points on the
> rear panel.  Aside from complaints that the envelopes lack "snap" (I
> believe that's because they're "cleaner", with no pause between
> Attack peak and start of Decay, as in the Mini), and the filter's not
> up to the Mini's (Well, the SSM is about as close as one could get at
> the time without a patent violation - Korg learned well from ARP's
> little boo-boo!), I think that the sound is fat, full and lush.
> Plus, you can play up to four separate notes on the keyboard, albiet
> with only the one filter/VCA.  It has an arpeggiator that most mono-,
> and many polysynths didn't have, and notes can be latched and
> transposed using the keyboard.  VERY well thought out!
> 
> The Polysix, on the other hand, was designed to bring analog
> polyphony within reach of the average musician jonesing for a
> synthesizer.  At the time, the main/almost only competition was the
> Sequential Prophet 5, which listed in the $4,000(!!) range.  The Korg
> people managed to introduce the Polysix at around $1,500, and jumped
> through some imaginative hoops to reduce it to that level without
> sacrificing sound quality.
> 
> The Polysix had only six single VCOs (which were linear, Not
> exponential, as with Moogs, ARPs, etc), but offered no external FM
> control.  The filters, six of 'em, were the same Moog-type SSMs as
> the Mono/Poly's single filter, so the sound was quite warm.  The
> filters can be modulated by an external source, as they respond to
> 1V/Oct CVs.  It has a single LFO, and a single ADSR (SSM) per voice,
> but it also has a Chorus/Phaser/Ensemble circuit using analog delay
> lines that gives it a Very Full sound.  It has a 32-patch memory, and
> a factory MIDI retrofit was available -- once upon a when.
> 
> The Mono/Poly has no patch memory (WISH it did!), so no backup
> battery was needed.  (Also wish it had a Sample/Hold function, but
> that's easy to add).  The Polysix, like many other polysynths of the
> era, used a "state-of-the-art" Nickel-Cadmium rechargable battery for
> patch memory backup.  We have since learned, in our folly, that
> NiCads are dangerous to the environment (It's the Cadmium - a heavy
> metal), and need to be disposed of as hazardous waste, and... They're
> prone to LEAKING when aged!  This corrosive crapola that comes out of
> 'em is what "re-etches" the Main Processor board, and sends otherwise
> healthy Polysixes to the scrapheap.  If you find one, the Very First
> Thing to do is:  REMOVE THE TICKING NI-CAD TIME BOMB AFFIXED TO THE
> PROCESSOR BOARD!!!  IMMEDIATELY!!  THOROUGHLY CLEAN the board, and
> all the nearby traces.  The Old Crow
> http://www.oldcrows.net/~oldcrow/synth/korg/polysix/index.html has an
> Excellent article illustrating how to replace the battery, clean the
> key contacts, etc.  Plus, there's a standard Service Manual there,
> too.
> 
> I've heard some complaints about the less-than-silent VCAs in these
> two dudes.  Korg saved some $$ by brewing up their own VCAs out of a
> matched(?) pair of transistors, and of course, analog delay lines
> are, by their nature, prone to be noisy.  I've heard of people
> substituting VCAs-on-a-chip... Juergen Haible did this to a
> Mono/Poly, and said it made a noteworthy decrease in noise.  Me, I
> run my Mono/Poly through an old Alesis Noise Gate.  Works great --
> and it's adjustable!  ;->
> 
> Hope that helps you out some.  It's hard to assess the two machines
> without a listening test.  A great source of info. for the Mono/Poly
> is: http://monopoly.highspies.com/.  Some info. on the Polysix, and a
> small audio demo can be found at:
> http://www.vintagesynth.com/index2.html,
> http://www.keyboardmag.com/story.asp?storycode=16209 and
> http://www.synthmuseum.com/korg/korpolysix01.html.
> 
> Old Korg Freak, Dave Garf
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ---- From: toerag_man <toerag_man@yahoo.com> 
> To: PolySix@yahoogroups.com Sent: Tuesday, January 30, 2007 9:51:09
> PM Subject: [PolySix] Does the Mono/Poly sound better than the
> polysix?
> 
> 1. Does the Mono/Poly sound better than the polysix?
> 
> 2. Does it suffer the same infernal battery problem, line noise etc.?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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