Discussion about the Korg PolySix synthesizer group photo

Yahoo Groups archive

Discussion about the Korg PolySix synthesizer

Archive for polysix.

Index last updated: 2026-03-30 01:17 UTC

Thread

Vco's and Vcf's and Vca's, Oh My!

Vco's and Vcf's and Vca's, Oh My!

2003-06-20 by meathooke

Okay...So the vcf's in this thing are ssm 2044's and the eg's are ssm
2056's......Does anyone have a clue what the vco chips are?
-Meathook

Re: [PolySix] Vco's and Vcf's and Vca's, Oh My!

2003-06-21 by Dave Garfield

Hi!

Oooooo, sorry, Mr. Hooke (May I call you Meat?) - the VCOs in the
Polysix are *discrete*, linear (Hz/Volt) items. Since you're a member
of the Yahoo Groups Polysix club, I believe that they have a schematic
posted (or directions to one), indicating this. If not, I can tell you
that it's in my Polysix Service Manual. Just a few transistors, etc.,
making a saw/pulse VCO. Sadly, they're not 1V/Octave, as with so many
other machines of the time, so it's not easy to interface 'em -
Basically, you need MIDI to do that.

There a a couple of nice MIDI interfaces available, depending upon how
deep your pockets are. There's an Austrian company that offers a
bare-bones interface for less than $200 USD, and an Austro/Swedish duo
that has a full, comprehensive interface for about $400 USD. More
information should be available at the many Polysix websites - Just
Google 'em! :-D

It really is a fine machine, capable of many different sounds. And,
for a single-VCO machine, it's pretty flexible too, thanks to the
built-in chorus/phase/ensemble, and arpeggiator.

OK - My two cents worth. Please feel free to flame/argue/support --
whatever. Thanks for the bandwidth!

Dave Garfield, Polysix owner
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
--- meathooke <meathooke@aol.com> wrote:
> Okay...So the vcf's in this thing are ssm 2044's and the eg's are ssm
>
> 2056's......Does anyone have a clue what the vco chips are?
> -Meathook


__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
SBC Yahoo! DSL - Now only $29.95 per month!
http://sbc.yahoo.com

Re: [PolySix] Vco's and Vcf's and Vca's, Oh My!

2003-06-21 by Johannes Hausensteiner

The VCOs are not special chips but discrete:
Q9/Q10/Q11 - C54 fed by constant current source IC37 (a TL072)/Q8.
It is a very simliar design as the MS series (MS10/20/50).
The sub oscillator is a simple JK flipflop (4027) - that's truly
digital ;-).
Interesting is that the VCA is discrete, too. Just a controlled
divider made up of two general purpose npn transistors.
Simple stuff is simple...


PolySix@yahoogroups.com wrote:
> Okay...So the vcf's in this thing are ssm 2044's and the eg's are ssm
> 2056's......Does anyone have a clue what the vco chips are?
> -Meathook
>
>
>
>
> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
> PolySix-unsubscribe@egroups.com
>
> PolySix "Digiest" Page: http://www.acc.umu.se/~amber/Poly6
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>
>
> .
>