Discussion about the Korg PolySix synthesizer

On Wed, Mar 19, 2014 at 12:53 PM, <backshall1@bellsouth.net> wrote:

 

On the newer board, there is no KLM-396

Don B.

 

From: Stephen Laughlin

Sent: Wednesday, March 19, 2014 3:43 PM

To: PolySix@yahoogroups.com

Subject: Re: [PolySix] Re: KiwiSix/Polysix, Two voices gone out of tune?

 

 

Well shoot...how do I know if I have the older or newer rev? Will the trim pots be labeled differently?

 

On Wed, Mar 19, 2014 at 5:08 AM, Bob Grieb <bobgrieb@yahoo.com> wrote:

 

These instructions seem to apply to the Poly Six with the old rev of the 366 board.
Your unit may not have that board in it.   Note that VR15 on the newer 366 board is equivalent to VR1 on the 396 board.   (Not VR1 on the newer 366 board)  This affects step 4.

Bob

 

From: Stephen Laughlin <ocguitar@gmail.com>
To: PolySix@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, March 19, 2014 4:14 AM
Subject: Re: [PolySix] Re: KiwiSix/Polysix, Two voices gone out of tune?

 

 

Ah, interesting. Reading about this...calibrating the voices doesn't look too difficult. I found these simple instructions after googling a bit. I'll probably give it a shot tomorrow. Is there anything missing from these instructions or anything I should watch out for? Thanks!

--------
Sure first get the trimpot reference page here:

http://www.oldcrows.net/~oldcrow/synth/korg/polysix/manuals/service/p6smm9.pdf

Now normalise your PolySix - fire it in Manual mode and set the octave to 4', waveform to saw, cut off at full, resonance at 0, EG amount at 0, keyboard tracking at 0, ADSR at 0 - 0 - full - 0 respectively, attenuator at 0, VCA ENV shape set to gate, effects off, poly key assign mode, hold mode off and make sure the pitch and modulation wheels are set to centre and zero respectively.

Then fire this up: http://www.oldcrows.net/~oldcrow/synth/korg/polysix/manuals/service/p6smm12.pdf

If you look at the trimpot diagram you'll see that each voice has its own section of the voice board (KLM-366) and all have the same number of trimpots. You are interested in in VR 10 and 11, both are the bigger trimpots according to the diagram.

Now just to follow the instructions. You'll need a guitar tuner or a test tone to carry this out. Make sure the switch SW1 on the diagram is pushed up and not down.

1. Play the TOP note (C6) and look at the LEDs on the voice board. The LED will show you which voice is sounding and the trimpots near the lit LEDs are the ones you are after.

2. Trim the VR11 pot with a small flat panel screwdriver to give you a perfect C on your tuner or against your test tone (zero beat!).

3. Repeat this for all other voices - (when you let go and play again the PolySix should move on to the next voice automatically).

4. Now play C2 and adjust VR1 on the KLM-396 board (a wee tiny thing, you can't miss it) to give you a perfect C. Do this once only.

5. Set the octave on the front panel to 16' and play C2. Now adjust VR10 to give you a perfect C.

6. Repeat this for all other voices.

Congratulate yourself and enjoy your finely tuned PolySix.

------

On Tue, Mar 18, 2014 at 5:15 PM, <swamp.gigs@googlemail.com> wrote:

 

Sounds like you'll need to recalibrate the voices on the 366 board...

 

 

On Wed, Mar 19, 2014 at 1:10 PM, <swamp.gigs@googlemail.com> wrote:

 

The old version has the KLM 396 on a daughter board mounted on the KLM 366 voice board - the later revision doesn't.
Trimpots 10 and 11 are in the same place on both.
After installing the KiwiSix was the Poly recalibrated ?
If everything is fine other than the tuning of the 2 voices, then trimpots 10 (high) and 11 (low) is what needs adjusted...

On Thu, Mar 20, 2014 at 3:24 PM, Bob Stewart <bob@blzproductions.com> wrote:

 

As a tech who repairs synths I get quite a fe things come through my door that don't manifest their faults easily.

What I usually do is set up the synth, and just leave it on. I had a Juno 60 come in with a fault that took 3 days ( as in on for 24 hours for 3 days) to manifest.... Once it was doing it, it didn't take long to trace it to a dying chip, but it can take a while to dig these things out.

I'd leave it the thing on for a few days. Get whatever is being touchy to fail outright... Much easier to pin down then.

On Thursday, March 20, 2014, Stephen Laughlin <ocguitar@gmail.com> wrote:

 

This is so incredibly weird. I took it up to my repair guy, plugged it in, and straight away each voice sounded perfectly in tune. I got the feeling he may have thought I was just being really picky about the tuning. I left it with him for half an hour and he said it went sightly off while warming up, but he corrected it. I tried it again, and it it was pretty goddamn good across all octaves. So I just brought it home, and what do you know, I plug it in and BOOM, two of the voices are almost a half-step higher once again. What the hell! I tried it on another amplifier in the house in a different room and I get the same thing. I feel like my Polysix is that dancing frog from the old WB cartoon who refuses to perform for anyone but its owner.

On Wed, Mar 19, 2014 at 1:10 PM, <swamp.gigs@googlemail.com> wrote:

 

The old version has the KLM 396 on a daughter board mounted on the KLM 366 voice board - the later revision doesn't.
Trimpots 10 and 11 are in the same place on both.
After installing the KiwiSix was the Poly recalibrated ?
If everything is fine other than the tuning of the 2 voices, then trimpots 10 (high) and 11 (low) is what needs adjusted...