A cool analog monophonic/polyphonic from Korg. It has 4 VCO's which can be shared in 4-voice Polyphonic mode, or linked in Unison for a versatile monophonic lead. Each VCO has its own level, tune, and waveform type control. Waveforms include triangle, sawtooth, variable pulse wave. It has a great VCF (filter) section as well as 2 envelope generators (one for the oscillators and one for the filter). There are also 2 individual LFO's which can be used to modulate the Pulse Width, envelope and Arpeggiator independently.

A very flexible and fun synth. Other cool tricks up its sleeve include chord memory and an effects mode in which oscillators have a variety of ways to be synced. The built-in arpeggiator and sequencer can run all 4 VCO's at a time or cycle through each voice per note! There's also portamento, CV/Gate, VCF and VCO mod inputs, white noise generator, and the pitch/mod wheels can be assigned to control LFO, pitch or the filter. Its sound quality is nice and very Korg. This synth is used by Hardfloor, Tangerine Dream, The Orb, 808 State, Juno Reactor, Megaton Matt Haines, Freddy Fresh, and the Chemical Brothers.

Sean

April 25, 2013 @ 7:58 am

I have one of these babies in 1982 when they first came out through a freind cheap :¬) massive sound ! You can get some really funky sounds in rythm from them if you set the unit to poly and use the Arp with different waves set on each VCO, first ever wave sequencing :¬) ! sync and x-mod are great, worst thing I did was sell it ! :¬( Korg do a VST Plugin which is meant to be VERY close to the Original !!

Kaleb Smith

March 23, 2013 @ 6:45 am

Guitar distortion sounds especially chunky and aggressive, when applied to the already screaming effects section.

Here's an example of some of the bestial howls and growls made available by a Mono/Poly, with a Metal Muff pedal and a solid amp:

https://soundcloud.com/the-band-reflected/os-yar

Kaleb Smith

March 23, 2013 @ 6:37 am

My first analogue. Got it 16 years ago, from a deep woods redneck who had it in his basement. As soon as I saw it, I fell in love. But had to play it cool! "Well, that things pretty old, eh? Does it even work anymore?" Got him to part with it for $200. Thank GOD he didn't look on ebay first! To see they're going for $3600!

It has a gritty angry sound, with the Pulse Width and the effects section. Very industrial and masculine. 16 years later, it's an extension of my body! Very organic. One of my favorite tricks is to self oscillate the LPF, and then tune keyboard rate scaling for micrtonal

tom

February 14, 2013 @ 6:11 pm

Not much of a poly synth, but great as a mono! A cutting and soaring sound that feels quite related to the Arp Odyssey, and it's capable of so many more interesting sounds than the average mono. 23 years later, mine is still working well, so quality is good too.

e-musikgruppe lux ohr

August 7, 2012 @ 1:06 am

Just bought this beast a week ago after palying it some times at my friends place. The overall sound is in my opinion quite raw, but I like it. The best features are the possibility to play in arpeggiator mode the four oscillators in row. This produces some unexpected accents and sounds. Also the effects section is better than in other analog synths from the same time.
In a nutshell Mono/Poly is very versatile synth that will surprise me positively everytime I play it.
You can hear Mono/Poly in action here
http://soundcloud.com/e-musikgruppe-lux-ohr/emg-lux-ohr-jenseits-der-mauer

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