The PolySix was a milestone because, along with the Roland Juno 6 which appeared almost simultaneously, in 1981 the PolySix was the first opportunity ordinary mortals had to get their hands on a proper programmable polysynth. Up until then, you had to be loaded to afford a Prophet 5, Oberheim OB-Xa, or Roland Jupiter 8.

At first glance it looks like a scaled-down Mono/Poly, but really it's not! In fact it had a lot of great new features such as 32 memory patches, 6 voices of polyphony, cassette backup of memory, even programmable modulation effects and Chorus, Phase, Ensemble!

The Polysix has warm-sounding real analog oscillators, softer and brassy-er sounding that the Juno. Engage the built-in Chorus on a simple single-oscillator sawtooth patch and you were pretty darned close to that expensive Prophet sound. But the big ace in the Polysix's hand was the Ensemble effect. Instant Mellotron-like strings.

Like the Mono/Poly the voices can be played in Unison for a 6-oscillator lead sound that was so big, it was often too big! The advanced arpeggiator can memorize and sequence chords across the keyboard. The PolySix has now been recreated in software as part of the Korg Legacy software bundle! The PolySix has been used by Eat Static, Geoff Downes, Astral Projection, Jimi Tenor, Global Communications, Kitaro, Robert Rich, Keith Emerson and Tears for Fears.

Guru

July 10, 2011 @ 1:31 pm

Check the Korg Trident, a superb synth with many more functions. For a single osc/env I'd go with a Juno 60.

carl

May 30, 2011 @ 6:36 pm

@nitro @david I took a sampled tr606 in my DAW (reason redrum) I sent the bassdrum sound toa mono audio output of my audio interface (knowing that the arpeggio trigger input reacts to a 5v pulse wave) I muted the audio output in my monitor mixer (of course)messed a bit with the volume(up) and... now my p6 arpeggiator is synced with my midiprojects. It could work with a tom sound as well. There is no risk at all involved.
It gets very interesting when you start composing rhytmic patterns on the arpeggiator.
You have to look for the right level (when it's too loud it doesnt work anymore)

maik

May 4, 2011 @ 9:04 pm

@mxmx
Ok, so i had a similar problem. It started acting strange, like being unable to play keys and all lights went on after 10 min. I also replaced the transformator with an toroid one and after messuring all kinds of voltages i recognized that all lights went on again and no keys worked. I checked the sound output and it gave a weird sound just like in test-mode. After hours of searching & testing i found a broken VR on the top of the sound board. So if you calibrated it and it doesn't work anymore you should check all those VRs! VRs should also be replaced just like caps after 10-20 years.

alessandro_

April 22, 2011 @ 9:08 pm

sold 4/5 years ago and bought again the same unit. i like its raw sounds, effects aboard are really coll too. great synthesizer

maik

March 7, 2011 @ 12:08 pm

@ mxmx
Don't fiddle with it if don't have electronic skillz! Bring it to a service technician, it's worth it!

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