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.

David

February 23, 2011 @ 1:35 pm

@nitro
If it's a Roland drummachine you want to sync it with, the easiest way is to connect a trigger out (most of Rolands drummachines have that) to the arpeggio trigger in on the P6.
That is how I sync my P6 to my tr-606. The only problem is that I lose the tombs...

If there is another better way to solve this, I would also love to know

nitro

January 2, 2011 @ 12:54 am

I want to clock mine with din sync. anyone know how?

nitro

January 2, 2011 @ 12:52 am

ok, so when the oscillators drift it's like detuning slightly. nice.

mxmx

November 28, 2010 @ 6:23 am

uh. just broke mine when trying to calibrate it. was checking the voltages from the psu (service manual, first step), when the voices suddenly went dead. no more reaction from the keyboard, though the test points on the voice board seem to give the correct values still; strangely, all the diodes on the programmer board are lit up simultaneously now. can't figure out what's wrong. any ideas, anyone?

thanks!

gazty

October 13, 2010 @ 3:18 am

@BenRecordin the effects section on both my P6s are fairly quiet. It's a known issue in SOME Polysix where you should fit some screening between the effects board and the control panel (tinfoil laminated in plastic with an earth lead - google it) this eradicates the noise.

As for it being a simple synth, true - it's the simplest of all my synths in architecture and yet it has that amazing sound when you need it, especially good if you upgrade/retrofit a BETTER QUALITY keybed to it (Juno 2 is a decent fit and quality keys, you'll need to swap diodes and fix brakets etc then it feels as good as it sounds) :)

The cheap keys on the Polysix really do it a disservice, both for flaky contacts and their thin plastic feel - it feels twice as expensive with J2 keys on

Also you can hook that keybed's aftertouch sensor up to something inside the p6 (custom) to control say the filter or MG. magic! ;0

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