Vintage Synth Explorer

Korg • Poly-61

The Korg Poly-61 was released in 1982 as the successor to the Polysix. It was somewhat of a step up from the Polysix, as it has 2 DCOs for better reliability. It also retained the arpeggiator of the Polysix. It has a very dirty sharp sound much like the Yamaha DX7. This is good if you are into the lo-fi sound of electronica. The Poly-61 can provide cool gritty basses or trippy analog sounds and fx.

Also added is the familiar Korg joystick, which can be used to modulate the VCO or the VCF. However, its filter only has 7 steps of resonance and is not as fat as the Polysix's filter. It also uses the same method of programming the Poly-800 and Yamaha DX-7 use, so it's not a very useful synth for real-time-tweaking junkies. The first Poly-61s didn't have MIDI, but the Poly-61M released in 1984 corrects this. Overall, the Poly-61 is still a decent synth, and it can be acquired for practically nothing! It has been used by FM Static and The Faint.

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Posting Rules: Please keep your comments relevant! Do not post requests for help, do not use for sales, do not post unless you have something interesting to say about this instrument, or we may delete your post.

 

Siebe Pol

Posted 18 days ago

It's also possible to add midi to the non-midi version.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ON-f43zaspw

kb

Posted 23 days ago

The Poly-61 becomes a _lot_ more fun if you modify it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYpo_AF5hSE

Zaphid

Posted 57 days ago

Offcoarse i meant the poly 61!

Zaphid

Posted 57 days ago

I must aggree with Stevo. I have and had a lot of top notch analogue synths but somehow this baby is still in my studio and get's used very often. It can sound really warm and i love the fact that the MG is not coupled to the joystick's modulation so it has 2 lfo's. Not really wel suited for effects but it does pads, bass and leads very well. I heard the midikit that CHD makes for the monopoly can also be used for the polysix after some minor modifications. A skilled tech could figure this out. *****

STEVO

Posted 80 days ago

Great synth, would never sell mine! Its limited in some ways but thats the beauty of it, easy programming and some clever feastures makes this stand up amonst the great analogue synths! seriously underated but if you look its got a massive following!

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