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.

youknowjuno

March 5, 2009 @ 6:41 am

Just acquired one of these. You can tell it came out around the same time as the Juno 60 as the back panel is almost identical. It doesn't sound too different to a Juno 106 imho. The great thing I've just discovered is that the arpeggio trigger in works through my 60's DCB midi box so I've been able to midi sync the arpeggio.

planetplayer

January 12, 2009 @ 11:00 pm

I tried this when it first came out. The Juno was far too much better.
I remember programming this the filter is not that great and is stepped resonance. The Junos are better and the JX-3P was better closer comparison than the Poly61M since the JX-3p had 2DCO also.

Harry Purser

November 20, 2008 @ 11:19 am

This is to agutsymove - the soldering in these synths is pretty bad. Mine wouldn't start up and when it did, the pitch kept wandering. I opened it up and found two loose wires. A 5 minute resolder and it was A1. Worth a look.

mezzo

November 14, 2008 @ 11:20 am

This was my first poly as well. Capable of decent gritty lo-fi pad and bass sounds particulaly with the help of an external chorus. I recently grabbed another broken one for spares and i'm thinking of doing some circuit bending on it. Any suggestions as to adding pots for VCF /Res / cutoff etc?

Eddie Random

October 15, 2008 @ 5:15 pm

I found one on Ebay a couple of years ago in perfect condition and remains so to this day. Very gritty sounding and great for one-fingered chord riffs. I was able to pick up a MIDI sync box to lock with the arpeggiator to control with my sequencers. I'm fairly old school and use it alongside my Juno 1 and MS2000 for a nice retro feel.

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