Korg • Poly-800
Poly-800
During the time of the Roland Juno series in the mid-80's, Korg offered the Poly-800. Comparable to the Juno and in many ways better, the Poly-800 is an 8 voice polyphonic analog synthesizer with 64 memory patches and up to 50 editable parameters! There's also a stereo chorus effect, a sequencer, and a weird joystick used to adjust pitch, modulation and the filter. There is a double mode in which the oscillators double up making 4 fat voices of polyphony - fun for trance and techno.
Poly-800 mkII
Then in 1984 came the Poly-800 mkII (pictured above) which added digital delay effects. The rackmount EX-800 version (pictured below) has a built-in 256-step polyphonic sequencer. Poly-800s have been used by Orbital, Depeche Mode, Sneaker Pimps, Vangelis, Geoff Downes, Yesterdays and Jimi Tenor.
EX-800
Below is the more rare Reverse Keys version of the Poly-800. Its specifications and features are the same as the original. Only the key colors are reversed.
Poly 800 (Reverse Colored Keys)
Soundwise, it is a bit limited but not problematically so: i've been able to program mellotron flutes, pads that go from sweet to rumbling and keep on evolving, booming organs, bass sounds that my speakers can't even produce (i do hear them with headphones), nice strings, faux-echoing detuned kate bush contraptions etc.
This little synth excels at slightly lo-fi yet full 'indie' sounds, it has a proper own sound with character in spades. The only gripe i have with it is the 'breathing' sound of the noise generator, i guess i'll have to look into that. It always sounds like the surf's coming up in the background.
to throw the poly 800 in the bin. well, I didn't.
It is not particularly user friendly (typing in values insted of
turning a pot, the envelopes i are stoneage crap and so on......), but once you get hold of the
overall system, you can get tremendously creative.
There's an interesting modification out there, THE MOOG
SLAYER MOD, which replaces the filter controls with pots.
You get yourself a fantastic sounding 12db/oct live-tweakable filter !It places the synth in a new perspective.
The other reason why I didn't dispose of it are the Juno-
like string sounds you can create and the fat organ
sounds (try pushing them through a tube amp !).
GET YOURSELF A POLY 800 for 2/300 bucks and
DO THE MOD ! (If you lost the power supply, you take
a wall wart 9volts/at least 500mA, but make shure it is stabilized (as for all digital gear)
Although the synth was limited I liked what it did and rather wish i'd kept it. But He He just got an almost working EX800 for £20 done the repairs and reloaded the factory sounds.
Still got a dry joint somewhere so the sound is sometimes distorted until you thump it. Doesn't sound as good as I remember but synths have come a long way since not forgetting all the virtual stuff too. Still useful bit of kit in the right place.