Vintage Synth Explorer

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)

VISITOR COMMENTS (64)

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Sjolander

Posted 12 hours ago

Luke, the one you are referring to on ebay is quite abundantly over-priced in my opinion. $399.99 + $75 shp. And cosmetically it's only in fair condition. These usually run about $100-$200. I have a Poly 800-mkI + a Poly-61m as well as the heralded Dw-8000 and I have to say that the Poly 800 can produce some rather charming sonics for a 4th or 5th synth, but on the whole its a trifle thin, not to mention often referred to as the "Ugly Duckling" of the vintage Korg line... Here is a bit more info ~
Early model mk1 Poly800's do not have a memory backup battery and so unless you keep a full set of charged batteries installed at all times the program memories will be lost when you switch the machine off. If there is no original battery the mod costs £20

luke perry

Posted 20 hours ago

Hey, Im thinking of bidding on a Korg Poly-800 (serial number 0004922) and I was wondering if this particular synth came through anyone's hands before. The ebay poster says that early serial number poly800s are generally more pristine due to a better battery casing that was nixed later in production (the newer battery thing causes leaky batteries or something...). has this been an issue for anyone?

Jacqueline

Posted 17 days ago

haven't really gotten round to really programming this thing yet...not a fan of the whole choose a parameter, tap away at the buttons routine, but my roland jx-3p is similar in this respect and i do programme that, maybe it's just thatt the poly 800 is so ugly.

I added the moog slayer mod and at somepoint i'll get around to doing the fm one too, i had such difficulty succesfully adding a backup battery to this synth even having tried three different techqniques and whilst i think i have it sorted it still has a habit of wiping itself once in a while and maybe this has also put me off programming, but despite it being a tempermental little thing i do love it's rather bizzare kind of fizzy sound.

JWC

Posted 25 days ago

Just read through this thread and, tho i may have missed it, no one seems to mention the Polysix, which was originally the competition for the Junos.. not the Poly800.
The Polysix sounded huge. Same single osc setup as the Juno, but the Ensemble and Chorus really made it unique.
The 800 has its place; there seems to be no middle ground... people really like it, or really don't. I never liked the single filter design; it was a cost cutting measure and made the 800 more a sister to the Mono/Poly, not the Polysix and helped it from doing huge lush pads... (when you played a chord or arpeggio, you did not hear six filters at their various stages of movement, there was only the one, which made it very thin and static, to my ears.)
I would certainly like to get one to have, but i would much prefer a Polysix.

... actually... i'd like both.

JJ Lure

Posted 39 days ago

The Poly 800 Mk2 was my only keyboard for several years. It was such a part of me that everybody called me Poly which was funny and cool at first but I grew to hate it. I hated it so much that I sold it to buy an Alesis QS6 so i could "evolve". A year later the QS6 was stolen by an ex-roommate who sold it and used the money to buy his girlfriend dope. That was 20 years ago and I've never had enough money, credit or the sheer will to buy another keyboard again. I'm typing this on a borrowed computer. I miss that Poly a whole lot.

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