Korg Poly 800 Ii Patches
Norine Wiltshire
As some of you might have ready already, I managed to pick up a Korg Poly 800 for a mere $40. I figured if I didnt like it, I could sell it for atleast what I paid for it (checking ebay and other local sources, they're atleast the double).
Does anyone have any first-hand experience of this? Ive been trying for over 2 hours to load one simple sound bank, and Ive tried several different .wav files too, just in case...and different sound banks (from original to personal custom ones)...nuffin...whats up with that? Even if the lithium (?) battery is old, then it should be able to save and load sound banks in mem as long as the power is on, right?
I don't know how you'd expect to load synth parameters from a .wav file. Back when you could load and save sounds via cassette, preferably using data (no leader) rather than audio cassettes. It is ok to use audio cassettes but move past the leader first. Hmm ok I guess the .wav file is presumably duplicating the blips on a data cassette. In that case you have to use the cassette port not midi.
However this synth also has midi and can be addressed from an editor. You're better off just getting some data files and using midi. There was definitely one in Galaxy +; not sure about Sound Diver as never used it with that; would have to check but I would think it would be there.
All you need is a 3/8 to 3/8 stereo cable with a 1/2 inch adapter on the end... Plug one end into your soundcard out, the other into the tape in .. I dont recall the sequence to set the record... but search online for the poly 800 manual.. but all you need to do is to bring the wav up in windows sound recorder or something and then play it when you've activated the tape in sequence..
Plastic: Yeah, I kinda figured it could have something to do with my late 90's tape-deck actually...If nothing else, I guess I'll have to dig out an old tape-recorder at some flee-market or something. Will you believe I dont have a single one left...hmm...maybe my mothers old cyan-coloured walkman would suffice, heh...you know the ones that required 4 batteries to operate and had both a belt-clip and a shoulder-strap.......
As soon as I get back home to my modest home-studio, I'll try to see if it can receive sysex...Im not exactly sure what version this poly 800 is. As far as Ive read, only the later Poly 800 mkii would receive sysex...we'll see, else I'll find some old tape deck.
By the way...since I have your attention; does any of you lads know how this system stores memory/settings? I did two patches late last night and saved them to mem, but woke up this morning only to find that they're gone. I presume its your regular battery than needs a change...I hope...
Proteus: Thats not the way to get a deal...you're not supposed to tell me you want one...you're supposed to tell me its crap and that you humbly offer yourself to relieve me from the burden of owning it
The internal battery is most likely dead or extremely weak if the patches dissapear when you turn off the power. But the Poly 800 is battery powered too. Try adding or changing the batteries in the back as well, I think they are D.
My poly takes C batteries. Yeah, I think what proteus9 is alluding to is that for some backassward reason you need to connect your tape player / computer to the "TO TAPE" port rather than the more sensible "FROM TAPE" port.
Clearly I seem to have mismatched the from/to tape connections, though I did try both, of course...seems weird though, cause I do get the 'ERR' message when connected to "from tape". One would figure it wouldnt react at all if its connected in the wrong port. Ah, well...Ill give it another whirl.
Also as far as Ive understood, there seems to be different (older/newer) version of the Poly 800 (ie not mkII). As soon as I get home I'll see if can receive sysex data. Though with my luck..............
I've been reading quite a lot about this synth prior to purchasing it. I'm yet to find out who's right though...many people say its crap and refer to it as a toy...others simply love it and say they would never part with it. I guess you have to want "that sound". Cant wait...actually...Im off to try loading up a patch again...
Well there is the poly 800 rack ... poly 800 reverse keys .. and the DW8000, DW6000 which are very similar, but have a different filter .. Synapse audio also makes a poly850 VSTi which sounds comprable.. but just doesn't "do it" for me ..
For some reason the poly 800 (aside from casios) is the only one I know of that gets called a toy almost on a daily basis. I wish people would just grow up and say "it's not for me". You know, I may be an exception, but I don't favor the roland filters. They just aren't for me... I do love the Xp30 though ... But that's not quite the same..
Since then, Korg have extended and repositioned the Legacy Collection, by removing the Wavestation from the original configuration and combining it with a recreation of the M1 to form the Legacy Digital Edition. Happily, the faux-analogue side of things has not been allowed to flounder, and to the MS20, Polysix and effects that comprised the bulk of the original collection, Korg have now added a Mono/Poly soft synth to create the Legacy Collection Analogue Edition 2007. Since we have already covered the MS20 and Polysix emulations (SOS July and August 2004), this review will focus on the Mono/Poly emulation.
Korg released the original MP4 'Mono/Poly' analogue synth in 1981. The world didn't go bananas for it, although it sold moderately well. In stark contrast to the reverence in which it is now held, the Mono/Poly made hardly a ripple in a world that was still dominated by powerful American polysynths. Many players (myself included) tried it, and wondered why we should be interested in a monosynth with four reasonable oscillators and a high-quality filter when there were Odysseys and Minimoogs available, both of which offered gorgeous oscillators and legendary filters. Or, for that matter, why we should be interested in a 'paraphonic' four-voice polysynth when there were truly polyphonic six-voice Polysixes and Juno 60s to be had (see the 'Polyphonic Vs Paraphonic' box for more on the difference between these terms). It seemed that the Mono/Poly failed to excel at anything.
Of course, new forms of music create new perspectives on existing instruments. Nowhere is this more apparent than for the Roland TB303, which was transformed almost overnight from an annoying, whiney little box into a classic of the acid-house revolution. Whereas, in 1985, things that went squelch were naff, in 1995, they were cool and desirable. So maybe it was inevitable that the Mono/Poly would be re-evaluated, and that it would eventually become one of the most desirable of all Japanese monosynths.
My first test was to set up the most basic patch possible on the original synth and the emulation (one oscillator, no filtering, square envelopes, no modulation and no effects) and compare their outputs. Comparing the sounds thus produced, the results were conclusive: the original is slightly brighter and raspier than the soft synth. I checked that this was not a consequence of overdriving anything in the analogue signal chain, but it was not. The same proved to be true for the other waveforms. In all cases, the original synth exhibited a slight, raspy distortion, which no doubt has contributed to its reputation for producing aggressive, peaky sounds.
Both these methods were very expensive to implement in the 1970s, and a more affordable approach combined a multi-note sound-generation system (essentially, an organ) with a single signal path comprising just one VCF and one VCA whose responses were shaped by one (or two) contour generators. Roland coined the name 'Paraphonic' for this architecture when launching the RS505 Paraphonic Strings, although it was used by many famous keyboards, both before and after. These include the Solina, the ARP Omnis, the Moog Opus 3, the Korg Trident, the Poly800 and, of course, the Mono/Poly.
Before testing what the VCF and VCA do to any signal passing through them, I decided to test what they do on each synth when the filter is self-oscillating. I set up a 1980s' syn drum 'dooo...' patch on each by sweeping their cutoff frequencies and amplitudes downward using their envelope Decay stages and, having got the frequencies and sweep times as close to identical as possible, compared the results. I was surprised: the Mono/Poly exhibited a percussive 'bump' at the start of the sound that is entirely missing from the emulation.
Reducing the filter resonance demonstrated that the two synths' activities at the onset of self-oscillation are also quite different. The Mono/Poly produces the same sound but more quietly, whereas the soft synth produces a percussive bump that sounds a little like the claves from an analogue drum machine.
Turning the filters' EG Intensity to maximum (so that the sounds swept downward from higher frequencies) revealed even greater differences. As you would expect, the Mono/Poly swept downward smoothly, but the soft synth exhibited two pronounced cycles of stray frequencies, similar to what you would obtain from a ring modulator. This is almost certainly a consequence of aliasing and, while it's not unpleasant, it's different from the original. Despite Korg's hyperbole about its Component Modelling Technology (CMT) it's clear that the filters and envelope generator responses on the two instruments are different if one approaches them in an analytical fashion.
What is less forgivable is that, in 2007, a Legacy Cell cannot host the Mono/Poly soft synth, and I suspect that this is why Mono/Poly incorporates its dedicated effects. It's a shame that one can't stack two Mono/Poly s or combine one with either of the other synths in the collection, and I can't help feeling that makes the Mono/Poly feel slightly 'tacked on', rather than being as fully integrated as the name Analogue Edition 2007 implies.
The Effects sections add sonic possibilities that original Mono/Poly owners could only dream of. On the up side, there are lots of other goodies that I haven't yet mentioned tucked away in the Mono/Poly soft synth. Some of them are now commonplace, such as riffs to audition sounds and the ability to assign MIDI controllers to on-screen parameters. Then there are the standard Global options for customising external modulation sources, micro-tuning, patch category names, and so on. Less common are the 20 default templates that provide useful starting points for creating and tweaking patches.
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