KORG POLY-800 HQ SOUND DEMO - vintage synthesizer 1984

YouTube via AnalogAudio1
"The Korg Poly-800 came out 1984 and is a interesting analog synthesizer with good, interesting sounds. It has MIDI, runs even with batteries, and can be used as a remote keyboard. It was cheap, almost every musician could afford one.

It has digital controlled oscillators (DCO's). Not digital oscillators - they are just controlled digitally. Actually, it has just square waveforms. Combining different footages of squares you'll obtain the usual saw, pulse and square waveforms - and some more. In the WHOLE mode it's 8-voice polyphonic. In DOUBLE MODE you have 2 DCO's per voice, this sounds best. This however, reduces the polyphony to 4 voices. It has a VCF - a real resonant analog filter. It also has 3 complex envelopes and a noise generator.
It also has a switchable CHORUS, CHORD MEMORY and a polyphonic STEP SEQUENCER. A shame that it doesn't have something like RING MOD or OSC SYNC. It also lacks portamento and PWM. But okay, it was a small budget synth.

The Korg EX-800 is the desktop version of the Poly-800. It has the same features and sound but CHORD MEMORY is missing. And it doesn't run with batteries.

In this movie I show you some of my own sounds - without any effects or equalizing. Really, it CAN sound excellent, if you program your own sounds in a right way. Some of the factory presets are ok, but the most of them are rather funny than great (do you remember the Poly-800-Flute preset? ;-) )...

The Poly-800 is great for analog pads, sequencer sounds and leads. It's not a killer bass machine - the envelopes are a bit lame. However, some basses are okay.

Jean-Michel Jarre had one! There is a picture, which shows Jarre with a reversed-key Poly-800 in his studio. But I don't believe he used it on any recordings...

THE SOUND PROGRAMS IN THIS MOVIE:

Do you have a Poly-800 and want to enjoy the sounds you are hearing here? Send me 10 Euros through PayPal and I will send you a MP3 with patch data (64 sounds). You feed your Poly-800 with this MP3 through the tape interface input. It will also work with the EX-800, but NOT with the POLY-800 II, as it has a different data format.

I programmed these great sounds carefully by myself - These sounds are not available elsewhere! There are thick Prophet-style pads, basses, sequencer sounds and funky leads. On some leads, you need the CHORD MEMORY function to program an interval, like seen in the video. The sounds are mainly suited for electronica styles and classic electronic music (Jarre, Vangelis, etc..).

If you are interested in these sounds, please drop me a mail."