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More of a review really.. The Polysix is without doubt the bargain of the secondhand analog polysynth market, for some reason probably due to warmth and relative fatness (for 1 VCO per voice) it ain`t caught on in the world of Techno but this is one hell of a Rock synth. should Heavy rock come to the forefront of music (unlikely) the Polysix will rocket in popularity as it offers classic warm pad backdrops (on a budget!) just waiting for power guitars to be layered over, ask Geoff Downs of Asia or Keith Emerson, OK, it`s no Oberheim but it don`t cost like one either, so what do you get for your £150-£250??, 1 ultra stable VCO per voice with Pulse width modulation, (this has it`s own LFO unlike the Prophets and Oberheims etc) plus a sawtooth wave and variable square/pulse waves. SSM chips drive the filters, these aren`t the ultra sweet 2040`s used in the REV-1 Prophets (more`s the pity) but are warmer and fatter than Korg`s own attempts and many Curtis based budget machines too. The filter has no dedicated EG, this is the REAL bugbear of the Polysix (and the junos come to that). you can select an organ envelope for the VCA and rely on external reverb for smooth release if you want a weird filter envelope though. unusually, the filter has both normal and inverted envelope capabilities.. there is no Portamento probably as poly-portamento is costly, but why not "just for unison" portamento as in the Prophet-5??. No noise source, not a great loss if you have a monosynth and no transpose to get 32`or 2` voicing, although you can set the pitch wheel (which has an excellent bend amount control) to drop or raise an octave. The LFO has a delay pot sadly missing from most synths of the era and can effect VCO VCF or VCA, be driven from the mod wheel or it`s own depth pot. The ACE in the Polysix`s arsenal is it`s effect unit. Rather than just chorus it has Phase and ensemble too with a control to adjust depth/speed depending on your selection, the ensemble is noisy (as usual) but the phaser set to it`s lowest speed is awesome. The arpeggiator is the same as on the very closely related Mono/Poly and therefore useful, it also has it`s own speed control not relying on the LFO like the SCI Pro-1 etc. 32 Memories with instant editing of presets and a VERY reliable FAST tape interface (unlike the Poly-800 and most american gear). sockets include Filter CV input, amazingly only MONO output (considering the chorus/ensemble...shame), arpeggio clock in (ACE) and headphones out. Build quality is solid but the shoddy vinyl covered chipboard endcheeks look tatty fast....... Problems!.. The NiCad battery used for mamory backup is prone to leaking and contamination of the digital PCB, tracking repairs are lengthy and tiresome so check yours out and replace the battery before this happens....The keyboard like the Mono/poly is based on the rubber cup contact system used in a lot of computer keyboards, they wear out/get dirty and cause dead keys, the cups should still be available from Korg (they are in the UK).. There have been reports of Polysixes not being to reliable in other areas too which is not suprising due to the inclusion of SSM chips for filter and ADSR but otherwise the machine is far less tempermental and cranky than a lot of European/American machines.. Summary.. If you can`t afford an OBXa,Prophet-5,Jupiter6/8,CS80 etc and are not doing dance music, try one. in my book the best single VCO poly to date.... Family?? only the weird Mono/poly which sounds even warmer and is one hell of a 4-VCO monosynth with everything you could want bar memories and a sequencer. Years? 1981-1983, it was replaced with the 2-DCO based knobless (and gutless) Poly61. The Polysix was Korg`s ONLY Orthodox polysynth (flat thing with knobs on), the rest were either weird Semi-Modular devices or had Digital access..
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