(about $800). The main contender in this pricerange was Casio CZ1000. At this

time nobady wanted something that wasn't MIDIfied. You could get a new TB303 for

about $200. I later sold my Poly800 for a about 3000 crowns and bought a D50

instead but I missed some of the sounds and bought the rack version. Programming the Poly is a great way to learn analog basics but since

it's a one-parameter-at-a-time interface it's not as quick or intuative as

on a Juno-106 for example. The sound is kind of thin and the filter is using only one envelope. If

you play one note first and then play another note while holding down the

first one you either retrigger the envelope for both notes or play the second

note in the envelope stage as the first note (depending on how you set the

retrigger settings). This was done to save on manufacturing cost but it adds a

certain character to the sound. The filtersweeps are firstclass, you can get

some usefull basspatches out of it and it's good for square wave sounds. It's not

velocity sensitive and you can't do any serious realtime manipulation of

the sound. The sequencer is 256 step, step entry and non transposable. It can be synced

and I used to connect it to a TR505. The problem is that 256 steps is kind

of short if you want to make a bassline for a hit tune. The rating 3 out of 5 is partly of sentimental reasons. It's a worthwhile

addition if you find it relly cheap.

I'm using a korg T3, Roland D5, Roland jx8p and the korg NS5R

sound module and I still find myself going back for the poly800

sounds. There are some good third party patches available and

you can get the factory presets on cassette from

www.KidNepro.com for pretty cheap.

1989, and I will never sell it (I think). A little bit noisy then, but

I´ve made such nice sounds on it.......Pity that this synth doesn´t

respond to touch sensibility. A great buy, for a little money.