Discussion about the Korg PolySix synthesizer

Hello!

My name is Frank Carvalho. Let me introduce myself. (Ken Leonard may 
remember my name from the Mellotron list). Last year I tried to join 
the old list, but with very little success, and now I suddenly find 
this list. So I am happy to finally have found an active forum for 
PolySix discussion. 

We used to have a PolySix in my band some 14 years ago, although it 
wasn't mine, and I wasnt really allowed by the keyboardist to play 
around too much with it. Later, when I convinced him to borrow it to 
me it had become a victim of the infamous battery leak. We didn't 
know back then what was wrong, so we gave it away to a service man as 
a spare part item. Then, some years ago I started to get really back 
into analog synths again, and looked for another PolySix. I got one 
very cheap, that didn't have any symptoms of the leakage, and only 
had some tape on the keys that should be removed. I immediately 
opened it and switched the battery, that miraculously showed no sign 
of the leakage.

Needless to say that I love the distinctive sound of this synth. I 
always liked its brass sounds - Emerson style - but these days I like 
the filter and modulation stuff even more.

Now, I've been browsing the net for sound-files of original sounds, 
and I am surprised to find relatively few such dumps around. This is 
a bit of a surprise really as so many P6s were sold originally. Maybe 
it would be great to have a site for peoples own original sounds?
Has anyone ever considered making an editor to read and edit sound 
dumps. I guess it should be possible if the sound dumps can be 
interpreted somehow - or is this idea just too way out?
And one more thing. I think I've seen a mod somewhere that will add a 
glide to the synth. Is it an easy operation to perform... or should I 
say, has anyone tried it?

Cheers

Frank Carvalho
Denmark

Welcome, Frank!

>>Then, some years ago I started to get really back 
into analog synths again, and looked for another PolySix. I got one 
very cheap, that didn't have any symptoms of the leakage, and only 
had some tape on the keys that should be removed. I immediately 
opened it and switched the battery, that miraculously showed no sign 
of the leakage.<<

That's great news! I was very lucky in the same way when I came across and bought a Polysix two years ago. The battery was just barely beginning to corrode and I had it replaced. Oddly, the Polysix I bought was the very same one I had grudgingly sold 11 years earlier, programs I had created intact and all!

>>Needless to say that I love the distinctive sound of this synth. I 
always liked its brass sounds - Emerson style - but these days I like 
the filter and modulation stuff even more.<<

Yeah, the brass sounds are great. I just got a Korg G3 guitar effects box and route the P6 through that too which adds some cool delay to the brass.  I programmed a quite convincing guitar sound and put it through distortion/overdrive and voila! Heavy Metal!!

>>Maybe it would be great to have a site for peoples own original sounds?<<

There are some at Kristofer Ulfves' Polysix Digest site, http://www.ing.umu.se/~me96kus/p6digi.html
and I am posting a set of mine soon at my Polysix page, http://www.ellsmusic.net/polysix.html.

>>Has anyone ever considered making an editor to read and edit sound 
dumps. I guess it should be possible if the sound dumps can be 
interpreted somehow - or is this idea just too way out?<<

Good question. Sys-ex strings can be, but audio I'm not sure about.

>>And one more thing. I think I've seen a mod somewhere that will add a 
glide to the synth. Is it an easy operation to perform... or should I 
say, has anyone tried it?<<

There's a little note at Kristofer's site, http://www.ing.umu.se/~me96kus/stuff/p6digi30
I've not got the guts to do any kind of soldering or anything on my P6 (just got a Kenton MIDI kit that I'm going to have *professionals* install!).

- Ells
http://www.ellsmusic.net
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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hi all!

Fun to see that people still are interested in knowing their Polysix
inside out. In order to try to spread knowledge about the Polysix I set up
the Poly6list digest homepage back in 1998 (or was it 97?). It was meant
as a sort of unofficial FAQ since I didn't have the time to do a "proper"
one.

Now, inspired by all traffic still flourishing around this piece of
glorious equipment I've once again updated my page, removing faulty links
and trying to correcting minor mistakes. However, it still retain its
simple look as I haven't got the time nor patience to completly redesign
it.

Happy synthing!
regards,
Kristofer Ulfves, Uppsala, Sweden