BLAST FROM THE PAST: KORG POLY 800

If you think electronic music is popular now, you should have been here in ’84. Despite decades of bleak Orwellian predictions, 1984 was bathed in vibrant colour and sound, much of which was produced by New Wavers of the newlychristened MTV Generation. Forwardthinking post-punk popsters embraced the latest technological wonders, infusing the soundtrack of the era with echoing electronic drumbeats, stuttering samples, and skittering staccato sequences. Synthesisers had come of age and prices were plummeting, allowing entry to even the skintest of neon-clad wannabe.

With the Poly-800, Korg set its sights squarely on the financially-challenged, wouldbe video star. With garish green buttons, a panel labeled in a futuristic LED-style font, and a truncated 49-note keyboard, it exemplified the style of the time. Plus, this battery-powered bantam weight sported pegs that allowed a guitar strap to be attached for instant Keytar action on stage (or in front of the mirror).

Beyond style, there’s serious substance beneath the bonnet. First and foremost was the unusual oscillator design. A pseudo-additive affair, it allowed complex timbres to be built up by mixing the levels of individual pitches (16’, 8’, 4’, 2'). A choice between saw and square waveforms was provided. One or two oscillators could be used for each patch, though doubling the oscillators would halve the polyphony.

Once the desired waveform was dialled in, it (along with noise, if needed) was then pumped through a resonant lowpass filter. This, alas, was where the Poly-800’s price point came to betray itself. You see, there was only one filter to be shared across all of the voices for that patch. Various re-triggering modes were offered to make up for that limitation, but the Poly800’s filter nevertheless played more like a paraphonic string machine than a fully polyphonic synthesiser.

Another letdown came in the form of the LFO. Control over speed and onset delay were provided, but waveform selection was limited to precisely one – a sine wave.

Korg were a bit more generous with the envelope generators, providing three six-stage jobs with added Break and Slope segments between Decay and Sustain. Two of these envelopes were attached to the DCOs, while the third was given over to filter cutoff.

Finally, a nifty chorus could be used to fatten up the sound. A MkII model added a programmable digital delay. With eight-voice polyphony, a built-in 256-note sequencer and a left-hand joystick for modulation and pitch-bend, the Poly-800 packed a lot of performance power into its small frame.

At £575, the Poly-800 was quite affordable, and it’s even more so on the secondhand market. Unfortunately, many remaining specimens are in dire shape, with battery leakage just one common issue. Also, proprietary processors can’t be replaced, making it something of a risky purchase.

Thus far, the Poly-800 has escaped Korg’s recent spate of virtual re-issues, and there have been few soft-synths based on the little fellow, though admittedly most of its features are easy enough to emulate with any synth that offers user waveform creation.