Three great plugin alternatives

MANX XS-4

One of the few remaining commercial synths taking cues from the Poly-800, XS-4 was, according to the developer, likewise inspired by the Siel DK-80 and Suzuki SX-500. All of the above drew upon DCOs and subtractive filters. They certainly sounded of their era, and the Windows-only XS-4 captures that character quite nicely.

www.manxsynthesizers.com

OSIRIS SYNTHS POLLY8

Another Windows-only affair, this has been around for yonks. Created with Jeff McClintock’s SynthEdit software, it has a strikingly similar feature set to that on the Poly-800, despite the fact that the developer facetiously insists on never having heard of the thing. While it may not be pretty, if you’re running an older machine, it’s worth a shot.

bit.ly/osirissynths

MORGAN VISCONTI MORG POLY 700

While dedicated Poly-800 plugins are few and far between, Reaktor users can avail themselves of this fabulous facsimile from Morgan Visconti. Freely available from the vast online Reaktor User Library, it has all of the features of the original, minus the sequencer and battery leakage. It’s an oldie from ’04, but it still works and sounds a treat.

bit.ly/reaktoruserlibrary