Korg Poly-800

its very easy to use, i figured out how to edit the sounds on my own in under 2 minutes. when i got it, the presets were no longer on it, so i searched and searched and only came up with websites that u had to pay for, eff that, so i searched longer and finally found them here http://www.strellis.com/Download/Poly800_Patches_Wav.zip

they keyboard has alot of features, for a synth from the 80s, and the price range. once i got the presets loaded, i absolutley fell in love with it. it has those hard to find 80s sounds that all the samples and refills try to mimick, but this is the real thing. im going to install more features on mine with the mooog slayer mod, found here
http://synthmod.net/korg/moog_slayer/

the sounds are not very realistic, they are very robotic, and electro, which is perfect for me.
www.myspace.com/wearediamondfox
thats my music page. the synth has no velocity or aftertouch but who cares. if you want stuff like that u have to buy a newer synth. this is an old analog synth that defined the 80s, and all the people on here that are complaining about it are stupid, would you complain about your grandparents? no, without them you wouldnt be here. well thats what all the other synths are to the poly 800

ive only had it for a day so far, but it seems very reliable, i havent had any kind of mess up or anything so far, but due to the short amount of time ive owned it, i have no opinion on this part

whaaaat???

figure it out yourself loser

BUY THIS IF YOU HAVE A CHANCE
this is a bitchin old analog synth from the 80s, and it pumps out the most beautiful, heavey, synthy sounds, and once i get this moog slayer mod on it, its gonna kick everyones ass

Easy enough. Not knob, slider and switches easy, but easier than DX synths and anything with a green display and 'menus'. The presets sound ok. Many will not be changed like the strings and the patch 15 filter sweep. Generally, good analogue fare. Mine has reverse keys. I know everyone says that..only a few were produced this way..but mine really has. Disregard all of the internet blah about paying no more that fifty bucks etc..most go for at lease $200 USD or ??120 GBP. That's for the standard key versions. Forget trying to find one in a skip or at 'yard' sales.

Quite well specified for its age. How many touch sensitive, midified analogues have there been, exactly? For what it is, a 1980s polysynth, it does the job well. It also is slingable as a performance synth/remote keyboard. The poxy Yamaha shs10 costs more, which is bonkers.

Good sounds and good sound creation possibilties. Shame about the single filter. this is largely made up for by the great envelopes. Lovely strings, brass and 'luna' stuff.

I doubt there is a more reliable synth. I suspect most die from mistreatment or stupid modding. For every successful modded syth you see paraded on the net, there must be loads of failed attempts chucked in the garage as 'projects' for when I have the time and skill.

Getting on for 25 years old...hmmm...Korg can't support stuff sold last week.

Buy the poly800 mk1...not the 2. A internet myth states that replacing the 3.5v back up battery is easy. Let's be honest, when it comes to fine, intricate work, with hot equipment and materials, most people have 10 thumbs for fingers. To get this done professionally will cost you 2 hours work at ??50-70 GBP per hour. The battery and new holder will cost you ??10 GBP. Post will be ??20 GBP each way. They charge the same for a poly800 as they would for a prophet 5. That is why so many mk2s are for sale. Mk1s use 6, 1.5v batteries inserted traditionally in the base. That will cost you a fiver! As a synth to learn on and have some fun with, the poly800 is a safe bet.

The Piano sound is unrealistic....
That said, if you go on the net and download the Factory Patches for it you will be brought straight back to the early 80's late 70's.

Editing the patches is straight forward, the parameters are printed on the front and each setting is clearly laid out. There is no Patch editor as it does not receive or send any type of sysex data. The manual can be downloaded, is thorough and has lots of tips, READ IT. It is like a crash course in square wave synthesis.

To back up patches you need to use the cassette IN/OUT interface, these days though you can just record to an iPod and use that for patch storage and loading.

It has either 8 or 4 note polyphony, but any patch worth its salt will have the two oscillators stacked, so consider it a 4 note poly board.

The chorus is either on or off, but it is lush without being too soupy.

The there are no official expansion capabilities, but you can easily add knobs for realtime cutoff filter and resonance control, a 12/24db filter level switch, and a primitive FM type effect.

It has BASIC midi implementation, it receives and sends: note on/off, pitch bend, patch change (1-64), and DCO and VCF bend via Mod wheel and BC control channels. There is no sustain, or portamento. There is no aftertouch, and it will only produce pitches that can be played from its keyboard. IE if you hook up an 88 key controller to it it will 'fold back' notes that are beyond the range of its 4 octave keyboard. BUT both oscillators can be dropped 1 or 2 octaves and the second oscillator can transpose up in semi-tone steps a full octave.

It has an onboard step sequencer but I only use it to run a loop when editing patches. It will sync to midi but if you're syncing to midi you're probably using an external sequencer anyway.

As i said the Piano sounds are unrealistic, if you want Piano play a Steinway, but they are a piece of crap (only one patch, and no pitch bend, feh).

It has 6 stage envelopes on the oscillators and the filter (Attack, delay break point, slope, sustain and release).

Don't be fooled by all the 'digitalness', this synth came out when analogue was beginning to be a dirty word. The only thing digital about this synth are the square wave generators. It is sounds just like a full-on analogue synth, only it stays in tune.

It is a square wave additive system. Each of the two oscillators has 16' 8' 4' and 2' harmonics available (on or off). You can set it to either all harmonics at full (all stops), or each higher harmonic is half the volume of the lower one (sawtooth).

There is only one lowpass filter shared between all the notes. It can be set to trigger on each new note or hold until all notes are released.

The filter envelope also controls the white noise generator which is handy for 'chiff' or breathy sounds.

Though it does not have a mono setting per se, it has a chord memory which you can set for 1 to 8 notes. If you set it to a one note chord (or a 2 note octave), it plays just like an oldschool mono synth.

There is no way to get this synth to accept a sustain pedal signal, but you can press a button on the front to hold the last 4 notes played.

I have been inside and the key-on switches are semi-sealed silicone cup on circuit-board types switches, so unless you spill all your juice on it it will keep running and they are easy to clean if you do. The data entry switches are another matter. You will probably have to blow them out with a contact cleaner of some sort eventually, as they are mechanical micro-switches.

This synth was made in Japan. That is good. It will outlast anything made in the last 10 years from that other place.

The early versions of the synth did not have an internal battery to back up the patch sounds, so if you unplug it without having the 6 C-cells it loses all patches. If you open it up though you can clearly see where the battery holder is supposed to go though and a little 3.5v Lithium button battery is an easy addition.

From Korg? Forget-about-it. It is off-site and end of line.

BUT there is a heap of support in the Yahoo Groups "korgpolyex" forum. Manuals, factory patches, service manuals, instructions for all the mods, are all there.

You will rely on other users for help with this one, but they are out there and helpful.

If you want to get into real analogue hardware synths, this is a great starting point. It has MIDI so you don't have to go all the way back to CV inputs and MIDI converters, adapter boards etc, and can run it with any sequencer.
The filter-cutoff and resonance mods are easy to do and really open it up for a bit of tweaker heaven.
Pound for pound and dollar for dollar you cant get a better deal. For under $250 you can get TWO of these, stack them and run them through a stereo volume pedal. You will then have the fattest synth on the block. (4 note poly, with 4 oscillators per note). Add external effects and......

When you play tennis you play with a net, to make the game harder and more enjoyable. The Korg Poly-800 is a nicely built, flexible and cheap net.

For a tenth of the price of an overhyped Roland TB-303 you can get something that was actually designed to be a real instrument.

presets are horrible, but if you get one with useless sounds its a good start. lets you have a decent starting point for programming.
the presets, think those educationalmovies you watched in school about the human body, and space. some goes for the demo sequence. i recommend loading the prestes via wav files of the factory patch found throughout the web. the manual will explain everything.

editing patches is in my opinion a breeze if you know synths. if not why do you have one again? the parameters are listed right on front panel. all of them. what more could you ask for?

its supposedly 8 voice poly but feels more like 4 on the strings.
it has chorus. its kinda a poor mans juno. and for that it does pretty good in my opinion.

expansion, no, but you can save and load settings via the tape out and in which is better then nothing.

midi im not to sure about. i suspect its pretty simple cause midi was quite new.

on board sequencer. very simple it would be awesome if the sequencer was like the sh101 its soooo close. but it makes a good scratch pad for ideas.

the sounds! ok so everyone goes on and on about the strings? why again? there ok no really ok. lets face it sample based is good in one department. string arrangement.

the organs are cool, think ladytron 604. i used to be into a guy called d.i.n. back in the day. he made one or two albums. well the one i had was drenched in the poly 800. and helps on ideas.
the bass is excellent. real analog. well it is analog so what would you expect. the oscillators are digital. but you get a nice real vcf. and the oscillators are early digital so you get a nice dirty warmth to them.

the chorus is excellent. and gives away the juno style they were trying to get with this. and they come close. definetly close enough for the money.

ok so if your in a 80's cover band(which im not) what more could you ask for then this synth. sounds like every other key sound in an 80's rock song. its funny how dead on it gets really.

the strings are ok well good at times but must use sparingly. very specific. bass a must and could be used on everything great for fx sounds, and the organs are killer.

mines in perfect shape. but its so old and there plastic this should really be on a unit to unit basis.

my guess would be its gone

if it were stolen id most likely not replace it. its fun to play on and good for background stuff. but no good at the front. great to play on for ideas though. they didnt make a real module of it. the ex is a table top synth. personally i hate that concept. cant put in on a rack. to small for a stand. its small enough to be worth its weight though. if your in a band and play keys its great for that. for full on electronic music your ginna have a hard time fitting it in a mix or it getting to subtle. like i said not good up front unless heavily backed. if it was multi timberal it would be excellent. but for what the go for(do not pay more then 150!)i payed one firty only cause mine looks brand new with a foam hardcase! its worth its price. great for electro retro stuff! not good for complex electronic stuff.
if your set out on getting one take everyones advice and check out the dw line. more features and more pro. all and all its good. but quite dated. this one could be useless or your favorite piece. thats gonna just depend on what you wanna do. i say i wouldnt replace it. but yeah this is my second one. so check one out for yourself. you be the judge.

dead easy.
everything is edited with buttons and a matrix style of editing however its realy easy to do.

eight voice synth wich was pretty much at the time the goal.
very nice joystick for doing modulation and pitch bend.
midi basic but usable.
plastic cold and static keyboard wich a synthesiser if it must have a keyboard should have.
this is not a piano it is for making sounds of the darkest synthetic park. well not completely dark but hey it sounded pretty pretentious.
tape back up.
can run on batterys big plus.
can also be strapped on however i would never use it that way.
extremely light.

excellent evnvelopes one for each dco and one for the noise.
can make some pretty good pads. squelchy basses and decent leads.
could be used for many types of electronic music.
chorus noisy but ok.
its static to play but hey thats ok. you can make some great organ sounds with it. not my thing but they sound good.

yeah i think mines going to need a battery soon but overall its pretty solid for a budget synth wich is almost twenty five years old.alot of people say the quality is bad how could it last for this long if it was?

dunno

owned it and sold it three times allthough different ones each time
hard to beat for the price realy.
i mean what can you replace it with.

really easy to use, the chart lays it all out. This was my first synth and it helped me to learn about vco and vcf synthesis.

polyphony is ok, but for the era and price its no biggie. Noise gen is a nice feature. Built in Chorus is ok, wish there was a delay. Midi is very basic. There is a step sequencer that can house chords as well as single notes, you can edit it I believe but its not that flexible. There is the moog slayer mod for this synth, where you remove the pots for reso and cutoff and replace it with real knob pots. It's pretty awesome actually, makes the thing sound like the warmest analog ever. One word of caution is that although the mod is awesome, that is pretty much all it sounds like after that... everything sort of ends up being a muddy filter sweep. And mine is a little noisy too

pretty good, a little thin sounding. The mod will help a lot

never had a problem with it, and have treated it pretty rough. One time it got fried during a power surge but it was a pretty easy repair

never tried it

good beginner synth, i'm thinking about getting another one just to see what types of sounds i could get, but may just get one of the dw's instead, they have more features.

i don't know what the presets sound like, i got this used, they've got cassettes with them cheap. editing is WAY too simple! its kinda like any other synth, but instead of all the nice knobs and sliders, there's 2 buttons and a chart for what you're changing. i never got a manual, but there is one to download and quite truthfully, you dont need a manual to use this! i only downloaded it because this is my first synth and i didnt know how to use the sequencer

not too many features...........oh, yes: you can put a guitar strap on it! how fun!? and er....there's that joystick, its rather neat. but when you (or at least i..) start it up the joystick works rather shaky on the pitchbend. sounds like you're doing some slow glissando instead of that nice SWOOOOOPing effect you SHOULD get.

well,for the music i do i like the sounds, but if you're not into the whole synthpop/new-wave thing and want it for jazz or something i really dont suggest it. the lack of knobs makes it no fun for playing live when you want to get the crowd started with some synth effects, mainly its just some little sequencer in a box for you to use in the background. not bad enough to limit to bass, but not the main synth. if you sit and tweak long enough and know what you're doing (or not, thats fun as well) you can get some nice stuff out of it

it makes some cracking noises when you pick it up kinda, plastic....
:P but id use it on a gig without backup! mine has something wrong with it when i bought it though,it only works with batteries, and sounds like something little is rolling around the inside....i like it though and would depend on it.

um...................like others have said, im sure they act as if it never existed. and if it needed something professionally installed (ex...a battery) i would definately get it done

oh yes, id buy it again if i lost it! ive had it for almost a year now, and just as with any instrument, always finding something newer about it. i was going to get a juno-60, but this was so much cheaper, and since im not even old enough for a job i think its good enough. i REALLY wish it had some knobs on it! its nice for making music, and its fun to sit on your lap and play with :) (hehe, 10-Fantastic Value........value for the price!) really, it is a bang for the bucks.

I bought a Poly800 new back in 1985 (paid $985 Canadian - about $700 US) and at the time that was about the best deal on a fully-loaded polyphonic synth out there. Presets were pretty lame, but a little tweaking here and there (programming the sucker's a joke - easy, and great synth to learn on) yielded lush strings and pads, stomping bass patches, cutting bells and chimes, and a couple of very fat brass patches. I was gigging in a top 40 band then, and I eventually had three of these in my rig - they were light, versatile and dependable. No manual, but an hour tooling around on this, and you'll be a master.

Unless you want a thin 'big-nothing' sound, stack the osc's for the four-note sound. Keyboard is enjoyably springy, but didn't stop me from running up and down on some lead lines. The chorus is a necessity to add a little life to the softer patches. MIDI is early-80s basic. The onboard sequencer is a bit of a joke, but okay for stuff like a bassline for 'Smalltown Boy' or something.

Pianos are bad. Organs are iffy. But the strings, pads, brasses and Sfx are wicked. I loved gigging against other bands with DX7s, desperately trying to coax strings out of their cold brown boxes. The pure 'synth-pop' sounds were great - leads, 'Jump'-style Oberheim sounds. this machine has all those. If you're playing in an 80s tribute band, this is your board. Probably great for doing dance music today. No velocity or aftertouch, but since it was four note polyphony, I would hammer chords with right hand, and adjust volume with my left. I attribute my weak left hand to the fact that I played this board so much.

Thing was a tank. Never had any problems with it, though it did throw off some noise if - and I'm not joking - I set up on the side of the stage with the 220 hook-up for the light show. I often used a DI box with ground lifter to go straight into the board, and that helped clean up the hum. I never had a backup, and it never let me down.

Never dealt with Korg. Never had to

Seeing that you can get these on ebay for a C-note, I'd get two or three. The sounds stack beautifully... two of these slightly de-tuned will give you an incredible string sound with full 8-note polyphony. The brass stacks you can make are unbelievable. The one intangible about this board is the feeling of it... I've heard a lot of older players compare it to the Prophet-5 or the Jupiter-6 for the sense of ownership it offers - you can really get to know it. It's a fantastic keyboard to start a younger player on. It was my first keyboard, and while it's limited in many ways, plop one on top of a decent electric piano, and you can gig with it - no problem. It is easily the best value in 80s boards out there, and it is so solid, you could well be playing it into the 22nd century.

Very easy. My friend, who is a guitar player, learned to program it in an hour or so. However, a copy of manual is always welcome. And it's on the net.

Four voices if layering waveforms. Forget about using a single waveform (number of voices reaches eight then). Programmable presets.

Eighties. That's everything you need to know about it. Such sounds seem to be back on track (Ladytron, JJ Johansson etc. etc.), so you might consider buying P800, it's cheap.
It rules when it comes to pads and rhythm licks. Not bad in bass area (but it's not a moog-like sound, mind you). Sucks bigtime with leads - lack of portamento feature makes the humble P800 bite the ground here.

Seems to be build like a tank. We don't gig with it, so who knows. Power supply for presets never failed.

Never needed.

If you need that eighties sound and don't have the money for Microkorg, this is probably the best option. Consider using external effect boxes to color the sound and it will satisfy you, most probably.

I find this synth pretty easy and intuitive to program, but I began my studies of keyboard programming on a Korg DW-8000 back in the late 80s. In many ways, the Poly 800 is very similar to program. Most people should have no trouble even without a manual.

49 Keys. 8/4 voice polyphony. Sequencer (old-school). Keyboard action isn't horrible, but not 'great' either... usable. Non-dynamic (no velocity sensativity).

A data slider would have been a nice thing to have -- it could have been in place of the pitch-bend slider, which should really be an adjustable, numeric parameter like it is on the DW-8000. Also, the tuning slider on the Poly 800 is a bit annoying as it is on the DW-8000.

Also, the 'other' thing it could use is perhaps a sustain pedal input. Although, the Poly 800 can be worn like a guitar (thus, the only reason a sustain pedal might NOT be useful), it still would be more welcome than the program-up input that is does have.

The Poly-800 has some cool capabilities and for its price, it isn't a bad buy. If you are choosing between the Poly 800 and the DW-8000, the DW-8000 wins hands down... The DW-8000 can do anything that the Poly 800 can without a doubt. The main difference is the price: the DW-8000 typically goes for more than twice what the Poly 800 costs.

Moreover, the Poly 800 has a 'chord' feature for people who can't play chords, yet it lacks a Mono feature that surely would have made it a great synth for leads. To me, the lack of a Mono mode is its biggest disappointment.

That being said, what do you want for $71?

Well, its over 20 years old and still works. I've read other reviews complaining about memory issues -- bummer! Mine doesn't seem to sport these issues... yet. Hopefully it won't! Thus, the tape back-up.

My overall experience with Korg products has been pretty good as far as reliability goes. This is an old synth though. Would I use it on a gig without a back-up? Well, I don't think there are a whole lot of gigs that the Poly 800 could get you through by itself???? It can only function as a secondary board at most since it doesn't really have any 'stock' sounds like pianos and organs that most gigs require.

If this were lost or stolen would I buy it again? Maybe! It wouldn't be devastating since I do have a DW-8000. But it IS worth the $71 that I paid.

I've been a musician for many years and have performed with national bands. My other synths include: Roland: A90ex, A70jv, U-20; Korg O1w/pro, N5ex, DW-8000; Emu/Ensoniq Halo; Alesis QS7.1, Yamaha DX-7.

What do I love about it? It's small, compact, light-weight and can be worn with a guitar strap (if I ever need that feature?). I wanted a small 37 to 49 key synth for certain gigs where one synth isn't enough, yet I don't need two full-size synths.

What do I hate (What I wish it had): It really could use a Mono setting as well as a sustain (damper) pedal input. The pitch and pitch-bend sliders should be numeric parameters that can not be 'bumped' out of tune.

Overall: still a pretty cool little synth that is easy to travel with and easy to program (with alot of possibilities). Definitely worth $71. Who knows -- maybe they'll be the next 'collecter's item. I remember when Mini Moogs and Arp Odesseys were worthless...