Quasimidi Polymorph

What was it again ... yes, hold down both PAGE buttons while switching on the machine??? OS 2.01f I guess I was lucky to get the latest OS, I would not have minded any of them though if truth is to be told, on this machine unpredictable glitches would just add veneer to the personality. As far as programming goes the superficial, editing is ??? well you could give it to a Pygmy with no previous encounters with electrical appliances and he would figure it out in two seconds flat. J??rg Shaaf (the designer) should be kicked up the arse for the display layout though it is to say the least irksome and in the beginning hard to phantom, just something as elementary as saving things can become a pain especially when in a work-flow and delete and save are done with the same button. And the two VALUE wheels still annoys the hell out of me it is so easy to mistake the two, and a number pad would be so much more sensible; then you could have changes between sounds in real time which you can not with the wheels. Such is also the case with the sequencer, there are still things about it I have not figured out. The user manual is brief, this should be a good thing, however they never finished it, it appears; so from time to time it will tell you what you can do, but not necessarily how you do it, it is possible to experiment ones way through this maze though and there is people who has been there before, on the net.

Have not come across anything the polyphony can not handle.

As far as the effects are concerned, this section is both stunning and a downer. The concept is stunning and the actual effects a downer. It has three simultaneous sets of effects: DISTORTION containing very decent filters, filter sweeps are possible and a not too good distortion therefore more like an extra set of filters ... The Polymorph EQ is, compared to my Wavestation rather poor it lacks shine and finesse ??? FX1 and FX2 neither is very good, both the chorus and flanger effects are rather metallic in the sound, the delay is however passable but limited. The interesting thing though is that the effect are related to each sequence not the sound per say, so in a sequence you can ... unless my ears deceive me ... run different sounds through a effects setup while they remain the same.

The company that makes a sound expansion board for this machine wins a price. It deserves it.

The Midi ??? eh well it is sort of quasi midi ??? who by the way was the genius at Quasimidi that thought up the concept of having a machine that would only be able to transmit the midi data of one sequencer at the time and not all of them on different channels to an external devise and that sending out any of this data should bar the Polymorph from making any sounds itself? The person who thought this was a good idea needs to get the sack ... and since Quasimidi no longer exists he probably has come to think of it ... unless he???s been rehired by Radikal Technologies that is???

The Sequencer ... ah well everyone here is very enthusiastic about it. Personally I would have wished it also had sustain on each note as well as the possibility to change the time space between the notes, an ability to change the attack on each note would be good too (would make it sound more analogue) ??? I am also missing a possibility of changing beat mid sequence.

The sound is best described by the word: Almost. It is almost perfect, so close in fact that, that the machine lacks that last minuscule mote to make it ???The Synth??? annoys the hell out of me, especially since the only thing it had needed was a analogue filter instead of the digital it has. The bass sounds is almost like the Korg MS20 but more sterile the rest is often too low in quality (it is however possible to get HiFi sound out of it despite what other reviewers claim here, this is especially true for string sounds) compared to many other synths. It has some problems with the bass range (sounds begins to distort) as well as the high (it becomes impossible to distinguish one sound from another) and works best in the mid range. It is in spite of this a inspiring machine and making good tunes on it is a breeze and it is not limited to EBM IBM and trance. In its natural environment it has a however a tendency to sound like a rabid rabies infected bullterrier it snarls froths at the mouth and generally wants to bite and devour anything in its vicinity.

It is the only synth I bring with me when I travel. It does however strike me as delicate. The dials are soldered directly onto the circuit board without being attached to the panel which is a bad idea, it was probably the same guy who came up with the midi idea that came up with this idea. This said it has never given me grief.

Quasimidi does not exsist anylonger but I've emailed J??rg Shaaf at radikal technologies (the Polymorph designer) and was surprised how fast he replied.

A work horse is never properly appreciated and this little thing has rapidly become my No.1 workhorse. It frustrates me and thrills me at the same time, but when push comes to shove I do very good stuff on it, even if I do not really like to working on it.

Should it go missing I'd probably go for the Radikal Technologies Spectralis it is Quasimidi in its new guise (they never really disapeared) and its what the Polymorph would have been today if Quasimidi had continued, it even got analogue filters apart for better sounds and a more advanced sequencer.

The fist OS one which was sadly the last one just before Quasimidi went bust. Works well with very few bugs in fact the only bug I have found is the tempo delay resetting itself when in edit screens, hardly anything to worry about.
Takes a little while to get your head around the menus and layout but once masterd its second nature.
Presets are very old school electronic and don't really show the potential that this machine has for hard industrial IDM type music.
Manual is ok if a little brief.

Well featured for a synth of this age although the actual patch structure seems rather basic especially lacking a mod matrix its adding a four row sequencer to each part that really gives way for some deep programming. It???s a shame the sequencer can only access eight steps at a time but all front panel knobs transmit MIDI CC so the Poly can also double as a handy MIDI controller for four softsynths at once.
The sequencer???s timing is also very tight like most German equipment but the gate time is fixed although this isn???t so much a problem if you assign a row to envelope release or decay. The memories and saving functions are much improved over the 309. A setup save will save all four parts with their sequence???s and tweaks in one of 64 memory locations of which you can select patches from any one of the setup menus in other setups. There is also 127 user patch memories and 50 user sequencer memories which you can simply flick through whilst the machine is running to mix and match what sounds good.
FX are basic by tidays standards but each part comes with one mono and one stereo FX which sound ok but are a little limited. The tempo delays work best. The distortin filter can really sound agressive and comes with its own LPF with resonace which really makes things stand out in a mix without swapming other sounds.

It first I thought the Poly sounded very digital and clunky unlike a nice VA with its aliasing VCO???s but getting deep in the machine and getting the best out of the excellent raw twin QM filters is the key to getting the sounds you want and they never sound lacking like a Roland rompler or a clean tinky Korg VA. Ok you don???t get the complexity of a Waldorf Q or Virus but the sound is full, raw and aggressive which is the main reason for buying any synth just don???t expect delicate pads and tinkley high end melodic fodder. Oh I also forgot to mention that the envelopes are really tight (owing to the 309 heritage) so abstract percussion though the distortion filter is IDM hevan. Not and synth for all sounds but if you want hard industrial acid techno look no futher.

Does what it does without a glitch probably as this machine is designed for live use (ask Klaus Schulze) but I wouldn't use it as a main clock source as heavy tweaking can fluctuate the timing (the 309 is the same) but when synced to something else its solid.

QM are no more but you won't really need them anyway as the Poly is bulit like a tank and runs like clockwork. There was an ex QM bloke on the Yahoo group but I'm not sure if he's still about.

Until something else comes out that???s has the same features, reliability and raw sound then it???s a keeper. A unique beat that???s still full of potential and a bargin 2nd hand.

Using 2.01

The synth parameters are easy to control... it's very programable, and if you have any experience with "analog" style synths you'll be able to find your way around. The onboard sequencer is what makes this thing worthwhile, and it's very difficult to figure out right away... a little time with it and it starts to make sense... and then you realize what you paid for... and why Polymorph owners are rabid when it comes to their synth.

I'm not going into timbrality and polyphony, it's been covered by others...

it has 2 decent if generic efx blocks, and seperate distortion and eq. The distortion isn'tr very warm, but it's very expressive...

I'm bothered by the inability of the LFO's to be assigned.. they are hard wired to PWM, Pitch, and filter cutoff... there is a seperate LFO for each of these, but I'd like to be able to assign them to pan, resonance, amp, etc... AND the filter LFO effects BOTH filters simultaneously... the Pitch LFO effects all 3 oscillators simultaneously, so LFO's are worthless for detuning effects. BAH!!!

The three envelopes are decent, and very expressive. But again, are hardwired to hipass, low-pass and amp, respectively.

only one of the three oscillators is a genuine tone generator, the other two are wav based, but frankly, this thing isn't exactly "analog modelling" really... it does a fine job of analog emulation, but it's very unique, and I think the wav forms actually add to it's expressive style.

It responds to every bit of MIDI I've sent it, including aftertouch and velocity... and (nice) it actualy responds to gen MIDI specs, ie: MIDI controller 7 is the volume. Unlike a certain little KORG synth I know, with wierd unpredictable parameters set to otherwise "standard" controllers.

The 4 part on board sequencer is so cool, it's a complete deal maker for me. I wouldn't like this synth without it. You can't write songs with it, it's a 16 step analog style note and controller sequencer. But you can do some fascinating sound morphing effects by carefully building sequence that layer with one another when it's in multi mode. This allows you to change from one sound to another over time as it runs, like a wavetable synth. VERY intriguing possibilities. But, this takes a lot of work to learn and implement properly... not that that should bother you any!

It's hard to quantify the sound of this thing. It does NOT sound like an analog, much... but neither is it a flat ol' "rompler"... it just will not sound like a traditional instrument, and frankly, if you want traditional sounds you should use traditional instruments... Bjork sayed once that using a synth to emulate other instruments is like using plastic to emulate other materials... it's cheap, and lame! Plastic is cool when you work with it like PLASTIC, and synths are cool when you work with them like sytnhs... and this synth is incredibly expressive, creative and inspiring.

It's got a dangerous metallic growl, and it also does lovely tangerine dreamish sweeps, pads and efx. It drones, groans and warbles like a pro... and it's always dark, and a bit twisted. It's a truly original sounding bit of kit... and for all their usefulness, you can't say that about most VA's ont he market these days.

Just don't rely on presets with this one(you shouldn't anyway)... it needs care and attention to get it to work...

I will say that alone it doesn't sound like too much without a lot of work... but it's freakishness sits very nicely in a mix of other instruments. I'd recommend it more to the musician with a good synth or two already and who's looking for some character over someone who's looking for a VA to turn out basslines, oberheim pads... etc.

I feel really bad for the people who say this thing has chinzy knobs, or is lightweight or cheap! I bought mine used and I must have gotten the "field" version 'cause it's solid, sturdy and the knobs are great... again, not like some entry level VA's out there. I'm not excited about the external Power Supply, but it's a very rugged bit of gear...

I will use it on stage without worries.

As soon as I learn to speak with the dead I'll let you know.. this company's been gone for some time!

It's worth every penny...

I'd cry big salty tears if it were stolen, and I just don't understand how anyone could loose such a thing!

the menu's are a bit too deep, it could use more on the surface, and having someone who reads/writes english involved with the manual would have been nice.

It's terribly inspirational, tons of fun, and very expressive.

I've been at this for 10 years... Comparable sytnhs in my kit include the Korg MS2000, Waldorf Micro q and Novation Nova. It's not better or worse than any of these, but it sits quite nicely with it's new friends.

one of the last polymorphs made, OS 2.01

sort of hard to figure out, but it's not a "plug n play" sort of instrument

nothing else in the world like it! amazing machine.

one of the most unique sounding synths i have ever owned...and being such a gear slut, i have owned quite a few of them. if you can even find one of these, BUY IT IMMEDIATELY. i've seen them for around $900, and they are worth every penny. or, go get a virus and sound like everyone else....

seems very well-built to me. but since there is no more quasimidi, i'll be extra careful with it.

if someone stole this, i would hunt them down, cover them with honey, and place them into a fire ant bed.

weird, amazing, lovely, harsh, biting, smooth....not enough words to describe the polymorph. i love it, and it will stay with me as long as i make electronic music.

I bought my Polymorph 3 months ago on German ebay for 810 DM, that's about 320 US$. What a bargain! Well, that beast is worth at least double the amount they go for today. Anyway: tweaking the important parameters via the dedicated knobs is pretty straight-forward, however if you're digging deeper into the PM's guts you'll have to rely on the small LCD and only a few buttons to navigate through the submenues. Sound Diver 3.0 helps a lot here. Editing the sequences is fairly easy once you get used to the fact that only 8 of the maximum 16 steps are accessable at the same time, so you'll have to jump between the first and the last 8 steps a lot using the page buttons. As many users have stated, the preset sounds are heavily geared towards the Kraftwerk / Jarre / Tangerine Dream-ish realms. In my opinion, there are too many cheesy presets, and most of them conceal the Polymorph's powers instead of demonstrating them. Don't be afraid though, this synth can sound FAR better than the presets may lead you into thinking. The preset sequences are nice, but who is gonna use them anyway? You don't want to copy other people's pieces of art, do you 8-) ?

Aaaaaallright: Polyphony is 16 voices if only the first 2 oscillators are used. Polyphony drops to 8 if you use the 3rd oscillator on any of the 4 synths (yes, the PM is 4-part multitimbral). Osc 1 uses DSP-created "analogue" waveforms or sync waveforms when in sync mode. Osc 2 and 3 use multi-samples of classic synths like roland, moog and mellotron, as well as noise. You can feed external signals through osc 3, which is a nice feature for chopping up drum sounds, by the way. There are 2 resonant filters: 1 lowpass and 1 highpass, switchable from serial to parallel routing, so notch and band pass filters can be achieved, if you like. hp is 12 dB, lp is 12dB or 24dB slope. There's a dedicated ADSR envelope generator for each of the filters as well as for the Amplifier, and there's an AR envelope for pitch and pwm. The LFO section consists of one lfo for pwm, amplitude modulation and filter modulation. the filter lfo can also modulate pitch, and you can select different mod amounts for the lp and the hp filter (even negative values - nice!!!). I would love to have an option for a freely routable EG / lfo (like in the Waldorf mod matrices), but given the limitations on the PM, at least you don't get confused with too many parameters :-)!! Each of the 4 timbres has its own effect section, with distortion, mono delay fx, stereo delay fx and a 2-band eq all usable at the same time. There is a 4-row sequencer for each of the 4 timbres, maximum 16 steps. The first row is hardwired to pitch, row 2-4 can be assigned to any of the Polymorph's parameters (well, that is: to ALMOST any, but there only very few exceptions). The step lengths can be different for the 4 rows. For example, you can have a sequence running with 16 note steps and a high-resonant filter "bleeb" wandering through the sequence at 7/8 bar. Step order can be forward, backward and RANDOM which is my absolute favorite for "wild ambient bleep-blopping". You'll love the random feature! The sequencer is what really makes this instrument stand apart from other synths. There's abolutely no way you could make sounds anywhere near the sonic heavens which open up when you have mastered the Polymorph sequencer!
Finally, there's a mixer section with volume knobs for each of the 4 synths.

Forget about most of the presets. Build your own or tweak the presets beyond recognition. The Polymorph claims to do analog emulation. Well, it does, to a certain degree, but don't expect true analog smoothness. What you'll get with the PM is a great sounding digital synth with a lot of "bite" and character. The sonic characteristics range from lush pads to screaming leads, from wild evolving textures to thundering basses. It also does percussive sounds very well. The envelopes are nice and snappy. The filters deserve special attention. I love the way they sound. They can be nice and smooth. They can scream like hell. Resonance is very edgy and aggressive at higher settings. There's also an adjustible very good sounding pre-filter distortion called "filter drive". The effects are very nice, too, although the stereo flanger and chorus tend to shift the signal's stereo position slightly to the left, so you have to take countermeasures by adjusting the panorama values. The Polymorph has a lo-fi touch to it, there's alway a bit audible "dirt" in the sounds. I personally like it very much. It adds an edgy, "smoky" character to most of the sounds. And, mmmmmmhhhh!!!, the sequencer! Talk about psychedelic textures and bubbling pads! There's sooo much you can do with the sequencer. I've done tracks with it that i know would NEVER exist without this super-cool sequencer. You'll often stumble across great melodies or patterns by accident when twisting the knobs. Especially the option to run the sequencer steps in randomized order gives you unpredictable, beautiful organic sounds. You will start to feel the Polymorph is alive and breathing. There's so much expression and character... ok, i stop. You've got to discover it for yourself! 8-) The nice thing about the sequencer is that you can play along with your keyboard when polyphony allows it. You don't even need to be triggering notes with your sequencer. You can mute all note steps and still have the 3 controller lines running, so when you play the Polymorph sounds from a keyboard or external sequencer, you hear what you play plus the sequenced modulations. Great! I recommend the Polymorph to anyone who is into ambient, techno, trance, electro, drum'n'bass, industrial and maybe even hip hop.

Like Poison once sang: Every rose has its thorn, and unfortunately, the Polymorph has a few very pointy ones that might make you want to throw it out of the window sometimes.
1. The knobs are the cheapest, wobbliest toy crap i've ever laid my hands on. A woman's nipples feel like concrete compared to these! The knobs on my unit could very easily be knocked off by accident if i wasn't careful. I would NOT take it on the road. The later production lines are supposed to have knobs that are firmer and more reliable. I hope so!
2. External Midi clock synchronization: AAAAAAAARRRRGGGGGHHHHHH! Imagine this: you have emagic logic audio 4.5 running as a pure midi sequencer in conjunction with an emagic amt8 midi interface. That's a perfect combination in terms of exact midi timing. Well, the Polymorph's bpm counter indicates changes of +/- 10 bms while the song is running, and this isn't even what's bothering me. What's bothering me is that the Polymorph's FX signal is INTERRUPTED for several seconds during the midiclock hickups. Now don't blame my midi interface. I've tried another one, as well as using cubase as a sequencer. Same problem. I've also read about other users having the same problem. This is just plain freaking annoying when you try to record a song and during the last minute the polymorph hickups and you have to start over several times, YUCK!!! These hickups also happen when you feed the polymorph with external control change messages, sometimes even when twisting the Polymorph's knobs! Fortunately, there is a workaround. Use the Polymorph in internal sync mode, turn on "transmit midi clock" and provide a midi connection from polymorph to the sequencer software. Switch your sequencer software to external midi clock sync and start the polymorph sequencer. Now the Polymorph is master and it should trigger and sync the sequencer software. This works fine. I must add that i have OS version 2.01d. This bug is supposed to be fixed in later OS versions.
3. When i turn on the Polymorph, i can often see a random parameter change displayed on the lcd while the current setup is being loaded, so i have to reload the setup.
4. When feeding a signal into the audio inputs, you can hear it at very low volumes even if it's not routed through the 3rd oscillator.
5. There's no dedicated knobs to switch between sequencer steps 1-8 and 9-16. Well, there's two page buttons, but when in you're in a submenu (and believe me, you'll rarely ever leave the submenues), the page buttons switch between the submenue pages, so you have to leave the submenues by repeatedly pressing "escape" before the page buttons act as sequencer page selectors. This is absolutely annoying!
6. It has an external power supply.
Ok, i've calmed down. These are my only gripes. These quirks might be annoying, but the positive aspects by far outweigh the bad points. Nothing can keep me from loving the Polymorph!

Unfortunately, Quasimidi went bankrupt somewhere around summer 2000, so there's absolutely no official support for any of their products anymore. I've been trying to find a new OS Eprom to get rid of the annoying fx interrupt bug, but no success until now. There's a not-so-active mostly German user base at www.maussites.de/polymorph. You might want to browse the user group archives for any further information.

If my Polymorph got stolen or if it broke, i would save money to get another one, but this time i would be more careful to get a model with a newer Os version. I remember well visiting a quasimidi store in Bonn, Germany in december 1998. I instantly fell in love with the Polymorph but didn't have the money then. What goes around comes around, so after 2,5 years i bought mine this summer, and now i'm a happy guy making some kick-ass tunes with this lovely box. I also use a Yamaha A3000 sampler, a Waldorf Microwave XT with 10 voices and an Ensoniq DP/4 fx processesor to do heavily psychedelic electro and ambient stuff. Don't get me wrong: The Polymorph IS a lot of fun to use, but it's not a toy. It's a serious, highly tweakable and inspiring beautiful sounding musical instrument. I would love to give it a full 10 as an overall rating, but since there are a few bad points i'll give it a loving 9!!!

it's not the easiest synth in the world to use, but it's not too difficult. a few days of fooling around, and reading the manual helped. presets are misleading -- this machine can sound a LOT better than the presets would lead you to believe. the manual is fine, it didn't bother me...but i was used to "quasimidi speak", since i have a sirius as well.

8 or 16 note polyphony, depending on if you use 2 or 3 osc per voice. built in effects are great, four effects independent per voice...so you actually get 16 effects units! there is a slot for expansion cards, but since QM are no more, i guess we'll never know, and that's a shame....i wonder what they were going to do for expansions? onboard sequncer is fantastic...i happen to like step sequencing, so it's right for me. your mileage may vary....it's not going to give you tons of grooves and dance stuff like the sirius will. full MIDI capabilities as well.

i REALLY like it -- it's quite unique. i'm primarily into ambient/electronic/space stuff, and it suits me just fine. evolving textures and patterns, 4 different 16 step patterns with 4 variables per pattern, all sorts of possiblities.
it's NOT a VA synth, nor merely a S+S synth, nor a digital synth. it's a polymorph -- as unique a synth as i have ever heard.

built like a tank. it's too bad quasimidi is gone, i would love to see what they came out with in 2001.

as i said before, they are gone. RIP.....

i love it, and would track someone down and kill them if it was stolen.

Well i just got my polymorph after a year of thinking on wether to buy it or not. But i finally did and luckily bought the last new one in america, from NOVAMUSIK. I was dissapointed at first because the presets do suck, and it made the individual sounds suck as well. It once again reminded me why i dont like Quasimidi stuff. But i was determined to really get into this machine. So i tweaked into it, and made all new sounds and sequences. its fairly easy to use, once you understand quasimidi's way of thinking. And its much like old analog sequencers. And its not too menu heavy, i mean theyr there, but not like 6 floors deep. The manual sucks, germglish sucks., it seems to me like they had a guy learn german then translate it from german into english with the use of a software translator.

$ part multi, seems week but each part has 4 voices, doesnt sound like much but when you get into this machine you realize that any more would be overkill. The effects are pretty good, the distortion is killer, noise mayhem. It supposedly had expansion slots but the company pooped out so did updates for the polymorph. The sequencer is so choice. 4 sequences at once that can go random, forward backward, etc. stacked , multi, unison. The sequencer is what makes this machine a excellent scratch pad for songs and sets it apart from other va's

There is no realistic sounds, and when you first get it the sounds arent too good, make your own, it also brings to polymorph closer to your style. The filters are ok, theres 2 cuttof, low and high, the high fades out when you crank much like the ms2000, and the low cuttoff doesnt really make it flip out like i would like but theres is major knobs for control on this baby. It reats so welll, you can alter the sequence while it plays for ambient bliss or noise progressing heaven. Very expressive. When i hooked it up to my keyboard it accepted velocity and aftertouch, but that just makes it a tone generator, and this is not made for that really.

Yeh i could rely on it, pretty sturdy, more sturdy than the ms2000, but not as sturdy as the access virus. But it is sturdy. i wish it had a bette power supply i hate line lumps. I really dont think i would need a backup, but it would be nice to have two polymorphs.

no, uhh no. the only way to get helps is other users, and if your breaks , your f'ed unless you can get new guts for it.

If it were stolen i would kill, so badly that when the coroner saw the body he would quit, lying awake at night wondering what kind of animal could do such a thing. A polymoprh owner. its such a killer machine, its good for ambient, noise, intelligent techno, DnB, industrial, but it really shines with strange unique outlandish textures and sequences. Its no jp8000 or nord or whatever, thats stupid to compare, hey the pizza i ate today was no taco bell. Dumb huh? The polymorph is a breed of its own, unique , dark, and wonderful. If you can ever find one used buy it, its a great machine, not only to add to a great setup but its a killer minimal ambient machine as well. Its perfect, and like Bruce lee dying at the peak of his career and becoming a legend the Polymorph has done the same, quasimidis demise has spewed forth this wonderful orphan. Thius machine is truly a classic , joining the ranks of other overlooked machines like the Kawai K5000s, Akai vx600, OSC oscar, and edp wasp.

I have had the Polymorph for six months and haven't had to open the manual once. I been using synths for a long time though. What I've read of the manual isn't that good. Everything seems to be documented but the English isn't very good. I guess that's what happens when Germans translate for Americans. You can still understand it though, but it can be awkward. Regardless, the synth's so easy to get around that the manual isn't essential.

Patch editing is effortless. Major changes are easily made by just moving the knobs. If you want to completely reconfigure the structure of a sound, it takes a bit of menu browsing, but they're easy to navigate and aren't very deep.

This is a solidly built unit, made of sturdy metal that is reassuringly strong (I don?t have to worry about it breaking while I move it like Korg Electribes.) The knobs on my unit are quite smooth and not wobbly at all. Its heavy but not as dense as the Virus is (both are very very well built units)

You have three oscs, one dsp based osc and two sample based oscs which can be replaced by external signals. If the third osc is used (either a sample or external input) the polyphony drops to 8 voices from 16. The second osc can be synced to the DSP one resulting in harsher tones. The VA osc can only be tuned up or down in intervals on an octave (-2, -1, 0, +1, or +2) but the sample based ones can be detuned nicely. The pitch of the VA osc can be modulated positively or negatively by the amplifier.

There are two filters, a highpass and a lowpass both with resonance. The lowpass filter is switchable from a 12dB/oct Oberheim style filter to a 24dB/oct ?moogish? filter. The resonance on both can be screeching or booming depending on the settings.

There are three LFOs per voice, one for PWM, one for frequency/pitch and one for the filters. Tri, Sin, two sawtooth waves, and a random wave can be selected. Their rate can be set in arbitrary values from 0 to 126 or can be set to divisions of the internal sequencer (ex: a sin wave that takes 16 steps at 120BPM to complete a cycle.) Don?t expect the pitch LFO to do FM? the osc doesn?t appear to be able to reach audio speeds.

There are three envelopes per voice, one for each filter and an amplitude envelope. These can be used to create anything from bleeps to long pads. The envelopes aren?t fast enough to create any tight kick drums but can create punchy basses with ease. That said, usable kicks can be crated but they?re nothing compared to the ones that can be created on the Virus.

The sequencer can have up to 16 steps and has four separate sequencers per part. One sequences pitch and the other three can be used to modify almost any parameter on the machine. My favorite parameters to sequence are filter cutoff, panorama, and the waveforms of the individual oscs. When using the sequencers carefully, one can have a completely different timbre per note. The sequencers are great but they have one main flaw: you can?t chain together sequences to make a song. The sequencer also won?t transmit MIDI note data without turning the machine into ?local off? mode in which case the Polymorph won?t make any sound? so you can either sequence an external device or the Polymorph, you can?t do both.

There are four effects available per part, two multieffects processors (one mono, one stereo,) distortion and EQ. This means that you have effectively 16 effects processors to use on all your sounds (but can only have 4 per part.) They?re all highly usable. Time based effects (such as delay or flanging) can sync to internal clock. The distortion is particularly nasty and works best on monophonic basses and leads. EQ is EQ, ?nuff said.

It would be nice to be able to FM the oscs or have a sub osc to fatten up the sound that extra notch.

It covers a lot of sonic ground from Kraftwerk to evil EBM (think Wumpscut.) I use it for industrial and can honestly say that it?s an INDUSTRIAL HELL MACHINE! Does it sound ?analog?? Yes and no. It can put out a bassy wall of sound like a Minimoog being run through a distortion pedal? but I?d be hard pressed to get pure liquidy analog sounds out of it. It doesn?t sound like a Jupiter 8 or a Matrix 12. It DOES sound like a raw, brooding, powerful machine that can either belch out nasty buzzes of sound or make eerie atmospherics. I wouldn?t recommend it for people in 80s cover bands, nor would I suggest it to those that make house music or 303 filled trance. It?s a machine suited for the hard and the dark or the painfully beautiful. Do I still want a Virus? Yes, but that?s to cover vanilla analog sounds. There?s a lot of overlap between all the Vas on the market, but simply put, nothing (and I mean NOTHING) sounds like a Polymorph.

Make sure to hook this module up to a keyboard for a while after you first buy it (even if you only want to use the internal sequencer) to get an idea of how it responds to variations in velocity, aftertouch, and wheel play. Also, don't hesitate to run all kinds of external signals through the filters while the sequencer is running... it adds all kinds of great tempo based effects.

If you want to hear my Polymorph doing its ?nasty industrial thing,? check out ?Fun with the Polymorph? at my mp3.com site. For the lighter side, listen to ?Nothing? which is another all Polymorph track. http://www.mp3.com/LyticCycle

When I first got the unit, it turned on for a few seconds and then turned off, dead. I almost cried. The problem was with an internal power cable that had been knocked loose during shipping. I opened up the unit and replugged in the faulty wire and it's been rock solid ever since. It wasn't a quality control problem but rather a shipping problem. I'd gig without a backup without hesitation.

Never bothered with them.

I've been playing piano since my childhood and have been playing synths for the past few years. I also own a K2500X, a K5000S, and an E4XT Ultra. This machine really helps me make music, as it provides great inspiration from just messing around with the sequencer and the knobs. There's nothing I hate about it, but the fact that it's usually 8 note polyphonic could be limiting for someone without a sampler. I got this instead of a Waldorf Microwave XT because the Polymorph was going out of production. I regret nothing :)

Considering I was a synth newbie when I purchased the unit I am quite satisfied of what I've been able to extract in term of sounds - which to me means a lot.
The manual is quite minimalistic but you DO get around by trying, doing & playing.
I'd LOVE to have a software based programmer / editor /librarian (hint hint - any programmers out there?).

I purchased the machine for it's multi - part sequencer. Being a fan of odd time signatures
I was totally hooked on the idea of having say, a part in 9 running against a part in 3. Furthermore
the pitch track can be of a different step length with respect to the parameter sequence.
I.e. I can have an 8 step pattern that will have a 5 setp sub-pattern which modulates the cutoff, for example,
or the attack. As far as I know the machjine would trasmit the data of all 4 synths only on 1 MIDI channel, whilst it does
receive data separately for the 4 synths, which can respond to aftertouch, pitchbend, etc.
The effects are average, but then again you probably already own some xternal FX, so who cares?

Tha machine is damn expressive, even if only in a hard, german kinda way.
It can grunt, scream (literally!), twork, tweez, blearp in a very convincing,
progressive way. It definitely works in a more adventurous/experimental/acid
context and is by no means a jack-of-all-trades. Hard basslines, Depeche Mode-y
kind of sounds are it's best, pads are a bit more of a problem

I have had no problem, and the machine looks sturdy enough for a gig.

Sadly inexistant, especially now that the company has gone bust

I could not live without the on-board sequencer, and as far as I know there is no
other hardware based machine that can do what the Polymorph does.
It sounds "different" from those creamy-dreamy-twiddly preset synths, and if you
need to expand your sonic vocabulary this is the way to go. I really wish the designers
had created a more extensive routing matrix - (how 'bout the LFO modulating the waaveforms??)
but maybe some hack could get the thing done.
I totally groove on the purple step buttons :)

I bought my Poly 3 Months ago...What can i say...I LOVE this box! The knobs feel great and every day i create new sounds and believe me this thing can sound very weird! It's in your hands...Forget the presets and explore this machiene...It can sound much more than the presets show at the first time!
The Support from Quasimidi is not the greatest and the manual is terrible but the price and sound(for me)is fantastic!
Greetings to all Poly Lovers!