Rhodes Chroma Polaris

It's easy to select sounds. The bender is backward of what I'm used to. And if you want to do things like set midi channels you have to read the manual. You hit a function switch and number and then lights go on in a row and you are supposed to add up the numbers to figure out which midi channel. Hehe. I mean, it's a piece of work in that way ya know.

6 Note polyphony. 8 note multitimbral! (ie you can be playing 6 notes at a time but you can over the course of a piece select from 8 different sounds if you like I guess. I never tried it..) The keyboard action is ok...semi-weighted. It's the same movement found in Korg DS-8 or Kawai K1...pretty much a weighted polysix panasonic movement. The rubber contact cups are always prone to fail with low useage/age. Usually can be brought back by the right rejouvenation techniques.

This 2 VCO/voice synth (Curtis 3374 dual VCO chips) has no volume mix. Select pulse and move pulse width to zero to turn off one. The resolution on a lot of controls including pw things and resonance are horrible! The resonance is like a 7 position switch and the CEM 3372 filters do self-resonate if you happen to move the slider when it's at the top. Not a good performance feature usually :-). There's an expandable memory capability to hold more sequence information if you want to use the single track sequencer. BUT THE TRULY COOL features of this synth are 1) you can do smooth transitions between sounds in performance, including slamming into a ring mod'd sound for a wild transition :-). 2) There are two halves to a lot of the parameters. eg. on one half of the pitch bend amount you have it affecting all notes. On the *other* half it only affects the notes you currently are pressing. ie. you can hold pedal a chord and solo over it w/ pitch bender only affecting that note! PLUS 3) the pedal can be used to trigger the glide. Here you can hold a chord then hit the pedal and polaris will assign all remaining oscillators to the notes you hit thereafter and apply glide. Fantastic performance effects can be attained this way.

Velocity is ok though black keys on mine seem less sensetive. This is an analog synth and so you won't get 'realistic acoustic sounds'. You will however get some amazing sounds...floydesque pads, drones, fantastic analog EP type sounds, punchy ballsy sounds and some good farfisa organ type sounds. It's a very fun synth when used in it's limits and I love it in performance.

Membrane switch panels are notorious for breaking. In fact the other night something amazingly horrible happened. I've never had a problem with any of my right side panel. The left side lost a row of switches as the interconnecting ribbon often cracks. I repaired that side and it works fine! However, the other side..after completing the repair...completely failed! I checked the ribbon and it's perfect on all contacts all the way down to the panel!!! But ever..I mean all 40 switches are 100% dead. ! I do not understand this. The functions work still if I short the appropriate lugs on the connector. This has to be one of the most unlikely things to ever happen in the history of the universe. I mean seriously..they all appear to have failed ..the same day! Anyway my horror story. I'm pricing getting a run of these made so that I can provide them to others who have what I've often seen: cracked switches.

Many people have schematics and work on these including me. The chips can be hard to get. I have some filters as do many. If vco's fail not sure where to get those. CPU is an old 186 that has contacts on the bottom! Early early cpu with a metal plate that jams it down into the contacts. Fender no longer supports the instrument except keeping service manuals I believe.

Due to it's performance features I very much would like to get mine back up to full spec. If anyone knows where to get a panel call me at 406-582-5849 so that I don't have to do a production run. (note I'm writing this as of 2/07 so please figure that if you don't read this for 3 months I've probably already done it :-) )

Easy to program if you understand analogue systhesis. Very responsive to sliders and pedals. Lots of control if you use the pedals and sliders together

The action is fine if you are using the Polaris as a synthesizer, not trying to play the piano! Go buy a piano. As a MIDI controller, It works just fine. I've used mine as such since 1985 for heavy duty pro use and have no problems. The keyboard is, unfortunately, aftertouch sensitive, so you must work around that limitation.The MIDI capabilities were far ahead of it's time. The membrane switches are a pain in the ass, but they work

Great analogue sound if you bother to learn how to program the instrument. I've used it for everything from country music to sound design and it works well. It is limited by the technology of the period, so it has none of the bells and whistle one would expect of a modern machine.

It has been quite dependable. The membrane switch is the only thing you have to replace, along with a battery. My battery (regular D cell)
lasted ten years! The thing has been on airplanes, and has never ffailed me

Forget it. The only place you can get parts is MusicTek in North Hollywood, CA. and they are slllllllllllloooooooooooowwwwwwwwwww.

I bought the machine new in 1985. I had a full blast Chroma system at the time and MIDI was a new phenomenon. I think it is a great analogue synth for the adventurist. It is a real shame that so few people bother to really learn how to play instuments anymore and even fewer learn how to program.