Loading...

Browsing tag archives: Synthesizer

The Korg Poly 800

I recently plugged in the old KORG Poly800. One of the early mass produced polyphonic Synths.

Unfortunately the batteries had drained, and the sound settings were completely gone. Now it is possible to restore the sound settings from the 20 year old cassette tape, if you a) would be able to find the original tape, and b) would have a cassette player. Unfortunately I have neither.

There are two ways you can go about this. Either you can restore all original sound settings manually from the documentation (pdf here) or you can download a “wav” file  with the original program from the POLY800 cassette. Connecting the Poly800 to your computer and fiddling a bit with the output level took me about 5 minutes.

KORG MS20

Korg MS 20

I almost forgot about it… my Korg MS20

The poor machine and has been sitting in the attick of my parents for years.

If I recall well one of the oscilators is broken. Given that this is a electronic instrument that should be easy to fix with a soldering iron, a transistor, condensor, resistor, and/or some knowledge of electronics.

With the latter I am less comfortable. Fortunatelly the Internet provided me with a copy of the Service Manual and the repair job can be done by handy friends.

I remember fabricating a “drum-pad” by covering two layers of duplex wood with aluminium foil and seperating them a tiny bit so that hitting them with a drum stick would control the input. That with the white noise generator would produce that funky “clap” noise.

I should undust the machine and compare how it compares with Korg’s Legacy Cell software.

Further googling made me aware that this little machine has quite some cult status. It has been valued at about $1000. I am not sure if I want to sell this memorabilia of my teenage years.