I helped a friend move this week and he insisted that I take this (partially broken) Synthesizer as payment!
The Korg Poly 800 is an early analog\digital hybrid synth and the first sub- $1000 Synthesizer from the 80s, the mk I first appearing in 1983 and the mkII coming out in 1985.
This device suffers from a lack of controls on the front panel, although you can edit all the parameters from scrolling through the different category numbers listed on the front. Everyone agrees that these types of "menu diving" get in the way of the user experience!
It has kind of a thinner sound, likely to the fact that the oscillators all share the same filter, technically making this a paraphonic Synthesizer. I'd say it sounds somewhere between a Roland Juno and a Casio! It does allow for stacking of the oscillators and you are able to switch to monophonic mode, adding some versatility to the machine.
I wasn't necessarily that blown away by the sounds, but perhaps I just need to spend some time getting down and dirty editing some patches. People kinda disagree about this Synthesizer, some loving it, and others loathing it.
The MkII version adds battery backup for saving patches and some effects, and they both can be easily modded to add features such as dedicated filter control knobs or making an input to the filter amd effects.
It has a cool onboard sequencer that will take hundreds of notes of entry, or can be scaled down to just a few notes, to do arpeggiator sounds (but I dont see a dedicated arp)
lastly, you can backup the digital data to cassette, which seems like a really bizarre storage method, but I guess it just makes data noises, then you play it back into the machines to transfer it back (remember the volatile memory from the mk I).
Unfortunately, my mod wheel\pitch band is broken, bring totally detached from the unit but hopefully this is an easy fix. I may try to do that myself and attempt the mods as well. These things go for 3 to 400 dollars in the secondhand market, so that is another option, to just flip it...but its kinda hard for me to give up a vintage synth that I paid nothing for!
Thanks for reading, Let me know what you think of how it sounds, or if you have any good synth anecdotes!
▶️ 3Speak