From bsanders@mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu Wed Mar 3 22:06:39 1993 Received: from garcon.cso.uiuc.edu by quark.magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (5.65/3.910213) id AA04958; Wed, 3 Mar 93 22:06:38 -0500 Received: from mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu by garcon.cso.uiuc.edu with SMTP id AA12275 (5.67a8+/IDA-1.5 for ); Wed, 3 Mar 1993 21:06:34 -0600 Received: by mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu (NeXT-1.0 (From Sendmail 5.52)/NeXT-1.0) id AA05583; Wed, 3 Mar 93 21:07:21 CST Date: Wed, 3 Mar 93 21:07:21 CST From: bsanders@mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu (Barry Sanders) Message-Id: <9303040307.AA05583@mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu> To: analogue-request@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu Subject: Re: Mono/Poly Caveats... Status: OR Frendz, I got a "good deal" on my road-worn Mono/Poly from a pawn shop. It is a great little synth, with one big catch: The keyswitches on the keyboard are the cheeziest I've ever seen. They're strips of molded rubber bubble-buttons with a little dab of conductive rubber inside each one. The conductive rubber gets pressed down to complete the circuit on a PC board with little interleaved 'fingers' of copper foil. The ivories push the rubber bubble down, with almost no resistance. It's quiet, and requires minimal buffering for interface to the digital circuitry. However, mine is electrically shot! I've tried every kind of solvent, fine sandpaper, emery boards (same thing), alcohol, freon, etc, and still only about 35% of the keys will make contact! As far as I can tell, the conductive buttons are making good contact with the PC board, and they should be clean by now (now that they have a portion of their original surface shaved off)So, whaddya think? Anyone have an answer? I can't imagine being the only Mono/Poly owner who has experienced this problem, as bad as it is. So, purchase it with caution. $250 is a little high, I'd say. No MIDI, for one thing. Barry Sanders bsanders@mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu From analogue-request@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu Wed Mar 3 08:42:07 1993 Received: by quark.magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (5.65/3.910213) id AA24040; Wed, 3 Mar 93 08:41:50 -0500 Errors-To: analogue-request@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu Sender: analogue-request@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu Received: from sunic.sunet.se by quark.magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (5.65/3.910213) id AA24035; Wed, 3 Mar 93 08:41:46 -0500 Received: from Moskva.DoCS.UU.SE by sunic.sunet.se (5.65c8-/1.28) id AA24583; Wed, 3 Mar 1993 14:41:44 +0100 Received: by Moskva.DoCS.UU.SE (Sun-4/20, SunOS 4.1.1) with sendmail 5.61-bind 1.5+ida/ICU/DoCS id AA26025; Wed, 3 Mar 93 14:41:40 +0100 Date: Wed, 3 Mar 93 14:41:40 +0100 From: Mikael Lundgren Message-Id: <9303031341.AA26025@Moskva.DoCS.UU.SE> To: ricard@axis.se Cc: analogue@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu In-Reply-To: Ricard Wolf's message of Wed, 3 Mar 93 08:53:57 MET Subject: KORG mono/poly Status: OR From: ricard@axis.se (Ricard Wolf) Date: Wed, 3 Mar 93 08:53:57 MET X-Mailer: Mail User's Shell (7.0.1 12/13/89) I assume the Mono/Poly has the same filters as the Polysix, (since they share other important componants), making them SSM 2044's, which are the same filter chips used in the early Prophets. Hm, I'll check on this. I opened the MP once, and almost immediately closed it again when my eyes fell upon the chaos of components and wires inside! In my opinion, it sounds 'harsher' than the PolySix, (when *not* using the modulation parameters), but this could be just my imagination (haven't been able to test them in parallell). Regards, () Mikael (Vick) Lundgren | University of Uppsala, Sweden O ____ () () vick@bern.docs.uu. {-|>*CSD - Computer Science Dept. o /.. \/| () () Studying CS @ ---------|>*DOCS - Dept. of Computer Systems (----) | )) () () Remember: Four bananas always add up to a plectrum. \____/\| () From haines@news.cloverleaf.comThu Apr 6 10:39:14 1995 Date: Thu, 6 Apr 1995 10:09:23 -0800 From: Matt Haines To: MOOGMAN@aol.com Cc: analogue@hyperreal.com Subject: Re: I, Metlay. Pleased to mee... >Hi. I don't mean to interrupt, but could you or anyone on AH tellme the >difference between a MonoPoly and a Poly Six. Mabye the info I have is >screwed up but looking over the Schematics they look the same. > >Poly Six's are everwhere, I keep a few around for parts, they are great >under-rated machines. I have no experience with the Poly Six so I can't do a comparison. I can however tell you about the Mono/Poly, and since you have Poly Sixes maybe *you* can do the comparison... :) 3-1/2 oct keyboard, pitchbend, mod wheels (non-spring-loaded), wood side panels, blue faceplate. Has four oscillators and can be used as either a monophonic or a polyphonic keyboard (hence the name). However, there is only a single filter so polyphonic stuff sounds pretty bad. And polyphonic operation is not available from the CV input, which is how I use it. But anyway... 4 oscillators (triangle, saw, PWM, square/PW), 2 ADSR's, resonant lowpass filter (with res full up you can get the most tremendous squawking, much more so than a Minimoog or OB series). Envelope can modulate the filter positively or negatively. Keytracking, but doesn't work from cv control. 2 LFO's, detune knob. PWM can be modulated via either LFO or the filter ADSR. "Effects Section" allows oscillator sync (either all four or in pairs), 'Xmod" modulation and frequency modulation (the latter allows osc 2-4 to be modulated by either LFO 1 or the filter ADSR). Has an onboard arpeggiator, hold and chord modes. On the back: cv and gate in/out. Extra cv in's for filter cutoff, modulation, porta on/off (which thankfully will work with external cv control), and arp clock in. Also, the gate input (called trigger on this unit) can be switched between normal voltage trigger and Moog-style S-trigger. Hope that helps. Matt Haines haines@cloverleaf.com \co/ntrol-X \to /\abort / \transmission. From haines@news.cloverleaf.comMon Apr 17 10:14:52 1995 Date: Mon, 17 Apr 1995 09:05:22 -0800 From: Matt Haines To: analogue@hyperreal.com Subject: Re: Korg Monopoly - What's so great about it? "Radical Inc." sez: >A local guy has a Korg Monopoly for sale for pretty cheap, so I was >thinking about having a look. Problem is he's quite far out of town, so >I wuz hopin' y'all could help me. I know this is a cool synth, but I >have a few pretty cool synths. What I want to know is whether this synth >has anything unique that my JX-8P, Chroma, Matrix 6r and Juno don't >have. There was a thread about this unit that I read with interest, but >it didn't really answer my question. > It's essentially a monophonic synth, unlike the others you listed. It's got thousands of knobs, unlike your 8P and 6r. It has a resonance wherein the self-oscillation of the filter will strip your speakers bare. Had fm modulation too. It's the first synth I turn to when I need analogue (which is most of the time!). Very good cv implementation, but of course it's not MIDI. >BTW, I like detailed descriptions of synths. I wish they were posted >more often. It's nice to know how many voices, osc's, EG's, etc, >but it's nice to see descriptions of the _character_ of these synths. > I can do that. 4 oscillators (tri, saw, pulsewidth/square, pwm), noise, resonant LPF, two envelopes (filter can have inverse envelope), 2 LFO's, fm modulation, sync (2 or 4 oscillator sync). Monophonic/polyphonic/unison (the polyphonic mode uses each oscillator seperately but retriggers the same filter. Not all that pleasing so I never use it that way). On the back panel: cv in/out, trigger(gate) in/out - can accept moog-style s-trigger as well - portamento on/off, pitch bend in, filter cutoff in, arpeggiator clock in (did I mention it has an arpeggiator?). As for the sound, it's nice. I've never been a fan of the Minimoog (send personal flames to my email address everyone) as it sounds a bit harsh. The MoPo is much smoother. It can still be very aggressive but in a pleasing way. The filter self-oscillation is such a pure tone that you can use it to great effect. The four oscillators allow you to make a complex sound. >Also, what kind of $$$ we be talkin'? This guy wants CAN$300 = US$230. > >- Paul Good price. In fact, if you don't want it, I'd take another one. Matt Haines haines@cloverleaf.com \co/ntrol-X \to /\abort / \transmission. From void@well.comMon Apr 17 18:45:16 1995 Date: Mon, 17 Apr 1995 18:36:59 -0700 (PDT) From: M Stevens To: "Radical Inc." Cc: analogue heaven Subject: Re: Korg Monopoly - What's so great about it? On MonM, 17 Apr 1995, Radical Inc. wrote: > > A local guy has a Korg Monopoly for sale for pretty cheap, so I was > thinking about having a look. Problem is he's quite far out of town, so > I wuz hopin' y'all could help me. I know this is a cool synth, but I > have a few pretty cool synths. What I want to know is whether this synth > has anything unique that my JX-8P, Chroma, Matrix 6r and Juno don't > have. There was a thread about this unit that I read with interest, but > it didn't really answer my question. It has an arpeggiator and four oscillators. It can be set so that each note of the arpeggio plays one of the four oscillators, with subsequent notes stepping through each oscillator in turn. Really cool sequenced timbral effects can be made by setting different waveform, octave, and mix settings for each oscillator. On top of this, you can enable a quite generous sync/X-mod section which will further mutilate the oscillators, in either of two sequencial modes (master/slave/slave/slave, or master/slave/master/slave). In addition, there are two LFO, so you can also modulate filters, pitch sweeps, asdf, etc. by an un-sync'd time base. The sync and cross mod sound great. The PWM sounds fantastic. Four stacked oscillators really pump. Buy it - you'll love it. I'd rather have one than a 303. oh yeah, it also responds to either standard 1v/ or linear (MS-xx, CSxx). Same with taking either positive or negative going trigger. The price is (slightly) cheaper than I usually see them for as well. - M From Bruce_Henderson@NeXT.COMWed May 10 09:17:58 1995 Date: Wed, 10 May 95 08:06:24 -0800 From: Bruce Henderson To: analogue@hyperreal.com Subject: Mono / Poly. Some of you don't know what you are missing Oh man... Just got a Mono / Poly last night. Let me tell you, this thing is a monster. The 4 VCOs can really make a difference in the sound. You can get this thing to sound very very thick. Throw in a really nice sounding filter (is that a SSM 2044?) and you have a great synth. I kind of wish this thing were not so cherry, it is rife with possibilities for hot rodding. The most noticable is the fact that you can detune the VCOs and change the octave, but when doing FM, I would like a wider range of control over the VCO pitch, I have been able to get the ProOne to sound really mean by FM'ing the VCOs in 5ths. Anyhow, if you can get one for $300.00 that is in good shape, you will find that you have a really powerful, very fat sounding mono synth. But wait! It can also do poly stuff. This may not sound like much in this age of 6,000 voices of GM goo, but I found out that you can have the arpeggiator cycle through the VCOs in Poly mode, and you can set them to different octaves and waveforms. So if you play a 3 key arpeg, you can get a nifty random effect. Already used it on a track... I made the mistake of feeding that evil thing through my 201 Space Echo. That was because I had this lazy, somewhat sample and hold arpeggio running with a long delay and alot of feedback. This mess went on for hours, and none of my household chores were accomplished. Hell, my wife kicked me off of it 15 minutes into fooling around with it.... She can be such a synth pig when we get a new toy! Anyhow, these things are going much cheaper than some of the Roland stuff, and I think that while it is not mighter than the OSCar, it is probably the next coolest thing I have used in the mono synth category. Yes... the ProOne has been de-throned in my heart.... Oh yeah, I completely got sucked in after I hooked the SQ-10 and some stuff from the MS-20 (like the sample and hold) up into the external CV inputs. I was a BAAADDD boy... Bleep-Bloop-a-Bleep! Bruce Bruce From Bruce_Henderson@NeXT.COMWed May 10 10:39:11 1995 Date: Wed, 10 May 95 09:30:38 -0800 From: Bruce Henderson To: ddg@devlac.ems.com Cc: analogue@hyperreal.com Subject: Re: Mono/Poly ... Keep it quiet... On second thought... I would point out that this is a really shitty piece of kit. It has fake woodgrain sidepanels (and we know that means it can't be space age Roland gear!). And the knobs look too much like they were stolen from lab equipment. Besides, it is the wrong type of Korg to get laid with..... Just ask anyone in the SF bay area! Nope... It would never be useful for creating strange ambient textures of evolving S/H arpeggios with overlaying filter sweeps. You would never be able to get a reasonable 303 simulation out of it, and we all know, that is the only reason to spend money on an analog synth, right? 8-) bruce