Korg Mono/Poly (thing)

A monophonic analog synthesizer with simple polyphony and a 44-note keyboard. 10 000 units were produced between 1981 and 1984.
Four-note polyphony is available by microprocessor-controlled scanning, but all the voices use the same VCA & VCF envelopes, not making the Mono/Poly a true polyphonic synth.

The Mono/Poly features four SSM 2033 VCOs with typical controls for tuning, octave, volume and waveform. Available waves are triangle, sawtooth and pulse with pulse width modulation. Unfortunately only a single set of controls is available for the pwm, affecting all oscillators. There are also knobs for modulation sensitivity and source (VCF, LFO1 or LFO2), portamento amount, white noise level and detuning VCO4 ±35 cents from VCO2.

A resonant low-pass 24dB/octave VCF, an SSM 2044, serves as the filter. It has knobs for cutoff, resonance, keyboard tracking and envelope modulation (negative / to none / to positive). The VCF and the VCA have their own ADSR envelope generators. The VCA EG is switchable between single and multiple triggering.

The two LFOs are called MGs, or Modulation Generators. LFO1 is linked to the mod wheel and has controls for rate (0.1-30Hz) and waveform (triangle, sawtooth, ramp and square). LFO2 only features the triangle waveform and is linked to the arpeggiator. Controls for portamento and detune are available, as well as a switch for tansposition (octave up/down).

The latchable arpeggiator has a switchable range of 1 octave, 2 octaves and full. It can be set in up, down or up/down modes.
Also featured are hold and chord memory functions, which are similar to the PolySix model.
Featured keyboard modes are unison, poly and unison/share. The last one forces all oscillators to play, regardless of the amount of notes held down.
The Mono/Poly can use sync and cross-modulation simultaneously. This is done via the "effects" section. Both functions have single and double modes. With single, VCO1 is used as the source of sync/modulation. In the double mode VCO1 and VCO2 are the sources for VCO3 and VCO4.

On the back panel there's a headphone jack, an output jack with 3 levels, a trigger input for the arpeggiator with a polarity switch, a portamento switch plug plus inputs for external VCO/VCF modulation. CV/Gate inputs and outputs are also available, but sadly monophonic.

    weight: 12kg (approx.)
dimensions: 744mm(width)
            450mm(depth)
            144mm(height) 

back to Korg