Korg Poly-61

Poly-61

Poly-61
Manufactured by Korg
Dates 1982-1986
Technical specifications
Polyphony 6 voices
Timbrality Monotimbral
Oscillator 2 DCOs per voice
LFO 1
Synthesis type Analog Subtractive
Filter 1 low-pass per voice
Attenuator 1 VCA per voice
1 ADSR envelope per voice
Memory 64 patches
Input/output
Keyboard 61 keys
External control Poly-61M has MIDI

The Poly-61 is a programmable polyphonic synthesizer released by Korg in 1982, replacing the Polysix. It was notable as it was the first Korg synthesizer to feature a pushbutton user interface, dispensing from the Polysix's knobs and switches. Later versions of the instrument are called the Poly-61M and have basic MIDI implementation.

Contents

Audio path

Oscillators

The Poly-61 uses DCOs and has two per voice. DCO1 provides sawtooth, pulse, and PWM waveforms. DCO2 has only sawtooth and square.

Filter

The filter has the usual controls for cutoff, resonance, keyboard tracking and envelope amount. Some of these are rather limited by the poor parameter resolution. Keyboard tracking is simply "on" or "off" for example, and resonance and envelope level (here labelled "EG Intensity") have only 8 settings.

Output

The final component in the audio path is a VCA. It can be driven by the envelope generator or a CV/Gate pulse.

Modulation

Envelope generator

The envelope is an ADSR type. All parameters can be set to any of 16 levels.

LFO

The LFO (known as a 'modulation generator' on the Poly-61) is a simple triangle wave that can be routed to the DCOs or VCF. It has a variable delay before it is triggered

Differences from the Korg Polysix

Although similar in many ways, there are key differences between the two:

External links