KorgSynths
Eight-voice DCO polysynth and its rack module
The Poly-800 is an eight-voice polyphonic synthesizer made by Korg, introduced in 1983, and the EX-800 is its keyboardless rack version from 1984. Each voice uses a digitally controlled oscillator (DCO) with sawtooth and square waves, and all voices share one resonant low-pass filter. A Double mode trades polyphony for two oscillators per voice, and the Poly-800 stores 64 patches with cassette backup and has a 256-step sequencer. Its low price, battery operation and joystick were distinguishing features.
The HAWK-800 kit works in the Poly-800 MK1, MK2 and the EX-800. It was sold from 2007 and the kits are no longer available; the same author is developing a successor, the HAWK-832, on an STM32 board that plugs into the EPROM socket, which is not released yet.
Hardware-plus-firmware upgrade for the Poly-800 and EX-800 with expanded MIDI (NRPN, SysEx dumps), an arpeggiator, extra LFOs, selectable filter slope and flash patch storage. Kits are no longer sold.
| Version | Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2.68a | undated | Latest firmware zip on the SourceForge project, which lists a last update of 2024-01-04; no release date is given for the version itself. |
