Poly-800
Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2012 1:41 am
So, I've been into synths lately and have picked up a few this past month. One of them was a Poly-800 I got off eBay for 200 bucks. Some of the stock sounds are exactly what I'm looking for and have found a way to use it for background noises in songs I've been writing.
But, before I got it I looked around the web and saw all the mods that can be done, so after owning it for all of 3 days I tore into it.
The first thing I did was replace the red display for blue. The lcd's have about 20 solder points on each, but really only took about half an hour to swap the old ones for new.
Here is a pic of me checking to see if they worked:
Next up were both the Moog Slayer and FM-800 mods. I found clear schematics online, ordered some pots and I already had the resistors from a previous amp build. I wired everything in and powered it up and thought I had destroyed it. The only sound that came out was all osculating noise on every patch. There was nothing useful and nothing like the way all the dudes on youtube got theirs to sound. I checked, double checked and triple checked all of my work and could find nothing wrong. It finally dawned on me that when I removed power all of it's programming got wiped out. The early versions didn't come with backup power and once the power is turned off (if you don't have, like 6, size C batteries in it) all of your patches get lost. The previous owner had a battery in there, but it was dead and his work looked like shit.
So the next thing to do was redo the internal 3.0V lithium battery back up to keep power to the rom:
After I put the battery in and reloaded all of the factory patches (from the tape in on the back) I realized the mods ruined what factory patches I liked. Now I tore everything apart again and added a small board that holds all of the original components and I ran all of the stock and modded stuff through toggle switches. I can jump between either by the flick of a switch!
All of the stuff on the left is new circuitry:
Close up of the back of the pots and switches:
Front shot of everything together:
New Blue display:
All the pots and switches. The top one is FM control, the bottom left is resonance and the bottom right is cutoff:
The only thing left to do is install some led lights for each function. I think I've got an idea cooked up in my head to make it happen, but until I find some time to try it out I don't know if it will work or not.
Finally here is Poly resting on top of the other synths I picked up. It's amazing how much my musical taste has changed, as far as creating goes.
But, before I got it I looked around the web and saw all the mods that can be done, so after owning it for all of 3 days I tore into it.
The first thing I did was replace the red display for blue. The lcd's have about 20 solder points on each, but really only took about half an hour to swap the old ones for new.
Here is a pic of me checking to see if they worked:
Next up were both the Moog Slayer and FM-800 mods. I found clear schematics online, ordered some pots and I already had the resistors from a previous amp build. I wired everything in and powered it up and thought I had destroyed it. The only sound that came out was all osculating noise on every patch. There was nothing useful and nothing like the way all the dudes on youtube got theirs to sound. I checked, double checked and triple checked all of my work and could find nothing wrong. It finally dawned on me that when I removed power all of it's programming got wiped out. The early versions didn't come with backup power and once the power is turned off (if you don't have, like 6, size C batteries in it) all of your patches get lost. The previous owner had a battery in there, but it was dead and his work looked like shit.
So the next thing to do was redo the internal 3.0V lithium battery back up to keep power to the rom:
After I put the battery in and reloaded all of the factory patches (from the tape in on the back) I realized the mods ruined what factory patches I liked. Now I tore everything apart again and added a small board that holds all of the original components and I ran all of the stock and modded stuff through toggle switches. I can jump between either by the flick of a switch!
All of the stuff on the left is new circuitry:
Close up of the back of the pots and switches:
Front shot of everything together:
New Blue display:
All the pots and switches. The top one is FM control, the bottom left is resonance and the bottom right is cutoff:
The only thing left to do is install some led lights for each function. I think I've got an idea cooked up in my head to make it happen, but until I find some time to try it out I don't know if it will work or not.
Finally here is Poly resting on top of the other synths I picked up. It's amazing how much my musical taste has changed, as far as creating goes.
