Fender Chroma Polaris - showing some presets

[thepauloapo]

I was scratching my head for a while and it hit me. The name was familiar from GSi plugins. Your stuff is great.

[Egondv]

How much did you pay for this back in the days?

How much would it go for nowadays?

This thing is F***ing awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Egondv]

@Egondv ah just read the description :)

[JERRYKNIGHT84]

Hey what is the song you're playing at 2:50?

the "preset d3"

i love the chords

[Synthshop]

great playing. Great sounds. Do have the patch data (waveforms) posted somewhere? I'd like to try loading into mine. I'm interested in doing the op-amp mod too! thanks.

[newpro5657]

Had one for 10 yrs and really loved it. Heavy beast, though. Great sequencer could record all panel changes as you played them and you could play the sequencer and split the keyboard for three sounds at once. Only 6 voices total and midi a bit buggy but a great, I mean great synth. Played it until 2003.

[FlashVideosDigital]

Great synth! I loved Mammagamma, magical...

[gretopplXRS]

Sounds like a good deal providing it's in good condition - I've seen good ones go for £600 in fixed-up shape ($1000).

[Laura041974]

@gretopplXRS There's a broken one on ebay for £600!

[gretopplXRS]

test

[TheRadarMonkey]

I have one fully fixed up for $750 local pickup in san francisco

[CYBORGH2O]

HI. May some one please help me to replace the LM384 with new TL084cn ?

Thanks.

[mflandez]

Wow, i cant believe i have this synth back in chile, in the attic getting full of dust, i have to go back to get it!!

[zenmachinefilms]

Beautiful synth. I used to have one of these, it now sits in a friend's museum. That K3 lead sure is nice.

Great Alan Parsons riff in there, btw. :-)

[scott93257]

OMG that's so freaking sweet

[newpro5657]

This was my main synth through the 80's and into the 90's...even used it on an album around the turn of the century. I thought the sequencer/split option that allows three voices at once to a maxim 6 polyphony was ahead of its time. Midi was quirky and often required resets in the mix of keyboard connections but way powerful. Velocity control was a bit weak but it was one of the first with that feature. Great synth in its day. Still very valuable for analog...as good as prophet 08 I think. -Sam

[Drivethebeat]

lol, You kept the "knock" on. Same as it's big brother.

[Drivethebeat]

Wow, amazing. I have this synth and the Prophet 600 below it! Don't have the Rhodes though.

[Garflips]

Nice playing. You say you replaced the LM348... Is this a relatively easy job and do you soundly recommend it ? I've had my Chroma Polaris for over 20 years and love it. Used it for many planetarium soundtracks! It's going to need a battery change and since I'll have it popped open anyway, I thought I should consider that upgrade. I'm also wondering if I could control it from my Evolution UC33e. Cheers.

[liquidjustin]

Yeah the mod is easy to do. However!!! You should realize the chroma polaris have very fragile ribbon cables connecting the switching board to the membrane switches. They will unavoidably breakdown over time. If you remove the lid make sure you raise it vertically from all sides. There is a ribbon cable that is very close to the lid and may be damaged if the lid isnt open correctly.

[liquidjustin]

Continued from post above..

Once the lid is open be sure not to touch the ribbons. You'll have access to the battery and the output board with the LM348 on board. You can just desolder it, install an ic socket and put in any quad op amp you like.

The polaris responds to full midi.

[Garflips]

Thanks for getting back. Couple questions: So you do recommend the TL084cn over any alternatives ? I've found it at Digikey, but I don't know how to find the necessary socket. Also, is it easy enough to find the LM348 ? I can solder some delicate stuff but I'm not an electronics geek -I just make my own MIDI & mic cables and such and replace batteries in synth modules. I also want to install a new battery compartment in the Polaris accessible from the side without having to open the lid.

[sdafsar]

hey man,

my neighbor just gave me his chroma polaris for free and i was just watching your video and i was wondering is that first riff you played part of a song or did you make that up?

thanks!!

[liquidjustin]

I repaired the synth weeks ago. It's amazing. Thanks for the reply.

[liquidjustin]

Hi Guido,

I just bought a polaris and it appears that some of the membrane switches stopped working after shipping. This is really annoying as the lower function button isnt working and I cant even calibrate it. I noticed yours makes a clicking sound whenever you push a button. Did you have your switches replaced/repaired?

I would have sent you a private message but you have a friend's lock

enabled.

Cheers.

- Justin

[zioguido]

Hi Justin,

you can choose to disable the clicking sound when pressing the preset buttons. See the manual for this. If some of your buttons don't work, you probably have the membrane ribbon cable broken. Mine was repaired by the previous owner, but I already know that it will need another go, sooner or later.

[synthartist69]

Man, what a great video. I had no idea that the Chroma sounded like this!! Very underated like the roland jx10.

[layzer80]

This thing sounds almost identicle to my Akai AX80

[liquidjustin]

that's one funky funky synth. i need one.

Wonder how is compares to something like the oberheim xpander? Same vcos and filters right?

[SlikkTim]

This synth is so fat... Excellent ! Could you give me more insight about that home made spring reverb ? Would much appreciated

[zioguido]

It's based on an Accutronics Type4 tank, mounted in a 19" 1U rack case and driven by a small circuit based on a TL082 opamp.

Go to PicasaWeb, search user zioguido and browse my photo albums, I have a few pictures of the project.

[viv2600]

May I say you have impeccable taste in instruments.I have both the Chroma Polaris and Prophet 600.I have a few problems with the Polaris and a lot of problems with the Prophet.I think the Polaris has some membrane ribbon troubles since some of the functions aren't working from the board,haven't tried midi yet.I think the ribbons from the membrane controls are cracked where they bend and plug into the pcb.

[myleftnutts]

Muthafukk fender! This instrument is a true testament to

"ARP" synthesizers the "CHROMA" Polaris is the toned downed version of Chroma. sadly this was Arps swan song

instrument,and they did it up in style.the lead designer of this,"Phil Dodds" just died.

[Patrickillian]

nice sounds!!!

[Patrickillian]

nice sounds!!!

[cpmisalive]

Sounds sweet, an overlooked gem.

Thanks for sharing.

[cephal0p0d]

Amazing synth. I will never sell mine..

[nielswil]

I had 1 a couple of years ago, but had to sell it. 1 of the sounds i liked was the reversed sound. It was an left handed keyboard if you like. Funny and shit the sell the dam thing

[teknobeam]

This synth is highly under rated. I own two of them. The biggest problem with the Polaris is the membrane issue. But if you can fix it, the sonic quality is right up there with the greatest analogs of all time. it has an excellent keyboard and very sophisticated MIDI implementation. very rich tones

[Tonewheeldude]

Molto Bene!

Ciao!

Tonewheeldude/Svezia!

[cthulufunk]

You're an awesome player. How long have you played?

[synth64]

bellissimi i suoni

[hageir]

oh no :(

I just missed one for a measiling $100 :.(

it sounds soo good!

thanks a ton for the demo

[flosflos]

Bel synth! Grazie per la dimostrazione. ;)