KORG MONOPOLY Analog Synth DEMO | Mono Poly

The Korg MonoPoly came out 1981 and was the last analogue monophonic synthesizer from Korg (ok, they have now the Monotron, but this is rather a toy). Actually, the MonoPoly is a monophonic synth - but you can play it polyphonically, too - if necessary.

The Korg/Mono Poly is a very flexible synthesizer: It has 4 oscillators, oscillator sync, cross modulation, PWM, noise generator (white noise), 24 dB Filter, 2 ADSR envelopes, 2 LFO's with many waveforms, ARPEGGIATOR, CHORD MEMORY and portamento. The built in microprocessor makes many things possible: chord memory, arpeggiator, key assign and polyphony.

It is built around SSM chips like the Korg Polysix. I think, with the MONOPOLY Korg wanted to produce a synth as an alternative to the Minimoog and Sequential Circuits Pro One. Please don't expect it to sound like a Minimoog. The Minimoog remains one of the best sounding analog synths, and the Monopoly (like many others) can not compete in terms of sound quality. The basic sound is a bit "lo fi" but not too much like the MS series. It is a flexible instrument with an amazing potential.

The most characteristic thing on the MonoPoly is the arpeggiator, when it triggers the oscillators in poly-mode. Every step of the arpeggiator triggers a different oscillator - unique patterns can be produced.

The MonoPoly is a great synth with awesome sounds - it produces fat basses and leads - but also FX sounds, bells, like you can hear in the video.

I played the Korg MonoPoly sometimes with a Roland DEP-5 for delay effects and a Lexicon MPX-500 for reverbs.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Korg
• Polysix
• Sequential
• Circuits
• pro
• one
• Moog
• Minimoog
• SSM
• chips

[MsSnowblood]

How can I find these cool orange buttons for my MONO/POLY please :) ?

[AnalogAudio1]

@MsSnowblood You find them on the old KORG KMX-8 mixer :-)

[SexToyRocketLauncher]

Could tell me how you got that sweet metallic sound towards the end? I've been fiddling with X-mod for hours and I'm not anywhere close....

Thanks!

[AnalogAudio1]

@SexToyRocketLauncher Try with triangle waveforms, and different tunings of the oscillators. But I don't know it exactly, it's one year ago. Good luck!

[CiaranPaulRoche]

This synth is way under rated and is up there with a Moog. The bass is not thin at all.... It's fat ass!

[ish233]

Cool, sounds good

[KodytheRedFox]

California Gary the Raccoon owns that synthesizer!

[ElectrikBear]

Dig the little intro thing. cool vid

[hafstrat]

We didn't realise how great these were at the time. Bring it back.

[MrModulator]

@Aetila I bought one for 500(about $70) kr in 1990 and sold it a year later for 1000 kr(about $140) in Sweden.

That was a couple of years before analogue had the first "resurrecton" and the prices went through the roof.

[oxiigen]

Amazing synth!

[AssNacSargentos]

When you play a note with all VCO and noise volumes down to zero, does your Mono/Poly shows a kind of low volume white noise at the output? I would like to know if this is normal noise from the circuits or mine has some kind of malfunction...

[cylonace]

Analog Synths Rule!!