Korg Multi/Poly Synthesizer

General

In the distant past (Grandpa tells), well before the days of their digital workstations like the M1 and Wavestation, Korg made analogue synthesisers. One of the most famous of these is the 1981 Mono/Poly, a not-too-big synth with a wealth of dials and interesting features. In its after-life, the Mono/Poly has certainly not been forgotten, given its various software creations. And now Korg is coming out with a reincarnation of sorts: the Multi/Poly. A reincarnation squared, let that be clear by now.

The new system of the Korg Multi/Poly

This is a virtual analogue synth, and the first to use a new generation of Korg technology. Modular capabilities in a compact package, and to highlight one thing: Korg uses virtual voice cards. In the old days, you had big circuit boards with one monophonic voice on them, with then all the chips for LFOs, envelopes, filters and so on. So if you had four PCBs, you had a polyphony of four. Korg now also models these boards, of course with some subtle deviations as was the case in the past. This allows each note of a chord to sound subtly slightly different, and that is what many consider to be vintage analogue magic. On top of that, internally the oscillators (or actually the entire voice cards, that is) just keep on oscillating, exactly as their analogue ancestors did. An interesting possibility is that envelopes with a long release on a retrigger (with attack) pick up the current envelope level instead of a new zero level. This makes the sound a bit more 'bound'.

Oscillator structure

The Kaoss Physics engine is also present, along with an X/Y pad, so that offers interesting possibilities if you like controllers in which a ball bounces around and bumps into walls. The keyboard is touch-sensitive and also offers release velocity - so the speed at which you release the key is a deployable controller. While the Mono/Poly still had four oscillators, the Multi/Poly has 60 voices. In terms of oscillators, by the way, there is a lot to do: analogue modelling, wavetables (from the factory as well as your own!), waveshaper and noise. A total of four oscillators and noise and ringmod per program, four programs per performance, so the overall sound is nice and thick!

Extra features

This is clearly an old-fashioned tasty synth with lots of possibilities, because we're not there yet. Korg's Motion Sequencing 2.0 is also present, something that originated with the Wavestate, which in turn was inspired by the famous Wavestation. A rich array of effects is available, including EQ, chorus, flanger, phaser, reverb, delay and more. Meanwhile, you might wonder how on earth you keep track of all these options. Perhaps the Multipoly editor/librarian software for OSX and Windows can help you out. Speaking of software, it comes with more, iZotope Elements, Skoove and softsynths from Korg. Oh, and it comes with a carrying case too, it can't be beat. Adding up all the features, the conclusion may be clear: this is an insanely comprehensive synth, with all its special sections worthy of study on their own. Our warehouse will feast on it again!