When Korg dropped the Poly-800 in 1983 at just under $800, it fundamentally changed what affordable polyphonic synthesis could be. This was the first fully programmable eight-voice polysynth to break the thousand-dollar barrier, making lush analog textures accessible to musicians who couldn't justify spending on a Prophet or Juno. The fact that it could strap around your neck with battery power made it genuinely portable in a way most synths of that era simply weren't.
The Poly-800 uses two digitally controlled oscillators, each offering square and sawtooth waveforms that blend together with a white noise generator before hitting the main filter. You can run it in Whole mode for full eight-voice polyphony using one oscillator per voice, or Double mode to pair the oscillators for richer, thicker tones at the cost of dropping down to four voices. The synthesis engine is paraphonic, meaning all voices share a single 24dB/octave lowpass filter with resonance, but each oscillator gets its own six-stage envelope generator with Attack, Decay, Break Point, Slope, Sustain, and Release stages. That ADBSSR structure was genuinely advanced for 1983 and opens up modulation possibilities like two-stage decay or secondary attack phases. The joystick controller is one of the Poly-800's best features, letting you modulate the filter downward, the oscillators upward for vibrato, and bend pitch side to side, all with optional delay for fading effects in after you strike a note. Built-in stereo chorus, a 256-step polyphonic sequencer, chord memory, and MIDI connectivity round out the feature set. The 49-key keyboard is non-velocity-sensitive, and the whole unit weighs just 4.3 kilograms.
The Poly-800 earned a devoted following for its distinctly warm, characterful analog sound that's unmistakably Korg from that era. Players consistently praise its gorgeous strings and pads, and the joystick makes it genuinely fun to perform with. The main trade-offs are the single shared filter, limited polyphony when using both oscillators, and the somewhat time-consuming parameter-by-parameter editing workflow typical of mid-80s digital control schemes.
