Korgs I've Owned Part 9 -- multi/poly: analog modeling synthesizer

Korg #9 entered the studio this week. That's not to say I have nine Korgs in the studio now, but it's the ninth Korg I've purchased. The multi/poly is an extremely capable analog modeling synthesizer built in the same spirit as the wavestate, modwave, opsix, and King Korg NEO.

Korg positions the multi/poly, in part, as an homage to their ground-breaking mono/poly analog synthesizer from the early '80s. The mono/poly was unique for its time in that it had 4 oscillators that could either be stacked for a really huge monophonic sound, or used to achieve four notes of polyphony in an arangement that now would be referred to as "paraphonic". Also unique to the mono/poly was an ability of the arpeggiator to cycle through the oscillators as it ran through its pattern, allowing for interesting, shifting timbres.

To my mind, Korg built the multi/poly to be what Roland's GAIA 2 should and could have been and then some, by combining the best properties of modwave and some from wavestate with a new modeled analog synth engine. The multi/poly layers four complete polyphonic multi-mode synths into each patch (called performances by Korg), and each of those synths, or "programs", feature four oscillators, a noise source, a ring modulator, two filters, a complete 64-step sequencer with four modulation lanes, four envelopes, five LFOs, three key trackers, four modulation processors, an amp with drive, and effects. The four layers are mixed into a common reverb and parametric EQ, and any or all of the layers can be played through a common arpeggiator.

Like the wavestate, each layer can be assigned to the local keyboard and/or played individually via MIDI, effectively allowing the multi/poly to act as a four-part multi-timbral synth.

I presented a live "first impressions" video, which is linked below, as well as my usual playlist of related videos.