KORG MONOPOLY Analog Synth DEMO | Mono Poly

(c) 2010 by AnalogAudio1

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

The Korg MonoPoly came out 1981 and was the last analogue monophonic synthesizer from Korg in the eighties. 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.