Korg Poly-61

For many years I've used a Poly-61 as the min keyboard in both recording and performing with my band. We kind of do a retro-electronic thing and I love the sounds and the simplicity of programming for the Poly-61.

Unfortunately, the Poly-61 is old and can be unreliable and it's becoming harder to find parts for repair. I've gone through at least five Poly-61s. I currently just got one out of the repair shop while taking another on there.

I'm looking for anyone who might provide a recommendation on newer synths that closely resemble to Poly-61 as far as sound generation. I have some custom patches I created on the Poly-61 that are integral to our band's sound, and I've had a hard time reproducing them on newer synths, both digital and analog. This, of course, may be more of a testament to my poor programming skills.

I'm not interested in ease of programming, I'm really only looking for a synth, Korg or otherwise, that can replicate the patches of the Poly-61.

Thanks!

If you want a similar sound, id suggest a Poly800 MK1/MK2 which i beleive is 85% the same synth. Cheap, fairly reliable, and plenty about.

Also the DW6000/DW8000 can create a similar sound (and alot more) as they are an evolution of the Poly800.

If you want to copy the sounds close to 100% then you're looking at sampling the sounds into a sampler. No sound programming skills required, just patience For replicating the sounds any flexible enough VA should get you most of the way there, but it really depends on your skill at copying the sound and the nature of the sound as to how close "most of the way there" is. Sometimes you can copy a sound where you can't tell a difference. But even with good programming there's usually small differences which may matter to you. The same likely goes if you get any other synth to replace it, even different Korgs from the same era. As for modern equivalents, Korg do have a Polysix and Mono/Poly emulations which are pretty good. But they would require using a computer. Best bet sounds like sampling, unless you're happy to ballpark the sounds..

+1 on the DW8000

This post never happened.

to be honest you cant really emulate these 80s sounds without the real thing...but maybe you can get some nice stuff out of a korg microkorg too...also dw 8000 is THE 80s synth...

Minus a B key that seems to take a bit more pressure to play, she's a solid performer... more for show though. I am proud of her minty clean original particle board end caps ha. This is an older pic, the XP-50 has been long gone for 2 years....

Thanks for your suggestions. I have a Poly-800 module, but the probelm is that the 800 doesn't have PWM (unless I am mistaken). One of the patches I'm trying to replicate is based on PWM and for some reason, I've had difficulty replicating on other synths. I have an Alesis Andromeda A6 and I can get the "body" of the sound close, but I'm having difficulty getting the attack to sound correct. The attack I'm trying to get it like a "bwwooowww" sounds, which makes zero sense to try and explain over a message board.

Hi guys. I have a near new Poly-61 in a flight case in my office if you are interested. I was bought in Japan in about 1983.