Korg Poly-61

The KORG Poly-61 (PS-61) is an analogue programmable polyphonic synthesizer released by Korg in 1982, as a successor to the Polysix. It was notable for being Korg's first largely "knobless" synthesizer - featuring a push-button interface for programming, dispensing with the Polysix's knobs and switches. The Poly-61 also uses digitally-controlled analog oscillators or DCOs (Roland's Juno-6 had made the same leap the previous year), in place of the Polysix's VCOs. The Poly-61 also boasted double the patch memory (64 memory positions versus the Polysix's 32), but did not feature its predecessor's onboard effects. In 1984, a MIDI version, the Poly-61M, was released featuring basic MIDI implementation, however, prior to that, one could order a Poly-61 with MIDI In and MIDI Out jacks factory-installed, simply called Poly-61 with Factory Installed MIDI. The MIDI implementation was basic with only note-on and note-off information, partly as the synthesiser was not touch sensitive. Audio path Oscillators The Poly-61 offers two DCOs per voice. DCO1, a more traditional design, provides sawtooth, pulse, and PWM waveforms. DCO2, based on low-resolution counter ICs, has only sawtooth and square, and is not available on its own.