Solton Polyvox

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"This is an odd stereo analog synth from Italy, looks like early to mid 80's. On the back tag it says Ketron Anacona Italy. Polyvox by Ketron Lab., and serial # 12xx/85. It is polyphonic, and all keys can play at once.

It has two sections, a large controller with voice banks, a footpedal with two switches, hookup wires,and a keyboard that has it's own voice banks. The keyboard has a 120 bass for the left hand. Before you roll your eyes (like I did ten years ago when I took this in trade!), the 120 bass controls a complex string, choir , organ, and bass guitar with a cool sequencer ! The strings/choir/organ sound is very lush and reminded me a lot of my K*rg Polysix when you had the effects switched to ensemble. The amazing thing about the voices is that there is a lot of flexibility and adjustments.

When I first started playing with this last year ( I had hoped to list it here before thanksgiving), I got lost in the mesmerizing grooves you could quickly make with the left hand (and I can't play accordian!) . Now it is 6 months later and I feel that I have explored this enough to describe it! I wrote 2 songs with it just this week! The phrase I keep thinking of is "This is not a cookie cutter instrument". Although similar in many ways to the basic concepts of the cheap Yam*ha's and Cas*o's (on board rhythym, drums, basic song arrangement, ala one man band), this has different arrangements, more dark new wave, kind of reminding me of the english new wave of '79-'82 . No polka madness here! And none of the aforementioned cheapies can lay down lush strings like this.

As for the right hand, you get the basic analog imitations of instruments, plus 3 mo*g-like synth sounds. The only adjustments are brilliance and modulation, and you do get a decent 'mo*g sound. Analog does make a difference, as I did not feel that I had to alter any of the instruments, like I usually do when recording the cheapie digital synths.

There's more. There is a stereo section that has the instrument moving in(or is it out?) when a key is hit. It does not continue to move if you hold the key down.. There are many adjustments for the strings, choir, organ brass, piano, percussion. Plus there are many ways to make up the sequencer for the arranger. As far as I can tell from playing it the last 6 months, you can not alter the arrangement/sequencer, but you can adjust what is in the mix.

The drums are decent sounding, and you can switch off the individual instruments. There is a tone slide that was pretty effective.

All works good, sliders work clean, leds light up, things go on and off as they should (at least as I think I should, I had no luck finding a manual online) except for two things.For some reason each time you hit one of the sequencer programs (pre-set) the drum tempo goes to the top speed 90, and you have to adjust it down to a more normal speed (40) and I could not figure out the bass program with 2 stops and a sustain (like an organ pedal). The bass guitar and double bass work fine, so I am not sure why I can't bring that section up.

This is not for everyone looking fo an analog synth, and I understand the desire to create your own voice (I'll be listing my mini-mo*g in a couple of days). But as a former synth freak, that had over 50 analog synths (and the same number of digtal ones!), I have found that the voice you spend a lot of time creating is similar enough to presets, that you could have saved a lot of time using a preset and simply modify it with outboard gear!

Anyway the point I want to make here is that this is not for someone that will be building a patch from a sawtooth oscillator , the strength of this unit is in it's songwriting/one-man band arranging. If you like your music on the odd and dark side (Resid*nts?), you will love this unit. If you think Abba and the Eagles are where it's at, do not bid! If I wasn't retired from the biz, I would keep this over the Mo*g, even though this is worth less. I have yet to find another one through go*gle searches. If you do end up getting this, and writing a hit song with it, only you and I would know how you did it!"