| Notes | The Polymoog is the descendant of an ambitious project by Moog Music to create a large ensemble system called the Constellation. It was to include two keyboard synthesizers, the polyphonic Apollo and monophonic Lyra, and the Taurus foot pedalboard synthesizer. Although the Constellation project never made it to production, the Taurus pedalboard was released on its own, while the "Apollo Polyphonic Synthesizer" went on to become the Polymoog. It is also noteworthy that the Apollo/Polymoog project did not directly involve Bob Moog and was instead mostly designed by Dave Luce at Moog Music.
The Polymoog 203a was originally known as the Polymoog Keyboard. In 1978, a newer, cheaper and more simplified model was released, the Polymoog Keyboard 280a. The original model 203a was thus re-named the Polymoog Synthesizer. The 280a model has more preset sounds (fourteen of them) but eliminated most of the editing functions that make the original 203a so much more flexible. The 280a model’s new preset sounds included Vox Humana, Strings 2, Electric and Honky Tonk pianos, Chorus Brass and a Rock Organ. Because programming is so limited you’re pretty much stuck with the presets. Fortunately the Vox Humana preset is a wonderful sound (used famously by Gary Numan). Editing is reduced to volume, tuning, hi-pass filtering, and basic LFO features. The 280a model can easily be identified by the name ‘Polymoog Keyboard’ printed where sliders and knobs would exist on the 203a model.
Preset Sounds - 203a: Strings, Piano, Organ, Harpsichord, Funk, Clavi, Vibes, and Brass.
280a model adds: Vox Humana, Strings 2, Electric and Honky Tonk Pianos, Chorus Brass and a Rock Organ
Polyphony - 71 notes
Oscillators - 2 VCO’s with sawtooth and pulse/square waveforms and pulse-width modulation
LFO - Rate, Amount Attack
Filter - Highpass, Lowpass (203a model only), 3-band EQ
Memory - Model 203a: 8 Preset + 1 User
Model 280a: 14 presets
Keyboard - 71 keys (velocity sensitive)
Control - CV/Gate |
