Poly Evolvers : Design Background

The Poly Evolvers come in two versions, the keyboard and the rack. They both have 4 voices, each voice a complete Evolver, which not only provides backwards compatability with the monophonic Evolvers, but also allows a number of cool features to play with.

Each voice still has its own sequencer. This allows some great wave-sequencing applications by gating sequences polyphonically from the keyboard. Each voice also has its own effects, such as feedback, distortion, and 3-tap delay with 2 feedback paths, which enables completely independent processing of each voice for a super thick sound.

The stereo audio inputs go to all four voices, each of which can select to process or ignore the external signals, so you can do quad parallel processing of any audio source. Or, since there are stereo outputs on each of the four voices, you can route the output of one voice to the input of another voice for some interesting effects.

Overall, the Poly, while retaining all of Evolver's wild capabilities, has emerged with its own personality. Many sounds that just didn't make much sense on the monophonic Evolver really shine when played polyphonically - this will be a real pad-monster machine. The wavesequencing is another. On the other hand, some Evolver sounds are actually too huge to play polyphonically, so I guess it works in both directions.

Once you play a Poly Evolver, you'll immediately hear what's missing with all those soft and virtual synths - this is real! Finally some personality and individuality in a polyphonic synth. As with the Evolver, the idea was not to create an analog retro synth, but to start with the benefits of true analog design, and then go well beyond with the tightly integrated digital features. You get all the old stuff (yes, these are Curtis filters) plus an all-new sound - check it out!

-Dave Smith

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