Trend price :700€
Son of the legendary Arp-Fender Chroma synthesizer: The Polaris is a kind of second version a little simpler but still powerful version.
Overview
(weight: 19 kg) 61 keys with basic velocity. Main panel features 23 sliders and 62 buttons for edit process; central slider is assignable to one of the 14 available parameters while on the right side there are 2 levers for modulation and pitch bender.
Back panel terminal connectors:
- audio out
-
headphones out
-
tape interface
-
Midi interface
-
sync interface
-
pedalswitch input for sequencer start and sustain.
Voice
machine core is a 8-bits CPU Intel 80186 manages 6 voices. A voice is composed by 2 oscillators VCO which structure is based on CEM 3374 VCO + a white noise circuit + a suboscillator.
Oscillators
VCO1 and VCO2 feature 2 waveforms (square and saw) they can be hardsynched or ringmodulated with fixed depth.
Performance
-
3 voices assignable to different Midi channels
-
2 sounds can be stacked in UPPER and LOWER part
Filter
resonant 4-poles lowpass filter based on Curtis CEM 3372 with cutoff and 8 fixed resonance levels.
LFO
a single delayed low oscillator (0.1 to 10Hz square and sinewave) modulates:
-
VCO1 & 2
-
PWM pulse
-
VCA
-
VCF filter
Envelope
- EG1 VCA: 3 stages ADR
-
EG2 AUX: 4 stages ADR + 1 extra time
Memory
-
132 sounds RAM
Maintenance
- buttons membranes is infamous for being highly unreliable
- keyboard velocity system may need also to be periodically calibrated.
- power supply drains too much and it has been reported various issues of faulty power supplies.
Audio demo:
Video Clip:
Review
OK: great sound! / Midi / memories
NOT : heavy / technical issues
"wow! great sound and character ... one of the best polyphonic machines ever! Sadly it often require many technical cares."
Text , review, special demos copyright polynominal.com / Eric Pochesci