Korg Poly 61
Digital analogue Synthesiser

The Korg Poly 61 was a digitally controlled analogue synthesiser launched by Korg in 1982 and discontinued in 1986.  

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The synthesiser was the successor to the very popular Korg PolySix where the six referred to the polyphony of the keyboard.  The PolySix was release in 1981 the year prior to the Poly 61 and was only manufactured for about a year.

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I found several websites that stated that the Korg Poly 61 was developed as a response to the Roland Juno-6 which proved to be popular with the musician base using a digitally controlled single oscillator (DCO).  Other than reverence to this point on several websites I haven't found anything directly from a Korg source stating this fact. 

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The Poly 61 retained the 61 key bed layout and 6 voice monotimbral features of the PolySix.  The key change over the previous synthesiser was that the Poly 61 implemented dual digital oscillator's per voice (2 DCO's).  The initial Poly 61 did not include a MIDI implementation, although several companies produced MIDI retro-fit kits for the synthesiser.

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Due to the lack of MIDI Korg updated the synthesiser in 1984, midway through the manufacturing run, to provide the MIDI functionality that was missing from the original release.  Korg added an 'M' to the synthesiser name to make the later versions of the synthesiser the Korg Poly 61M.

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Again searching through the internet archives and user groups the user community have stated that if you want to buy a Korg Poly 61 you are better off teaching the later Poly 61M variant than the initial Poly 61 with a MIDI retrofit. 

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I borrowed this keyboard from a fellow enthusiast who lives a few miles up the coast from me to see if this was a keyboard that I should be adding to my collection.  The answer to this question is that I wouldn't buy this keyboard.  

I found the programming to be simple, but really tedious.  Due to the lack of MIDI on the original keyboard loading and backing up the sounds of the keyboard was only possible using a tape machine just like the 8-bit micro computers of this timeframe e.g. the Sinclair Spectrum or Japanese MSX computers.  I just did not gel with the workflow required to work with this keyboard.