With the Kijimi from the Japanese Synthesizer blacksmith Black Corporation, the RSF Polykobol, built in France in 1982, is experiencing a renaissance. Thanks to modern technology, the massive, polyphonic keyboard synthesizer of the time could be accommodated in a compact 19" case with 4 U space requirement.
At the heart of the sound are two powerful analog CRN3340 oscillators with infinitely variable waveforms, suboscillator and noise Generator . Oscillator 2 can be uncoupled from tracking and can be synchronized to tone generator 1. Based Lowpass Filter on an SSM2040 chip, it has an edge steepness of 24 dB and has a wonderful sound of its own.
Two fast, loopable ADSR envelopes that are primarily assigned to the filter VCA and the filter can also be influenced separately over time using keyboard tracking. Two LFOs, each with six waveforms, form the second mainstay of the "tangible" modulators. Each LFO has its own Attack/Decay envelope to precisely control modulation intensity and duration. However, this can be deactivated at the touch of a button.
The first third of the front panel houses the comprehensive modulation department. The sources LFO1, LFO2, ADSR2, VCO2 Velocity and Aftertouch can be assigned to their targets via buttons and controls. The two LFOs modulate the same targets, but can be assigned positive and/or negative amplitudes for each target; the same applies to ADSR2. VCO2 serves as FM source for Cutoff and VCO1. Velocity and the polyphonic aftertouch are each permanently assigned to six targets, whose modulation intensity can be adjusted bipolarly via the control.
Anyone who appreciates polyphonic analog sounds will find it hard not to "fall in love" with this dream of rack synthesizers. The wide range of sounds shines through the high-quality basic sound of the components and rarely enough has a "polyanaloger" sounded so lively and dynamic, this is largely due to the elaborate modulation department. The 256 memory locations are managed and called up via the OLED display, and a few system settings are made. Therefore all creations can be captured and are not unique.