Elta Music’s Polivoks Mini Synth brings a little slice of the classic Russian “duophonic, analog synthesizer manufactured and marketed in the Soviet Union between 1982 and 1990.”

I stopped into Perfect Circuit the other day and I noticed the Polivoks Mini on display. It was green with all Russian screen printed labels for the knobs and features. I stared for a minute and started twisting knobs. Everything that I stumbled on while twisting knobs sounded great. One of the guys came over with a print out witha polivoks mini synth diagram in english. Boom!! I explored for a good while. Some of these sounds were unfamiliar to me as I’d never really touched a Polivoks synth. All I could say is the sound is rather familiar and simultaneously unique.

So, I figured I’d share with you all because more folks should know about this little powerhouse clone with the huge sound. Polivoks Mini comes in 3 different colors. Not to mention, it seems to be a great value for $500.

Described on Elta Music’s site as…

The idea of the Polivoks Mini analog synthesizer came into mind in 1990, as the junior version of its older brother well known Polivoks full synth. The aim was to develop a way simpler and lighter device that has less components, offers the same broad capabilities, and removes possible flaws of the Polivoks full synth.

As the result of this research a new minimalistic schematic appeared. It has fewer controls that are compensated by greater functionality.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

Two brothers #synth #synths #synthesizer #synthporn #synthesizers #polivoks #polivoksmini

A post shared by ELTA Music (@eltamusic) on

For example, in the Modulator section the Form switch has been replaced by the controller with triangular oscillation in the middle position and sawtooth shape oscillation smoothly falling in the extreme positions. The controller for the envelope filter input set to zero in the middle position and smoothly increasing its value by turning the knob clockwise while turning the knob counterclockwise increases inverse voltage of the envelope generator. The main synthesizer sections, such as generator, famous Polivoks filter, multimode envelope generator are essentially the same as Polivoks’s ones and have their unique sound. In addition to that, the main generator  of the Polivoks Mini doesn’t require any thermal stabilization or adjustment. In general, the simplified schematic delivers the sound appreciated by wide range of musicians by minimal means but with new capabilities. The Polivoks Mini will be released as the keyboardless version with integrated USB and MIDI interfaces. 

The overall design of the Polivoks Mini is made in collaboration with Ms. Olympiada Kuzmina, Polivoks full synth concept designer.

Feature

  • Faithful replication of the infamous Russian classic
  • Oscillator with dedicated controls for: Range, Wave, Depth
  • Dedicated Sub VCO
  • Filter with dedicated controls for: Cutoff, Resonance, BP/LP, Envelope, and LFO
  • Filter bears same architecture as the original
  • LFO with dedicated switches for Waveform and Rate
  • Amplifier section with dedicated switches for ADSR Gate and Gate On
  • Audio In, Out, and Headphone Out
  • MIDI IN/THRU
  • USB MIDI IN
  • $500

More info here – https://www.eltamusic.com/polivoks-mini

No more articles