Polyakov Synthesizer

Polyakov is a unique little softsynth based off a hardware synthesizer called the “Polivoks”, manufactured in the Soviet Union between 1982 and 1990. The original unit was capable of generating a wide range of sounds to work in many different genres and was also able to generate interesting sound effects for scoring.

The release of the Polyakov for Windows captures much of the sound and control of the original. It definitely has the sound of a very primitive synthesizer having only two oscillators and five basic waveforms (with the addition of white noise). The synthesizer also features standard BP/LP filters with an ASDR envelope and LFO for modulation, adjustable by the mod wheel. Also worth mentioning is the “AD repeat” feature (this one is new to me) which repeats the attack and decay cycle over and over, resulting in something similar to a customizable LFO waveform. The amount of filtering and overall volume can also be controlled via velocity.

The original unit had an external input for an additional guitar or synth that could be run through the mixer and processed with the synthesizer’s sound engine. In Polyakov, they’ve kept the EXT control in the mixer but it only adds a subtle saturation effect.

http://music-society.de/index.php/topic,5732.0.html