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Dave Smith Instruments Poly Evolver PE Keyboard 61-key 4-voice Analog/Wavetable Synthesizer with Step Sequencer

61-key, 4-voice Polyphonic Analog/Digital MIDI Synthesizer With Sequencer, Prophet VS Wavetables, and Potentiometers
Item ID: PEKpe

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Dave Smith Instruments Poly Evolver PE Keyboard 61-key 4-voice Analog/Wavetable Synthesizer with Step Sequencer
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Analog Warmth with Digital Edge!

Get the best of both worlds! Explore the unique sonic marriage of analog and digital with the slick Poly Evolver PE Keyboard from Dave Smith Instruments. This 4-voice analog/digital synth gives you two analog oscillators, based on the famous Prophet 5, plus two digital oscillators from the Prophet VS. Expect that analog warmth you know and love plus the ability to store and recall your scores of sounds thanks to the digital edge. The Poly Evolver PE Keyboard also provides a ton of hands-on tweakability via its seventy-eight knobs - 60 of which are now pots - and 59 switches. Beyond that, you've got an analog-style sequencer for building everything from simple loops to complex compositions. That's why the Poly Evolver PE Keyboard is on every synth head's gotta-have list. Yours too.

Dave Smith Instruments Poly Evolver PE Keyboard Synth at a Glance:
  • Four complete Evolver synths in one case, with a unique personality
  • Unlimited expressive control with 5-octave keyboard plus knobs and switches
  • A real analog synth with DSP control
  • Wave sequencing and more with four independent analog sequencers
  • Stereo audio inputs for processing external signals
Four Evolver synths, with a unique personality

Fans of the Dave Smith Evolver have been asking for a polyphonic version, and the 4-voice Polyphonic Evolver responds to those requests in a big way. Each of the 4 voices are a complete Evolver synthesizer, which not only provides backwards compatibility with a monophonic Evolver, but also allows a number of cool features to play with. Overall, the Poly Evolver PE Keyboard, while retaining all of Evolver's wild capabilities, has emerged with its own personality. Many sounds that sounded great on the monophonic Evolver really shine when played polyphonically - this is a real pad-monster machine!

Unlimited expressive control with 5-octave keyboard plus knobs and switches

The Poly Evolver PE Keyboard is a player's dream! Its 5-octave keyboard is semi-weighted for playing ease and has velocity and mono aftertouch sensitivity. And with 78 knobs - 60 of which are now pots - and 59 switches, you have virtually unlimited control over filters, resonance, pitch... any parameter! The Poly Evolver also responds to MIDI control messages. Plus, you can chain up to five Polys together for up to 20 voices of polyphony.

A true analog synth...

The Poly Evolver offers everything you'd expect from an analog synth and more! Sure, you can use it to recreate legendary sounds from the past. But you can also use the Poly Evolver to generate never-before-heard sounds and patterns. The analog electronics for each voice consist of two identical (Left/Right) synth sections, each with an analog waveshape oscillator, a 2/4 pole resonant lowpass filter, and a Voltage Controlled Amplifier (VCA).

...With a digital brain

Surrounding the Poly Evolver's analog electronics is a high-speed Digital Signal Processor (DSP) that both pre- and post-processes the audio signal. Since the DSP also computes the control voltages for the analog circuitry, it can handle a wide range of modulation with high precision. The DSP provides audio functions such as the Digital Oscillators, Envelope Follower, the Peak/Hold detector (and associated external trigger generator), High-pass filter, Distortion (with noise gate), Pan, Delay, and Hack. It also handles the Poly Evolver's tuned feedback, and the additional Delay feedback paths. All the modulation calculations (envelopes, LFOs, routing, and so on) are DSP-controlled.

Four independent analog sequencers

Each of the Poly Evolver's four voices has its own sequencer. This allows some great wave-sequencing applications by gating sequences polyphonically from the keyboard. Each voice also has its own effects, such as feedback, distortion, and delay, which enables completely independent processing of each voice for a super thick sound.

Stereo audio inputs for processing external signals

The stereo audio inputs on the Poly Evolver go to all four voices, each of which can select to process or ignore the external signals, so you can do quad parallel processing of any audio source. Or, since there are stereo outputs on each of the Poly Evolver's four voices, you can route the output of one voice to the input of another voice for some interesting effects.

Once you play a Poly Evolver, you'll immediately hear what's missing with all those soft and virtual synths - real personality and individuality.The Poly Evolver is much more than an analog retro synth. It starts with the benefits of true analog design, and then goes well beyond with the tightly integrated digital features. You get all the old stuff plus an all-new sound - check it out!

Dave Smith Instruments Poly Evolver PE Keyboard Features:
  • Four-voice analog/digital synthesizer
  • Five-octave semi-weighted keyboard, 78 knobs (60 pots), and 59 switches
  • Four oscillators in total: two analog, two digital
  • Analog oscillator waveshape are sawtooth, triangle, saw-triangle, and pulse (with voltage-controlled analog pulse-width modulation)
  • Digital oscillators feature 96 wavetables from the Prophet-VS and 32 user-loadable (via MIDI) wavetables
  • Digital oscillators get trashy as the frequency gets higher, as with the original VS
  • Hard sync on the analog oscillators
  • FM and ring mod on the digital oscillators
  • Separate Glide per oscillator, with two glide modes
  • Real voltage-controlled analog lowpass filters - not digital recreations
  • 4-pole/2-pole switchable filters, fully resonant (in 4-pole mode). Two separate filters, one for the left channel and one for the right
  • Analog Voltage Controlled Amplifiers (VCA), one for each channel
  • Dual digital 4-pole highpass filters (one per channel) can be placed before or after analog electronics
  • Stereo audio inputs; noise generator
  • Envelope Follower and Peak Detect from External Input to use as modulation sources
  • External input can be used to gate envelopes and/or step the sequencers
  • Three snappy ADSR envelopes.
  • Four LFOs (sync with sequencer and MIDI)
  • Dual (left and right channel) tunable feedback loops; modulate frequency and amount
  • Delay with 3 taps, each with separate time and amount modulation. Syncs to sequencer/MIDI. Normal feedback and additional feedback path through analog filters
  • Distortion! Digital, one for each channel, can be placed before or after analog electronics
  • 4 Banks of 128 Programs for 384 total Programs - dump to/from MIDI
  • 16 x 4 analog-style sequencer - syncs with MIDI
  • Extensive modulation capabilities, including audio-range modulation. Bipolar (+/-) modulation
  • A bunch of MIDI stuff
  • Internal controllers and DSP chips can be reprogrammed via MIDI, for easy feature additions
The Poly Evolver PE Keyboard is both a player's synth and a sound designer's dream!

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Tech Specs

  • Manufacturer Part Number: DSI-2014

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For the lifelong keyboardists and synth geeks at Sweetwater, Dave Smith is a bona fide legend. His Prophet-5 made synthesis affordable, and as one of the three responsible for creating the MIDI standard, Smith helped shape the keyboard world from the early '80s on. Many of us grew up with Sequential Circuits, and Dave Smith Instruments carries on that legacy with exciting new designs we love so much we're excited to share them with the synth nuts we know. These days, DSI continues to merge the historic synths we love with exciting new innovations, such as partnering with other innovators including Roger Linn and Tom Oberheim to create cool new designs we love to share with our favorite customers.

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