Quasimidi Polymorph
Thursday, June 18, 2009
I’ve been fortunate to have spent a lot of time in the company of this rare machine. It posesses a unique sound, lots of knobs, flexible sequencer, and is very useful in a live situation. I had to refer to the manual for this one. A bit more complex than your usual synthesizer. Eventually the secrets of the Polymorph were revealed and the possibilites were realized. Quasimidi really built this to be used live, and it is endless fun.
Above all, my favorite feature of the polymorph is it’s sequencer. You get four individual analog step sequencers. Each sequencer can run forward, backward, random, or note-forward and this can be changed on the fly simply by selecting the sequence and pressing the desired step direction button. Each sequence can run on a different time signature. The first sequence could be 8/8, the second 7/8, the third 6/8, and the fourth could be 1/8. Creating a climactic build up is possible by cutting the time signature in half measure by measure until you get to just one note repeating rapidly. Give it a filter sweep, bring it back to a 16 count measure. Each sequencer has 4 assignable parameters so you can give each step different parameter values for basically any of the polymorph’s knobs. For example, you could assign the filter envelope to have a different value for each step in a sequence. The pitch is automatically assigned to the first parameter. If all that wasn’t enough, the four sequences can interact in four different modes: Multi, stack, rotate, and unison. I usually have them run in multimode as usual but there is the option to switch it up for a sudden change. Each sequencer also has a volume conveniently located at the bottom right. With these you can create a set and fade sequences in and out in real time.
Polymorph Tracks:
1. Resuffusion: A good example of the Polymorphs awesome sequencer and filters. The Polymorph kicks in around 1:30. Recorded live alongside a Machinedrum.