It’s not every day that a new form of synthesis is invented. ERM’s Polygogo is a stereophonic, single voice Polygonal Synthesis based Eurorack module. Polygonal synthesis was invented by ERM, and the basic idea behind it is to generate two separate stereophonic waveforms based on a circular XY scan of a two-dimensional shape. Various manipulations on these 2D shapes, like morphing the number of vertices, bending them inwards or expanding them outwards, change the harmonic structure of this module’s sound in interesting and sometimes surprising ways. 

In this review I explore the various timbral components of Polygonal Synthesis and give a few patch idea examples that attempt to stretch it as far as possible.

TIMELINE:

0:00 Intro 

0:30 What is it? 

1:50 Build 

2:10 Order 

3:30 Cycle 

4:50 Teeth 

5:40 Fold 

7:05 Roll 

8:15 Operator 

9:45 Add reverb… 

10:40 PATCH IDEAS 

10:55 Vibrato 

11:40 Sync 

13:30 Exp FM+sync 

14:00 PWM? 

15:05 Mod all 

15:45 Rnd per note 

17:40 Rnd per phrase 

18:00 Freeze chords 

19:25 Fold hack 

21:00 Fold VCA 

23:05 Teeth VCA 

24:00 Pros & cons 

25:30 Outro jam