All about Elta Music’s Polivoks-8, a drool-worthy analog poly inspired by the famous Soviet-era Formanta Polivoks. Photos and new info!
Elta Music Polivoks-8Elta Music Polivoks-8: New Photos and InformationSignal PathModulation and MorePrice and AvailabilityElta Music Polivoks-8 Turns the Crazy Soviet Polivoks Into an 8-Voice Analog PolyElta Music Polivoks-8M to the P to the EPanelPrice and AvailabilityMore Information
Elta Music Polivoks-8: New Photos and Information
Last year, Elta Music dropped a (Cold War-era) bomb: it was busy developing a new eight-voice analog poly inspired by the Formanta Polivoks, the legendary (and legendarily noisy) Soviet-era synth. We finally have new information, as well as photos of the first prototype.
Elta Music Polivoks-8 · Source: Elta Music
“Polivoks-8 is an eight-voice polyphonic, dual-VCF, bi-timbral analog synthesizer, available in both desktop and 4U rackmount formats,” says Elta Music. “Inspired by the legendary Soviet Formanta Polivoks, it combines authentic analog circuitry with modern flexibility and control, delivering a bold, distinctive sonic character for the studio or stage.”
Signal Path
According to Elta Music, the forthcoming desktop synth will have two fully analog oscillators with FM, sync, and ring mod, plus a dedicated sub oscillator per voice. Waveforms include the “classic trio,” which I’m assuming is sawtooth, pulse and triangle, as well as PWM, plus an analog white noise generator.
Elta Music Polivoks-8 · Source: Elta Music
In terms of filters, the Polivoks-8 offers two that can be routed in series or parallel. VCF 1 is the Polivoks-type and is built around genuine Soviet K140UD12 OTAs. It features 12dB lowpass and 6dB bandpass responses, input saturation, and analog FM. The second VCF is a 24dB/Oct Ladder filter with resonance drop compensation.
Each voice also includes three VCAs, one master VCA plus a stereo pair for pan modulation.
Modulation and More
The new Polivoks offers a variety of modulation possibilities. There are three envelope generators with multiple curve types, each pre-wired to the VCO, VCF and VCA. You can also repatch these. As for LFOs, there will be a single global analog LFO with a triangle waveform as well as eight per-voice LFOs with a wide selection of waveforms, including user-creatable ones.
Elta Music Polivoks-8 · Source: Elta Music
Additionally, there’s joystick modulation via the onboard joystick. Joystick waggles can be recorded and saved as modulation sources or used as LFO waveforms.
Each patch or timbre also includes an arpeggiator and step sequencer.
Unlike the original Polivoks, this new take offers patch storage, with 1024 patches (256 factory and 768 user slots) across eight sound banks.
Lastly, in terms of connectivity, there’s a mono in for external signal processing, stereo main output, and a headphone jack. It also offers five-pin DIN MIDI in/out/thru and high-speed USB MIDI I/O.
Price and Availability
There’s no word on availability yet. Elta Music will be showing the new synth at Superbooth this week so hopefully we’ll know more then. The original announcement mentioned MPE but there’s nothing about that now. WE shall see. They’re guessing it will cost around €2000.
Elta Music Polivoks-8 Turns the Crazy Soviet Polivoks Into an 8-Voice Analog Poly
[14 October 2025] What’s better than a Formanta Polivoks? How about an eight-voice version? The POLYVOX 8 is coming, according to Elta Music – and it will even have MPE.
Elta Music Polivoks-8
The Formanta Polivoks is a monster. Manufactured in the Soviet Union from 1982 to 1990, the analog monosynth has a wild look with Cyrillic printing and a design inspired by military radios, and an even wilder-sounding op-amp-based filter. There are a few clones around, including the now-discontinued POLIVOKS Mini from Elta Music, the company behind the Solar 42 ambient synths. Although Elta is currently selling mark two of the Polivoks PF3 filter box, it apparently has more Polivoks-powered goodness on the way.
Elta Music Polivoks-8 · Source: Elta Music
According to an announcement on the company’s Instagram channel today, Elta Music is hard at work on the Polivoks-8, an eight-voice reimagining of Vladimir Kuzmin’s incredible original. It’s only in prototype stage, and there’s precious little information revealed. However, there’s enough here to get us all hot and bothered about the possibilities.
M to the P to the E
Other than the fact that it will have eight voices (a polyphonic Polivoks, my God), the announcement also revealed that it will feature MPE. There will also be presets, suggesting a robust operating system behind the voices.
“An 8-voice polyphonic synthesizer with presets, MPE, and many other features,” the announcement reads.
Panel
Looking at the panel rendering, we can see that the synth will feature two oscillators (called Generators), each with three waveforms, an LFO (the Modulator) with three waveform shapes, a mixer with noise, ring mod, and a sub oscillator, a filter with what looks like two modes, and loopable envelopes.
Other intriguing lettering (in English, thankfully!) includes Poly8, Para2, and Mono voice modes, three unison modes, Layer4/4, Layer2/6, and Layer6/2, suggesting bitimbrality, stereo spread, and what could be a sequencer.
Price and Availability
As there is no other information available, we can’t say how much it will cost or when it will be available. Elta Music only offered: “More details to come. Stay tuned.”
If you’re looking for some Polivoks filter action in the meantime, check out Erica Synths’ Black Polivoks VCF V2, available at Thomann*.
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Erica Synths Black Polivoks VCF V2
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