A better understanding of polyphony implementation

Zwolf · 2015-05-06T14:14:56.000Z

I’ve tried searching, but can’t find what I’m looking for. Probably because it’s really basic…

[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961)]Can’t seem to wrap my head around all the factors that go into the A4’s polyphonic capabilities. Read the manual several times, looked at the charts, but there’s just a disconnect for me. The problem I seem to be having is running out of voices, or having notes cut off before I think I’m
[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961)]at 4 voices. Would be really grateful for a basic primer in general, but here’s some questions for staters:

[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961)]- when you tune the oscs to different pitches and/or use the sub to form a chord, is this still considered 1 voice?

[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961)]- does the arp figure into the equation when not in the chord mode?

[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961)]- do note lengths factor in? I.e, if I’m using one voice/track and trig a single note on step 1 of a 16 step pattern, but set the length for longer than 16 steps, am I actually using two voices for the period of time that the notes overlap when the pattern repeats?

[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961)]- how do you decide how to assign the voices and in what mode?

[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961)]Thanks for any insight. Had the A4 just 2 weeks and methodically going through all functions, but could use a push on this one!

KOTARE · 2015-05-06T15:25:42.000Z

Each voice has 2 OSCS and SUB OSC, and it’s own set of two filters.

If you hear a note playing, that’s one voice. It doesn’t matter if you’ve muted one OSC, or if you have pitched one OSC differently, or even if you mute both OSCs and just trigger the filter, it’s still a single voice.

If you play a triad chord and, as its fading out, you play another note then that is all four voices bring played.

If you are playing a triad chord and you play a duo chord then that will choke one of the voices in the triad chord, because that is five voices, and the A4 only has four. How it chokes, and which voice it chokes, is up to how you have set your polyphony.

If you have a note set to play longer than 16 steps and you play another note on the same machine then that will be two voices. A voice is the whole envelope of a single sound including its release envelope.

I hope that helps, it’s not the full answer.

Zwolf · 2015-05-06T16:25:35.000Z

""KOTARE"":

Each voice has 2 OSCS and SUB OSC, and it’s own set of two filters.

If you hear a note playing, that’s one voice. It doesn’t matter if you’ve muted one OSC, or if you have pitched one OSC differently, or even if you mute both OSCs and just trigger the filter, it’s still a single voice.

If you play a triad chord and, as its fading out, you play another note then that is all four voices bring played.

If you are playing a triad chord and you play a duo chord then that will choke one of the voices in the triad chord, because that is five voices, and the A4 only has four. How it chokes, and which voice it chokes, is up to how you have set your polyphony.

If you have a note set to play longer than 16 steps and you play another note on the same machine then that will be two voices. A voice is the whole envelope of a single sound including its release envelope.

I hope that helps, it’s not the full answer.

That does help, thank you.

Cool - the OSCs don’t have anything to do with it. Just confirmed by building a cacaphonous chord with one trig on the same step from each track, each with its oscillators tuned differently. Probably should have run that test prior to asking…

So I guess it’s the note length and overlapping that I need to start paying closer attention to. At first I figured one note played at a time on one track = one voice regardless of length, but it makes perfect sense as you’ve explained it. And this is what’s happening to me with arps too, when I’m getting some choking.

I guess all I need to know at this point is how to manage the process. A bit of a dumbed down explanation of the the allocation setup would do me wonders.

KOTARE · 2015-05-06T16:45:21.000Z

I’d recommend just enabling polyphony on each track and arrange in such a way that you don’t end up choking.

I’m not really the one for tips on how to creatively allocate voices because I don’t rely on it to do the heavy lifting in my studio set up.

In regards to voices, just remember that each sound has a muscle that makes it and that muscle is the voice. If a sound is being heard then it means that the muscle is (physically) making it, unless you’re hearing a delay or reverb tail. There’s only four muscles - I tend to use the AK sparingly so I seldom run out of voices.

ffernandez · 2015-10-09T15:25:44.000Z

About poly modes, does anybody found a way of keeping a note playing? Let’s say I play C3, and I want to keep playing that note even if I play many notes at the same time… I’d like to keep the C3 and use only 3 voices for the rest, but without losing the C3.
I don’t know if it clear…I like to use pedal notes while playing, but the with the A4 I always lose the pedal when start playing chords with the other hand.
Thanks!

avantronica · 2015-10-09T21:03:21.000Z

""ffernandez"":

About poly modes, does anybody found a way of keeping a note playing? Let’s say I play C3, and I want to keep playing that note even if I play many notes at the same time… I’d like to keep the C3 and use only 3 voices for the rest, but without losing the C3.
I don’t know if it clear…I like to use pedal notes while playing, but the with the A4 I always lose the pedal when start playing chords with the other hand.
Thanks!

whilst i don’t do this or use poly much i’d hope you could solve your issue by using two tracks with the same sound and midi channel and assign three voices to the second track - something along those lines perhaps

TrabanT · 2015-10-10T06:58:38.000Z

""ffernandez"":

About poly modes, does anybody found a way of keeping a note playing? Let’s say I play C3, and I want to keep playing that note even if I play many notes at the same time… I’d like to keep the C3 and use only 3 voices for the rest, but without losing the C3.
I don’t know if it clear…I like to use pedal notes while playing, but the with the A4 I always lose the pedal when start playing chords with the other hand.
Thanks!

i think track 1 = note 1 = pedal = C3 … in the poly settings menu DO NOT enable track 1 to be polyphonically checked.
(mk7 showed me this)

Novem · 2015-10-11T01:24:23.000Z

ELEKTRON ANALOG FOUR intro video…

About 8min. into the vid. He shows using reverb / fx track / set to INF to
Freeze note(s)…that may work for you.

NOVEM

ffernandez · 2015-10-15T12:54:39.000Z

I’ll try your suggestions, thanks!!