Envelopes & Polyphony

OHEXOH · 2014-05-12T16:18:47.000Z

I’ve been playing with a pad patch that I made and I can’t quite figure out how the envelope retrigger & polyphony works.

I have Polyphony set to 4 and AMP shape #1 (with dot / retrigger). The patch has a long attack and release. The trouble is, when I trigger a new note whilst the other is fading out the new note replaces the old entirely - even producing a click as the envelope resets.

Is there anyway that the Polyphony can be used to avoid this? For example: if I play the 2nd note whilst holding the 1st I get a smooth in on the 2nd note but I don’t want to play the patch that way.

I’ve tried setting the envelope to not retrigger but I lose the slow attack.

I would imagine it would make sense to use Poly when attack & release times overlap.

Am I missing something?

Ta.

hafilax · 2014-05-12T16:50:13.000Z

You’ve got it. Both notes will be playing at the same time so you need to use polyphony if you want the attack of the next note to build during the decay of another.

Low_Life · 2014-05-12T17:41:50.000Z

Try the different poly allocation modes, with Reset (default option) releasing a note and then pressing the new one will use the same voice, so you lose the release tail. Set it to rotate instead.

OHEXOH · 2014-05-13T10:58:40.000Z

Hey Low Life - I think that must be it - I had it set to Reset which would make sense (though you would think only after 4 notes would it reset no?)

I’ll try tonight and report back in.

Thanks both y’all.

snowcrash · 2014-05-13T13:21:39.000Z

There are several interesting voice allocation modes that can significantly alter the way your patterns can sound. Also there’s some kind of “Rompler-Style” allocation routine, which I find very useful, as it prefers to steal a voice when it already plays the same note. So depending on the envelope mode you choose you can either retrigger notes or they can be ‘emphasized’ that way.

Also note the option to use individual track sounds and with a little imagination you can really go beyond with those settings, like having a little sub-sequence going on by switch between voices etc…

As powerful as that is it can sometimes get a bit messy when trying find out what’s going on. I recently noticed some volume-differences on a dual-duophonic pattern when muting/unmuting certain tracks. The reason of course was, that polyphony is shared between all activated tracks. Took some time to get my head around this.

OHEXOH · 2014-05-13T18:21:43.000Z

Changing from Reset to Rotate & Reassign worked. Thanks!

Re: Use Track Sounds - yeah I’m trying to figure out how that could be useful in a practical situation. Currently it melts my mind trying to figure out how it works!

subq · 2014-05-13T22:20:51.000Z

there was a recent thread with use track sound (in unison) to create a super saw

OHEXOH · 2014-05-14T07:27:58.000Z

Oh nice. Will sniff it out.

sicijk · 2014-05-15T06:54:37.000Z

Another use of TRK SOUNDS is to build complex sounds using 4 layers…so multitimbral…

With a bit of careful programming you can go to very interesting timbres…since this already happens with just one Track!!

Otherwise you can go UNISON in a different way from the default of the machine, where you only decide spread and detune.

Think of copy T1 sound to T2 till T4.

Then make small adjustments between the Tracks and using TRK SOUNDS plus UNISON will get you to whatever big sound

Low_Life · 2014-05-15T08:01:09.000Z

Another thing someone brought up is having identical voices but with varied panning, so for example first voice is panned left and the next one right etc…

OHEXOH · 2014-05-20T21:20:54.000Z

With the track sounds working as a whole, can you trigger from one track, and play all four tracks? Quite amazing - thinking about it.

sicijk · 2014-05-21T05:22:35.000Z

""OH/EX/OH"":

With the track sounds working as a whole, can you trigger from one track, and play all four tracks? Quite amazing - thinking about it.

Exactly.
Depending you are in UNISON or the others…the result goes from 4 voices unison - to 4 part multitimbral…monophonic of course…triggering form whatever track.
@Low Life
the effect you’re speaking about is already possible with UNISON (you got Detune and Spread) but faster with less flexibility than what you decribed