Explain A4 Poly Settings?

Elektron Gear Analog Keys/Four
#1

Hello!

I used learned from “MDM” here on this forum that I can use the ins on my A4 to process sound. So I put in my Bass Station 2 and my Volca Bass and put them on one track each. I put a trig with infinite release on Trig 1 on both tracks, and could hear the sound from the external sounds with no problem.

Then on track 4 I made a chord sound with two voices. But after that I ran into a problem: one of the synths stopped playing when the chord sounds came in.

Why is this? I thought the A4 had four voices and not just three? The external synths use up one voice each, and then the two voice chord sound uses up two more. So why does one of the external synths stop playing when the 2 chord voices come in?

(If I remove one voice from the chord souns and just have one voice, the external synth keeps playing over the chords.)

Does anybody know what causes this?

Thank you!

A4 voices seem to be affecting each other
#2

(I have of course to the best of my ability checked so that I don’t have any more trigs or voices on other tracks.)

#3

what does your poly config page look like? what is selected and in what mode

not sure if I’m reading how you have it set up correctly but it looks like you are using one of the tracks/voices but with an external wave source

if you are using just the external inputs, look under the FX track and EXT then that should not use any of the voices as they go over the FX track

#4

i ve had this problem as well, for whatever reason one track stopped playing sounds when another track had a trigger played …

i assumed it was some sort of neighboring issue, new project, clear all usually fixes that.

make sure to check your poly settings!

#5

Yes, I did as Traban said and redid the thing, and then it curiously worked. So weird! Thank you both for the help, next time it happens I’ll look into poly config settings.

#6

i think it is due to the infinite release on amp envelope…if that goes for so long then new triggers would cause it to stop because the needing to steal a voice, but some configurations (something between RESET - ROTATE - etc…)
could help more in some cases than others

#7

yeah, you always want to check the poly config (voices and mode)

#8

what does use trk sounds actually mean?

1 Like
#9

it uses the sound of the track instead of just using the voice for poly

try creating a bunch of different sounds on each track, then turning that on with poly and selecting the voices :slight_smile:

#10

in poly config

voices 1x 2x 3x 4x … all checked

allocation RESET

use trk sounds X … I check it on …

track 1 the vanilla stock sound without anything fancy
track 2 single chord (A 005)
track 3 303 clone (A012)
track 4 flute2 … hhhholy fuck!

now i know what is happening!

cant believe that … it sort of changes the sounds that I play on a track with the sounds that I have previously assigned to the other 3 tracks!

what the heck is going on??? what is the logic behind that? and why would i want to use that? , i guess for wicked elektron style madness and fuckery …

who or what decides when which sound is played on the mini keyboard?

has the allocation reset -rotate - reassign setting also something to do with that?

I understand unison and I am proud to know that :slight_smile:

thanks a lot SUBQ for your pointer into that direction… learned a lot in the last 5 minutes!

#11

hey subq
I keep reading your post and still more questions …
t uses the sound of the track instead of just using the voice for poly

do you mean [u]TRACKS /u … what is the difference between track and voice?
try creating a bunch of different sounds on each track, then turning that on with poly and selecting the voices :slight_smile:

turning THAT on, what THAT? with poly, huh, with poly? where to press what? in which menu? … selecting the voices, which voices to select where?

sorry for being undereducated … :slight_smile:

#12

my fault for not being clear

best way to understand it is go into Kit config, Poly Config

actually, first go to each track and create a sound or select a diff sound like you did above

now select track 1, go into poly config, allocation unison

you can leave that menu up while you play sounds on the kb to hear the diff

select voices 1 (uncheck others)…remember you are on track 1

you should hear a single voice playing the track 1 sound, now select 2 on voices…you should hear two voices playing track 1 sound

track one is using the voice from track 2 and playing both voices in unison, there are detune settings and whatnot as well

“use trk sounds” option basically will use the sound on the track where you select voices instead of using just multiple voices for the sound of the one track

so in the example above, if you have a pad sound on track 1, and you have voices 1 and 2 selected and allocation set to unison, you will hear 2 voices playing the pad sound…even if you had a string sound on track 2

now if you check off use trk sound and you have voices 1 and 2 selected, you will hear 2 voices, one playing the pad sound (on track 1) and the other voice playing the string sound (from track 2)

that’s basically what that option does, when you select the voice number it will use that voice for it’s own sound unless you check off use trk sound…in which case it will use the sound of the track you have selected on voices

so to expound even further say you had a bass on track 3 and you check off voices 1,2,3 and use trk sound, you would hear 3 voices, pad, string, and bass (while playing on track 1)

unselect voice 2 and you would hear 2 voices, pad sound and bass sound, unselect use trk sound and you will hear 2 voices playing the pad sound (it is using the voice from track 3)

hopefully that makes a little more sense…didn’t mean to be long winded :slight_smile:

3 Likes
#13

it should be mentioned that poly config is extremely flexible thx to how elektron implemented it

i.e. say I want to play a bass line and some chords but I never want the chords stealing my bass line voice

I could put my bass line on track 1, go into poly config and make sure track 1 was not selected…that way it wasn’t included as a voice that could be used for poly :slight_smile:

then you have the different allocation modes where you control exactly how the voice stealing takes place if it has to happen :slight_smile:

3 Likes
#14

hey subq

good morning! … I just got up, had a coffee (watched a docu about immortal jelly fish) AND

read through your explanation which you so kindly put your energy and time into for me to learn on my A4 …

BIG BIG thanks for that exquisit, detailed, logical well executed explanation, all the examples and extra bits in pieces you included there

to make it understandable, logic, follow-able and also took things to a more complex level by assuming what I would have wanted to hear!

really really reeeeeeaaaly helpful!

I am thinking of renaming the title of thread to “Poly Settings Explained” … other users would learn a ton of skill from that!

#15

Good idea! Changed to: “Explain A4 Poly Settings?”

#16

Just up this Thread For Just say thanks ! The manual gives explanations too little details

#17

Just got my A4, wow so impressed! Just wanted to ask a question though how does kit polyphony work? I expected it to be so you can play multiple notes per track but it seems to work more like choke groups? I’ve read the manual but I don’t speak elektron lol. Can someone put the different modes in simple speak? Cheers!

#18

Edit…
Read this:

#19

You can only play four notes at once no matter what. Its a four voice synth. You can play one note on each of the four tracks or all four notes on one track or three notes on one track and one note on another.

What you call choke groups is usually referred to as voice stealing.

#20

@InTheAM ahhh cool mate, i got ya!

Can you explain a little further about the modes, and how they work (in ‘stealing’ notes from other tracks)??

Thanks for your reply