Paraphonic synths are polyphonic by definition

The Lounge General Discussion
#9

Thowing in some thoughts from a classical musician:

In an orchestra instruments can be polyphonic, paraphonic or monophonic. These terms are rarely used in this context but if it helps to sort it out:

Monophonic: all wind instruments. You can play only one note at a time on a french horn, trumpet, basson, flute etc.

Paraphonic: some instruments allow to play different notes at at time. The violin has four strings, but usually they play only one note at a time. If multiple notes are played (which happens often in orchestral music) the tone can´t be articulated independently. You have only one bow to pull over the strings.
The Accordeon is another example for a typical paraphonic instrument. The articulation is set by the player who moves the wind bag, all played notes behave the same way.

Truly polyphnonic instruments are the grand piano or all mallett instruments (vibraphone, marimbaphone). A church organ looks polyphonic at the first glance but is also paraphonic if you take a closer look. Notes can´t be articulated at all as you don´t have envelopes or velocity to use some synth-terms.

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#10

Voice articulation is not just filter related: it’s also the amp, the filter keyboard tracking, the envelopes that are in the path that offers the capacity on a x-voice poly to play new notes with each their own voice while holding a chord.
The fact that all voices get mixed at some point doesn’t make a fully articulated polyphonic synth a paraphonic one.

Unless I misunderstood what you’ve just said

#11

OK. Consider my noodle baked, because, take for example my prophet 6, which is a true polyphonic synth. But, if I apply the LFO, which is global to the filter/vca/vcf, does it become a paraphonic synth?

#12

Damn, I thought I had it. :thinking:

That’s a question for Marc Doty I guess. :tongue:
But I would say that as you can play any note independently of the others, it’s not paraphonic in his book, but a trully polyphonic synth.

Actually, one LFO per voice wouldn’t be really musical in most cases, I guess. Unless you want to play FM. The more we talk about this, the more I feel like A4 is a true achievement, btw :wink:

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#13

I think the generally accepted definition of polyphony is each voice having its own oscillator, filter, VCA and envelope, LFO isn’t really part of the equation as in most cases you’d want the modulation to be uniform across all the notes, in most cases I think.

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#14

Poly-D is a Polyphonic Synth but not Multitimbral.

It uses more Voices (Polyphony) but they‘re not Independent from each other (multitimbral).

All Paraphonic comments should be deleted by now. :innocent:

Behringer Poly D
#15

lol, nothing about this is correct. Troll?

3 Likes
#16

lol.
it’s just an opportunity for you to spread your word.
Poly just means “more” even if it’s just the Oscillators.

#17

Actually it’s means you can play more than one note at a time: a monophonic synth can have 3 oscillators, while a poly (paraphonic or not) let you play at least two different notes (not only as a chord).
That’s the comprehension I have, at least.

#18

Yeah multitimbral means simultaneously (and independently if required) playing different sounds, as in timbres.

#19

If i have two synths, one is polyphonic and the other is behringer polyphonic D, can i call the first one paraphonic? is that ok with marc dot?

#20

Not to forget about pragmaphonic which uses whatever signal path is at hand to get to a good end result.

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#21

It’s an interesting topic though. There is a pretty clear definition but it is easy to get confused about it. So not so surprising people say "poly D is Para, not poly’ while in fact it’s both.

#22

And of course not to forget about platophonic which is a form of poly that thinks hard about what signal path to take, considering each and every possible route, before coming to the conclusion that each option is possibly going to sound good but different.

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#23

Pfff, I offer you an occasion to display some more pedantry about synths and you’re having fun at me.
:unamused:

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:stuck_out_tongue:

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#24

This needlessly complicates the matter.

Paraphonic synth plays several independently controlled oscillators through 1 signal path.
Polyphonic synth has a complete signal path for each voice.

Paraphonic synth such as the ”poly D” does not play like a polyphonic synth.

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#25

:smile:
Okok I’ll bite.

So I have a monophonic synth (dominion 1) which has a paraphonic mode. According to this definition it is a monophonic synthesizer that can play polyphonicly because it is paraphonic. Either that or it’s a polyphonic synth that is paraphonic (which, let’s be honest, makes no sense).

Even though I get it, it’s not the best definition but that’s mostly because the term itself is pretty flawed. Paraphony is just a mode a synth can be used in to play polyphonicly. And if that mode is its key feature you could say it’s poly. Like the poly D (although it’s very border line). And in case of the dominion 1 it’s certainly not its key feature because its main focus is obviously being monophonic.

Doesn’t make it less vague I guess. It’s just a very very strange term I think :wink:

#26

voice articulation: paraphonic ≠ multiphonic
note count: monophonic ≠ duophonic ≠ polyphonic

I haven’t understood why in Doty’s mind duophonic is not polyphonic, but apart from this it’s pretty clear. Have you read Doty’s images in the first post? It’s pretty obvious isn’t it?

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#27

It is. But again, that would make my dominion one next to being a monophonic synth (in mono-mode) a polyphonic synth as well. Which in my mind just doesn’t make sense.

Agreed on duophonic. Why stop there? My dominion 1 is triophonic.

#28

Maybe because you can’t play basic triads? But yeah that doesn’t really make sense to me.