Polyphony questions

Elektron Gear Analog Keys/Four
#1

Hi i just upgraded the other day
So excuse me if these questions have already been asked (cant find the search button on the new forum)

Anyway - Polyphony mode - I naively imagined that this would be as simple as - turning it on and being able to play your sound polyphonicly
i didnt realise that one polyphonic sound would infringe on the other tracks sounds
I just read the chapter on this in the new manual - which i found highly confusing

And so have been messing around with the settings to beable to play chords with sounds so that it reacts like a normal synth…

In short - what are the best settings to beable to play the keyboard “normally”

If i use track 1 to play 4 note chords , - does that mean that the other 3 tracks are “eaten up”?

Hoping for some insights - Thanks

Best resource for updating A4's OS?
#2

Yes
you still have only 4 voices and if you use them all on 1st track they will be eaten up for rest of the tracks.
niko

Explain A4 Poly Settings?
#3

The default setting should be fine for playing “normal” chords. Check all voices for polyphony (or as many as you need), set allocation mode to Reset and make sure “Use trk sounds” is unchecked. Now just select the track you want to play and it should work as any other polyphonic synth.

And as njeremic explained, the synth is capable of only producing four voices at any given moment, so four note polyphony is equal to every track playing their own voice in that sense.

#4

Ok cheers guys :+1:
For some reason i imagined 4 polyphonic voices at the Same time,

Oh well, wont change much in my existing compositions where im using more than one voice,
But sounds very nice when you can use all 4 voices…

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#5

Quick question, as I don’t have time to check it out right now…does the polyphony give me 4-note polyphony for each of the 4 tracks or is this more like you get one track of polyphony b/c you are using 4 of the tracks? I know that’s probably worded weird but hopefully someone understands what I mean. I’m not in front of the A4 or the manual so figured I’d ask…plus, someone else wants to know as they want to trade me an OT for it…not sure I want to do it now, after the upgrade though. :pl:

#6

Yes

…but don’t forget you can also get creative with the pitch and tuning parameters of the oscillators as well as using the sub osc in 5th mode to expand a single voice into poly, then p-lock some changes to those for further variance :slight_smile:

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#7

I have a related question about polyphony: if I have all four voices playing on one track, can I use the other three tracks to process external sounds? Meaning, does using the filters and effects on multiple tracks have any bearing on the number of voices/oscillators available for one polyphonic track? Not sure I am being very clear, so apologies for the confusion. Thank you!

#8

Hi Senji! You’re clear enough. You sadly can’t use the filters to process external sounds while the voices are used polyphonically. The filters are a part of the architecture of the four voices that are playing the chord you’re playing, and can’t be separated from them.

You can apply the effects to external sounds, though, if you turn them up on the Ext In page of the FX track. (It’s labelled in grey under the Osc 1 button.)
All tracks and the external FX can be sent to the effects at the same time.

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#9

Thank you for your reply! What you say makes a lot of sense.