Hey,
How the AK manage the 4 voice polyphony with swaps and note stealing? I’m thinking especially for pad and strings sounds…
this pic is among my top10 “I have no idea what I see” images from the manual…
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Okay, well the way i comprehend it is the later notes get priority over the older/former notes.
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lol
Agreed. I’m so ignorant to what it’s trying to tell me that I perceive it to be border line offensive.
so… AK is useless for pads/strings sounds?
something to do with allocation mode?
Don’t own AK…yet.
[quote=“” snm10""]
so… AK is useless for pads/strings sounds?
something to do with allocation mode?
Don’t own AK…yet.
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On the contrary. Each voice has 4 oscillators, if you count the sub OSCs, and you might because they are tunable to 5ths. You can make a 4 note chord with a single voice.
So, across all voices, that’s 16 OSCs with 8 LFOs (and 16 destinations) plus the trifecta of pads and strings effects; reverb, chorus, and delay. It is generally agreed that A4/AK’s fx are Elektron’s best yet.
Useless? Not at all. The AK is useful for many things, pads/strings are def a strong suit.
Thanks AdamJay!
I’m going to get one right now!
Best,
J
Get some sequences going, even with chords, and you’ll swear the thing has more than 4 voices.
Voice allocation is almost magically slick.
You hear that, Elektron?
PM me for details on where to send the commission check, or commission credit toward an OT…yea, credit would be best.
:D!
I think the picture is pretty clear when you know what’s going on inside, but I guess it’s not very helpful if you don’t. 
Btw. there are several modes on how note stealing will work.
From the manual:
RESET (default mode) The first free voice, starting from the track voice belonging to the triggered
track, is allocated. This means that the first played note will always be played by the corresponding
track voice, and each consecutive note will be played by the next available voice in the group. If all
voices are busy, the oldest voice is stolen for the new note.
ROTATE A round robin policy is used to allocate voices. Each time a note is triggered, the next
voice in the poly group is used. If all voices are busy, the oldest voice is stolen for the new note.
This method is useful for playing notes with long release tails, since it allows the tails to overlap
until the next round.
RE-ASSIGN Remember which note and track sound was most recently played by each voice, and if
the played note and sound is the same as any of the previously played notes by any of the track
voices, the corresponding voice is reused again. Otherwise, use the oldest unused voice. If all voices
are busy, the oldest voice is stolen for the new note. This mimics the normal rompler/digital piano
behavior.
UNISON Each note triggers all voices inside the poly group. In addition, the unison detune and pan
spread settings in the kit are applied to the triggered voices in a uniformly spread out manner (i.e.
each voice gets a certain fraction of the detune amount). The unison parameters are also
configured inside the POLY CONFIG menu.
Reset ist the most thievish mode, good to clean up messy arrangements and for short stabs, but less useful for building up chords or when certain notes are being held from chord to chord etc…
Rotate is the classic mode used in vintage synths usually works quite well.
Re-Assign is the smart one and IMO the most useful. When two chords being played after each other share a note it will map that note to the previous one, so it will less likely cut off notes that might be more important in your arrangement. Very useful when using polyphonic programs with longer release times, pads etc…
Unison does not apply here. 
So usually I set polyphony to Re-Assign. It works best in most cases.
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For basic chords/pads it can be great. You just might have to take advantage of a bit more reverb rather than ADSR alone.
I like it more as a poly synth than as a mono and it is a good mono synth but it excels at smooth poly sounds for me.
Yeah never fails to amaze me how with judicious programming and arrangement you can have a nice full beat, bass, lead, pads and stabs all in one four voice pattern. Sound locks kick ass, you really can have a whole production in just 4 voices. Then chuck in two external inputs and goddam.