the main difference between mono- and polysynth is not oscillators, but amplifiers.
poly synth amplifiers must have some headroom to handle summing multiple sounds without overload. mono synths don’t require this, and their amplifiers sound different and color the sound.
Thank you. I understand poly requires essentially 4/6/8 monosynth paths but I was just curious 1osc vs 2/3osc monosynths.
Dub techno requires it.
This is all I know
even one oscillator of monosynth sounds very rich when it comes through overdriven amplifier.
Absolutely. The MV has two options to drive waveforms and resonance sounds filthy and can take on 2-3 different characteristics through it.
2 or more oscillator synths just give more sonic options. Hard sync, detuned oscillators. And if it’s really well featured, some sort of PWM or wave shape modulation on multiple oscillators, plus detune, plus hard sync, etc. But, do not underestimate single oscillator synths! 303, 101, Dark Energy, Mother 32 come to mind.
I prefer single oscillator basses and leads most of the time. Sound more clean and punchy to me.
But then, analog fm and am can be something awesome
I do not. The bass I’ve gotten from both of these is beautiful and very different from one another. Im just curious what the two can do together (apart from deconstructing one another) in a conventional sense.
It was incredible just the M32 itself. Combined now with the MV (particularly with the cyclable function generator)
most 2/3 osc monosynths have octave switches so that you can stack them covering different octaves and get a wider frequency range than with a single osc
so why the tears?
From beauty.
Yes no one mentioned the octave until now.
It’s all about the harmonics sum.
If a square is an octave lower with odd only harmonics ,stacked with a saw 1 Oct up ,the harmonics stack becomes even - as an example. So its doings these sort of math, aswell as detune etc I believe.
I‘m watching MV videos at the moment haha
Not a lot of videos show off how nasty it can get.
Not that this does entirely (no high od on output), but it gives an idea.
Detuning for thicker sounds. Detuning for differently voiced sounds (5ths, 7ths). Cross-osc modulation if the synth supports it (ring mod, fm).
If you have the choice between one oscillator or multiple oscillators in a monosynth… I think the choice is pretty clear and the reasons become very apparent once you’ve used one even for 5 minutes. Go go multiple oscillators!!! One is cool, two is cooler, three is cooler-er. It’s not necessarily the most important part of the sound but definitely increases flexibility!!!
Thank you everyone for the insights.