polyphony...how much is enough?

[Michael Troy]

In your guy's opinion, how much polyphony is enough? Im talkin about just for regular performances not sequencing or any of that. Just to really play.

[EloHiR ElEnDIl]

my Roland RS-50 and My kurz PC1-x both have 64 voices of polyphony and I haven't deal with that They're fine to me.

[Rudess]

Never Enough


JR

[jeebustrain]

heh, real men can make do with duophonic synths :D

Rock on Moog Sonic Six!

[Biospark]

I grew up on older keyboards so anything over 6 for me is luxury.

[Bastardo Demono]

depends how much layering you do with your patches. i've never needed more than 64. also depends what you play. if you just solo, you should only need one, if you just play bach 2 part inventions, you should only need two :) unless you go crazy with keyboard programming like rudess though, I can't see needing more than 64, and 128 seems to be the standard nowadays. and most analog synths only had 3-6-12, even only 1 and still managed.

[drumadima]

actually,im running out of polyphony on my triton extreme (i think its got 120 notes) every time i play piano patch..ive got formal piano training and im used to these long passages with pedal..wich kills any polyphony limit very fast.
i get frustrated every time..at some point the bass note just disappears..argh!

[St0rMl0rD]

Never Enough


JR

so true...I'm running out of it when I play November Rain, when using 3 layers...oh well

[Lights]

It seems to run out all the time..

[Luca_Capozzi]

Never Enough


JR

This because you love to layer many sounds over and over :P
Imho, 16 notes of polyphony are quite enough. It depends from board Voice Allocation Unit how those voices are added and removed while playing. I usually vary from 8 to 12 voices. Sometimes I use 16 or more, for patches with many oscillators.

Luca

[Shreddy]

When using my Roland XV88 live its 128 notes of polyphony, but I use it in Performance mode for mass layering. Some of the patches can use up to 8 notes of polyphony per note, if I layer that on top another tone I could be using up to 16 notes of poly per actual note played. So playing some full chords would chew up the poly in no time. Technically I could use 128 notes per each key if I really wanted to go insanely overboard.

If there are lots of layers that I going to use I have to go through all the patches and find parts that I could thin out of my patches to give me more poly. Some of the patches are using poly just for some velocity layers or accent tones.

I just switched over to a XP30 and thats 64 poly so I'm going to do lots of editing to get tones to work out in layers with this board.

Ed

[Everlasting_Rain]

I used to do way too much layering some time ago and I still use some of those patches. Now for pads, sometimes it makes a cool effect when changing a chord which is eating all voices of poliphony to another. That cut of the sound can be a good effect if you want it and control it.

[Root_of_it_all]

my triton ex has 120 note and that is more than enough. it depends what you after. i think 64 could be good enough really. or you can just get teh oasys which is just stupid (i think 174 note) hehe

[Georges]

It also depends on the "fatness" of the sounds created by the synth. The fatter they are, the less you need to layer sounds, the more polyphony you'll have at your free disposition. Where one synth needs 3 voices to produce a fat sound, another synth may only require 1 voice. (the K2600 is great example here, only 48 voices, but with lots of fat fat fat fat ...)

Then it also depends on your playing style. In a band, you should play no more than you really need, otherwise the whole band's sound may become a real mess. When sequencing, you should abide by the same principle. Keep your arrangements light, then if required fill them up progressively.

Nonetheless, there are most definately three situations where polyphony can never be enough:

- a piano sound with layers (strings, pads, voices, etc.) + sustain pedal;
- complex MIDI sequencing (resampling provides a solution though);
- covering JR songs ;-).

[Analogkid]

Never Enough


JR

I disagree Jordan- my Moog has 1 and its perfect. Besides when you play as fast as you who needs it?:biggrin:

[Rudess]

Kurzweil instruments like the K2600 have an outstanding voice allocation system.
Although it has far less polyphony then most of pro instruments out there today, the way the voices were used makes all the difference! When playing a piano sound on the 2600 you never hear it "stealing" voices. Even on the instruments with the most polyphony, if I play a low octave for instance and hold that while doing some arpeggiated figures with the RH on top with the sus pedal ON, you start to hear the instrument rob/steal voices.
Although I am totally attached to my Korg Oasys because itsounds so amazing and is much more advanced in so many ways- there are still some technologies like polyphony and the way it is allocated, that need some more thought by the manufacturer.
So moral of the story:
Lots of polyphony is great (the more the merrier) but the instrument design and the voice stealing algorhythm that it uses is just as key!

JR

[Enc3f4L0]

Thanks for that informative reply Jordan.

Since I decided to start playing Keyboard (I'm swimming against your current... going from Guitar to Keyboard) I have been choosing a workstation around 3000USD.

Although the K2600 seemed to be superior in lots of aspects I was thinking maybe the 48 polyphony would be limiting. After reading you actually compliment the K2600 on this aspect I feel relieved if I decide to choose it as my workstation.

I guess if I do feel the need for more voices I can later on get some rack modules (maybe even K2600) to spread my layers on them. I'm not sure if that's what you were doing, I'm assuming it was. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

[Michael Troy]

Kurzweil instruments like the K2600 have an outstanding voice allocation system.
Although it has far less polyphony then most of pro instruments out there today, the way the voices were used makes all the difference! When playing a piano sound on the 2600 you never hear it "stealing" voices. Even on the instruments with the most polyphony, if I play a low octave for instance and hold that while doing some arpeggiated figures with the RH on top with the sus pedal ON, you start to hear the instrument rob/steal voices.
Although I am totally attached to my Korg Oasys because itsounds so amazing and is much more advanced in so many ways- there are still some technologies like polyphony and the way it is allocated, that need some more thought by the manufacturer.
So moral of the story:
Lots of polyphony is great (the more the merrier) but the instrument design and the voice stealing algorhythm that it uses is just as key!

JR


Hmmm....very enlightening...Thanks boss!

[Analogkid]

Hmmm....very enlightening...Thanks boss!


Ya what he said Master