Question about polyphony and switches 1-8

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Rens
Posts: 11
Joined: Thu Dec 06, 2007 10:12 am

Question about polyphony and switches 1-8

Post by Rens »

Hi,

I was working on a combination to use in a live band setting, and I thought I'd use the Mixer play/mute buttons 1-8 in the control surface for different sounds (piano, rhodes, strings, organ) to be able to quickly choose a sound or dubbel it with strings.

I found out that using the mute buttons with different sounds has one very important consequence: you get less polyphony! Even a sound that is muted still uses up some of the 120 polyphony voices.

My question: is there another way to achieve what I want, that is to switch quickly between 4 to 6 sounds, without losing to much polyphony?

Rens
lcmorley
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Post by lcmorley »

Not sure if it will work, but have you tried soloing the tracks you require?
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Rens
Posts: 11
Joined: Thu Dec 06, 2007 10:12 am

Post by Rens »

Hi Icmorly,

thanks for your quick reply, sounds promesing: I'll dive into the manual, or do you know by head how this is done?
lcmorley
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Post by lcmorley »

On the combination screen, there are two rows of buttons within the Bank/Program section. One row allows to you Play or Mute the sound, and the second allows you to solo the sound.

Again, I am not sure if this will perform the same sort of operation as muting all tracks bar one or two, but it may be worth a try.

Alternatively, if there are tracks within the combi that you know you will not use, then it may be worth turning them off entirely (See section 3-1(2) on page 149 of the parameter guide).
Music is the stuff Dreams are made of!!!

Please checkout my music at www.soundcloud.com/lcmorley

My Gear History (from 11 years old until now):
Yamaha PSR-31, Technics KN1000, Technics KN5000, Technics KN7000, Korg PA-80, Korg Triton Classic, Microkorg, Korg Triton Studio, Alesis Ion, Korg Legacy Collection, Korg Triton Extreme, Roland Juno D, Access Virus TI 2, Korg M3, Korg Oasys, Roland TR-8, Korg Kronos 2 88 Platinum, Mac Studio, Logic Pro, Kontrol S61 MK3, Native Instruments Komplete Ultimate, Diva, Serum too name a few.
Rens
Posts: 11
Joined: Thu Dec 06, 2007 10:12 am

Post by Rens »

I think you are right. Didn't have the time to check thorougly, but my first impression is that with solo there are more voices available. I wil try again tonight, already I saw in the manual that it is probably possible to use the switches for soloing instead of muting Also, I think it is possible to solo 2 voices, then layering remains possible. This would be excellent for me. I will send an update tonight.
Rens
Posts: 11
Joined: Thu Dec 06, 2007 10:12 am

Post by Rens »

Unfortunately,

soloing does not change the polyphony issue. Apparently this is the same as muting, so nut useable for me.

Other suggestions?
Twiddler
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Joined: Fri Jan 11, 2008 4:43 am

Post by Twiddler »

I don't believe that there is a solution to the polyphony issue with the approach that you are taking. One of the big advantages of keeping all of the different sounds that you want to use in a single combi is that you can switch to a new sound without a sustained note using the old sound cutting out. You can also layer multiple sounds at any time, hit a chord, then drop those sounds and pick up a new one (still holding the chord) and start playing another sound... still no dropout of sound.

Note: if you are switching sounds by muting (or soloing) various tracks then you *will* hear a dropout in the sound - this is the same as muting the track in an external mixer. The right way to switch sounds to avoid the dropout is to change which sound the keyboard is playing.

Because of this, all of the active sounds in a Combi count towards your polyphony. The M3 has to be prepared to play any combination of notes on any of these sounds at any time. In fact, you can play a sound in a muted track and then unmute the track while holding the keys and the M3 has to be able to "start" playing that sound halfway through.
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