Duophonic synthesis

KevHammer · Post by **KevHammer** » Sun Mar 08, 2009 7:10 pm

I was reading up on old synths yesterday and I saw an article on duophonic synths. I'd always just assumed they were polyphonic synths that can only play 2 notes at once, but it turns out they are much cooler. The idea is that you have 2 sounds. The lowest note you press plays 1 sound and the highest note plays the other. If you only hold 1 note, it plays both sounds.

So I started playing around with the idea. I set up 2 monophonic timbers. One set to highest note, one set to lowest. I made a bass sound for the lowest note, transposed down 2 octaves and a lead sound for the top note.

It turned out pretty cool. I can play a bass line and melody at the same time with one hand, leaving my other hand free to hold a chord on a pad or something along with it.

Has anybody else messed around with duophony?

X-Trade · Post by **X-Trade** » Mon Mar 09, 2009 10:20 pm

I played around with duophony, and it seemed fun, good for kind of harmony leads too, but I just felt a keysplit was better.

rfoshaug · Post by **rfoshaug** » Tue Mar 31, 2009 8:14 am

Wow, that sounds interesting and inspirational. I'll give it a try. Thanks for the idea.