Quote:
Originally posted by Diki:
Polyphony isn't the whole story, guys...

Firstly, on models with less than 64, there's the issue of how well does it deal with running out of voices? Some are more forgiving with this issue than others...

But the main thing is... Just how fast is the main voice board? It's all well and good to be able to run a dense sequence, and play four sound layers on top, but what happens to the timing and 'feel' of the sound when you do? Once again, some are better at this than others...

One thing I noticed as night and day when I first got my G70... Layer four or even five Tones together (even stereo ones), all with sharp attack characteristics, and pound out REALLY tight four or five note chords, as fast as you can Not even the TRACE of any 'flamming', which my older, Sound Canvas-based G1000 would have had a fit with! Even my K2500 can't do that (not much can, actually )

It's not how much you've got... it's whether you can actually USE it (ask any girl!)


How Polyphony is handled by the unit and the speed of the CPU makes all the difference in the World. My Yamaha 9000 Pro had 256 voices (yes 256!) and it cut out more times than my Triton Pro that only had 62 voices of polyphony. My 9000 Pro was frustrating to say the least trying to do basic fleshing of songs only to hear every other note drop out on me when I tried to build up the tracks. I won't even get into the issue of how it destroyed the timing on the sequencer or made the audio quality drop. I've never experienced any problems like that on any other arranger I've owned except Yamaha's.

Don't buy into the hype that more polyphony means you can actually do more with it. That's not always the case. If "size matters" I had one of the biggest polyphonic arrangers known and I couldn't get dick done with it. Thanks for nothing Yamaha!