are you running a Tyros2 Chony?

about polyphony

it's not 2 tone layered or 4 tone layered roland /yams

There are always patches in all synths that use only 1 waveform.

eg.
64 voice piano in roland xp series
some string/analog progs in Korg 01 and x series,even 16 poly M1 has programs that use 1 waveform

polyphony dropouts started with multi layering of 2 tones in program/patch modes mainly started in mid 90's(I'm not talking about combi/performance modes)where most synth players demanded for thick/layered patches to solo/or sustain chords -eg piano/strings

In a workstaion/smf playback world,32 poly nonGM 01W(though some progarams use 2 waves) or 24 poly GM sound canvas(SC 3x series)had never had much complaints in seq play back.(most midifiles were written for SC series as standard,Roland was the first to introduce the commercially sucessful GM modules in 92 ,and ofcourse GM arrangers E15,70,and synths -jv30(all with sound canvas board).

But in a live band situation you may not need 64 notes simutaneously,so layering up (eg-2 to 4 tones)is OK since players demand for sound of fuller stacked modules.

Polyphony is not a lie.it just happen to shift from early-mid 90's straight forward 1 wave-1patch )to multi wave layered patches after late 90's , because KB makers trying to make fuller individual patches(to impress the potential buyer compared to competitor),so ofcourse they do sometimes suffer from dropouts in seq/smf situation .

synth wise(not talking about early roland gm/gs arrangers)
Roland synths - 4 tone patchs (some of them are 2 or 3)
Korgs - 2 tone patches .

But arrangers are different.They need polyphony,KB maker/sound-style programmer must make sure that there should be no drop outs with regular playing,occational 2 patch layering, etc.Dynamic allocation helps but styles must not use too many layered voices or if they want to do so they should increase the polyphony accordingly.



[This message has been edited by jamman (edited 04-15-2006).]

No, the styles should be able to use good tones, but the modern keyboards, especially the expensive high-end ones, should allow enough polyphony to support that.

You mentioned the early Rolands (E35/70) - they were based on the 28-voice poly Sound Canvas, because this was the mainstay of the sound reroduction (Rompler) technology in 1991. There was practically nothing on the market which would support more polyphony than that. Today, with software based instruments, manufacturers can put in a faster processor, and increase polyphony just by modifying one memory location in the program; instead they are often trying to hamstring their sound engines from top of the line "professional" boards before stuffing them into an arranger.

The polyphony issue is very real indeed. While some people may experience it sometimes, and others may not experience it at all, whenever it happens to me, it occurs in the most inappropriate times - when I have a crowd dancing in front of me, and I am trying to adjust my playing to stay in sync with their energy.

Chances are, you will not notice much impact of the dropped notes if you are playing a single instrument, but when your ear relies on hearing the arranger style behind the solo voices, having notes drop out is like losing an auditory que, which is both displeasing to the audience and disconcerting to the player.

Regards,
Alex

what did I say

I said

Originally posted by jamman:
if they want to do so they should increase the polyphony accordingly.