Forum index > Question

Mono/poly, am I doing something wrong?

phosphenes
So I'm totally confused by the mono/poly settings. Is anyone else confused?

from the 6.0 firmware update:

Reminder: to store mode and portamento settings for various patches, use a Performance


So....

- Each voice has mono/poly settings, and each patch has its own mono poly settings, that disregard the voice layer mono/poly settings?
- The only way to have mono/poly settings stored is via a performance patch that totally disregards both the voice and patch mono/poly settings?

- Additionally, the voice sequencer totally disregards the mono/poly settings attached to each voice layer?

Not sure if this is a bug, or a design choice?

Nonetheless, it's confusing as all of the mono settings are disregarded other than the performance setting, which is totally unrelated to its base 'patch'. My understanding of mono voices from other synthesisers is that usually there is usually a setting for the highest or lowest triggered note to be the de-facto 'mono' note.

Think bolau mentioned something like this in another post, but If the mono/poly setting was attached to the voice, then maybe it could be possible to have mono & poly layers per patch?

Thanks.
KODAMO
Only Performances can store mono/poly settings for each part. In the other modes (Voice, Patch) as you can see these settings are on the Voice List and Patch List page, not inside the Voice/Patch themselves, so they are here just for convenience when you're listening to many sounds and want to have the same mono/poly settings. It's the same for the Effect button in Voice mode. Voices do not store effects, but the button is here for convenience.

It's mostly a design choice, because having mono/poly settings per patch (or per voice) is great in some way, but it also prevents the user from trying 100 sounds with the same mono/poly settings (otherwise he/she would have to tweak the settings for every patch).

I think for you case the best way is to stay in Performance mode, setup your preferred mono/poly settings in the first few parts, then build your sounds from here. (you can do everything in Performance mode including editing patches and voices)
phosphenes
Thanks for the reply!

Ok, noted about the functionality.

I understand why the voice/patch mono/poly settings don't save; Maybe it's just me, but it feels a bit unconventional to disassociate the polyphony/portamento storage from voice settings on a multitimbral device. This is also starting to clarify why voice sequenced 'note triggers' are always 'poly' with 0 portamento, regardless of the voice/patch/perf mono/poly setting, until a midi 'note on' command triggers the portamento+mono/poly setting on only the first notes in a voice sequence.

From a user perspective; it's confusing to have to remember to alter the mono/poly settings when starting a new voice/patch, and once a voice has been made with specific un-saveable mono/poly+portamento settings, to then have to create a new patch that includes that voice, and to then create a performance patch to store a portamento setting if one is just trying to remember one of the hypothetically 768 unique polyphony/portamento settings.

I realise there are a huge amount of available performance slots... but finding the right poly/portamento setting within a performance patch that was made only to save mono/poly+portamento settings, and to then remember those settings to reapply them when one assigns that same patch into another performance seems cumbersome/counterintuitive.

(I can't seem to find a way to copy and paste individual parts setting within performances, and I can't seem to be able to copy and paste performance parts into other performances...+ I don't think it's possible to directly copy&paste part settings).

Anyway... I was also kind of hoping that patches could have simultaneous mono & poly voice layers (playing a chord with a mono bass layer set to the lowest note, and a mono lead playing the highest note...would be pretty cool!)

Cheers,
R
KODAMO
This is possible in Performance mode, you can assign several parts to the same MIDI channel, each with different poly/mono modes. A Performance can be used like a big patch
phosphenes
ok... understand why voices don't have mono/poly+portamento controls, but it's a shame that different layers within a patch can't have different mono/poly+portamento settings.

That being said, understand how complex this all is, and will use performance mode and assign the same midi channel to different perf slots.

+ I'll be keeping the voice and patches as poly with 0 portamento so as not to get confused when creating sounds.

Reply