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How to Measure maximum polyphony

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Greg
 Greg
Posts: 1
New Member
Topic starter
 

If a keyboard or midi instruments has a specification which indicates 128 note polyphony. What is the best way to test and verify this? Anyone have any ideas. Using a DAW I was going to send all 128 notes as long note and then turn each one off one at a time and see if I can the see each note turn off either in spectrum from or in Melodyne. Does anyone have a better idea how to do this? bit of brain fog this morning.

 
Posted : 26/02/2023 5:31 am
Clemens Ladisch
Posts: 324
 

In general, when you exceed the polyphony, the oldest note gets stopped.
Start one note with a distinct sound, then start 128 other notes (with different channels and note values, to avoid duplicates). The first note should stop only with the last new note. Don't use a percussive instrument like piano, but a sustained one like flute or strings.

Many synthesizers have instruments that use two voices.

 
Posted : 26/02/2023 11:44 am
Geoff
Posts: 1046
Noble Member
 

'...... use two voices. '

Prob some do use two. Or three? The Roland MT32 has some using 4, just checked this. If you want your results to be useful, you need to check this carefully.

May depend on the architecture, or the 'vintage (and hence the amount of onboard RAM/processing power). Maybe newer kit more likely to be 1:1, while the MT32 (and it's various clones) is fairly old with less sophistication built-in and therefore needed to be 1:4 for the more fancy sounds.

Geoff

 
Posted : 18/10/2023 12:17 pm
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