Polyphony when using splits

[lennaerttol]

I'm looking to buy a new keyboard to control my Nord Rack 2x and to be able to use multiple sounds at the same time using the new board and my Nord Electro 3, but I want to know how the polyphony is divided if you're using splits (I'm particularly interested in the Korg M50, the Yamaha MOX and the Kurzweil PC3LE). If you're setting up a split with 2 zones, will you be able to play 64 notes in one of the zones without playing notes in the other or are you limited to 32 notes if you're playing 0 notes in the other zone?

[mjbrands]

I don't personally know the M50 or MOX (dressed down Motif?), but the Kurzweil dynamically assigns DSP resources and has a fairly intelligent note stealing algorithm, for situations where you max out polyphony.

The Kurzweil PC3LE has half the DSP power of the full PC3 and on both it is not actually that difficult to reach that maximum, because as instruments get complexes (require more DSP power for a single note) the number of voices goes down. That 64-note polyphony for the PC3LE is the maximum, it will often be 32 or 16 (or even lower). This is not Kurzweil specific, you pretty much see it on most (complex DSP-based) synthesizers. An example of where this is very visible is the Virus TI - with simple sounds it reaches around 90-note polyphony on a Virus TI2 but as sounds get more complex (and/or you add effects, of which the Virus TI has loads and loads) a single sounds will require more DSP 'power' and the polyphony will go down rapidly.

As you might see I'm fairly enthusiastic about the Kurzweil PC3 series. This is probably the workstation that allows you the most control when creating your own sounds. The downside is that it can be rather complex and (in the case of the PC3) you cannot use your own samples for these sounds (you can on the PC3K or the older PC2600/PC2500 with the right expansions). The PC3 is also a very capable MIDI controller, allowing for lots of splits, etc.

Back to your question: I think pretty much all 'workstations' (and very complex DSP-based synths like the Virus) dynamically allocate resources. Nord is a bit different in this respect, as for example the Wave is 18-note polyphonic (no matter which sounds or effects you use). This means that in some cases you might have DSP resources not being used and another vendor might've decided to allow you to use these and might've sold something like the Wave as 18-30 note polyphonic.

I'm oversimplifying a bit here though; I think the internal structure of the Nord instruments is more fixed than say with a Virus and does not lend itself as easy for dynamically assigning these resources. This does make the instruments more predictable though. On the Stage 2 they specify 40-60 note polyphony (I hope these numbers are correct ) for the piano section and a fixed 20 note polyphony for the synth section.

Right, enough bla bla

[lennaerttol]

Thanks! I didn't know that the polyphony was dependent of the amount of effects you're using. The dynamical allocation of the resources you're talking about, does that mean that if a zone in a split is not being touched, it isn't using any polyphony, so you can use all available polyphony (64 minus the amount that the effects are using) in the other zone of the split?

[anotherscott]

I don't think effects affect polyphony on these boards. What lowers polyphony on any kind of "rompler" (regardless of Korg/Yamaha/Kurz origin) is how many samples are being triggered at once. If a board has 64 note polphony, that doesn't mean you can play 64 notes at once, it means you can trigger 64 samples at once, and that's not the same thing. For example, on a stereo piano sound, a single keypress includes at least two samples, left and right. If they are doing sample cross-fading around a certain velocity where you are playing, then that could be four samples. If you're layering a string sound, that can be one or more additional samples. If the piano patch includes string resonance or pedal noise effects, those could be additional samples. Add all that up, and the first piano note you play could be using 8 notes of polyphony! Despite that scary figure, in the real world, I have very rarely heard a stolen note in live performance of a board with "only" 64 note polyphony.

To get back to the original question, my understanding is that splits don't matter. If you have 64 note polyphony, it will be dynamically allocated, not split 32/32. Until you hit 64 total, it shouldn't steal anything from anywhere. 64 and 0 should be fine.

[lennaerttol]

If that's how it works, I think 64 note polyphony is enough to not experience note stealing, even if you're a heavy user of the sustain pedal. Thanks!