[polyphony, etc....]

[Harry Bissell]

Jason: You will receive MANY replies. Here's mine

The earliest synths were monophonic because of the enormous complexity of the
circuits at that time... Polyphonic keyboards were limited to somewhat crude
electronic organs, and the Hammond organ which used mechanical wheels (think
gears) to make the sound. Circuits that had to be duplicated forty or fifty
times were too expensive. The technology wasn't there.
The earliest electronic computer (ENIAC) was in two large rooms, one for the
computer and one for the power supply.
    The first real synthesizer (flames welcome here...) Was the RCA
synthesizer, so complex it had to be programmed in advance usinf paper punched
tape (like a player piano).
    Early Moogs, etc were monophonic for cost and (as jim, said) control
reasons. Microprocessors weren't invented yet or weren't small and cost
effective.
    The ARP 2600 was "duophonic" one oscillator could track the highest and
lowest key played.
    The Oberheim SEM was the first practical "polysynth" It still had tons of
knobs that had to be set.
    The first Prophet V that I saw made me ask the salesman "Yeah, so F at cking
big deal... Its another minimoog so why the $3500 price tag" He said... It
plays five notes at a time !!!!  Two weeks later it was mine.
    The Z-80 is a microprocessor that was commonly used to control processes,
like running a mnachine (or a synth....)
    There was a synth with Monophonic and Polyphonic capability, Called (get
this) the Korg MonoPoly.... IT could be a four voice with one oscillator per
voice, a two voice with two VCO/voice, or a Whopping 4VCO monosynth, all
sharing the same filter, unfortunatly. (Prophets, oberheims, etc could have
all voices play in Unison mode, which is sort of the same thing.
    A polysynth will encourage you to play chords etc. just like on a piano or
organ (usually). A Monosynth is best for single note leads. And a MODULAR is
what you want to boldly go where no man has gone before... It is a (mostly)
unlimitd resource (kind of like zooming in on a fractal image, there is always
more detail to be had.

Today, mono or poly is easy and sometimes even cheap... :-) Harry


Jason D Stephens <audsynth at juno.com> wrote:
Could anyone tell me the physical difference in polyphonic keys as
apposed to monophonic?  I mean, what does that entail in the circuit
design?  I'm just curious why they didn't start using it from the start. 
True, monophony has a kind of unique sound.  I was thinking of designing
a synth with a switch going between monophony and polyphony.  Some of you
will probably say "what's the point?" but i figure, why not?  It would
still give me the chance at seeing if i can do it.  ;-)  How much harder
is it to have polyphony than monophony?  Be specific as you want....  

I've been reading these messages and the Z80 controller system has
appeared more than once.  Sounds interesting....What exactly is it?

Thanx in advance
Jason

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