polyphony, etc....

[Jason D Stephens]

Corley Brigman:

>it's not a matter of the keyboard; many synths with midi can put out
>more notes onto midi than they can actually play. it's a matter of
>what do those keys DO? Let's say we have an analog synth, with 2 VCOs,
>a VCF, and a VCA, pretty basic. Press a key down, both VCOs trigger,
>go through the VCF, and out the VCA. Now, press another key down.
>What should happen? We only have 2 VCOs, 1 VCF, and 1 VCA. We don't 
>have
>anything to actually play the other note. So, either we ignore it,
>or we turn off the other note and play this one instead. That's why
>there are polyphony limits - my matrix 6 has 6 "voices" consisting of
>the above 2 DCOs, 1 vcf, 1vca for a total of 12 DCOs, 6 VCFs, and 6 
>VCAs. 

**I totally understand this whole section execpt the part about "DCOs" 
Is that a type-O?  Oh, VCA=Voltage Contolled Amplifier?  And, how much
room does it take to make a VCO?  Is it done with 2 transisters or a few
chips?

>Some synths do have a switch for mono/poly, btw (many do 
>actually)...most
>of them put the synth in "unison" mode, 

**Unison?  What would that do?  I know what unison is but how does it
apply here?

but some (like the polaris) 
>have
>it the "old" style (press sustain down, it goes monophonic w/porta 
>enabled),
>some (like the jx8p) have both a unison AND a true mono.
>
>digitals have a different resource limit, but it's the same 
>idea...when
>you run out of DSP horsepower, you can't generate any more voices. 

**DSP?  That's a new term for me....

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