Yamaha DTXpress/DTXplorer/DTXtreme

How important is polyphony with regard to a brain, as there's a big
difference between the budget brains; the Alesis DM5 is 16 voice, the
DTXpress 32 voice, and the Roland TD-6 64voice?

pb

--- Paul Bentley wrote:
> How important is polyphony with regard to a brain...

Depends. If you were to layer every voice on every pad, you end up 
using a lot of voices. For example, I have three stereo cymbals, so 
each pad has two voices - six overall. But each of those voices has 
two layers, so I'm actually using twelve "polyphony" voices on those 
cymbals alone - and because of sustain, they could well be sounding 
simultaneously. Now look at all the pads... three "triple zone", five 
stereo, and two mono. That makes a grand total of 42 "polyphony" 
voices. You'd have to move faster than me to get them all to sound 
simultaneously, mind.

You can hear the effect of this if you play along with any of the 
built-in songs (sad, but I do from time to time), because they all 
use voices too. When doing so, cymbal, crashes often choke early 
because the brain has run out of voices.

I can't imagine managing on 16...

Stewart

Really Inspector, do you seriously expect me to believe that on 5/9/03 12:20
pm, "moosetication" <moosetication@...> said:

> --- Paul Bentley wrote:
>> How important is polyphony with regard to a brain...
> 
> Depends. If you were to layer every voice on every pad, you end up
> using a lot of voices. For example, I have three stereo cymbals, so
> each pad has two voices - six overall. But each of those voices has
> two layers, so I'm actually using twelve "polyphony" voices on those
> cymbals alone - and because of sustain, they could well be sounding
> simultaneously. Now look at all the pads... three "triple zone", five
> stereo, and two mono. That makes a grand total of 42 "polyphony"
> voices. You'd have to move faster than me to get them all to sound
> simultaneously, mind.
> 
> You can hear the effect of this if you play along with any of the
> built-in songs (sad, but I do from time to time), because they all
> use voices too. When doing so, cymbal, crashes often choke early
> because the brain has run out of voices.
> 
> I can't imagine managing on 16...

Ah......yes of course, thanks Stewart. Just like computers, more is better!
(It was only when I was trying to compare brains that I noticed the flagship
Roland TD-10 actually has fewer voices (56) than the lowly TD-6 (64)!)

--- In DTXpress@yahoogroups.com, Paul Bentley <pb@w...> wrote:
> Really Inspector, do you seriously expect me to believe that on 
5/9/03 12:20
> pm, "moosetication" <moosetication@y...> said:
> 
> > --- Paul Bentley wrote:
> >> How important is polyphony with regard to a brain...

The premium on polyphony goes up only to the extent that a module 
offers possibilities for simultaneous notes. For instance, the 
ability to stack five drum voices (as opposed to the Xpress' two) or 
to build chords or short musical phrases on pads can quickly use up 
available polyphonic real estate. Of course, a company could also 
offer high polyphony as a selling point, though, as Paul says, more 
is better, even if the law of diminishing returns (at least for most 
of us) applies.