Emu XL-7 & MP-7 User's Group

--- In xl7@yahoogroups.com, "steve_the_composer" <smw-mail@p...> 
wrote:
> Excellent suggestion for revised manuals (calling them 4-layer 
> presets). That would be better than what they did.

I agree the manual is missing an explanation of this point, but the 
one-voice-per-layer architecture is pretty standard for ROMplers, as 
is the reduction in effective polyphony caused by layering.


> Ooops.  Not a good example in my opinion. Here, it seems you are 
> using voice and layer interchangably.  I would argue that on a 128-
> layer sound module a 4-layer preset spead over the full range of 
the 
> keyboard yields 32 voice polyphony.

It does, but that's only because each note is playing four voices. 
You could tune those four voices to form a chord and get 128 separate 
notes. You could even do it in mid-note.


> Consider your last example.  If an orchestra hit sample consists of 
> 64 different instruments played simultaneously and placed onto a 
ROM 
> as a single instrument, and if that sample is assigned to L1 in a 
> preset spread over the full range of the keyboard (and L2-L4 are 
set 
> to none), you have 128 voice polyphony, not 8192 (128 * 64) voice 
> polyphony. 

Polyphony doesn't refer to how many samples are used but to how many 
complete voice channels are used. An orchestra hit doesn't count 
because you can't tune, filter or otherwise modulate any of the 
individual instrument samples (in fact, there ARE no individual 
instrument samples, because there is no way to separate out the 
instruments from the final sample). A four-layer patch uses four 
voices because each layer can be independently tuned, filtered and 
modulated.