Have ANY of you ever had any problems with voice stealing while sequencing on the Classic? And by sequencing,I mean NOT trying to stuff a zillion notes on each track.

Am I to assume correctly that even the Classic has 4 oscillator voices?

The reason I ask is there’s a thread on the MO 6 forum where people are just cutting the polyphony to shreds,review-wise.
I’m thinking that if the poly had been THAT much of a hassle, the Classic would be the ONLY keyboard with a name from Yamaha.

However,the article about polyphony on wikipedia.org did bring up some good points about multi-oscillator voices.

I am thinking seriously about getting a MO 6 but I don’t want to buy a 1k instrument if I’m going to get cut down to 16 poly
after laying a track down with a 4 Osc. voice,as the others on the MO forum maintain happens. And if thats the case,why bother with 64 poly?

Any and ALL help appreciated!

Re: Question About Polyphony On The Classic

In general those that do not know how polyphony works are doomed to run out of polphony. Once you understand how it works, like burning your hand on a hot stove, you stop making the same mistakes that run you out of polyphony. It is strange but that is what happens.

When you have 64 notes of polyphony you can play 64 tones at one time - I’ve never played in a band that big - so in theory that should be enough to accomplish most musical goals (and why it is not for some folks is: they decide to solve a problem with MORE, rather than with the more appropriate tool).

Each tone you play uses a note of polyphony. but it is not just that simple. Here’s why:

You may have a four way velocity swapping Electric piano sound - the four “oscillators” (called ELEMENTS in your Motif) in this case are not sounding all together. An Element only uses poplyphony when it is actually sounding.

So if Element 1 is the soft strike (velocity range 1-54)
And Element 2 is the mid soft strike (velocity range 55-79)
And Element 3 is the mid hard strike (velocity range 80-110)
And Element 4 is the hard strike (velocity 111-127)

Although the voice is 4 Elements (oscillators) only one Element is every sounding at a time. So this voice only uses 1 note for each key you press. See how that works? If you play a four note chord it is not 16 notes of polyphony… it is only four…

If an element is note limited to a specific region of the keyboard, then it does not use polyphony unless it is actually sounding.

So just be cause a Voice has 4 Elements does not mean that it is using all 4 notes of polyphony for each note you play.

Now add to this: Voices that are big and do layer 4 Elements across the keyboard need to be used wisely.
If you call up the big Orchestra sound with the big strings/brass/Timpani and then try and layer that with the big Brass Ensemble and attmept to layer that with a piano… and play a 6 note chord… You get what you deserve.

Learning how a Voice works and whether or not it will work well with others is going to move you into the class of user that no longer burns themselves when they are in the kitchen…

But if you tend to solve your problems by layering another sound to get a thicker richer tone, and not use “Equalization” or “Time delay” effects (which actually work much better to make a sound fuller, richer and larger) then you may run out of polyphony. But learning to use the Time delay effects to double the sound is so much smarter from a polyphony point of view. You get the bigger richer sound without spending any additional polyphony.

Those that run out of polyphony when synthesizers had 32 notes of polyphony are the same folks that run out of polyphony on synthesizers with 64 notes of polyphony… And when they buy a synthesizer with 128 notes of polyphony they still run out of polyphony… because they really refuse to learn about how it works.

One last analogy… There was a tall basketball player who had a custom built home to accommodate his tremendous size… but the interviewer was baffled by the fact that all of the doorways were all standard height. So he asked, “You had this place custom built - so how come you left the doors standard height?”

The answer: “When I’m out in the world I have to duck when I enter a room, that’s all I need to do is get used to not ducking”.
Moral of the story:
If polyphony is the limits you must work within - learn what those limits are, how it works… if you know the room you are in has 8 foot ceilings and the walls are 25 feet apart… you can run around in the room without banging into anything. But if you are unaware that the wall is 25 feet away and your run blindly into that room you are going to bang your head…

Choose your voices wisely.
Learn to use effects to thicken and enrich your sounds (before you use more polyphony)
Think in terms of realistic musical situations… (When you call up a brass ensemble sound - it may be a sample of each key you hear a section of horns, for example, say it is 6 horns… if you listen closely it is musically crazy to play an 8 note chord. Not just from perhaps the polyphony view but musically speaking.) Keyboard players do it without a thought… horn players listen to your chart and laugh because it does not sound like any horn section they have ever heard!

End.... Hope that helps!