KC and Multi-Mode?

[Aiki1]

Hi - new here - hoping I can get some help - just got a KC - when in Multimode, it seems that I'm running out of notes right away - meaning, when I layer 2 sounds and turn off all other midi channels, every 3 note chord re-triggers the notes, so almost no polyphony…. it seems like I'm doing something wrong here…. thanks for any help.

[Timo]

Hi, welcome Aiki, it depends on the individual patches (sounds) themselves. Do they use unison, or a third oscillator, or have very long amp-release tails, etc.? Or all of those?

With the KC you have 32-voices in total.

If you use unison in a patch, it allocates multiple voices to the same note(s), and will therefore decrease overall polyphony depending on how many voices of unison are selected. For example, if you have two voices of unison selected for a sound, the number of voices required will double, therefore your polyphony will half when you play a single note. If you have three voices of unison selected, the number of voices required will triple and your polyphony will therefore reduce to a third when you play a single note, etc. And so on.

When you take that and then go and try to play a three-fingered chord, that will again require three times the amount of voices over and above what you already have selected for unison.

These limitations are nothing new and are commonplace on all hardware synths, even on your computer (depending on your CPU). 32-voices of polyphony is actually quite generous in the hardware realm.

One additional limitation on the Virus, though, is that if a third oscillator is enabled in a patch, this cuts polyphony for that patch by a third. Clearly it requires 33% extra DSP to generate the third oscillator in addition to the main two.

So it's easy to eat up all the voices if you're not mindful of the synthesis workflow.

In essence, look at the individual single patches, see if they use unison or have a third oscillator enabled, and if so try selecting fewer voices of unison for that patch, or possibly turn off oscillator 3 if it's enabled and doesn't contribute anything, and try again.

2 or 3 voices of unison, maximum, is plenty! Very often some patches have stacked nearly all the voices of unison unnecessarily, turning the synth into a monophonic, 32 voice-unison monster, and does not sound any the better for it other than eating headroom and sounding like mush.

You can also use reverb or delay to add pseudo amp-release, if desired, to smooth things out a touch.

[Aiki1]

Hi - thanks for responding - I was thinking about unison being an issue, each patch is at "twin" so it's not too bad, but yes, very long release and Osc 3 on…. I guess that's eating up the voices…. seems like it really doesn't take much….