Ahh, I think I see.
Quote:
Originally Posted by hard o logic
If i use a lot of unison and modulation the release knob should work properly.... Maybe i'm thinking wrong though  |
Unfortunately you are. All keyboards (analogue or digital, even VSTis on the computer) have a maximum number of voices of polyphony that they are able to calculate and play.
Just like analogue synths in the past used to be up to eight voices of poly - many gave much less - sometimes just one voice, like the MiniMoog et al.
Virus C gives you, I think, 32 voices of polyphony, which is extremely advantageous compared to the old analogues of yore.
But you do have to use a bit of maths, otherwise you end up with "note stealing" if you exceed the number of voices at any one time. Using a lot of unison eats into polyphony.
Imagine you have two oscillators + sub... it takes one voice of poly to play them. Now play a three-note chord... you will be using three voices of poly to do so. Add five voices of unison and play the same three-note chord... you'll now be using 5 x 3 = 15 voices of poly. Add a third oscillator via the menus and you'll eat a third more poly....
So now you're eating 20 voices, just for a three-note chord. Bear in mind you only have 32 voices available.
Ok, so turn up the amp release to 90, say.
Play a chord, and then play another chord immediately after it. Doing this will require 40 voices of polyphony as the keyboard is still calculating the previous three-note chord as it fades out. But because you only have 32 voices of polyphony, some of the previous notes get cut off, as priority is given to newer notes. "Note stealing occurs", and so amp-releases from previous notes get cut off.
Now increase the unison to 16 and you'll just end up with a single-note monster that ends up cutting off
every note when a new one is pressed. In this case it might as well be monophonic rather than polyphonic!
So this is how voicing works on keyboards. Just like trying to play lots and lots of notes on a VSTi on a PC too, it's no different. Your computer can only cope with so much before previously played notes end up getting cut off.
To maximise polyphony, reduce the unison to a more manageable amount so that amp-releases don't get cut off, or similar. Whacking up the unison turns the audible signal into mud half the time anyway.