Poly~ Video Tutorial

Andrew Benson's icon

Everything you need to know to make that synthesizer polyphonic:
https://cycling74.com/tutorials/polyphonic-synthesizer-video-tutorial/

dthomas86's icon

just saw this now what a great video!

nicnut's icon

Thank You! This explains a lot of things for me.

alexandros's icon

Till now I've been sending the message 'target $1, $2 $3' to poly~, instead of [prepend midinote]; and I've been sending thispoly~'s output to a second out~, which I then multiply with the first out~ (outside poly~). Plus, haven't been using the edge~ object.
Is there some substantial difference between the two techniques?
Cheers,
Alex

AudioLemon's icon

Ya thanks very much. this really cleared things up for me.

alexandros's icon

And btw, what's this monster~ at the end of the vid?

Les Stuck's icon

@alexandros

The techniques mentioned in the video result in a synth that functions like a "normal" instrument. That is, you can play and release notes in any order; if you play too many notes, poly~ will mute some without clicking, etc. By using the target technique, you're missing out on some of the useful features of poly~.

The monster~ is just an imagninary huge patch that you've constructed and can now put inside poly~ and it will behave. It's not a real patch or object, just a placeholder.

We make our own monsters.

DrFronz's icon

This video helped me out a ton. Thank you for it. Great resource.

I do still have some problems though.

When I get all the components encapsulated and saved I type in "poly~" and the number of voices I want along with the name of the saved subpatch in the object box then I lose the output (as expected) but once I replace the blue and brown inlets/outlets with the object "in 1" and "out~ 1" (in what I was making I was using 4 "in #" objects) the output disappears as do the inputs save for one in the top left corner.

Do I have to have all the components of the poly~ object wired to everything else in it's complete form before I begin the encapsulation, save, rename as poly~, replace ins/outs process?

alexandros's icon

@Les Stuck
I'm not really sure if I hear clicks with the target technique.
Anyway, thanks for the info for both my questions.

Cheers,
Alex

Roman Thilenius's icon

"Till now I've been sending the message 'target $1, $2 $3' to poly~, instead
of [prepend midinote] ... Is there some substantial difference between the two
techniques?"

the idea about "no clicks" isnt really true, when you need this, you can do it
using custom target solutions just fine.

as for voice stealing mode, there is no difference.

using custom target mechanisms has a lot of benefits.

one of them is that you know OUTSIDE the poly, which voices of the poly
have been triggered. (you will also know when they end playing - because
you know the length of the envelope outside, too .. usually.)

so can for example change the filter ssettings for ever odd note, or
move or copy the velocity parameter from the current note to the last
note.

-110

alexandros's icon

@Roman Thilenius
not really sure what you're talking about, but I guess that with a bit of searching I could figure it out.
Thanks for the comment.
Alex