KVR Audio

cowby · Post by **cowby** » Tue Jul 28, 2015 2:11 am

Hi all,

I am seeking advices for the captioned. Question applies to Monark or similar mono synths. I tried to stack 3 Monark in different tracks and played them together (say C Major). But it didn't get the expected result. Any suggestion, please ?

Cowby

V0RT3X · Post by **V0RT3X** » Tue Jul 28, 2015 2:18 am

With monark you can do a chord by tuning each of the 2 extra oscillator to a different key. Doing this will give you a monophonic chord, but in order to do a polyphonic mode you will have to do a bit of work.

You could get a plugin chainer and assign one instance of monark to each key across a few octaves on your keyboard, but this will probably cause CPU problems. This is how most polyphonic synthesizers work btw which is why polyphonic analog synthesizers are so damn expensive IRL.

Best bet for a polyphonic moog is using something like Diva.

D N A · Post by **D N A** » Tue Jul 28, 2015 6:55 am

I guess it's better to buy just polyphonic synth. I know, it's the obvious

ariston · Post by **ariston** » Tue Jul 28, 2015 7:08 am

You need to break up the chords into single notes and play/record them in separate channels. Sounds tedious, but imagine the work involved in multitracking a monosynth to tape!

If you know your harmonies, this shouldn't be a problem, and the nice thing about it is that it will add a decided "human", blurred element to your chords. Playing a chord in three monophonic instances is almost like having a brass section - there is no perfect unison (unless you're talking about the Earth Wind and Fire Horns, those guys were inhuman). This is something I've done on occasion even with a polysynth.

Or you could look for the Monark modding thread here on KVR.

aciddose · Post by **aciddose** » Tue Jul 28, 2015 7:14 am

Try using my "notelogic" voice allocator plugin.

https://soundcloud.com/xhip/megamonopoly
This is the plugin applied to a real analog monosynth, my own design "x1" synthesizer.

This will allow you to set up three or more instances (up to 16) and take MIDI input on a specific channel on each. The voice allocator plugin assigns each note you play to a unique MIDI channel.

http://xhip.net/effects/?p=notelogic

recursive one · Post by **recursive one** » Tue Jul 28, 2015 8:28 am

Which results did you expect and what did you get instead?

Maybe you get it sounding weird because all instances of Monark have their oscillator phase running independently.

If you want chords in Monark, you may set the tuning of the oscilaltors to form a minor or major triad (but if you are going to have both minor and major chords in your song you need two instances of the synth).

Also you can sample a note and put it into a sampler.

Bubbamusic · Post by **Bubbamusic** » Tue Jul 28, 2015 8:34 am

Change the toggle switch selection on the panel from MONO to POLY.

pigfront · Post by **pigfront** » Tue Jul 28, 2015 8:36 am

recursive one wrote:
Also you can sample a note and put it into a sampler.

+1

Jax Pok · Post by **Jax Pok** » Tue Jul 28, 2015 2:50 pm

Buy DIVA

DocAtlas · Post by **DocAtlas** » Tue Jul 28, 2015 3:30 pm

Bubbamusic wrote:Change the toggle switch selection on the panel from MONO to POLY.

There is no mono/poly switch in Monark; it's strictly a monosynth. There are instructions on how to edit the ensemble to make it polyphonic in this thread (http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... 68#5316368), but it seems the results weren't ideal. The plugin mentioned above might be a better route. Or use something like DIVA.

fmr · Post by **fmr** » Tue Jul 28, 2015 3:39 pm

cowby wrote:Hi all, Question applies to Monark or similar mono synths. I tried to stack 3 Monark in different tracks and played them together (say C Major). But it didn't get the expected result. Any suggestion, please ?

Cowby

Either I am missing something here, or you are doing something wrong. If you are trying to play more than one MIDI track in the same instance of Monark, of course it will fail - it is a mono synth, therefore, it will play just one note.

But if you instantiate three ensembles (means: Reaktor 1, Reaktor 2 and Reaktor 3), and direct each MIDI track to each one of the instances, then you will have three note polyphony. Want more? Insatntiate more (as long as your computer can handle them - Monark is very CPU demanding)

I don't see where is the difficulty.

fluffy_little_something · Tue Jul 28, 2015 3:44 pm

I assume having several notes processed at the same time within the same plugin is different than stacking instances. Within the plugin several components might be influencing each other or being used in a shared way, e.g. the filter or clock, dunno...

I think the development towards polysynths was natural, there was no advantage to a monosynth other than that it was simpler and cheaper when synths first came out. I prefer a good poly synth any time, it will provide several mono modes to choose from.

When you observe how detuning oscillators can change the overall sound of a chord in synths like Sylenth, you can imagine that the sum of three mono instances (which are geared at power and lead sounds I suppose) does not equal a 3-note chord on a poly synth.

David Else · Post by **David Else** » Tue Jul 28, 2015 4:12 pm

Here is a video blog post I made on this very subject! It's mainly for Reaper, but there are a couple of suggestions for others DAWs

http://www.learndigitalaudio.com/blog/m ... -in-reaper

garryknight · Post by **garryknight** » Tue Jul 28, 2015 6:17 pm

You could do it the easy way with Vielklang

Mutant · Post by **Mutant** » Wed Jul 29, 2015 6:01 pm

aciddose wrote:http://xhip.net/effects/?p=notelogic

Nice

How do you play chords in a Mono Synth ?