VSTi that has "Release Polyphony" parameter as well as "Polyphony"?

[jacobh]

I'm looking for a VSTi that has this feature in Propellerhead's Thor, where there is a "Release Polyphony" parameter which can be set separately from the regular "Polyphony" (screenshot attached). I've found this very useful for programming guitar lines, where I want to sustain notes in a chord, but have a subsequently played single note cut off all other notes. In Thor this is achieved by setting the Release Polyphony to 0, and Polyphony to a higher numbers such as 6.

It's a little complex to explain the behavior, so please bear with me:

Having the Release Polyphony set to 0, with the Polyphony is set to a high number, while the sustain pedal is held down and then hitting a 3 note chord for instance, and then lifting your hand off the keys allows the 3 notes played to still be sustaining and continue to be sustained until any new key is pressed, such as a single note, which will then silence all other notes. If the Release Polyphony parameter was at the same value that the Polyphony is (as such is the case with synths that have no separate Release Polyphony parameter), then aforementioned situation would result in the one new note silencing only 1 note of the previous chord while the other two notes played simultaneously with the new note.

It might be a little hard to understand the usefulness of this, but in playing it comes out making more sense, especially for heavily distorted guitar lines, where you don't really want the release from the previous notes overlapping and mucking up the harmonics of the next note played, but you don't want a silent gap to be in between the two.

Anyone know of a VSTi that does this, like Thor does?

If not, does anyone know of another way to accomplish this in real time, such as maybe a Max4Live device that can process the midi to do it? Actually, thinking about it now, this might be even be the more preferable solution, since it would allow using with any synth.

Thanks!

[EvilDragon]

Hm, I'm not sure if this can be done by just a MIDI processor, because it needs to be aware of the length of the release phase of the envelope (or at least the status of the voice - in MIDI, when you release a key, that event is over, it doesn't exist anymore, and MIDI doesn't care what the synth is actually doing)... Sadly I think this is only going to be possible with Thor...

[jacobh]

Hm, I'm not sure if this can be done by just a MIDI processor, because it needs to be aware of the length of the release phase of the envelope (or at least the status of the voice - in MIDI, when you release a key, that event is over, it doesn't exist anymore, and MIDI doesn't care what the synth is actually doing)... Sadly I think this is only going to be possible with Thor...

Yes, you may be right that it could be difficult to do with just MIDI processing alone... though maybe some scripting that is built into a synth that could be aware of the release portions of notes, like maybe Falcon or Kontakt? Do you know if either of those has awareness of the release portions of notes playing?

Though I just thought of a way that wouldn't accomplish the entire functionality, but it might cover my single use scenario of having the the release polyphony set to 0, if in a midi script just sent the "all notes off" message (like a MIDI panic) whenever a new note is hit if there are no other notes currently being held down?

Thanks for your response!

[EvilDragon]

Yeah, with Kontakt or Falcon I suppose something could be contrapted...


You don't want to use all notes off before every note if no others play, trust me.

[Cinebient]

I would like to know this as well!
Beside Thor only the Moog Model 15 app seems to can do this.
I can play a 3 note chord and when i release it and play another note the release from the chord will muted (but in a kind of smooth short fade). On top it can handle MPE.
It sounds very musical and progressions never gets to muddy, even with long releases.
I wish more developers would think more about those performence goodies.
But then i also miss sostenuto in most synths.
Many synths lack "performence"!

[felis]

Not a vsti, but it sounds similar to the 'Held Pitch Bend' from the Alesis Ion:

http://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/ ... -user-tips

"....The Ion's Held pitch-bend mode is great for patches like sitar, where you have notes with long release times that overlap other notes. When the P Wheel Mode parameter is set to Held, the pitch-bend wheel will only affect any notes actually being held down — any slow-release notes still sounding retain their pitch. You can find the P Wheel Mode parameter by hitting the Voice Edit button; it's on page one...."

Play a chord (say 3 or 4 notes), key them up except for one key and only that note will bend when you use the pitch wheel. Good stuff.
Used in combination with release velocity, you can get some very realistic guitar effects.

[EvilDragon]

Held pitch bend is a completely different feature, though, as it has nothing to do with cutting out voices that are in their release phase.

[nix808]

This is real interesting.
it would be great to do it a MIDI filter, but at first thought it seems impossible,
coz we cannot send plugin release off.
The option is -yeah 'all notes off' or 'all sounds off'
It might work on some synths

[ENV1]

Audjoo Helix has a setting for Release Polyphony, but it cannot be set to zero (minimum is 1, maximum is 11) and there is no way to set the 'regular' polyphony either, only the playmodes Poly, Mono, Legato and Arpeggiator.

So im not sure if it will do exactly what you want, but at least it does have the function, which means you could just try it out and see how far you get with it.

[Ah_Dziz]

One of the scriptable samplers should be able to handle this pretty smoothly (I think most of the main ones on the market have a scripting language). It would also be pretty easy to setup in a graphical environment like reaktor or max.