MSF: Voices and Generator and FX 6-lane highways

[DarkStar]

Need some reassurance, here

a voice is one whole signal path that the osc's have to go through to be finally heard, when pressing a note. this signal path has to be multiplied as soon as you press more than one key at once, once you want to play a synth polyphonic. that means, that for each voice every to be polyphonic function has to be there multiple times.

An easy example: Say, a synth has 2 osc's, a lowpass filter, a filter env and an amp env. say, it is concepted to be 6 voiced polyphonic. that would mean, that the 2 osc',s, the filter and the env's have to be existing 6 times, in order to be able to play the 6 voices independently.

in the analog domain this would mean that you'd have to have these components 6 times, hardware wise. in the digital domain this means, that you'd have to provide these components 6 times in parallel, which means that with each voice played, the cpu usage of the synth is increased by the cpu factor that one voice needs to be played. so playing one voice needs 1/6 of the cpu power it would need for all 6 voices. (this is a quite a bit simplified explanation, but you get the idea)

Has brok got that right?

Let's look at MSF /Super-saw.



The left-hand screenshot shows the Generator section when a single note is played. Three Oscillators are triggered by that note, their outputs are mixed together, filtered, pass into a Modular then output on lane 1 to the lane 1 input to the FX section And all that is one voice.

The other three screenshots show the active processing for a 3-note chord. Effectively, each note initiates a new Generator section, i.e. all its processors and per-voice modulation. That chord is 3 separate voices. And the 3 voices are mixed together on lane 1, being output to the lane 1 input to the FX section.

Have I understood that correctly?

Then, lets say I added a processor in lane 2 taking its input from the filter. There would be two signals going to the FX, on lanes 1 and 2. How many voices would I have? Still 1 and 3 as above. Or 2 and 6?

(Some more description in the info would help )

[rlared]

Looks right to me. Not sure on the last question but I'd guess you would still have 1 and 3 voices. Even if you had 6 parallel lanes that went to 6 outputs I think it would still just be 1 voice of you hit 1 key. But I'm interested to hear what others say.

[brok landers]

Need some reassurance, here

The left-hand screenshot shows the Generator section when a single note is played. Three Oscillators are triggered by that note, their outputs are mixed together, filtered, pass into a Modular then output on lane 1 to the lane 1 input to the FX section And all that is one voice.

The other three screenshots show the active processing for a 3-note chord. Effectively, each note initiates a new Generator section, i.e. all its processors and per-voice modulation. That chord is 3 separate voices. And the 3 voices are mixed together on lane 1, being output to the lane 1 input to the FX section.

Have I understood that correctly?

yes.

Then, lets say I added a processor in lane 2 taking its input from the filter. There would be two signals going to the FX, on lanes 1 and 2. How many voices would I have? Still 1 and 3 as above. Or 2 and 6?

(Some more description in the info would help )

still 3 voices with three notes - you'd essentially triple the processor in lane two - that processor would still be per voice. as long as i understood you correctly.