Native Instruments released Reaktor 6 !

[Numanoid]

Blocks are monophonic. There is no fixing that, or work-arounds, that I know of. FYI.

So a user can't play chords playing with an Ensemble built with Blocks ?

[aMUSEd]

Also, I dont see anything stopping the creation of a 'Voice Controller' Block that could split polyphony across multiple parallel chains of monophonic voices, as has sometimes been done with larger hardware modulars.

I suggested exactly this on the NI forum yesterday, hopefully someone will the skills will make this block soon

And then we will run into what is probably the real reason behind this limit, cpu power. The mono ensembles already stretch many systems to their limits.

If its possible to do, I could see less intensive Blocks turning up that that are better tailored for polyphonic ensembles. I'll take a stab and guess that supporting audio-rate modulation between Blocks is one of the things that makes them heavy, that might be one thing to look at.

Thing is, Blocks seems to be a 'standard' for building .isms, not a technology in and of itself. That means there might be wiggle room...

I'm sure there will be. But I can understand NI wanting their 'showcase' Block ensembles to start out with the best sound possible within what todays CPUs are capable of rather than releasing a bunch of polyphonic ensembles that very few people can actually play. Hopefully there is enough scope for creating Polyphonic blocks, after all they are just a standardised instrument type when it comes down to it and we have always had polyphonic instruments.

[aMUSEd]

Blocks are monophonic. There is no fixing that, or work-arounds, that I know of. FYI.

This must be a joke. Synthmaker had polyphony since it was introduced.

And so does Reaktor, you don't have to make stuff with Blocks, they are just one approach to making things a bit easier and closer to a hardware modular Eurorack paradigm (which is also monophonic but it doesn't stop people going wild with what it can do). People can still make polyphonic ensembles though.

[whyterabbyt]

I get the CPU thing, but that's all part of building your blocks, right? Not something as fundamental as that to be imposed.

Its not been 'imposed'. People just arent understanding the Reaktor 'container' hierarchy properly, or think its changed where it hasnt.
From the documentation, its clear that Blocks are Reaktor Instruments, ie .ism files, which conform to a particular standard that allows them to interoperate predictably.
Reaktor Instruments are the 'container' level that implements polyphony, polyphony resides inside them. That has not changed. Blocks arent a new type of container in Reakor, or a new type of technology, its a standard for creating Instruments that interoperate within the Ensemble level.

The things you're seeing here build with Blocks are basically Reaktor Ensembles. A Reaktor Ensemble (.ens), which is what would contain one or more Reaktor Instruments, never provided polyphony for Instruments, because Instruments already could be polyphonic.

For the record, nothing is stopping anyone from taking the actual code inside several Blocks, stringing them together, and making a new polyphonic Instrument out of them.

Ensembles contain Instruments which contain Macros and Modules. Macros can contain Modules. Modules can be Primary Modules or Core Modules. Its Modules which get defined as Monophonic or Polyphonic .

[Ingonator]

Also, I dont see anything stopping the creation of a 'Voice Controller' Block that could split polyphony across multiple parallel chains of monophonic voices, as has sometimes been done with larger hardware modulars.

I suggested exactly this on the NI forum yesterday, hopefully someone will the skills will make this block soon

And then we will run into what is probably the real reason behind this limit, cpu power. The mono ensembles already stretch many systems to their limits.

If its possible to do, I could see less intensive Blocks turning up that that are better tailored for polyphonic ensembles. I'll take a stab and guess that supporting audio-rate modulation between Blocks is one of the things that makes them heavy, that might be one thing to look at.

Thing is, Blocks seems to be a 'standard' for building .isms, not a technology in and of itself. That means there might be wiggle room...

I'm sure there will be. But I can understand NI wanting their 'showcase' Block ensembles to start out with the best sound possible within what todays CPUs are capable of rather than releasing a bunch of polyphonic ensembles that very few people can actually play. Hopefully there is enough scope for creating Polyphonic blocks, after all they are just a standardised instrument type when it comes down to it and we have always had polyphonic instruments.

I do not have Reaktor 6 yet but with Monark the "trick" with using it polyphonic was mostly the trigger input (using polyphonic NotePitch and Gate modules). Not sure if it's the same with those new monophonic ensembles.

You could have a lok at my old threads here where using Monark as a polyphonic synth (and using the filter in your own ensemble) was explained:
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... 1&t=387662
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... 2#p5954222

[EvilDragon]

That trick wouldn't work, since instruments in Reaktor cannot pass polyphonic signals. This was the case since Reaktor was called Generator (version 1).

[Ingonator]

That trick wouldn't work, since instruments in Reaktor cannot pass polyphonic signals. This was the case since Reaktor was called Generator (version 1).

I do not really get it. Reaktor 5 was able to do polyphonic synths and with Monark it was possible to do a poly modification too.
With Monark you simply had to diconnect the default trigger sources and replace with two different modules (NotePitch and Gate), like explained in my old threads (links see above).

[aMUSEd]

That trick wouldn't work, since instruments in Reaktor cannot pass polyphonic signals. This was the case since Reaktor was called Generator (version 1).

Huh? There are many polyphonic instruments in the factory and user lib (and I mean isms not ens).

[EvilDragon]

That trick wouldn't work, since instruments in Reaktor cannot pass polyphonic signals. This was the case since Reaktor was called Generator (version 1).

I do not really get it. Reaktor 5 was able to do polyphonic synths and with Monark it was possible to do a poly modification too.
With Monark you simply had to diconnect the default trigger sources and replace with two different modules (NotePitch and Gate), like explained in my old threads (links see above).

Yes but Blocks are NOT Monark. Monark was a SINGLE instrument. You can do polyphony WITHIN a single instrument. Each Blocks module IS an instrument. You CANNOT do polyphony BETWEEN MULTIPLE INSTRUMENTS, because signals passed between instrument inputs and outputs are ALWAYS monophonic!

The only way would be as whyte described, using some kind of round robin note assignment module that would switch between multiple lines of osc-filter-amp Blocks. Kinda like Oberheim 8-voice, for example.

[aMUSEd]

That trick wouldn't work, since instruments in Reaktor cannot pass polyphonic signals. This was the case since Reaktor was called Generator (version 1).

I do not really get it. Reaktor 5 was able to do polyphonic synths and with Monark it was possible to do a poly modification too.
With Monark you simply had to diconnect the default trigger sources and replace with two different modules (NotePitch and Gate), like explained in my old threads (links see above).

Yes but Blocks are NOT Monark. Monark was a SINGLE instrument. You can do polyphony WITHIN a single instrument. Each Blocks module IS an instrument. You CANNOT do polyphony BETWEEN MULTIPLE INSTRUMENTS.

Ah I see.

[Ingonator]

That trick wouldn't work, since instruments in Reaktor cannot pass polyphonic signals. This was the case since Reaktor was called Generator (version 1).

I do not really get it. Reaktor 5 was able to do polyphonic synths and with Monark it was possible to do a poly modification too.
With Monark you simply had to diconnect the default trigger sources and replace with two different modules (NotePitch and Gate), like explained in my old threads (links see above).

Yes but Blocks are NOT Monark. Monark was a SINGLE instrument. You can do polyphony WITHIN a single instrument. Each Blocks module IS an instrument. You CANNOT do polyphony BETWEEN MULTIPLE INSTRUMENTS.

If that is the case those Blocks and Reaktor 6 would be quite useless for me (except if i only need monophonic instruments). Maybe wait for an update where polyphonic block based synths are possible...

[EvilDragon]

You can still use regular polyphonic instruments, man.

GUI updates are alone worth it.

[lnikj]

That trick wouldn't work, since instruments in Reaktor cannot pass polyphonic signals. This was the case since Reaktor was called Generator (version 1).

I do not really get it. Reaktor 5 was able to do polyphonic synths and with Monark it was possible to do a poly modification too.
With Monark you simply had to diconnect the default trigger sources and replace with two different modules (NotePitch and Gate), like explained in my old threads (links see above).

Yes but Blocks are NOT Monark. Monark was a SINGLE instrument. You can do polyphony WITHIN a single instrument. Each Blocks module IS an instrument. You CANNOT do polyphony BETWEEN MULTIPLE INSTRUMENTS, because signals passed between instrument inputs and outputs are ALWAYS monophonic!

The only way would be as whyte described, using some kind of round robin note assignment module that would switch between multiple lines of osc-filter-amp Blocks. Kinda like Oberheim 8-voice, for example.

That's interesting. Is there a (relatively) non-technical explanation of why that is the case? It sounds like something that may not ever change?

[EvilDragon]

It's because a single audio output is by nature monophonic! Hence, all voices have to be combined before it's sent to your audio interface output. But I think there's more details about that in the Reaktor manual...

[lnikj]

It's because a single audio output is by nature monophonic! Hence, all voices have to be combined before it's sent to your audio interface output. But I think there's more details about that in the Reaktor manual...

Hmmm ... I'm confused. I will have to think about that.

If an ensemble has 8 outs then that means that it contains (at least) 8 instruments?