Matriarch Paraphonic Playing "style"

[Ted H]

As a full-polyphonic, or a monophonic (Grandmother) player, I'm having a tough time getting the hang of oscillator rotations in 4-voice polyphony. I've tried various polyphonic firmware settings but when I play with more than two fingers in 4-voice mode, the notes played become too random for my taste. I've tuned all my VCOs to unison, though at different octaves. Sometimes the low note gets the highest octave, vise-versa, and anything in between. Any hints for a piano player?

I was wondering if a future firmware update could provide the possibility of a setting for: lowest note gets VCO#1...highest note gets VCO#4, etc.? This could be a manageable playing style and maybe musically straightforward?

[Synth.builder]

I've tuned all my VCOs to unison, though at different octaves. Sometimes the low note gets the highest octave, vise-versa, and anything in between.

Generally, for paraphonic playing all the VCOs should be adjusted to have the same settings. So waveform, octave and tune should be all the same for each VCO. That way you will get more predictable results when you play more than one note.

[GovernorSilver]

I guess you could try not only changing the Round Robin Mode setting (3 options) but also the Paraphonic Unison, Update Unison with Note Off, and Restore Stolen Voices with Note Off settings.

Perhaps the right combination of values for the above parameters will deliver the predictability that you're looking for. All of the above, except Round Robin Mode, are default OFF.

[algesten]

I found I can’t “go at it” as I would a piano. I have started to learn to adjust my fingers so I strike the notes in a chord in the same order every time.

I think Moog could help us here in a firmware update. They should add a voice allocation mode where each voice allocated in pitch order relative to the other voices. That way if I play 4 tone chords, the bottom is always OSC1 and top is always OSC4 regardless of the order the keys are pressed. Clearly that would have some implications for triggering envelopes, but I think the multi-trig logic already present might be enough.

[MaxFerency]

I've been looking at getting a Matriarch to play it in paraphonic mode as I would a piano (or maybe organ?). I've only played it a little in store so far but from what I've read (as mentioned here), having round-robin off, paraphonic unison off, Update Unison with Note Off, and Restore Stolen Voices would allow me to do that. I get that I wouldn't be able to utilize the EGs but that's fine because I love how fat paraphonic harmony sounds. (I have a Sub 37 and even with 2 note paraphony you can get some gnarly fat harmonies.)

But from all your practical experience with the instrument, do you think that with some practice I could really play freely in paraphonic mode as I would a piano or not? I understand it would probably take some adaptation but that's fine as long as I could eventually get there. Or, from your experience is paraphonic mode really only effective with block chords?

[MaxFerency]

I guess this type of thing is what I am going for, so I suppose it is possible: https://soundcloud.com/moogmusicinc/four-truths

[Ted H]

I've settled on all VCOs having identical Octave & Freq. settings, though I might keep 2 different Waveforms. This allows me to play a bit more piano-style. But all the variations of firmware settings didn't totally fix playability for me. Paraphonic playing definitely is a different style than polyphonic. But I like the idea of a new firmware release having an option for the low note on VCO1...high note on VCO4.

[MaxFerency]

Yeah, I would also love the option for having an osc setting to assign each osc to a note in the chord stack. My Sub 37 can have it so one of the osc is always low or always high and that provides a great deal of control.

[Francishunt]

As a full-polyphonic, or a monophonic (Grandmother) player, I'm having a tough time getting the hang of oscillator rotations in 4-voice polyphony. I've tried various polyphonic firmware settings but when I play with more than two fingers in 4-voice mode, the notes played become too random for my taste. I've tuned all my VCOs to unison, though at different octaves. Sometimes the low note gets the highest octave, vise-versa, and anything in between. Any hints for a piano player?

I was wondering if a future firmware update could provide the possibility of a setting for: lowest note gets VCO#1...highest note gets VCO#4, etc.? This could be a manageable playing style and maybe musically straightforward?

Hi Max

Check out this YouTube link - from 8:20 there is some very nice paraphonic action: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_WFenmthX7A

Francis

[MaxFerency]

Thanks, that is a good example. I actually just got mine a couple days ago and it is doable with some getting used to it. Here is me playing I will Follow you into the Dark by Death Cab on it: https://soundcloud.com/dialogues-with-m ... BM3y5NBYVE