Polyphonic vs. monophonic

Kelly · Post by **Kelly** » Thu Aug 21, 2003 4:37 am

Monophonic vs Polyphonic. Originally, the circuitry inside synthesizers was discreet. large boards were required to constitute a single oscillator or a filter or an envelope. It took the entire guts of the minimoog to make ONE voice. Later on, IC (integrated circuits) came along, and reduced the size required to a single chip, which housed an entire synth voice (the ASICs inside the Andromeda are the size of a guitar pick). There has been discussion about the quality of the sound of a discreet analog voice vs the sound of an IC based solution (the MemoryMoog didn't even utilise Moog chips, it was based on CEM voices and Moog filtering). BoB Moog went with the original concept and designed the Voyager in a discreet fashion as per the original. All the guts inside the Voyager are required to make one voice. A Polyphonic Voyager would literally be that many times larger than the voyager is now, minus the face plate housing and controls, which could be shared by the voices. Large, VERY expensive and increasingly difficult to calibrate. I would sincerly recommend that the best analog Polys this world will see are right before your eyes on e-bay all the time; the Andromeda and probably the SE Omega. Go gettem.

doubleyouel · Post by **doubleyouel** » Fri Aug 29, 2003 6:47 pm

ok, the voyager is a monophonic synth with 3 oscillators. so is there ANY WAY AT ALL to play a chord on the voyager? any? when i played with it at sam ash it sounded like i got two notes to play at the same time, maybe i was just hearing things.

Rohtus · Post by **Rohtus** » Fri Aug 29, 2003 8:02 pm

Well yeah, offsetting osc's 2 & 3 to the 3rd and the 5th will sound the major chord of the not you play.

playon

ebg31 · Post by **ebg31** » Fri Sep 05, 2003 12:08 am

Kelly wrote:A Polyphonic Voyager would literally be that many times larger than the voyager is now, minus the face plate housing and controls, which could be shared by the voices. Large, VERY expensive and increasingly difficult to calibrate. I would sincerly recommend that the best analog Polys this world will see are right before your eyes on e-bay all the time; the Andromeda and probably the SE Omega. Go gettem.

You could be right. However, you have to remember one thing: while the Omega 8 is a fully-fledged synth, you can't play it on its own. While older analog polysynths, such as the Roland Jupiters, Junos, Oberheim OB's, the Korg Poly's and - last but not least - the MEMORYMOOGS don't have touch-sensative keyboards, they were still self-sufficiant. If you were using them alone, you didn't have to trouble with bringing a remote MIDI controller.

Is there any possibility of Big Briar manufacturing the classic intigrated chips in the near future? A six- or eight-voice synth w/ a vocoder and keyboard with velocity and aftertouch. That, coupled with the Voyager, Moogerfoogers, Theremins and PianoBar could be pretty competative, even against Alesis, Novation and Studio Electronics.

jazzbo58 · Post by **jazzbo58** » Sat Sep 06, 2003 11:25 am

My first synthesizer was my minimoog. I still like monophonic over polyphonic.
Offsetting osc. 2 & 3 can produce some very interesting effects.

Jim

MisterModular · Post by **MisterModular** » Sun Nov 23, 2003 11:04 am

jazzbo58 wrote:My first synthesizer was my minimoog. I still like monophonic over polyphonic.
Offsetting osc. 2 & 3 can produce some very interesting effects.

Jim

I fully agree. I love mono synths. I'd rather see Moog Music spend their resources on making more add ons for the Voyager. An analog sequencer module is on my wish list. I hope they do not plan on releasing a poly synth. More moogerfooger like modules please!

Jeff

MC · Post by MC » Mon Nov 24, 2003 6:05 pm

Is there any possibility of Big Briar manufacturing the classic intigrated chips in the near future?

Don't count on ANYBODY making the classic integrated ICs like SSM, CEM, Roland, or Yamaha ICs. IC fab house expenses run in the six digits, nowhere as expensive back in the heydays of analog. And they'd require a minimum quantity of 10,000 chips. Name an analog synth that has sold near that quantity.

Hate to rain on your parade, but with the small market of analog synths you'd never make your return on your investment.

DW · Post by DW » Tue Nov 25, 2003 12:50 pm

Instead of remanufacturing the Curtis, SSM...etc I.C.s, somebody could possibly make small surface mount module packs. The components are there, the circuit boards need to be designed, built and packaged. I see no reason why it could not happen. It should be way less expensive than a chip reissue.

ebg31 · Post by **ebg31** » Mon Dec 01, 2003 7:01 pm

DW wrote:Instead of remanufacturing the Curtis, SSM...etc I.C.s, somebody could possibly make small surface mount module packs. The components are there, the circuit boards need to be designed, built and packaged. I see no reason why it could not happen. It should be way less expensive than a chip reissue.

At times like these, I wish I was an engineer. Only knowing synth functions without knowing what's behind them, or how to assemble the parts has always made me feel bad. That's something I've always admired about people such as Wofgang Palm, Tom Scholz and (to a certain extent) Dr. Moog. All people who played music and new electronics, which meant that they could build custom gear for themselves and others. If I was like them, I'd focus my efforts on building something like a classic Memorymoog, Jupiter 8, JX-8p (which I use), OBXa, or Prophet 600. I'm sure people would dig the sound.

FIGS · Post by **FIGS** » Wed Jan 28, 2004 3:07 pm

"There's a limitation with monosynths that can make what you're doing far more challenging and rewarding"

BINGO! I always tell folks, if you can only play one note at a time the SOUND of that note can be as expressive as any chord or inversion.

Since its only one note, it better be a good one (the SOUND, I mean, not the note)!

I think of rippin' synths (Mini, OB1, MS20, etc) as solo instruments (ie: playing a lead line) so monophonic is actually just the thing.

My $.02, great thread!

FIGS

godzilla · Post by **godzilla** » Fri Feb 06, 2004 10:43 am

i agree
when i write songs I usually start off with a melody then fit chords into it later on. It's a lot more inspirational working on a monosynth that can really make a good noise. if you do all synth stuff like me then polysynths are important too for chords to fill out the song but they don't have as much emphasis so you don't need to make the sounds stand out that much.

the only problem i have with monosynths is that when you press a new note the old note cuts out immediately, i usually like it to fade into the background as the new note comes in but that's not really a problem it's easy enough to get that effect with a delay or reverb. I use a lot delay on my Roland sh 101 and it sounds really nice

i use a boss digital delay i like the sound it makes but sometimes I get a high pitch squealing sound during pitch changes of highly resonated high pitch notes does this also happen on the mf-104 plus how do they sound different is it really worth the huge price in comparison to the relatively cheap boss pedals (the sound quality not the controlability)

hi everyone i'm Godzilla I love synths and i'll probably post a lot I don't know everything about synths but I've been doing extensive research over the past three or four years so if you have any questions please feel free to ask (particularly on vintage roland related subjects). Unfortunately I've never had the chance to use any moog equipment but i'm saving up for some moogerfoogers mabey how good are they, are they really as well built as they look, does the sound really impress you. In comparison to Roland/Boss gear (that's the brand I've had the most experience with.
sorry if this post is too long.

little doodler · Post by **little doodler** » Fri May 07, 2004 6:49 pm

The SE Omega is able to run in both polyphonic and monophonic modes. Sure it has no keyboard and no headphone output but i dont mind cause its portable. You can stack voices on top of voice in mono mode for the most grinding glorious straight to the bones sound. Massive!

MC · Post by MC » Fri May 07, 2004 7:17 pm

Yeah the Omega's unison mode sounds cool but its uses are pretty limited.

I have the same feature in the Andromeda and Memorymoog and it is just too fat for most music. Probably the one exception is the bass intro in Rush's "Subdivisions" that is an Oberheim OB-Xa in unison mode.

little doodler · Post by **little doodler** » Mon May 10, 2004 2:19 am

well, i can say in a dense mix nothing stands out like unison mode.

writeroxie · Post by **writeroxie** » Tue May 11, 2004 9:02 pm

wow, i'm kind of bummed to hear that the voyager is monophonic only... i dreamed of one day saving up enough to buy one... but now... i dont know. is the minimoog only mono too?

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