expansion polyphony

on keyboards like the motif n trtion, where u can buy expansion cars that add polyphony,, are the additional notes of polyphony for use with only sounds on te expansioon board, or the over all workstation?
sorry if my question sounds confusing, im not a good orator

Polyphony meaning like sounds triggered at the same exact bar beat clock? It's a hardware feature of the machine itself. I don't think expansion cards are designed to add polyphony.

yeah man. i wouldnt worry about it at all. u will never go over polyphony. unless ur buying an sp303. It just means that say on an mpc that 32 sounds can be played at the exact same time. that is really hard to do. the most sounds u will have going off at one time would be less then 15. Dont worry bout polyphony on higher end gear. that is way too much overanalizing.

Lampdog wrote:Polyphony meaning like sounds triggered at the same exact bar beat clock? It's a hardware feature of the machine itself. I don't think expansion cards are designed to add polyphony.

No, polyphony meaning sounds overlapping at any point. It has nothing to do with when they're triggered.

IMO, Binger's right - in normal use when making hiphop or something like that, most people probably won't even use more than 16 note polyphony. Unless you're someone who layers tons of stereo strings together etc.

The S6000 I used to have has 128 note polyphony, and the S5000 can be expanded from 64 to 128. This is mostly for cats who use huge orchestral multisample libraries, where a single sound can consist of 3 or 4 stereo layers, and where you want to emulate entire string/horn sections by playing dozens of programs together... That eats polyphony. Play a 4-note chord with a 2 stereo layer program, and have the decay of that chord overlap with the attack of the next chord on the same program, and that's 32 notes used up right there.

lo-fi wrote:

Lampdog wrote:Polyphony meaning like sounds triggered at the same exact bar beat clock? It's a hardware feature of the machine itself. I don't think expansion cards are designed to add polyphony.

Unless you're someone who layers tons of stereo strings together etc.

The S6000 I used to have has 128 note polyphony, and the S5000 can be expanded from 64 to 128. This is mostly for cats who use huge orchestral multisample libraries, where a single sound can consist of 3 or 4 stereo layers, and where you want to emulate entire string/horn sections by playing dozens of programs together... That eats polyphony. Play a 4-note chord with a 2 stereo layer program, and have the decay of that chord overlap with the attack of the next chord on the same program, and that's 32 notes used up right there.

This description fits me perfectly. I create Jazz Instrument-als, and score films.
On my old Korg TR with only like 32 notes polyphony, Im constantly running out of polyphony...so I'm in need of a new keyboard to use along with it, so I can finish my projects...
So I was wondering if I should purchase the original Motif which has 64 notes, and then the expansions cards (which add notes of polyphony) for a total of somewhere around 100, or should I just purchase a Motif ES which has 128 notes...the Motif + expansions will cost me about 1500, while the Motif ES will be 1750...If the additional polyphony from the expansions is contributed to sounds all over the motif, instead of just sounds on the expansion boards then Id go that route...

So basically my question is...on say the drums and synth card, can the 16 notes of polyphony they both add, be used for the stock sounds the motif comes with, or just on themselveS?

MarkWolbirgh wrote:So basically my question is...on say the drums and synth card, can the 16 notes of polyphony they both add, be used for the stock sounds the motif comes with, or just on themselveS?

Sorry, can't help you there. The Yamaha site or Motif manual maybe?