it sounds like you're still a little confused as to what polyphony means in reference to the mpc.
the mpc has 32 voices. say a pad is set with 1 stereo sample. that's 2 voices taken when that is played. if that pad is set to poly, if you tap it again and again, the pad will take up 2, 4, 6, 8 voices - as many as it does overlap. you could run out of polyphony by tapping 1 pad depending on the sample/speed of tapping.
when a sample is set to monophonic, it cuts itself off, so the above pad in monophonic would be like 2, 2, 2, 2, 2 no matter how many times you hit it.
djnato wrote:Correct me if i'm wrong I may be overlooking something but if every pad is on polyphony then surely every sound should play no matter how many pads are played at once...
and they will - but they'll cut off the first sound having been played. that's why notes drop. that's why if you're noticing note dropping and you mute the track with the most data (usually the drum track) you'll notice that the notes no longer drop.
servant's problem was that his hats were in stereo AND they were polyphonic, which was eating up his polyphony.
2, 4, 6, even 8 voices all being taken up by hats. not to mention everything else. this is how even a very simple beat can devour polyphony. however, using it right gives you PLENTY of room, as i told servant on the telephone.
if you're managing your polyphony right, you start reaching 32 voices only when you've created an especially busy/dramatic part of your song, in which case you could either resample to save yourself some polyphony or set some notes to monophonic
remember as a general rule that notes should be monophonic UNLESS they need to overlap. likewise they should be mono UNLESS they'd benefit from being stereo.
