Hi Dennis
If the sounds are produced by synthesis, then your oscillator description is correct, however most boards use samples, which are audio recordings of parts of the real instrument, (No oscillators involved) which are then combined (Processed) by the CPU and RAM/ROM to produce the sound .
Point to note; there many types of CPU out there, (Not all are called CPUs) so it does not have to be the same as in a computer.
Hope this makes things clearer.

Bill

Bill, and with all due respect, what I can assure you of is that the note polyphony (as in the number of notes that can be played and NOT the number of samples being used) on a hardware based synth is DIRECTLY related to the number of oscillators which use the audio samples contained in the ROM. Its what passes these days for the older VCO's. They have just dropped the DC from the DCO. It is the same thing.

Its the software, or VSTi-DXi that can use samples with no oscillators required, which can therefore provided a theoretical unlimited amount of polypony depending on RAM and CPU.

This is also why manufacturers cannot increase poly with a software update. It is the fundamental architecure of a synth, even one that uses only samples.

Even if you sample your own sound it has to assigned, either by you or the 'board, to an oscillator to play.

If you don't believe me, just ask the engineers at Korg, Roland or Yamaha et al! ( I did!!)

Sorry to have to disagree with you, but you are either wrong, or you are misunderstanding what I was saying in my previous post, in your statement.

Dennis

I also agree ..the samples are the wave form..the oscillators are the means to the polyphony.
64 oscillators means a max of 64 polyphony..

Hi Dennis
The term Oscillator in a modern sampling board is in name only, however it is still used because everybody understands it.
Modern board’s polyphony is determined by the processing power and ram in the board, however unlike software boards, this is fixed during the initial design stage.

As a comparison; the dynamics on an electronic keyboard have nothing whatsoever to do with normal dynamics, but instead relate to the speed of the key depression, which the software interprets to provide the various volumes etc.
However it is still called dynamics as this is a term that everybody understands.
Hope this clears up the confusion.
Regards

Bill