I think the FantomG's ARX expansion brass board has the ability to do a 'divisi' of parts. What this means for those that don't know, is that voices (often different voices) can be stacked up on one note, but if you play two or three notes, they 'split out' rather than the second note ALSO having two or three sounds on it.

Think of it like a trombone, an alto and a trumpet playing unison. Then they play a chord. Six other players don't join them! Each of them takes ONE note in the chord.

I think this would be an amazing new feature for arrangers to add, particularly as focused as many of us are on older music like jazz, bigband, old school R&B, etc..

Not to mention, the same technique is also applicable to woodwinds, sax sections, strings, just about any ensemble in the acoustic realm. Plus, as a bonus, imagine synth lead or pad sounds that are stacked, but split out when chords are played. In synth terms, this is very handy for creating more complex sounds, and it has the benefit of the VOLUME of a part or track remaining more consistent despite you changing the number of notes played.

It used to be a feature on many of the old school analog synths, at least with the same sound, and with Oberheim's and some other with different sounds, and is also in many of the newer VSTi synths too.

If we are trying to think of ways that arrangers could be made more realistic, here's the perfect thing... and Roland have already got a board that can do it. I see no reason why software alone couldn't add this to just about any arranger out there. It's just a question of tinkering with the voice allocation routines, really.

What do you think?

Yep the PA can already do that Diki...Done in the Sound Edit area where the user can specify how many voices (or in "Korg speak" oscillators) one can use for an individual sound.

You can have from one to 16 voices assigned to one instrument, which I think reading your post is what you are after. Each voice or oscillator sample can be sourced from anywhere, can be pitched wherever, can be poly or mono can have different adsr rates, and it goes on...

Of course if I am misunderstanding your meaning on this, feel free to correct

VERY comprehensive. If you have not had a look already, have a read of the PA3 Advanced Edit Manual....

Dennis

Exactly Dennis.....

Dennis......what page is that on (in the Advanced Edit Manual)?

Sound editing, or more correctly Sound Operating Mode..

Have some brain food before you start It is a heavy duty manual!! And it is not a page, but a chapter!!

I don't think it can, Dennis. I have got all the manuals, and have read them (I know... but someone has to do it!) and what we are talking about here is more like the old 'unison' mode from the old Jupiters, and the like.

If you hold down ONE note, all the oscillators sound (fat!). If you hold down two notes, half the oscillators go to the high note, and half to the low note. Hold down three, it gets split to three, four to four, etc..

About the only way this seems even slightly possible is to have each voice as a monophonic sound, and have High note and Low note Priority to them. But this only seems to work for TWO sounds. Play anything more than two notes and no further split can happen. Not to mention, as a monophonic sound, should you lift one finger and leave the other sounding, the note 'lifted' will jump to the note still held.

It's a far more complicated thing than it sounds, Dennis. It really IS more to do with the voice allocation routines than it is to the voice programming.

Hi Diki

You would need to develop a suitable algorithm to do what you require, however once worked out there is no reason why it could not be incorporated on any arranger.

The only problem I foresee is that do current arrangers have enough processing power to perform it while still doing all the other things. (The Roland has to use a separate hardware card)

In addition is there enough demand for it so as to get the R & D departments to develop it. (And don’t forget convincing the accountants who do their best to stifle all types of innovation)

Bill

Diki, just as a point of interest. The ARX03 Supernatural Brass is integrated into the VP770. It really is a blast to play. It has two modes, 'stack' and 'unison' which responds differently to single and multiple notes being played (see manual) but both are a blast to play and can produce some very interesting effects. It may also be one of the reasons that it's so overpriced .

chas

So Diki are you are saying the PA is like the old jupiters unison mode???? if so, you are way off the mark!!! and again if so, I don't think you really understand the power of the sound programming on the Korgs!!

For a start, voice allocation priority (which is what it seems you are talking about in this second post) is on ALL synthsizers, no matter make model or cost. Even the G and this add on card you are talking about...there are just so many DCO's that can be physically built into the PCB's on these things...

The Korg has 16 independently programmable oscillators for each single sound patch...as I said, each oscillator can have it's own dedicated adsr parameters, triggering parameters, velocity parameters and so on..which is rather more than just the old "unison mode" doncha think?

D

Been watching the demos of the ARX Brass board on the Roland site here (The NAMM video shows it the best)and as Dennis says any modern board out there can assign voices as shown in the Video, however most hardware arrangers do not have the processing power to do it at the same time as using all the other features, in addition there is always the possibility of running out of Polyphony as each layer (Oscillator) requires its own polyphony.

It’s a matter of suck it and see really

Bill