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#Polyphony #WhatIsPolyphony #DigitalPiano
In this video, Stu Harrison of Merriam Pianos explains what polyphony is, and why you may want to pay attention to it. A pretty high number of digital piano buyers aren’t 100% sure what the specification actually refers to, so we hope this clears it up!
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What is Polyphony:
Polyphony literally means multi-tonal...and in the case of digital pianos, it refers to the number of tones that the piano can sound at once. If two keys are played at once, that’s a polyphony of “2”. If 5 notes are played, that’s a polyphony of 5. So the maximum polyphony is the maximum notes that can be played at once.
Since we only have 10 fingers to play the piano with, the need for greater polyphony is driven by the use of a sustain pedal, sounds that have longer release times, or layered sound.
A good example would be a piano+strings layer...a very common pairing on digital pianos. Strings have an extremely long release time compared with pianos (when you let go of the note, the sound starts decaying, and takes 1-2 seconds to completely be silenced). So if you were to play a large stacked chord using the sustain pedal, and also play some sustained scalar runs on top of that at the same time, a max polyphony of 64 could easily be hit.
Add a third layer, or have the scalar patterns played throughout the whole range of the instrument with the sustain pedal down, and you might even start to test the 128 polyphony limit.
What happens when you run out of Polyphony?
When that max limit is crossed, the instrument will usually mute the oldest note which isn’t still actively being played on a key. It just goes silent. For casual playing, this is unlikely to cause problems if the instrument has 64 polyphony (or around that range). However, if you are doing any recording, using rhythms, playing back a 16-track MIDI file (Format 1) or even just using layers in some kind of performance, and there are going to be noticeable gaps in the playing, or even critical tones may be missing altogether.
For example, I’ve been in situations where a crash cymbal or bass drum kick on a major bar line was simply not played because I’d maxed out the polyphony, causing me to have to redo the sequence to free up some bandwidth on the tone engine.
Recommendations
If most of what you’ll be doing is ‘piano only’, then 128 max polyphony is going to be enough for your needs. If you could see yourself getting into layering with rhythms on a regular basis, getting something closer to the 192 or 256 would be preferable if the model selection and budget allows for it.
Good luck with your shopping!
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