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Voice allocation really depends on what you want the virtual synth to do.<br>If you want it to sound like the original then it should use a similar algorithm,<br>if you want something that sounds better than or like the original then for<br>something like an Oberheim, it will probably not be the voice allocation that<br>is lacking on the emulator, more likely the overall quality of the sound that will<br>prevent the emulator from being as good: whatever you do with voice allocation,<br>if the emulator does not have Oberheim filters and oscillators it will not sound <br>like an Oberheim.<br><br>The algorithm was also different between synths, many used a FIFO buffer: if<br>the voices were all allocated then the oldest voice was stolen. Some would steal<br>the lowest note pressed, some would steal the highest note. You will eventually<br>notice which algorithm it uses based on what you are playing - each algorithm<br>has its defects. Siel did have an allocation algorithm that was supposed to be <br>superior in that stealing voices was not that noticible. Never seen the code but <br>it apparantly stole a note from somewhere in the middle so the player never lost<br>either extremes of the scale. I've tried this as well and the results are a noticable<br>improvement on FIFO.<br><br>Pure FIFO stealing is a cheap algorithm however it perhaps does have the most<br>noticable flaws when being played. VIrtual synths can easily improve on this,<br>emulators can't, really, and still be something that approaches the original. If<br>you want an virtual synth to sound like an OB-X the it will have to steal notes in<br>the same way.<br><br>Regards, nick.<br><br>"we have to make sure the old choice [Windows] doesn't disappear”.<br>Jim Wong, president of IT products, Acer<br><br><br><br><br>> Date: Tue, 25 Aug 2009 00:13:36 +0200<br>> From: ralf.mardorf@alice-dsl.net<br>> To: hannu@opensound.com<br>> CC: linux-audio-dev@lists.linuxaudio.org<br>> Subject: Re: [LAD] Selectable limit for polyphony of virtual synth<br>> <br>> Hannu Savolainen wrote:<br>> > Albert Graef wrote:<br>> > <br>> >> hollunder@gmx.at wrote:<br>> >> <br>> >> <br>> >>> One obvious question there is:<br>> >>> what should the synth do when it reaches the limit?<br>> >>> There are several things that are possible and afaik implemented in<br>> >>> synths. It could drop the first note played, or the highest, or ...<br>> >>> <br>> >>> <br>> >> Well, that's called voice stealing. Most synths do it, if they don't<br>> >> have dynamic voice allocation. Usually, you assign voices in a round<br>> >> robin manner, and the oldest note has to go when you're running out of<br>> >> voices.<br>> >><br>> >> <br>> >> <br>> > Ideally the synth should use some kind of priority mechanism when <br>> > stealing voices. Killing the oldest one is not the best way. For example <br>> > some kind of psychoacoustic algorithm could be used to find voices that <br>> > are masked out by the other voices playing at louder levels. Some voices <br>> > may have decayed to inaudible levels or their pitch may be close enough <br>> > to the new note to be played.<br>> ><br>> > Best regards,<br>> ><br>> > Hannu<br>> <br>> Hi Hannu :)<br>> <br>> this is a good idea to cover unwanted cutting. "My problem" is, that <br>> most virtual synth have enough voices ;). I would like to have the <br>> effect of old synth, e.g. listen to Peter Gabrial's pad sounds. It's <br>> wanted to hear the cutting, because it has a musical function, it <br>> produces ambience. My fault was, that I only referred to the elimination <br>> of muddy sound by notes with long release times, I've forgotten to bring <br>> up the musical function.<br>> <br>> I like to have the effect that chords will be cut by new cords, similar <br>> to the effect for monophonic sounds, with one difference, sometimes one <br>> or two notes shouldn't be cut. There are some very good synth with a <br>> polyphony of 5 or 6 voices, e.g. the Prophet 5 or the Matrix 6, btw. I'm <br>> using a Matrix-1000 (the 1000 is for 1000 sounds in the memory, resp. I <br>> didn't check if the battery is still fine, it might be possible that the <br>> 200 RAM sounds of my Matrix are lost ;)).<br>> <br>> For most of my external synth and 'virtual' synth I'm missing this <br>> effect, they never run out of voices. It's bad not to have enough <br>> voices, but if you have enough voices than some charm gets lost.<br>> <br>> I don't know actual Peter Gabriel recordings, but I bet he still uses <br>> old synth, e.g. the Fairlight, especially for pad sounds.<br>> <br>> Cheers,<br>> Ralf<br>> _______________________________________________<br>> Linux-audio-dev mailing list<br>> Linux-audio-dev@lists.linuxaudio.org<br>> http://lists.linuxaudio.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-audio-dev<br><br /><hr />With Windows Live, you can organize, edit, and <a href='http://www.microsoft.com/middleeast/windows/windowslive/products/photo-gallery-edit.aspx' target='_new'>share your photos.</a></body>
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