So many levels of essential vcv understanding acquired in less than an hour. Just amazingly good stuff man. Thanks.
Just started messing with VCV Rack and couldn't understand how to make a poly patch. I stumbled onto this channel and can already tell I'm gonna love all your content. Thanks so much for making these. Subscribed!
Great video as always!
For awareness, the Hampton Harmonics ARP module also has a right-click menu option to enable a polyphonic mode output so that each note can have it's own envelope that's not cut off by the next note starting.
Thanks, I needed this. I love the examples as sometimes 'how' is not enough and I need some 'why' too. They make my brain shoot out idea spores as well. Be safe.
as always an amazing amount of interesting tidbits that even for someone using VCV for a long time makes it more than worthwhile to watch. Thanks Omri.
And that flute. Divine!
This was such a great tutorial. I loved the section on separating rhythm from pitch. Gorgeous patch!
This is great man! As always, incredibly informative and easy to follow but, more importantly, really inspiring! Cheers man, peace ✌️
So informative and inspiring! Thank you for the deep-dive. I will be watching this a few times to absorb all that you have carefully shared with us. I especially like your optimisation tips. Cheers!
Ty so much, I was so confused by polyphony until now. Really interesting stuff. I love that you can easily modulate each voice, I think it's mind-blowing. I was initially here because I wanted to fully understand the mindmeld mixer and it's polyphonic group options, now thanks to you I have a billion ideas per second 😂
Have a good day !
Many thanks, Omri - a really useful resource, this is! I've been away from VCV Rack for a while as I was setting up a new studio and I'm now learning Bitwig so I have some catching up to do. When I return to VCV patching it will be the first time I've used polyphony. I'm pretty excited to see how much is possible! It's especially good that CPU efficiency can be improved.
Omri, what a great video !
I have watched several of your vids, and they all have their own points of interest, but this is one video that really can set one free !!!
You probably get this a lot fella…
You’re a hero! Been trying to figure out how to put a polyphonic signal through a monophonic FX unit and you’ve just hit the nail on the head with the SUM module. Super handy - thanks Omri!
great info in this video. i have my first case and a few modules in the mail now and can't wait to build my hybrid setup. your content is a huge part of my decision to move forward with hardware and i can't thank you enough for everything i've learned on your channels. thanks omri
Man, I'm really happy for you and I'm glad I could be helpful :) Cheers!
amazing video. must watch. i just became a patron!
also, i finally got my hybrid rig running.
your videos have been absolutely invaluable in my journey.
That was, once again, super detailed. The thing with the polyphony modes hasn't really opened up to me yet.
Thanks so much.
Great video... seems like I will need to revisit my modules and make sure they sum the poly-inputs...
Have you been practicing your piano? It really sounds you've put some time into it! Your playing caught my attention as much if not more than your patching in this video!
Wauw, my head hurts with this one... thinking about the possibilitys 😂😂😂 but awesome 👌
another very good video, but half way through i realized, that i still haven’t fully taken in the concept of polyphony. obviously you need different vco’s to play several notes the same time. understandably you might want to process their amplitude and filters individually. polyphonic cv? why not!
but as soon as i get to audio effects i’m a bit lost.
what would be the idea behind having separate reverbs with the same parameters on every key you play? or delay, chorus, distortion eq...
normally you want your signals merged/mixed together, before being processed by the effect. or might there be cases, when separate processing might make a difference? that’s where polyphony starts getting a little confusing!
i don’t want to be unfair, most of the trouble with polyphony i had was still back in vcv1. mostly because monophonic modules didn’t treat polyphony as they should. this became a lot better with vcv2!
still everytime i think, that i finally understood the poly concept, some unexpected issues turn up.
everybody has been used to play 10 or more notes simultaneously on a keyboard for 40 years now, but if you take a close look, what happens in the background, it’s still not that simple!
Well, yeah, if you're using the same parameters, there's no need for poly effects. But, imagine if you have 4 note polyphony, each note with a different delay time. Or, having a poly reverb with modulation on the size for each voice. Of course, everything has its price and having a poly reverb will cost many resources, but it's still possible I guess. True polyphony is all about having different settings for the different voices. Even if you don't have effects, if you only have a VCO and a filter, there's no need for the filter to be polyphonic if it's the same filter for all the voices. Does this make sense?
you are right of course, but so far i was thinking of polyphony as to be able to play several notes simultaneously to create harmonies. obviously you also want to have individual filter and amplitude envelopes for each key, but that’s where it ended for me so far. for most cases that’s all you want and in the rest of the chain you normally run everything through the same effects. i guess, that’s what most people have in mind.
in vcv though you can have each voice being processed completely independently and that leads to situations when you just have to become aware of your possibilities and what you want to achieve. that’s when it can become a bit tricky, do i want the obvious or do i want to experiment? well, of course modular is about experimenting! so why not have a different reverb on each key? may it make sense or not...
still, there are modules where a per voice processing is certainly what you want and others, where it is less obvious. nevertheless you can do it, if you want.
with vcv2 things became way more intuitive, because now most modules behave like they should. with vcv1 it happened many times, that i tried a poly patch and i only got sound every 3. or 4. time i pressed a key. now most mono modules merge and things got a lot easier, but still, everytime i think, that i finally understood it all, i’m running into situations that leave me puzzled again.
Thank you again!! Great stuff and really inspiring!
One question about the SUM module, or summing any poly signal. Is there appreciable loss in signal quality or am I imagining it? It seems I lose a little crispness or something in the sound after Sum'ing - did I make that up? :)
Hi! Well, no, it should not effect the sound. You just have to watch the levels I guess.
If you are referring to the summing before "electric ensemble" I think the "drive" was more noticable since the sum was louder than the single channel...
Is there an easy way to achieve the rotate poly mode, as used with the external keyboard with the midi-cv module, using a sequencer? thanks and another inspiring video!
Hi! You can use a sequential switch to switch between the channels :)
Hi.. Loved your video. I didn't understand how did you use 4 VCOs in 1:22 ... How did you split the signal from midi-cv converter into different v/oct and gates? What is the signal path? Thank you.
Thanks! I used the Split module, but that's just to show what is polyphony.
Ah ok.... I got it now... Thank you so much for such educational videos. Keep going! 🔥
ho yeahh
I guess what I don’t understand is how we adjust the filter and envelopes per voice when they’re all combined into on chain of single modules running polyphonically
Yeah, you will need to access the poly channels. There's the PolyCon modules from BogAudio. You can set the number of channels and then set offset to the individual channels and set the values for them.
I hope this was helpful :) Here are some useful links:
Aaron Static - library.vcvrack.com/AaronStatic
JW - library.vcvrack.com/JW-Modules
BogAudio - library.vcvrack.com/Bogaudio
Count Modula - library.vcvrack.com/CountModula
moDllz - library.vcvrack.com/moDllz
Hampton Harmonic - library.vcvrack.com/HamptonHarmonics
Aaron Static video - ua-cam.com/video/SBNzXkMEnGM/v-deo.html
Chords in VCV Rack - ua-cam.com/video/jYe8rrIQloE/v-deo.html
Bitwig and VCV Rack - ua-cam.com/video/g2tlXPhoW8k/v-deo.html
Ableton and VCV Rack - ua-cam.com/video/kQemd9AovH8/v-deo.html
Super Arp video - ua-cam.com/video/_S6F7gK2O5Y/v-deo.html