Juno DS88 polyphony question

[Gearhead]

Let's talk polyphony for a minute. The JunoDS has 128 note poly, as do many higher end boards. I upgraded from an old Yamaha 625 which had 32 note poly, and I thought 128 would be hugely sufficient. But...a limit is a limit and at some point you're going to hit it. I've noticed it when playing a performance with piano over strings, only with certain types of repetitive passages or patterns with the pedal down. Makes sense, having two patches uses poly twice as fast.

But here's the rub: it's the way that the Juno handles the dropouts. I'm pretty sure that the old Yammy used a FIFO strategy - First In, First Out. That is, the "older" notes, those played first and likely the weakest (at least on a decaying sound like piano) would drop and hardly be noticeable. But the Juno doesn't do it like that...when I hit that limit it messes with the notes I'm playing at the time, almost like it's a LIFO thing (Last In, First Out). Has anybody else noticed this? Why would they set it up that way?

Thanks, Jeremy

 

[SeaGtGruff]

I've no familiarity with the Juno-DS, but I'm wondering if there might be a system setting that lets you specify how you want the dropouts to be handled? Maybe some of our Juno-DS users might know?

 

[Gearhead]

That would be great...I wondered that, but have not heard anybody mention dropouts at all. Thanks!

 

[SeaGtGruff]

Do you have the Juno-DS Parameter Guide? Look on page 4, where it mentions "Patch Priority." There are only two choices described, but one is "LAST" (first on, first off) and the other is "LOUDEST." I wonder if the patches you're playing with might have that parameter set to "LOUDEST"?

 

[Gearhead]

This and a similar response on another forum is helping. Both the Piano and Strings layered sounds are set to LOUDEST priority. Here’s what I think happens: by the time I get dropouts, I’ve played 64 notes which means the oldest Piano notes will be pretty decayed, but Strings last forever when pedaled, so all the LOUDEST notes are strings! Then when I play another note, I hear the piano note kinda staccato, which makes sense. Brilliant! So with a Piano sound only, LOUDEST and LAST probably work pretty much the same due to decay.

Someone also pointed out a Performance parameter called Voice Reserve where you can reserve notes of polyphony specifically for one of the parts. For example, I think I could reserve half the poly for JUST piano notes, since they are the notes that get gypped in this scenario with Strings layered.

I haven’t tried it yet, need to take the next step! Thanks!