Polyphony is how many notes can be played simultaneously. This is big in synthesizers but the concept for them isn't much different from how many strings you can sound based on how many you can touch. Polyphony is interesting insofar as it permits chords, etc but it doesn't do anything for the tone as all the notes will be the same timbre (i.e. it sounds like a piccolo or maybe it sounds like a tuba).
Multitimbral is the capability to play multiple sounds simultaneously (i.e. to sound like a piccolo and the tuba at the same time). For a synthesizer, the way it typically works is the keyboard is divided and, for example, one half becomes tuba keys and the other half becomes piccolo keys. This mechanism makes for interesting performance capabilities but it's not all that exotic as it's limited to one timbre per key.
Use of a guitar synthesizer comes into a world beyond that in which polymultitimbrality is possible insofar as one note can make multiple timbres and polyphony comes from doing it on multiple strings at once.
Acoustic people think this is utter rubbish as it desecrates the purity of the native guitar sound and is clear proof of the existence of Satan ... but this is not a problem for me.
(Ed: because?)
I don't play an acoustic guitar.
The problems in practice with polymultitimbrality are largely because the guitar and the synthesizers go into the same mixer and then into an RC-50 looper. The input levels for all of those channels must be precise or they will aggregate and clipping comes. The beauty and also the problem is that each timbre has different characteristics for attack/release so the waveform is multi-dimensional with peaks in different places depending on the dynamics of each timbre. Aggregation can result in huge distortion and that's been the challenge in playing over the last few days.
If polymultitimbrality still isn't quite enough for you then use an arpeggiator on one (more?) of the voices and thus become polymultitimbral ... plus polymelodic. This has been the subject of my experimenting and I'm generally pleased with the result but there is nothing as yet I want to record.
So what if people don't understand it. If you're into it this far they won't understand what you do anyway.
No, I don't play "Purple Haze" or "Rocky Mountain Way" but thanks for asking.
Multitimbral is the capability to play multiple sounds simultaneously (i.e. to sound like a piccolo and the tuba at the same time). For a synthesizer, the way it typically works is the keyboard is divided and, for example, one half becomes tuba keys and the other half becomes piccolo keys. This mechanism makes for interesting performance capabilities but it's not all that exotic as it's limited to one timbre per key.
Use of a guitar synthesizer comes into a world beyond that in which polymultitimbrality is possible insofar as one note can make multiple timbres and polyphony comes from doing it on multiple strings at once.
Acoustic people think this is utter rubbish as it desecrates the purity of the native guitar sound and is clear proof of the existence of Satan ... but this is not a problem for me.
(Ed: because?)
I don't play an acoustic guitar.
The problems in practice with polymultitimbrality are largely because the guitar and the synthesizers go into the same mixer and then into an RC-50 looper. The input levels for all of those channels must be precise or they will aggregate and clipping comes. The beauty and also the problem is that each timbre has different characteristics for attack/release so the waveform is multi-dimensional with peaks in different places depending on the dynamics of each timbre. Aggregation can result in huge distortion and that's been the challenge in playing over the last few days.
If polymultitimbrality still isn't quite enough for you then use an arpeggiator on one (more?) of the voices and thus become polymultitimbral ... plus polymelodic. This has been the subject of my experimenting and I'm generally pleased with the result but there is nothing as yet I want to record.
So what if people don't understand it. If you're into it this far they won't understand what you do anyway.
No, I don't play "Purple Haze" or "Rocky Mountain Way" but thanks for asking.
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