Vacuum , any way to make it polyphonic ?

[Willbloke]

Finally had a chance to take some time with my PT8 machine , been busy !, now I'm quite taken with the creative opportunities that Vacuum exhibits , but it's a bit of a downer that it seems to be monophonic .
Is there any way to make it poly ?
Am I missing any tricks ?

[filosofem]

One of the advantages of software enables the benefit of processing power and thus gives software not only the ability to emulation but also enhance limitations inherent in the original. However, Vacuum is a monophonic lead or bass synthesizer that needs to punch through a mix and sometimes adding polyphony diminishes that lead or bass making it overbearing.

Anyway, if you have a MIDI Controller that supports Zones, you could assign each Zone to one instantiation of Vacuum but that's not really practical.

[strangeLoop]

Vacuum is great. For stereo, one thing I do is have 2 instances on different tracks driven by the same MIDI track, and then turn up the "Drift" pot on one or both. Or with just one track and the "Drift" pot turned up, lay down a couple of audio tracks. Or just tweek the parameters a little on each pass.

[strangeLoop]

Sorry, I spaced out on that one.

I guess 3 or 4 instrument tracks with 3 or 4 instances of Vacuum and 3 or 4 written parts, would be the only way.

[mattrixx]

Another option that might be good... Redmatica Autosampler. I use it and it works a treat.

http://www.redmatica.com/Redmatica/AutoSampler.html

[Dizzi45Z]

It's important to note that a monophonic synthesizer isn't a limitation. It is a characteristic of a synthesizer that allows you to play legato and include portamento between notes and etc. This characteristic is perfect for bass, leads, and arpeggiating. However, it isn't a good choice for synth pads. Dive into Xpand2 or hybrid or third party synthesizers for pad types of patches.

[filosofem]

Originally Posted by Dizzi45Z

It's important to note that a monophonic synthesizer isn't a limitation. It is a characteristic of a synthesizer that allows you to play legato and include portamento between notes and etc. This characteristic is perfect for bass, leads, and arpeggiating.

Monophonic and polyphonic synthesizers are really two different beasts and should be treated as such. This realization comes after spending time with a real analog monophonic synthesizer. Totally agree.

[barstool719]

All the old Moog synths (which Vacuum is a clone of) were monophonic - it's what they do. It's not really designed for playing pads.

Kinda like how you can't play chords on a sax. ;-)

[filosofem]

Originally Posted by barstool719

All the old Moog synths (which Vacuum is a clone of) were monophonic - it's what they do. It's not really designed for playing pads.

Three chord pads can be created with monophonic synthesizers, reference oscillator holds root frequency, second oscillators frequency interval four semitones for mayor third and third oscillator frequency interval seven semitones. Envelope Generators, Attack and Release dialed out to one or more seconds.

[Willbloke]

Well , it can be made polyphonic !
I was playing with a Novation Nocturn and noticed a polyphony knob.
This sends MIDI CC 127 which turns Vacuum to poly .

Now , as soon as you call up a preset it loses the polyphony , but if you start it with the factory default and just dial in the values or hit the random button it's polyphonic .

Not massively useful I'll grant you , but interesting nonetheless !