Voice assignment modes | Europa User Guide |
Unison [unison LED lit solid]
Pressing the UNISON button once lights the UNISON LED solid and puts the board in UNISON mode. UNISON Is a polyphonic mode, meaning more than one note can be played at a time. The idea behind UNISON is to make the fattest sound possible. The UNISON mode works like SOLO UNISON for the first note played, then things start getting strange. If two or more notes are being played, the voices divide between the notes played. Since the number of different voices available depends on if the board is in WHOLE or SPLIT mode, the number of voices per note depends on the KEY MODE as well. It is confusing, so here is a table to make it easier to understand:
WHOLE | SPLIT 4 | SPLIT 2 | |||
1 | Key – All 6 voices | 1 | Key - 4 Voices | 1 | Key - 2 Voices |
2 | Keys - 3 Voices each | 2 | Keys - 2 Voices each | 2 | Keys - 1 Voice each |
3 | Keys - 2 Voices each |
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If more keys are held down than there are voices available, then only the first voices will play. For example, in WHOLE mode, only the first six notes will be played. The seventh note will play when one of the first six notes is released. When the seventh note sounds, it will not retrigger the envelope. This is useful for subtle changes to the color of a chord. As with SOLO UNISON, the UNISON DETUNE knob will make the sound fatter.
Unison steal [unison LED blinking]
Pressing the UNISON button a second time makes the LED blink and puts the board in UNISON STEAL mode. It is just like UNISON mode, until more notes than there are available voices are played. Then, the oldest note playing has its voice stolen to play the new note. For instance, in WHOLE mode, when the seventh note is played, it plays, but the first note goes silent. The second note goes silent to play the eighth note, and so on. Each new note retriggers the envelope with a new ATTACK. Now, if a note is released while the first and second notes are still held, the second note will sound. Release another key and the first note will sound. The notes that have their voice stolen and get replayed will not retrigger the envelopes. The STEAL modes are great for playing chords. If voice watch is enabled, a winking LED will indicate the stolen voice(s).
Poly 1 [Poly 1 LED lit solid]
Pressing the POLY 1 button once lights the LED and puts the board in POLY 1 mode. POLY 1 Mode is another polyphonic mode, and is designed to preserve a note's RELEASE as long as possible. Here is an example of how it works: If A B C D E F are played in WHOLE mode, releasing the keys in reverse order (F E D C B A) will cause the next allocated voice to be F. That is because it has been released the longest, so it has the best chance of having completed the RELEASE cycle of its envelopes. As with UNISON mode, when too many notes are played, the later notes will not sound, at least until one or more of the other notes playing are released.
Poly 1 steal [Poly 1 LED blinking]
Pressing the POLY 1 button a second time blinks the LED and puts the board in POLY STEAL mode. It works like the POLY 1 mode until there are no free allocated voices. Then, like UNISON STEAL, it will steal the earliest note's voice to play the new note. If voice watch is enabled, the stolen voice will be indicated by a LED wink on that voice.
Poly 2 [Poly 2 LED lit solid]
Pressing POLY 2 lights the LED and puts the board in POLY 2 mode. POLY 2 Is, as the name implies, polyphonic, and is designed for use with PORTAMENTO. If a chord is played, then release the notes and play a new chord. The notes of the new chord will be reassigned to the same voices. Normally this just means that the RELEASE of the notes gets cut off, but if PORTAMENTO is on, a super cool polyphonic glide sound will be heard that will make you the envy of your friends! POLY 2, Like POLY 1 and UNISON, does nothing when more notes are played than allocatable.
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