Yamaha DX200 47

Chapter 11 Advanced Sound Shaping Controls

47 Fat, phatter and phattest!

How phat do you want to get?

Key Assign lets you conﬁgure the DX200 in either Poly or Mono operation, for full chords or single-note

lines. Combined with the Unison setting, this function brings the humongously phat sounds of vintage syn-

thesizers to the digital realm — letting you beef up the FM Voices the old analog way.

1 Call up a Pattern and press [KEYBOARD].

Try to select a Pattern that has a relatively thin, sustained Voice. Let’s see where we can take it.

2 Press [KEY ASGN], repeatedly if necessary, to set this

to Poly (PoLY).

With the Poly setting, you can play and sustain full chords — up to sixteen

notes at the same time.

3 Press [KEY ASGN] again to call up Mono (mono).

In the Mono setting, you can’t play chords — just one-note lines. But that’s

just ﬁne, because Mono is ideal for leads and solos as well as bass lines.

Play some notes and listen for the effect. Notice how the notes trade off

with each other? This is great for rapid trills, and also for funky bass parts

— especially when you add a touch of Portamento (Tip 40).

Also try holding down one note with your left hand while you quickly play a

ﬂurry of other notes with your right. Notice how each note changes the

pitch without retriggering the attack? That’s because Mono keeps the EG

consistent throughout all notes, as long as you hold the ﬁrst one down.

4 Let’s give the sound some serious attitude now. Call

up one of the Unison settings (u.PLY or u.mno) — using

[KEY ASGN] or the [DATA] knob.

The Unison settings let you fatten up the sound, for either Poly or Mono.

Unison takes maximum advantage of the DX200’s full polyphony by gang-

ing the notes together in one huge, phat layer — four notes in Unison Poly

and Unison Mono.

Key Assign

Determines how the Voices respond to the

keyboard (or MIDI), and how they use the

available sixteen-note polyphony. To set,

press [KEY ASGN] and use the [DATA] knob.

Settings

Poly (PoLY)

Plays Voices with full sixteen-note

polyphony.

Mono (mono)

Plays Voices monophonically, maximum

one note at a time. Successively played

notes do not retrigger the PEG, FEG, or

AEG — resulting in a smooth note-to-

note sound.

Unison Poly (u.PLY)

Plays four polyphonic notes in unison —

for chords of up to four notes. This

means you can play chords, yet still take

advantage of the rich unison sound.

Unison Mono (u.mno)

Plays four polyphonic notes in unison —

in a monophonic, one-note layer. In

other words, the response to the key-

board is monophonic, but the number of

notes actually sounding is polyphonic.