What is not clear for me regarding the paraphonic behaviour...
Case1: playing the same note 4 times in a row, I hear 4 different sounds (nice).
- According to your explanation, each key stroke triggers one oscillator as in a cycle. Is it key stroke 1 triggering OSC1 then key stroke 2 OSC2 and so on? Didn't see this explanation in the manual...
What do you mean by 1-4, 2-1, 3-2, 4-3?
If you turn on your Pro 2 and haven't played a note yet, the first keystroke on a paraphonic patch will trigger oscillator 1, the second oscillator 2, and so on. If you have played some notes already on the Pro 2 and then switch to a paraphonic preset, the number of the first oscillator you hear will depend on how many notes you've already played on the Pro 2's keyboard before you switched to the paraphonic preset.
Example: You turn on your Pro 2 and hit the keys 3 times, then you switch to a paraphonic preset. The first time you hit a note on that preset will actually be the forth time you hit a key on the Pro 2 in total ever since you turned it on. Hence, the first oscillator of the paraphonic patch that will be triggered will be oscillator 4. So in this case you'll end up with a cycle from oscillator 4 to oscillator 3 (if you take the moment you selected the paraphonic preset as the starting point of that cycle). That's what I meant by 4-3 or 2-1 and 3-2 respectively.
In summary: The oscillator allocation of a paraphonic preset is always dependend on how many times you've already hit a key.
- the sound coming from each OSC will follow the same Amp EG shape
- there is an individual Amp EG followed by each key. There are thus 4 Amp EG but one VCA; Correct? What is bringing the 4 Amp EGs? Is it that when you play 4 notes after each other, the first note can still be in sustain or release stage while the next note is still in attack and so on... I think I'm right but asking just to be sure
How DSI implemented that each oscillator is triggered by the VCA EG shape that is defined in the VCA section is not explained anywhere. Maybe someone from the DSI crew can chime in to explain what's exactly happening at that stage. As the envelopes are digitally controlled, I assume it's a matter of an oscillator/VCA curve trigger assignment that is coded in the firmware.
What can be said, though, is that the VCA EG shape is triggered per voice, even in paraphonic mode. You have 1 voice and 4 oscillators. Example: Set a long release time for the VCA envelope and then play four notes consecutively (don't hold them or otherwise you won't hear the release stage). All four notes will fade out niceley according the the VCA envelope's release stage. If you then hit a fifth note, you will hear something that resembles a voice stealing effect: the release stage of first note you hit will be rudely cut off. (Strictly speaking, it can't be called voice stealing if one likes to remain coherent with regard to methodologically correct terminology; what is being 'stolen' is one of the four derivatives of the VCA envelope shape that controls how each of the four oscillators is being triggered
per voice. True voice stealing would result in all release stages being cut off initially, once you play the fifth note.) If you play a sixth note, the release stage of the second note you hit will be cut off, and so on. In short: A smooth VCA envelope response only works for the length of one cycle, and in terms of circuitry, one cycle equals one voice.
- the sound coming from each OSC will use the same filter setup except if we use Osc split where we can use filter1 for OSC1 and 2 and filter2 for OSC3 and 4
Right. It's like in your diagram.
- if we want to play paraphonic like that (one key at a time) then it is probably advised to have the same patch separately without paraphonic mode but where we can listen and adjust the params of each OSC separately
I'm not quiet sure what you're saying here. If you're implying that you only get true 4-note
polyphony by multitracking one monophonic patch four times instead of using a
paraphonic patch once, you're correct.
Case2: playing a chord of 4 notes
- is it also a cycling but that is so fast that one hears only one sound?
Technically yes.
- to get a typical pad chord, we should then set the 4 OSC in about the same way but add slight differences between them (slop, detune...) to give the evolving polyphonic chord effect. Correct?
That depends on how you define "a typical pad chord". If you, for example, have a slightly detuned analog poly synth in mind, then your approach is the way to go. A super clean combination (no slop, no detune) of four different oscillator waveforms could be just as typical, although it might sound considerably thinner as a result.
- to go wild, we can set the 4 OSC in different ways and use OSC split on the filter section to tear things apart. Also correct?
Sure. The more differentiating variables you add to the equation, the less homogenic a sound will become. I mean already selecting four entirely different waveshapes for the four oscillators does go beyond what we would usually describe as polyphony (I'm deliberately not using the term "paraphony" here). Because polyphony would be x times one identical voice. But using different sounds per oscillator rather resembles the effect of a quartet (in the case of the Pro 2). So while the Pro 2's paraphonic mode comes with the limitations of a monophonic voice architecture, its possible oscillator settings go actually beyond the common concept of polyphony.
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