Polyphony/voice question (Pre-purchase)

[visualz]

Computer graphics pro with newbie audio question about the system 8 hardware.

Specs say it has “polyphony: 8” but it isn’t clear to me if this is 8 simultaneous notes of the same loaded synth or if it’s truly 8 instruments playing out on 8 different midi channels simultaneously.

I currently have a Roland JDXi that can play 4 channels (2 synth, 1 drum, 1 analog) all simultaneously on 4 different midi channels. I’m trying to determine if the system 8 hardware can similarly do 8 different instruments at the same time when being controlled by a DAW (in my case, Cubase).

Thanks in advance for any clarification

[dcullina]

Polyphony just means how many notes it can play at once of any sound or sounds. Multitimbrality is the number of different sounds or instruments it can play at once. System-8 is only two-part multitimbral (two midi channels - upper and lower), with a fixed four voices (notes) allocated to each part. Or you can just play one part with 8 voices.

[visualz]

Gotcha. Can each of the two be assigned a specific midi channel? The JDXi is fixed on 1,2,10 and 3 for its four parts. I'd like to be able to drive both from Cubase without 'overlap'.

i do know about the plug-out stuff and using the S8 as a controller for Roland Cloud. currently ending the 30-day trial of that without the S8 but the bigger picture of using them all together is making me really tempted to pop the cork on the S8 and cloud subscription.

Thank you for any more info on that follow up Q about assigning midi channels to the 2 multitimbral(s)

//gD

[dcullina]

Yes, you can set upper and lower channels to any MIDI channel you want in the system menu.