Patch of the Day - The Polyphonic Modular

A quick demo of the Kenton Pro 2000 MkII's polyphonic mode.

The most obvious application would be to play chords, but why stop there? The beauty of the modular environment is that you can assign different waveforms, filters and envelope settings to each voice.

In today's patch I used 3 VCOs (panned hard left/ right and centre), a similar number of EGs, VCFs & VCAs and a touch of random modulation to add some movement to what would otherwise be a fairly static riff. The Kenton is in 'Regular Cycle' mode, which means it passes each new note on to the next VCO in the chain.

thepolyphonicmodular by navs

The clip starts off with a simple three-note chord progression. Three notes, three VCOs, so no movement yet. Each voice plays the same note it was originally assigned. After four bars I introduce a simple bass sequence which forces the Kenton to start distributing the notes among the available voices. Four bars later, I add another simple riff and we're in full swing. Another four bars later I introduce a random CV which is patched via a sequential switch to the three EGs: one gets some attack CV, the other two some random decay. I used a tad too much, but at least that way the effect is clearly audible. Last four bars are the full riff straight.