How Much Polyphony Does My Digital Piano Need?
When planning to buy a digital piano, this question has to be asked to help you choose what to buy. Actually, it doesn't matter how good your digital piano sounds or feels when you keep losing notes during play. So why bother with the polyphony note? Here's how to figure it out.
What are you going to use the digital piano for?
Buying a digital piano should fit your preference. If you wan to own a piano that emulates an acoustic piano for simple practice purposes, then the 32 note polyphony would be very fine with you. In cases that you begin losing notes with sustain
pedal usage, the good thing is, you may not be able to notice it. This is because digital pianos use algorithms to determine which notes to drop off if the max note count
has been reached. Digital pianos usually pick notes that could be dropped
without the listener easily noticing it. The bad news about this is when you lose notes because you have reached the max polyphony. But the good news is that you may
not notice it.
Sequencing and Layering
If you decide to record multiple tracks on your digital piano it would be better if you get a higher note polyphony. Adding another track on top of an existing track means contributing to the maximum polyphony. This is possible because the digital piano counts the previous track, as well as your current playing, all toward the max polyphony. You can see how quick you could reach the maximum polyphony of 32 when you start adding different tones and voices on multiple tracks.
If you like to deal with layering effects, better get more than the 32 note polyphony. The layering effect allows multiple voices or tones to play for every key stroke. Every time you press a key on your grand piano with string effect on, it will use one note of your total polyphony for the grand piano tone and one note for the strings. In effect, this halves your total polyphony count.
A Quick Note About Stereo
Stereo plays an important role in a digital piano because some of the tones / voices on a digital piano may be in stereo. One note may have two different sounds recorded. These notes play at the same time to emulate the sound of an acoustic. When this takes place you are using up 2 notes of your polyphony for every key you hit, instead of one. Your 32 note polyphony turns into a 16 note polyphony keyboard. But all of these happen when you digital piano is on stereo.
A Good Polyphony Test
When you experience losing notes when using the pedal try hitting the two lowest A notes on the digital piano. Hold the two keys with the sustain pedal and do a glissando using your both hands. You probably won't notice you're losing notes in the glissando. It's best if you don't lose the low A's, but losing them on your digital piano is not yet the end.
When you get to the point where you reach your max polyphony count during regular piano play, it will probably happen only for a few seconds. Losing your notes won’t happen throughout your song. Which means you won't lose many notes.
If you are getting a new digital piano and can avoid losing of notes, by all means do so. Affordable digital piano with a high polyphony count are available nowadays. Always prioritize your preference and just use your own judgment when determining if it's necessary to pay more for a higher polyphony capability.
