Normal Voices And Drum Voices; Maximum Simultaneous Sounds (Polyphony); Selecting The Voices - Yamaha MU128 Owner's Manual

About the Parts and Voices of the MU128

Normal Voices and Drum Voices

The MU128 features two types of Voices: Normal and Drum.
Normal Voices
Normal Voices are pitched — in other words, the pitch of the Voice changes
according to the keys of the keyboard. A Normal Voice is made up of a
maximum of two sound elements. Voices having two elements include:
thick sounds that cannot be created by a single element, Voices in which the
sound changes depending on how strongly the keys are played, or layered
Voices in which two sounds are blended together (for example, piano and
strings). For details on how many elements specific Voices use, refer to the
Voice List of Normal Voices in the "Sound List & MIDI Data" booklet.
Drum Voices
The Drum Voice is a special Voice containing only drum and percussion
sounds, and each individual sound is assigned to a specific key of the key-
board (in the range of C#-1 — C5). For details on which drum sounds are
assigned to which keys, refer to the Drum Map charts in the "Sound List &
MIDI Data" booklet.

Maximum Simultaneous Sounds (Polyphony)

The maximum polyphony of the MU128, or the amount of sounds that can
be generated simultaneously, is 128. This number actually refers to the
amount of elements used. If you use many two-element Voices in your song
data, the number of available simultaneous sounds may be less than ex-
pected.
When the MU128 receives more MIDI data than can be played back with
the maximum polyphony, the earliest played notes will stop sounding to let
more recently received notes play. This is called "last note priority."

Selecting the Voices

Voice selection on the MU128 is done by using three different numbers:
bank select MSB, bank select LSB, and the specific program number.
The bank select MSB and LSB values determine the Voice bank. A single
Voice bank can contain up to 128 Voices, each of which can be selected by a
program number.
The bank select MSB and LSB values are used differently depending on
which Sound Module mode is selected (as explained below).
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MU128 Guided Tour