V2 VCV VCA Poliphony is Sophisticated!

Plugins & Modules
1

The redesigned Fundamental VCA that was released with Rack V2 greatly enhances how it handles polyphonic inputs compared to V1.

I scratched the surface on this important development at VCV VCA-1 as a Compact Polyphonic Graphical CV Meter - #4 by DaveVenom. But the enhancements are more revolutionary than I realized.

With V1, the input solely controlled the polyphony for the module. If 3 channel polyphonic cable was plugged into the input, and a monophonic cable plugged into the CV input, then the CV would be replicated to all three channels and you would have 3 channel polyphonic output. If you reversed the inputs and put the polyphony into the CV input and monophonic into the input, then you would get monophonic output. The 2nd and 3rd channels at the CV input would be ignored.

Starting with V2, the VCA intelligently adapts to polyphony wherever it is patched.

Scenario 1:

  • 3 channels to input
  • 1 channel to CV input
  • CV is replicated to 3 channels, and 3 channels of output

Scenario 2:

  • 1 channel to input
  • 3 channels to CV input
  • input is replicated to 3 channels, and 3 channels of output

Scenario 3:

  • 3 channels to input
  • 2 channels to CV input
  • CV is given a 0V 3rd channel, and 3 channels of output

Scenario 4:

  • 2 channels to input
  • 3 channels to CV input
  • input is given a 0V 3rd channel, and 3 channels of output

This is great news - it dramatically simplifies working with polyphony.

This change highlights the need for updated and complete documentation for the VCV modules!

I need to simplify a number of my polyphonic Fundamental Constructs. I suspect a number of my constructs that I thought were restricted to monophonic usage may already be fully polyphonic. And here I thought I was halfway through my already designed constructs :woozy_face:

Note that the VCAs in the VCA MIX module preserve the V1 behavior - the input strictly controls the number of channels.

It would be nice if the OCT module adapted the same polyphony design as the VCA. Currently the OCT V/Oct input strictly controls the polyphony. Besides adding multiples of 1V to an input, the OCT is also good for rounding CV to integral values by patching the CV to the OCT CV input, and leaving the V/Oct input at 0V. But if you want to do this polyphonically, you need to replicate 0V to all channels yourself and patch that into the OCT input. If OCT were updated, then you could simply patch polyphonic CV into the CV input, and leave the V/Oct input empty.

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