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PolyForce user guide

The screen

PolyForce has seven tabs in MPC's tab strip. A tab with several pages shows dots under its name: tap the tab again for the next page. The strip shows the name of the page that is up. Every page starts with the status line.

Tab Pages What's there
OSC OSC 1 · OSC 2 · NOISE+MIX · WAVES One oscillator per page: wave or table, position, tuning, unison, level, pan, phase, route and its sub oscillator. NOISE+MIX: the noise source and a mixer for all levels. WAVES: the wave view
FILTER FILTER Both filters: type, cutoff, resonance, env 2 amount, keytrack, drive. Routing and engine sit next to the status line
MOD ENVELOPES · LFOS · XY PADS Amp and mod envelopes · both LFOs · four XY pads with auto-assign
MATRIX MATRIX 1-4 · MATRIX 5-8 · MATRIX 9-12 · MODIFIERS Four slots per page (source, via, two targets with amounts) · the modifier of every slot
BROWSE BROWSE Wavetable or preset browser (OSC 1 · OSC 2 · PRESETS next to the status line): categories, items, favorite, random, copy, swap
VOICE VOICE Voice mode, steal mode, voices, volume, velocity, bend range · glide · preset and tuning, Save, Init, Random
SEQ ARP/SEQ · STEPS · SHAPES 1-2 · SHAPES 3-4 Arpeggiator and sequencer settings · the 16 steps (note, velocity, mod) · the shape-sequencer lanes

The pages on a Force, with the factory preset Vocal / Vowel Morph:
OSC 1: the first oscillator's table, knobs, output and sub oscillator OSC → OSC 1 WAVES: both oscillators' current frames as bars OSC → WAVES
FILTER: both filters with type, cutoff, resonance, env amount, keytrack and drive FILTER ENVELOPES: the amp and mod envelopes MOD → ENVELOPES
LFOS: both LFOs with wave, sync, division, polarity and trigger MOD → LFOS MATRIX 1-4: LFO 1 and LFO 2 on the oscillators' positions, the mod wheel on the cutoff MATRIX → MATRIX 1-4
BROWSE: preset categories and the presets of VOCAL BROWSE VOICE: voice and steal modes, glide, preset and tuning steppers, SAVE, INIT, RANDOM VOICE
ARP/SEQ: arpeggiator and sequencer settings, the shape sequencer SEQ → ARP/SEQ

Q-Links

Every page has its own Q-Link set: the knobs follow the page that is up. The Force's eight knobs show the first eight; the next bank has the rest.

Page Q-Links
OSC 1, OSC 2 The eight knobs of the oscillator card · table, pan, phase, phase mode, route, sub wave, sub tune, sub level
NOISE+MIX Noise level, colour, route, both levels and sub levels, volume · sub waves and tunes, pans, routes
WAVES Per oscillator: table, position, level, wave, unison, detune, width, semi
FILTER Filter 1's knobs and type, routing, engine · filter 2's, env 2 attack and decay
ENVELOPES · LFOS · XY PADS The knobs of the page (plus the filters' env amounts and cutoffs on ENVELOPES)
MATRIX 1-4 … 9-12 The four slots' amounts 1 and 2 · their sources and first targets
MODIFIERS The twelve modifier amounts
BROWSE Tables, positions, levels, detunes, preset, tuning, cutoffs and resonances, random amount, volume: scroll and audition while browsing
VOICE The voice knobs, modes, glide, preset, tuning, random amount
ARP/SEQ · STEPS · SHAPES The arp and sequencer settings · the 16 step notes (velocity and mod by touch) · the two lanes' steps

Wave view

OSC → WAVES shows each oscillator's current frame (its table at the position knob, morphed between frames like the oscillator itself) as 48 bars, with the table stepper, position and level beside it. It follows the knob, not the modulated position, about 20 times a second.

Sound engine

Voices

  • 8 voices; modes Poly, Duo, Mono and Legato (Mono and Legato keep a note stack: releasing a key returns to the one still held)
  • Steal modes: Oldest, Quietest (released voices first), Keep low, Keep high; a stolen voice fades out over 3 ms, so stealing doesn't click
  • Same note again: Retrigger or start a New voice
  • Glide by Time or Rate, Always or only Legato
  • Pitch-bend range up and down (0–24 semitones), velocity curve, volume (−60 to +6 dB)

Oscillators (×2)

  • Wave: Table, Sine, Triangle, Saw, Square, Pulse (position sets the pulse width) or Noise
  • Wavetable position sweeps the table's frames; its knob reads FRAME n / N
  • Unison up to 8 voices with detune and stereo width
  • Octave, semitone and fine tuning; level and pan
  • Phase offset with Reset, Random or Free running phase
  • Sub oscillator: sine, triangle, saw or square, −36 to +12 semitones, own level
  • Route to filter 1, filter 2, both, or Direct (past the filters)

Noise

A noise source with a continuous colour (dark … white … bright, loudness-compensated) and its own route.

Filters (×2)

  • Types: Off, LP12, LP24, BP, HP12, HP24, Notch, Peak, Comb+, Comb− and Vowel
    • Comb: feedback comb, the cutoff sets its pitch
    • Vowel: three formants; the cutoff morphs A–E–I–O–U
  • Cutoff, resonance, drive, keytrack and mod envelope amount
  • Routing: Serial (filter 1 feeds filter 2) or Parallel. Each source's route decides which filter(s) it enters.
  • Engine: Clean (no drift, linear), Normal, or Dirty (analog drift, saturation inside the filter loop)

Envelopes

  • Amp envelope (ADSR) with velocity amount
  • Mod envelope (ADSR) with velocity amount, loop, and direct amounts to both cutoffs and to the wavetable position

LFOs (×2)

  • Shapes: Sine, Triangle, Saw Up, Saw Down, Square, S&H, Smooth
  • Free (0.02–40 Hz) or synced to MPC's tempo (17 divisions, 8 bars to 1/32T)
  • Phase, delay, fade-in, depth; Bipolar or Unipolar
  • Trigger: Retrig (per voice, restarts on every note), Free (per voice, never restarted) or Global (one LFO for all voices; when synced, locked to MPC's bar position)

Modulation matrix

12 slots, each with:

  • a source and two targets with their own amounts
  • a via source that scales the amount (e.g. LFO depth by mod wheel)
  • a modifier with an amount: Curve, Rectify, Quantize, S&H or Slew

28 sources: both envelopes, both LFOs, velocity, note, mod wheel, aftertouch (channel and poly), pitch bend, random, alternate, gate, the step sequencer's mod lane, four shape sequencers, four XY pads (X and Y), breath, expression and a constant.

36 targets: global pitch; per oscillator pitch, position, level, pan and detune; both sub levels; noise level and colour; each cutoff and both together, resonance and drive; every stage of both envelopes; LFO rate and depth; volume and pan.

XY pads

Four XY pads, eight knobs that sit well on the Q-Links. AUTO-ASSIGN puts every pad that isn't used yet into a free matrix slot.

Arpeggiator and sequencers

Mode on SEQ → ARP: Off, Arp or Seq.

  • Arpeggiator: Up, Down, Up/Down, Down/Up, Played, Random or Chord; 1–4 octaves; latch; optional step pattern (the step sequencer's rests, velocities and transpositions)
  • 16-step sequencer: note (transposed from the held key), velocity and a mod lane that is also a matrix source; RECORD enters steps from the keys
  • Shape sequencer: four lanes of eight steps (Step, Ramp or Smooth) as matrix sources Shape 1–4, with their own rate
  • Rate, gate and swing; locked to MPC's transport while it plays

Effects

None, on purpose: MPC's insert effects follow the plugin on its track. The filter drive is part of the voice and stays.

Wavetables

Format

Serum-layout WAV files: single-cycle frames back to back, 2048 samples each (or the frame size given in a clm chunk), mono (or the first channel), 32-bit float or 16/24/32-bit PCM, up to 256 frames. A table is normalised as a whole, so level changes across its frames are kept.

Where to put them

Root Path
Plugin folder /sdcard/Synths/Devko - VST - PolyForce/Wavetables
SSD /media/AkaiForce/Wavetables (skipped when no drive is mounted)
  • The first folder level is the category; files directly in a root go to Unsorted. Same-named categories from both roots merge.
  • A name prefix shared by every file in a category (ending in " - ") is hidden: ESW Analog - Jupiter 8 Saw shows as Jupiter 8 Saw.
  • 30 tables are built in (category Built-in): analog, FM, digital, vocal, acoustic and chip shapes, all computed. Classic is ready when the plugin loads; the others are built the first time a sound uses one (a moment of LOADING). The list, with tips: Factory content.

Picking a table

  • Stepper on OSC 1 / OSC 2 (and WAVES): moves exactly one table per turn of a knob, Q-Link or data wheel, through all tables in category order.
  • BROWSE, with OSC 1 or OSC 2 selected: tap a category on the left, then a table. ★ marks the table as a favorite, RND loads a random table from the category, 1>2 copies oscillator 1's table to oscillator 2, 1<>2 swaps them. ★ Favorites and Recent (the last 12) are categories of their own.

Tables load in the background while the sound keeps playing (status line: LOADING). Projects store the table by name, not by number, so adding files never changes a saved sound. If a file is gone, the oscillator falls back to Classic, shows MISSING, and keeps the reference: save the project and the table comes back once the file does.

Presets

  • 205 factory presets in 14 categories (Templates, Bass, Lead, Pad, Keys, Pluck, Bell, Brass & Wind, Strings, Vocal, Synth, Arp & Seq, Drum & Perc, FX), built into the plugin and level-matched. The list: Factory content.
  • SAVE (VOICE tab) writes the current sound to Presets/User/User NNN.pfp in the plugin folder. MPC has no text entry, so presets are numbered; rename the files on a computer if you like. Numbers are never reused.
  • INIT loads the init patch. RANDOM randomizes the sound by the amount next to it; volume and voicing stay untouched and attacks stay playable.
  • Browse them with the PRESET stepper on the VOICE tab, or on BROWSE → PRESETS (categories, favorites, recent, random).

Preset roots: Presets in the plugin folder and /media/AkaiForce/PolyForce Presets on the SSD; categories work as for wavetables. A folder of your own named like a factory category lists next to it as "Bass (files)" and so on.

Tunings

Microtuning from Scala .scl and AnaMark .tun files in Tunings in the plugin folder or /media/AkaiForce/Tunings. Pick one with the TUNING stepper on the VOICE tab. The tuning is saved with the project and with presets.

Files on the device

The plugin folder is /sdcard/Synths/Devko - VST - PolyForce. Where a kind of file has two roots, the first is where PolyForce saves.

What Where
Wavetables *.wav <plugin folder>/Wavetables, /media/AkaiForce/Wavetables
Presets *.pfp <plugin folder>/Presets (saved presets go to User/), /media/AkaiForce/PolyForce Presets
Tunings *.tun, *.scl <plugin folder>/Tunings, /media/AkaiForce/Tunings
Favorites and recent lists <plugin folder>/*.txt

The installer keeps all of these when you upgrade or reinstall.

Status line

Shows Meaning
VOICES 6 CPU 9% PEAK 14% Sounding voices; this instance's CPU use as a share of MPC's audio budget, average and peak
GUARD n The CPU guard has faded out n release tails to keep the audio from dropping out
OSC 1 LOADING <table> A table is loading in the background
OSC 1 MISSING <table> The file wasn't found; Classic plays instead (shown for 5 s, then in the stepper)
TUNING LOADING / TUNING MISSING The same for tuning files

CPU guard: when an instance runs over budget, PolyForce fades out the quietest voices that are only ringing out (release tails). Held and sustained notes are never touched. Details in Performance.

MIDI and transport

Message Effect
Notes Play voices, or feed the arpeggiator / sequencer when its mode is on
Sustain (CC 64) Sustains notes; in Arp / Seq mode it holds the keys
Mod wheel (CC 1), breath (CC 2), expression (CC 11) Matrix sources
Channel and poly aftertouch Matrix source Aftertouch
Pitch bend Pitch, within the bend range; also a matrix source
All Sound Off (CC 120) Silences every voice at once
All Notes Off (CC 123) Releases every note

MPC's tempo drives synced LFOs, the arpeggiator and the sequencers; while MPC's transport plays they lock to its song position.