While I was sequencing the Chopin concerto and playing the sequence back with the JV1080 alone, I noticed that when the piano was playing with the orchestra, some notes of the orchestra suddenly dropped out indicating a lack of polyphony. This ruined the harmony and effect I was trying to create.

The Roland JV1080 has 64 voice polyphony. This does not mean that 64 notes from different instruments can sound at the same time. Some instrumental patches require more than one voice. For example the GM pizzicato strings patch requires one voice but the acoustic piano requires two voices. This means that in theory, 64 different notes played by pizzicato strings could sound simultaneously, but only 32 on the acoustic piano. Anything more than the maximum number of voices will cause drop-outs in notes.

Using the sustaining pedal for the piano (controller 64) combines notes played at different times and this increases the number of voices used at a time, so that when the number of combined voices exceeds 64 this too will cause drop outs.

I solved this problem in a very simple way and achieved a magnificent orchestral effect. I used my Yamaha Clavinova (polyphony of 32) to play only the piano part, and then the JV1080 to play just the orchestra.

I connected the Yamaha Clavinova "midi in" via a cable to the "midi through" port on my JV1080. The JV1080 "midi in" was connected to the "midi out" on the AWE-64 of the sound card in my PC. This is called "daisychaining" midi instruments.

I set the Yamaha Clavinova to receive midi data only on the midi channel of the piano solo track that I used in the midi sequence of the concerto, in this case channel 14 (even though it was receiving all the same channels that the JV1080 was receiving it only responded to channel 14).

I started to play back the sequence and I pressed the tone switch for channel 14 on the front panel of the JV1080, so that I muted or disabled it from playing the piano patch on that channel. The midi data for channel 14 was being sent via the midi through connector to the Yamaha Clavinova and the notes of the piano were heard on it. There are probably other ways of diasbling a midi channel on the synthesizer.

In this way I conserved the full polyphony of both the JV1080 and the Yamaha Clavinova and eliminated any drop-outs. I could adjust the volume of either to achieve best balance between piano and orchestra.

I am sure this technique will work well with any pair of synthesizers, an electric piano and a synthesizer or a diskclavier and a synthesizer. The orchestral accompaniment can be played through a stereo system and the electric piano can be placed in between the loudspeakers. This will produce quite a magnificent effect. Good luck!

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