Polyphony and Voices

Use a Polyphony Zone to author one synth voice and let Throughline run a separate copy for each held note. The Zone is the public authoring surface; its allocator and per-voice runtime copies stay hidden.

Create an Empty Zone

1. Press Shift+A and search for Polyphony Zone. You can also right-click an empty area, search the node browser for Polyphony Zone, and choose that catalog item.
2. Place the Zone on the canvas.
3. Connect a MIDI Input to the Zone's MIDI input.
4. Build the oscillator, envelope, filter, and amplifier voice inside the Zone.
5. Connect the Zone's audio output to Audio Output.

The node browser intentionally does not expose the Zone's internal routing nodes.

Wrap an Existing Voice

To turn a working monophonic voice into a Zone:

1. Select the voice nodes, including the oscillator, envelope, filters, and amplifier. Leave shared MIDI and Audio Output nodes outside the selection.
2. Right-click the selection and choose Create Polyphony Zone.
3. Check the resulting boundary cables: MIDI should enter the Zone and audio should leave it.

Throughline moves the selected chain into one voice definition and keeps the whole operation as one undo step. Nested Polyphony Zones are not supported.

Voice Controls

• Mode chooses polyphonic or monophonic note assignment.
• Voices accepts 1–16 voices. When an older patch specifies more than 16, Throughline reduces the value to 16 as it loads the patch.
• Stealing chooses the voice to reassign when all voices are active:
  • Oldest reassigns the longest-held voice.
  • Quietest reassigns the voice with the lowest note-on velocity and uses the oldest voice when velocities match.
  • Highest reassigns the highest-numbered active voice.
  • Oldest is the default, including when a patch contains an invalid value.
• Legato and Glide shape note transitions when the selected mode makes them relevant.

Save and reload a patch normally. Throughline preserves the Zone, its controls, and its MIDI/audio boundary connections.

Monophonic Voices

Oscillator is a single voice. It has one Pitch input, so it is best for basses, leads, drones, and effects that follow one note or control stream at a time.

Build the voice explicitly:

1. MIDI Input MIDI Out -> MIDI Decode MIDI In.
2. MIDI Decode Pitch -> Oscillator Pitch.
3. MIDI Decode Gate -> ADSR Gate.
4. Oscillator Signal -> VCA Signal.
5. ADSR Envelope -> VCA Gain.
6. VCA Signal -> Audio Output Audio In.

Unison

Unison stacks several detuned copies of the same note for a thick, wide sound. It is still one played note, not authored polyphony, so it costs far less than a Zone.

It is built into Oscillator rather than being a separate node. Use it to fatten a mono lead or bass:

• Unison Voices sets how many copies, from 1 to 8.
• Unison Detune spreads them in pitch, up to 50 cents.
• Unison Spread widens them in the stereo field, from 0 to 1.

All three are also control inputs, so unison width can be modulated.

Reach for unison when you want one note to sound bigger. Reach for a Zone when you want to play chords.

Keep Shared Processing Outside

The nodes inside a Zone run once per active voice. Put shared effects, meters, and the final Audio Output after the Zone unless you deliberately want one copy per voice. Use the visible boundary cables to distinguish the per-voice chain from the shared graph.