On the other hand, the UDO dry sound is great already because the polyphony is higher and it can have a nice long release phase on the envelope. So from that perspective it makes sense to have no release phase and use a reverb instead, as Nick alluded to. I mean, an acoustic piano has a release phase because the body of the piano reverberates. I want to conjecture that the main reason people use a release phase in their envelope is to simulate reverb. If you don’t need a release phase on your notes, then 6 voices is enough for a keyboard instrument. I think this is a good question and it’s a shame people are so dismissive of it.

How many notes are you going to be playing while you use the Morphée? Think about it this way: if you want to used the Morphée touch controller on the PolyBrute, what do you have to do? You have to play sustained notes with your right hand and take your left hand off the keyboard and use it to control expression. Vangelis was not worrying about voice stealing, even with limited polyphony, he was playing 3 or 4 notes with lots of expression. They sound massive and expressive, because he modulates the notes as he plays. What are the iconic uses of a synth like the Yamaha CS-80, on the other hand? Things like Blade Runner, where Vangelis plays sustained notes expressively.

It was the first affordable synth that let people forget about voice stealing, because it had 16-voice polyphony. That’s why the DX-7 was one of the best-selling synths of all time. If you want to play rapid arpeggios with sustained notes, you’re going to get voice stealing with a 6 or 8 voice synth, where you would not get voice stealing with something like a $500 JD-Xi, because it has 128+ voices of polyphony. “How do you figure what this synth is for? Btw cs80 had 8 notes of polyphony.”

Polybrute synth