Ready for Eurorack 2.0 and 8-voice polyphony..? - TipTop Audio's new ART protocol
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 16 ก.ย. 2024
- TipTop Audio has boldly announced a new digital protocol for note data called ART. It is supposedly more than 40 times faster than MIDI. It is almost without latency and is especially suited for modular, ie eurorack. TipTop Audio has also announced no less than 9 new modules, in addition to that a so-called polyphonic patch cable named Polytip that accomodates 8 voices. All this to make true 8-voice polyphony a reality. How good is it..? That remains to be seen, but some of the new modules give us some ideas...
![[FULL EP.16] เซียนพาลุย "เผือก-ฟรอยด์" กรี๊ดลั่น จนปูหนี | เฮ็ดอย่างเซียนหรั่ง | One Playground](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/FsqUvwS3b-Y/mqdefault.jpg)
exciting
We'll see what happens. There are other standards that will give us polyphony as well...
Elegance at the expense of the elegance of the universality of the patch cable. Suddenly we have three different cables that don't work interchangeably. I saw someone refer to ART as "post-modular" and I kinda agree. To me this just isn't in the spirit of "modular". I hope they can carve out a sustainable niche for people who are interested, but I certainly don't want ART to become the new standard.
That's is a good point! Anyway, if workable polyphony of, say, 8 or more voices is the goal, I think the monophonic patch cable will not be a part of the equation. I want it to, really, but I don't see how.
I'm a developer working on the problems of polyphony in a modular system, and I have to say it's kind of all about compromise. ANY solution is going to be non-optimal, so what's left is arguing about what non-optimal solution will be pursued.
@@suitandtieguy A change is gonna come. The monophonic patch cable won't solve it, that's for sure. What do you think about ART? And what about MIDI 2.0 that you mentioned, why not this instead of ART..?
@@axis_8 a change isn't necessarily going to come. The kind of people who need polyphony for composition are a minor part of the eurorack market, and for them they use their modular systems for different kinds of timbres than their polyphonic synthesisers. The market for a eurorack format polyphonic synthesizer with multivoice control paths is even smaller than the market for STG Soundlabs eurorack systems, and obviously no one cares about those.
I think the best compromise is an Oberheim style approach. Keep an eye out for what I'm working on.
@@suitandtieguy Hmm.. You're a lot more into it than I am, so I believe you. Anyway, modules like TTA Vortex 6, ie hybrid between monophonic patch points and polyphonic ones, including ART input, may be a way to make polyphony interesting for a wider audience, that is a gradual change that leaves no one out of options.
We already have a polyphonic digital protocol to connect modules: MIDI.
Indeed. But there's ostensibly a problem with latency when it comes to interconnecting modular devices, hence ART, which is so much faster.
@@axis_8 midi 2.0 exists, it could have been used.
@@suitandtieguy Ah, I didn't know that. Thanks for enlightening me. Polyphony, workable and efficient, will come one day. How..? Maybe ART, or maybe MIDI 2.0, then. Exciting times...
Great video.
Yes indeed, I have been playing with some of the modules…..the octopus is great !
That's cool! Looking forward to trying them out!
Doepfer has a bunch of compact and inexpensive 4 in one modules fyi
Hi, I know, but TipTop's solution, successful or not, points towards the future by its elegance imho. And it gives us 8-voice polyphony...
Thanks for the news. This is nice and welcome, however it defeats the purpose of eurorack. Eurorack is about stripping the various possible signals so you can route them in any crazy way you feel like. If one does not want to deal with cables (which is understandable) there’s all sorts of great synths in the market, such as Waldorf, DSI, Arturia, MOOG, Korg, Roland, Yamaha, etc.
Thank you! I see your point. A legitimate one. However, polyphony, at least with 8 voices or more, leads to a lot of problems that monophonic patch cables cannot make efficient and tidy, neither is 1V/Oct suitable. TTA tries to address this. We'll see.
@@axis_8 Modular systems are most powerful when used monophonically, though.
Nobody is stopping you from building a modular polyphonic system, of course, but.. say, 8 full "voices"? You either get a system 8 times bigger, or you get 8 copies of each module. Either way, you'll either be using a lot os space or lose a lot of flexibility and potential..
@@dr.getter7118 Should think that modular systems are equally powerful when used duophonically..? Or, by extension, with a higher degree of polyphony..? But, practically speaking, all the cables required with, say, 8 voices (and 8 copies of almost every module) will probably quench the prospect of creative patching... I think ART is a tentative answer to that, but we'll see...
@@axis_8 I mean, given any modular synth, it's more flexible if used monophonically than polyphonically.
For example, picture a synth with 4 VCOs, 4 VCFs and 4 VCAs. You can either use it to generate 4 standard polyphonic voices, OR you can use it as a monosynth with a powerful 4 oscillator voice (and if you want you can do FM or cross-mod), 4 filters which you can run in series, parallel, or re-route in interesting feedback patches, and 4 VCAs which you can use to control amplitude or to control modulation signals or really anything else you might want to do.
The same number of modules offers you more possibilities if you don't force yourself into making multiple copies of the same sub-patch (vco -> vcf ->vca) . And, as others hav already said, if you just want that audio path structure and you want polyphony, then you've already got better alternatives. Anything from Sequential would be up your alley. In a modular synth? It will take up more space, and it might cost more depending on your requirements. You can do it, of course. But it's just not where modular shines, I think.
@@dr.getter7118 I see your point more clearly now, and I'll buy it.
Yeah they will need to make it open if it is to work
This is so important to stress. Hope TTA understands this, and do not get a bloated ego because of "their" invention.
@@axis_8 Right. There were multiple standards being used around the time of the invention of MIDI. MIDI standard was released for everybody to use.
@@mechuniversal Good historical lesson. 👍
TipTop has a good idea, but probably the result of adding a standard like that will be chasing more people off of Eurorack and back to DAW's.
Maybe. I'm wondering, are there enough people doing eurorack to make polyphony modules like these an affordable endeavour for Tiptop (and others)...?
IMO Modular Synths are for making weird bleeps and noises in complicated nerdy ways - no need for polyphony. Do i want a polyphonic chainsaw or fridge - no.
For other people, it's just a way of making music. Similarly, a one-string guitar is pretty okay, might be fun, but more strings make different sounds.
Hmm, I fathom the feeling you are conveying, but every ecosystem evolves... I think polyphony should be implemented in an elegant way, and in my opinion TipTop Audio is on track, though there may be something lacking in the new modules, e.g. more extensive modulation possibilities (in all fairness, too early to conclude)...
Anyway, I think eurorack should be open to an efficient way of making polyphony possible for those who would like to embark on that path. But I totally agree, polyphony is not for everybody, and that's fine. Eurorack should be a place for every kind of inclination.
I like to have opportunities. Polyphony, 8 voices or more, is one of those opportunities I'ld welcome.
@@axis_8 i agree
@@axis_8 i'm going to start with TipTop Audio 😎
Yes that's what we need even more overpriced modules.
More, more, more! 🙃
ART seems like a needless reinvention of the wheel The MIDI 2.0 specification does all that ART is capable of and more. It would have made much more sense to simply embrace the MIDI 2.0 standard rather than invent yet another digital music protocol;.
You may be right, but I don't think we know enough about the ART protocol at this point to pass judgement. I certainly hope that ART wasn't made for proprietary purposes... If MIDI 2.0 would do it, it's strange that TTA bothers to spend money on an alternative. Hmm... I noticed that ART, according to TTA, was made specifically for modular, as if modular necessitates a special protocol... We'll see for sure.
Exactly. Stay away from not open non-standsrds (not sure if it is or is not open, but it definitely is no standard like MIDI 2.0) is what the past have proven more than once.
It looks like a USB-C connector type. Those are garbage and wear out very quickly.
C-type, indeed. We'll see.