Dave Smith Instruments TETRA - Manual (Page 42)

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Using Poly Chain
Poly Chain enables multiple Tetras to be chained together for increased
polyphony, up to 16 voices. MIDI note data from a keyboard, sequencer, or
other controller is intelligently processed so that, when one synth’s maximum
polyphony is reached, additional notes are passed through the Poly Chain Out
jack and routed to another synth. All that is required is a single MIDI cable for
each of the chained synths and a mixer for combining the audio outputs. Tetra
can also be poly chained with a Mopho or Prophet ’08.
The same programs should be loaded into all the chained synths. The easiest
way to do that is to use the Dump command in the Global menu to dump the
programs via MIDI from one synth to the other(s).
Note: Tetra’s program banks 1 and 2 come pre-loaded with the Prophet
’08 factory programs.
On the master instrument—the first Tetra in the chain—set Poly Chain to the
number of additional voices that will be chained: Out 1 (for poly chaining a
Mopho), Out 4, Out 8, or Out 12. To chain three Tetras, set Poly Chain on the
intermediate instrument to InOut4. For four Tetras, set the second instrument in
the chain to InOut8 and the third to InOut4. Regardless of how many are
chained together, the last Tetra is always set to In End. You can also use one or
two Tetras to expand the polyphony of a Prophet ’08. See the illustration at the
end of this section for more information.
You can now virtually ignore the slave unit or units, since the controls on the
master will control all units as if they were a single synth. This includes saving a
program; if you save an edited program on the master, it will also save the
program on the slave(s).
Note: If syncing to an external MIDI clock, set MIDI Clock (Global
menu) on the master and any intermediate units to MIDI In/Out. Set the
last instrument in the chain to MIDI In.
When Poly Chain is set to Off, the Poly Chain MIDI out jack simply duplicates
the MIDI out jack.
A Note About Poly Chain and the Mopho Desktop
Unlike Tetra and the Prophet ’08, Mopho does not have layered programs. It is
only one voice and so can not do stacked or split programs. Because of that,
when slaving a Mopho to a Tetra for poly chaining (for 5 voices total), only
Tetra’s four voices will play when a stacked or split program is selected. In
other words, the Mopho voice will only play in normal keyboard mode.