Ndlr Pad/Polychain question

[Jesse Johannesen]

Hello

I recently bought a ndlr to pair with my Electribe 2. To give a little context, the Electribe has 16 synth or drum parts, and each part as 4 note polyphony.

When I use Pad I notice I can set the range to more than 4 notes (if polychain is off). Why is that?

Secondly, I don’t really understand polychain. Say, if I had polychain set to 2, I guess I would have 8 notes on the Electribe to play with (4x2)? Would it be best to have 2 pad patches which are the same or 2 completely different patches?

Thanks in advance.

Hi JCFAX
Thank you for supporting the project, it means a lot. You asked about the Pad part range and why it can go past 4 notes, seeing as the polychain only goes to 4, and the answer is that the Pad part is intended to be able to play wide sweeping chords when needed and often voiced over several ocatves. The polychain is in some ways a workaround for someone with more synths with less polyphony, since many analog synths, for instance, tend to have fewer voices available than  their digital counterparts, it offers a way to spread those notes across several voices. Not to say that this couldn't be used to great effect without being forced into it by necessity.
As for your second question, I believe that is the way that would work, I'll check tomorrow and get back to you. As for whether or not to double up the patch or play 2 different ones, I would say both could be equally rewarding. My only suggestion might be to find complementary patches if you decide to go that way, maybe both have longer attacks and a similar release time? Honestly it's fun to just try things out until you find something you like.
Take care,
Jesse Johannesen