Polyphony (instrument)

This article is about a feature of electronic instruments. For the musical texture see Polyphony. Polyphony is the property of an electronic musical instrument which describes how many notes it can sound at one time. An instrument which can produce multiple notes at a time is said to be polyphonic. If an instrument is capable of playing 16 notes at once, for example, it is said to have 16-voice polyphony or 16-note polyphony. By extension, polyphony may be used to describe traditional instruments. For example, a piano may be said to be polyphonic while a flute is not. Instruments which are not capable of polyphony are monophonic. The property of polyphony may extend to devices not generally considered to be musical instruments. Examples include mobile phones with polyphonic ringtones and video game consoles.
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