Multitimbrality

Multitimbrality is the ability of a single musical instrument, sound module, or software synthesizer to produce and manage more than one distinct timbre, or patch, at the same time. A timbre is the tonal color of a sound as distinct from its pitch and loudness. In a multitimbral setup, each timbre is often referred to as a part or zone and can have its own oscillator settings, envelope, filters, effects, and MIDI routing.

Multitimbral devices use multiple MIDI channels or internal voice allocations to play different timbres simultaneously. On keyboards or workstations, the keyboard can be split or layered so that different regions trigger different tones, or the same notes trigger multiple timbres. In practice, a multitimbral synth may offer 2, 4, 8, or more parts, and each part can be independently sequenced or played from different MIDI channels within a performance or patch.

Historically, multitimbrality emerged with electronic workstations and sophisticated synthesizers in the late 20th century and is now standard in hardware workstations and software instruments. Classic multitimbral hardware synths and workstations often advertise a specific number of parts, while software setups commonly run multiple instances of a synth or sampler to achieve a similar result. Examples include various Yamaha Motif and SY-series workstation capabilities, Roland Fantom, Korg Kronos, and other modern instruments, as well as software configurations that route different timbres to separate MIDI channels.

Multitimbrality is distinct from polyphony. Polyphony refers to the number of simultaneous notes, while multitimbrality refers to the number of independent timbres available. Devices may be polyphonic within each timbre and multitimbral across timbres, with design decisions shaped by CPU, memory, and effects routing.