Polyphony, explained

Polyphony is the number of voices - simultaneous sounds - the engine can produce before it starts stealing notes. It is the most quoted spec on a spec sheet and the most misunderstood: a note is not a voice, "192" on a budget keyboard is not better than "128" on a professional one, and after a certain point the number stops telling you anything about how the instrument sounds.

Why one note can eat four voices

On most instruments the piano sample is stereo: one key press costs two voices (left and right). Add pedal-held notes that keep sounding after release, string and damper resonance layers, and a layered sound, and a three-note chord with the pedal down can consume a dozen voices. That is why 64 voices - which sounds enormous next to ten fingers - can actually run out in dense, pedalled repertoire. The number to keep in mind: divide by two for stereo, then watch the pedal.

How much do you need?

64 voices covers solo practice and light use. 128 voices has been the comfortable standard since the mid-2010s and is enough for serious solo piano with heavy pedalling. 192-256 adds headroom for layered sounds, split setups, recording and dense resonance modelling - and 384 and above appears on modelled pianos and flagship workstations, where multiple engines run at once. For a first digital piano, 64 is fine and 128 is generous; treat anything above 256 as a bonus, not a goal.

Where big numbers lie

Two honest warnings. First: some low-cost direct-to-consumer brands advertise polyphony numbers their engines cannot sustain - treat any claim without a named engine with suspicion. Second: multi-engine machines (Korg Kronos, Nautilus) do not have one number at all - each engine has its own, from 40 to 200 voices. We keep those as "varies by engine" below instead of inventing a single figure, and the same applies to 128 models whose manufacturers publish no polyphony at all.

The database by polyphony (472 documented models)