MIDIClient.init; MIDIIn.connectAll; ( // MIDI // EMF: one major issue here is that ~notes is never actually initialized as an array, so it's nil. when you try to store a Synth at index nn, SC throws an error, because you can't put an item into nil. So, we first initialize ~notes as an array of size 128. After I add this line, your polyphonic MIDI code seems to work fine (no stuck notes) ~notes = Array.newClear(128); MIDIdef.noteOn(\noteOnTest, { arg vel, nn, chan, src; // [vel, nn].postln; ~notes[nn] = Synth.new( \rhubarb, [ \freq, nn.midicps, \amp, vel.linexp(1,127,0.01,0.3), \gate, 1, \detune, 2, \cutoff, 400, \rq, 0.7, ] ); }); MIDIdef.noteOff(\noteOffTest, { arg vel, nn; // [vel, nn].postln; ~notes[nn].set(\gate, 0); ~notes[nn] = nil; }); ) ( SynthDef(\rhubarb, { |freq = 440, gate = 1, cutoff = 1e4, rq = 0.3, amp = 0.3, modDepth = 0.3, detune = 0| var env, osc, osc2, filt, lfo, lfo2, sig; sig = Pulse.ar(freq + detune); env = EnvGen.kr(Env.adsr(0.1, 0.3, 0.3, 0.1), gate, doneAction: 2); lfo = LFNoise2.kr(20).range(1 - modDepth, 1 + modDepth); filt = RLPF.ar(sig, cutoff * lfo, rq); sig = filt * env * amp; Out.ar(0, sig!2); }).add; )