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Polyend Tracker

category: general [glöplog]
 
I live under a rock, so this is likely old news, but anyway:

I just found out that a company made a hardware tracker (!). Like FT2/IT/Renoise, but in a box. https://polyend.com/tracker/

Now, I thought trackers would be way too niche for such a product, but apparently they think differently. Which is awesome!

I'm seriously considering buying one (assuming it comes back in stock), because I love the idea of a single self-contained device for making music that doesn't have an internet browser. Given the likely target audience, I assume plenty sceners have one? Or are considering buying one?

Ergo, is it any good?
added on the 2021-06-25 15:27:31 by skrebbel skrebbel
But... Does it play MODs?
added on the 2021-06-25 15:31:14 by raer raer
apparently yes. no idea about the replay precision, which i doubt has been a priority.
added on the 2021-06-25 15:34:02 by skrebbel skrebbel
There are a couple more: NerdSEQ (found this at Superbooth two years ago and was positively surprised to see something tracker-related there :) and the M8.
In stock here https://bleep.com/merch/209020-polyend-tracker (also read available @ Thomann, Juno but not checked those sites).
added on the 2021-06-25 16:00:21 by kRiZ^cMz kRiZ^cMz
I only knew the M8. Interesting thing.
added on the 2021-06-25 16:17:04 by xernobyl xernobyl
TIL the Polyend can also do .it, not just .mod – nice!

Interestingly, all three are very close together price-wise (450–500 €). The NerdSEQ for Eurorack is obviously less portable, and has no MIDI out-of-the-box.

My hope is the Polyend makes for a great UI to sequence other devices via MIDI.
added on the 2021-06-25 16:49:38 by Y0Gi Y0Gi
Thomann.de has them readily available, including three special designs (at 700 €, though).
added on the 2021-06-25 16:51:07 by Y0Gi Y0Gi
Old news yes. Cool machine, but too expensive.
added on the 2021-06-25 19:36:35 by arm1n arm1n
Yeah, I hope the price drops when the M8 becomes available.
added on the 2021-06-25 20:13:38 by Y0Gi Y0Gi
Cool stuff. I'd love to bang out chiptunes like some people do live, but my musicality is sadly "limited" to put it mildly...
added on the 2021-06-25 20:45:38 by raer raer
I have one.

It has a weird workflow. If you have a tracker workflow you're used to, and want to have that on-the-go, it's probably ok for you. But think "scroll wheel" instead of "mouse".

It's not a machine that you start and suddenly creative energy flows endlessly -- I'm still decided on keeping mine until I have time studying its functions... whenever.
added on the 2021-06-25 22:39:13 by qm210 qm210
Quote:

It's not a machine that you start and suddenly creative energy flows endlessly


any idea why? or, what kind of machine does have that effect on you?
added on the 2021-06-25 22:41:55 by skrebbel skrebbel
Well, its a lot of menu-fiddling.

Machines that don't have the requirement of knowing their digital menu structure do have such an effect on me. Like, synths with many hands-on-knobs that visualize their state at most given times. Or even complex machines like my MatrixBrute, i.e. a mixture of easily-accessible random tuning, "empirical learning", rather than "I think I need to go through some hours of YouTube / manuals first".

But I'll give it a chance. If any of you is @ UC11, I might bring it along, np :)
added on the 2021-06-25 22:47:41 by qm210 qm210
right! thanks! :-)
added on the 2021-06-25 23:34:44 by skrebbel skrebbel
@qm210: I'll be there. Would love to try it!
added on the 2021-06-25 23:58:11 by Y0Gi Y0Gi
@qm210: Yes, bring it to UC!
added on the 2021-06-26 17:12:20 by henne henne
It doesn't support stereo samples.
added on the 2021-06-27 02:43:27 by jco jco
i had one and sold it after two weeks. just couldn't get into the workflow at all, every time it's like "i could do this so much faster in a impulse tracker on a computer"
@y0gi, henne: sure. find me at the infodesk :)

What I actually like is that idea to record samples from radio. That is, if you know some good radio stations, of course :P
added on the 2021-06-28 11:48:06 by qm210 qm210
The yellow playdate console might be a great platform to code a tracker or some sound toys. Anyone thinking about getting one?

BB Image

https://play.date/dev/
added on the 2021-06-29 02:59:12 by xernobyl xernobyl

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