I like that there is little audio stuff…that just takes me away to sample and slice too much and keeps me from making songs.
Ah, in that Benn video he said it was like they had analysed AFX, Squarepusher etc and incorporated that, but I did not watch the whole video, not a fan of his style.
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Yep lots to like. But clearly missed the mark on sampling for many people on this thread.
I guess a lot will keep a watch on it and see/hope what updates come in the next year(s)…
But there is a rumoured second box, right?
Someone mentioned MIDI being 3 note polyphony, it’s actually 7. 
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He’s more making the point that the randomness is deterministic - there are different algorithms for creating and randomising the sequence, so it sounds more musical than random. Seems like it could lend well to most genres tbf but it is a short sequencer and feels one-shot focussed so I guess EDM type stuff is going to be its strong point- it does look like it works well in his demonstration! A couple of the grooves he got into during a short jam sounded pretty good.
Seems like there is no keyboard mode or similar for poly which is a surprise - maybe something they’ll add later but I would have expected it to be there.
only master FX? seems a shortcoming. nice sequencing stuff built in and it’s cool in that way. also, small, modern etc… but w/o deeper sound design stuff it seems a let down. but i could be spoiled by the octatrack’s extensive sound mangling abilities and custom LFOs that can go really really fast and do pseudo granular type stuff to audio files once you dive in.
seems like early days for the firmware. needs that “export as stems” feature real bad which according to the long walk through on matrix synth is something that’s planned.
interesting device… i don’t have any gas for it and would buy an octatrack again if i was in for another sampling/sequencing box. none of these new boxes are replacing the OT in my brain especially since i got an iPad Pro.
That’s clearly something they will add later. 
Pros
There are some pros here. It seems like they brought a lot of playable parts of the Tracker to surface for jamming and composing. And they also introduced some interesting new play modes. It looks like it will be fun to jam on. And it looks like it overcomes the 2 FX per step limit of the Tracker, since has per step adjustments similar to p-locks. Also cool is the per track selectable Control All, which is something I have been waiting for Elektron to implement.
Cons
Price - It removes a lot of functionality of the Tracker but replaces it with ease of use and jammability. Seems like a fair trade, but I feel the prices should have been similar. $799 seems a bit high.
No Audio In - This one seems weird, especially since the Tracker had it. So I can sequence an external synth, but I can’t run it back through the limiter to glue it all together? So in a small setup of only 2 or 3 pieces you need a mixer. Seems like a miss.
No Stereo Samples - They should have offered this feature, even if it eats into allotted sample time. Also, I would be happy if I could burn an extra track and just link two tracks for stereo. ISLA did this on the S2400.
No Polyphony for Internal Samples - Just seems like a miss at this price point.
There are lots of Pros and Cons for this one, and I would like to take it for a spin to see if they balance out.
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There is (if I am understanding you correctly). Not inly does it accept MIDI input, but the right-hand grid can be used as a sort of sideways 2-octave keyboard with octave transpose buttons used to shift the octaves in play:
No audio-in is definitely dealbreaker for me. It just gives you so much more options (esp. with a portable setup).
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Thanks for the correction - seemed in the superbooth video that was glossed over as he made out you could only enter the chords per step
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That’s £800 saved to go towards the Rytm. Good good happy
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Not an engineer so this could be a silly question: in the future could the audio out also function as an audio in?
at least they just don’t pretend that they care about synthesis by removing looping and proper envelopes 
No Tonnetz input, no scrollable window, showing note pitch and length represented on the grid, each line is a linear sequencer ala like a drum machine? Did I miss something or does Polyend not have a clue what a modern grid sequencer is?
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You can get combo audio jacks - they’re often on TRS so you have ring/tip as the send/return basically (like on a mixer).
The jacks on the back of the Intellijel performance cases can also act as ins or outs, but it’s dependant on the circuitry attached to it.
But they’d have had to build it that way so unlikely to come later, I’d expect it to work that way immediately if they had.
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I was also thinking about this earlier, it would need an alternative Os
On the Polyend Play webpage it says “Free, regular firmware updates.” So maybe they have some big plans for this one?
The Tracker went through quite the transformation of getting bugs worked out and adding new features over the first year/year and a half. Maybe Polyend wants to be known as the company that first releases underwhelming gear, but in a year and half…boom!..they’ve almost got it.
“almost” being the key word. And remember they aren’t Akai. I wouldn’t hold my breath for any new amazing features. More likely just see all sorts of bugs ironed out.
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Don’t think these have any earth-shattering new info but from Polyend presenters at least…
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