Polyend Tracker Mini

At least they sorted the jog wheel issue.

:innocent:

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I’m finally on the website. Says 8 mins of mono recording time, so halve that for stereo samples. Still decent.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=48&v=wStx77sLEko&embeds_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fpolyend.com%2F&feature=emb_logo

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Seriously, I really like the Tracker but jogwheel on mine broked after 3 fays, on the other, there was a problem with pads so I send it back to thomann. With this new version, no more jogwheel and pads, it will maybe be the right device for me :nerd_face:

It’s a standard kind of encoder with a giant heavy metal disc on top. If you press down on the edge it creates huge torque and can damage the encoder.

Stereo samples :+1:t3:

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“increased clock stability”

if they don’t backport this to the Tracker I shall be so very upset

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I see, that’s a shame. I’m assuming it’s a fairly standard electrical contact type affair, I wish more manufactures would put contactless switches/buttons/analogue controls on their hardware, there’s various optical/hall effect/capacitive designs out there. Might make stuff a bit more expensive but it can last so much longer.

Is the original going to be discontinued? Polyend seems to be throwing a lot of shade on it with their ad copy for the Mini, and it’s not like the two sit at vastly different price points.

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I guess it seems fine and I’m sure it’ll do OK for Polyend… But I’ve got an M8 and a PT and the things it loses to make it more portable were the few areas of the PT that I preferred over the M8. And there is still loads about the M8 that make it preferrable to me. Hopefully the cross-compatibility between the two versions of the PT will mean that we can look forward to some updates for the larger PT - as others have mentioned there are still plenty of areas where it just feels unpolished.

I did enjoy Benn J’s mental gymnastics to justify why he wasn’t going to be mentioning the M8 in his video even though it was most definitely the (very small) elephant in the room…

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Hilariously some encoders use contactless sensing internally, but they still have shafts to stick knobs on. Reasonable though, it keeps things aligned and in one piece.

I cannot believe that the leaked image with the worst UI is the one in the video now.

Those buttons, all those wasted space, the ± buttons, IO at the bottom…. While internal specs might be a step up, I hope the final UI doesn’t match the prototype one….

When you watch Ben use that device, it doesn’t look fluid and intuitive.

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too bad they didn’t go for the binaural mic

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It’s nice that Polyend addressed some concerns that people had with the OG Tracker, but I am not a fan of the form-factor. I like to play parts in sometimes, or notes, and the missing grid is a big miss for me. Watching that promo video for the Tracker “Mini” where he is playing it with a Keystep is just funny to me. It’s smaller, it’s more portable, it’s hamstrung.

Right now the OG still wins for me, even with the shortcomings. Hopefully they take all these improvements, and more, and do a MKII.

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They market this in the web as “make your tracks on the studio and finish on the go with full compatibility” so definitely not. I guess they try to sell both to users seeing this. Only problem I see is the normal route would be the opposite right? Improvisation and finish in the main one in studio… don’t know, weird marketing… maybe projects started in the mini are NOT compatible on the OG

So the software is still the same, so any changes in one will appear in the other, just the hardware limitations on the OG right now I guess?

I think MK2 will be real someday, but not for now imo.

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I cant buy a portable anything without a speaker. The one in the OP1F is good, the M8 one is ok. Why would I want a portable anything and have to haul around headphones…no way.

I guess to me trackers are such copy, paste, edit selection, type instruments I don’t really see the need of including a note input, like the speed and flow of a tracker comes from laying down like 3 notes and then going crazy pasting and transposing them all around.

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Super cool ad campaign :+1:t6:

How cool would it be if you could take your MIDI heavy tracker projects and hear those instruments on the go with onboard mono/poly synth engines…

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That’s cool, this one will probably do well for you then.

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