Polyend Tracker Mini

One of the most interesting features I think is its power. Be interesting to see what features are added as seems to have plenty of room to add stuff

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Shame they couldn’t arrange the buttons to give enough space for some buttons along the bottom. I’m sure they must have thought about it, or even had prototypes, before going with the current design.

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Yeah, but I guess the pads went out immediately with the handheld idea.
It’s a different paradigm, all thumb based. (great for the NES emulator! :slight_smile: )
The pads would probably not make much sense.
Same with the front vs backside connectors.

I feel this way, too. Think I’m going to hold out for an OG mkII.

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Whether they are the best pads in the world or not is probably not as important as the fact that the pads are kind of Polyend’s signature thing from the grid to the Medusa to the tracker… and integral to their workflow use so probably should have included some on the tracker mini imho, unless you created a better workflow without them

playing with mini

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finally a good look at how that performance mode is applied , thanks

Still not letting anyone else hold it :thinking:
I’m sure that’s because they only have 3 or 4 prototypes at this point, and not worried about anyone else gripping it and realising it’s an ergonomic nightmare

that is a little weird no one’s been allowed hold it thus far :joy:

it won best in show at namm tho. fair play :+1:

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Probably says more about the quality of this year’s namm as much as anything

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just gimme a handheld elektron. enough o this sh1te. :joy:

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always willing to give devs the benefit of the doubt until the doubt becomes a certainty…

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Ergonomic until proven clunky.

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Remember when the 3rd version of the OG Tracker came out? Some of it was plastic instead of metal (which I don’t really care about, I’ll rock a plastic one, doesn’t matter) and people were up in arms about it. Do you remember what Polyend said? I’ll tell you what they said. They said it was the Tracker they always wanted to make. Now they’re saying this mini is the Tracker they always wanted to make. I’m beginning to think they just make shit up. Whatever sounds good. I still love mine but as a company, they’re starting to lose me a little. I don’t know, they just don’t seem very transparent but now that I think about it, what company is?

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I mean, that’s a definite possibility. But couldn’t they also just be telling the truth? Like, the mini was the tracker they wanted to make. And of course it would be made out of plastic — the bent-metal frame would be too heavy for a hand-held device.

But it turned out they couldn’t make it small enough, so they decided to test the waters with a desktop model first. Then it turned out injection moulding was too much up-front cost for a device they weren’t sure about. But since is was desktop, now, they could use dirt-cheep bent metal frame because weight wasn’t an issue anymore?

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Fellas, fellas (and ladies)…it is not at all uncommon for a company to have multiple products that are based on the same core product. In fact, it’s how most businesses work. Let’s all give Polyend a chance here and not be up in arms about them releasing a second Tracker that has x number of differences from the OG. I for one am excited to see this new Mini, even with zero experience with the OG because the ergonomics seem compelling to me.

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They’ve let people hold it. People in Discord that went had time to use it.

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I’m looking forward to pairing the mini and the full sized. I can see a nice clean workflow between the two.

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I haven’t been involved with Polyend’s history at all, but I’ve noticed a pretty weird sentiment across all channels - here, Youtube, Reddit. Everyone seems to err on the side of negativity, skepticism and not giving them the benefit of the doubt. Assuming that it’s an ergonomic nightmare before holding it, questioning the workflow, feeling betrayed because a new product has better specs than a product that was released something like three years ago, etc.

Just curious to understand this better, as someone who is genuinely interested in this new product and think it could be just the kind of handheld groovebox I’ve been looking for.

That would be the dream. :slight_smile:

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I find it weird to send a product for reveal to a popular synthfluencer on YouTube, who on the one hand makes videos telling people not to buy new gear, and then releases 2 teasers (one of which being with another guy who also tells people to stop buying new gear) and a video of a product he is telling people to check out like FOMO because the original sold out like hotcakes. You can buy the original tracker readily, so not sure why someone would rush to pre-order something right now that hasn’t been properly reviewed.

Website for pre-orders went down! Holy crap! Gotta get one!

The only skepticism is from folks on here, and seeing as how it doesn’t exist in a review form yet, I think that’s more than warranted. I can make an argument in the other direction asking why so many people feel such a strong need to justify & defend a product that hasn’t been released yet.

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