Polyend Tracker Mini

Experiences like yours and others documented in various threads about their devices are common enough that I will likely never own the Polyend Tracker products. Every product from every company has QC issues, stuff happens, but Polyend products seem to have a whole hell of a lot.

10 Likes

To be fair to Polyend, they are obviously not the only company with issues, but the way they handle them does not sit well with me.

Mass producing the Tracker with that annoying pop/click when turning on and off and knowing it can be (and would be) fixed in a hardware revision is very telling.

I might pick up the mini in a few years, but for now I’m cautious

5 Likes

Dint know about the click pop; it’s a bad decision to fix it in new units

Sound On Sound magazine has released their review (which I’ve not read in full due to a paywall).
Odd thing is that they reviewed a pre-production model. And after all this time. Polyend Tracker Mini

1 Like

I don’t think it was bad to fix it, I just wish they would have offered MK1 users to send theirs in to get it fixed too.

Interesting they call it the first revision of the their tracker concept. From what I know it’s the 4th if you count the original tracker revisions.

Also weird that they state they did not review the OG tracker until November 2021, that’s a year after release. I’m not a sound on sound reader, maybe they are just slow. However it makes me wonder if they got a newer unit without the pop/click issues

1 Like

How do you know it’s a scam?

same format as other scams in this area, no self taken photos, no actual information about what is included because they dont know. i could be wrong, if i am this person is horrible at selling things online. ill find out soon i sent them an email

edit: ill eat my boot, this guy just makes a bad craigslist ad

1 Like

Can’t wait to read the gear “hits and misses” thread at year end. Feel like this is going to be a prominent entry…

4 Likes

I really wish I saw this thread for picking up the tracker mini yesterday. But so far it’s a lot of fun. Screen quality is decent too. Feels light enough that speakers, however underpowered, would have been a great choice.

The button layout is nuts though. I’m kind of surprised how things like holding shift to mute tracks doesn’t lineup the buttons under the screen with the display. It’s almost like the display was kind of a completely separate design experience to the button layout in a few places. Also only having 2fx per track is kind of insane.

M8 is on the way too. Comparing and choosing which one to keep is going to be weird.

3 Likes

Mute buttons best when displaying all 8 tracks for sure!

Just got mine recently. New to trackers. Easy to use and the buttons aren’t a problem or big deal (but I haven’t used the OG with jogwheel to feel like its absence is noticed). Had decent sounding songs within a few minutes, which is one of many ways I judge new gear. Sample loading feels a little clunky but not obnoxious. I don’t get any of the “oh, wow, sound effects” feel or noticeable changes in sound with most of the effects, which is not my favorite thing in the world. And the mic seems to pickup taps really well but has been horrible, to the point I wonder if I got a bad unit, when trying to record my voice talking or music playing. But all in all, I got this specifically because I travel a lot and having the ability to get creative musically while traveling is what I was looking for, in addition to something just a little different than my normal via a tracker.
Edit: forgot a piece, song mode confused the hell out of me for about a minute then figured it out and it is one of the key usable features. Combine that with copy pattern to sequentially build patterns that play progressively in song mode and the results are pretty awesome.

4 Likes

I think you’re going to be so pleasantly surprised with the M8. It’s unreal how much more powerful it is and how much cheaper it is, I love it. Favorite piece of gear ever.

2 Likes

After less than a week, I ordered the M8. Listed and sold the PTM after a weekend with it. The only thing I’ll miss from the ptm is… the games? No love lost really. Hopefully their V2 will be incredible.

4 Likes

Yeah, it’s kind of wild how they could release this when the M8 is a thing. Hype still seems to be high around it judging from what I see on social media though.

I do like some very specific things you can do on the PETM but not enough to use it over the M8, to be honest. It is just so lacking and disappointing to use after using the M8 for several years.

Makes sense though as the market in handhelds is barren, almost feels like they jumped in fast and not taking the time to develop some thin great.

I think this is targeted at different crowd than M8 - to those coming from old Amiga/PC sample based trackers, maybe now using Renoise and want something portable/handheld. I’ve seen some videos of M8 and the workflow is just weird to me, not to mention the ultra miniature screen and fonts. It does seem very powerful though and it’s a shame Polyend didn’t improve synthesis capabilities of PTM, which would make it more attractive to general public and maybe also to M8 crowd, wanting something more (physically) comfortable to use. Especially considering the price.

5 Likes

To me, the PTM is much more attractive on paper. The built-in mic alone is reason enough for me to prefer it over the M8. Then the much bigger screen, the usb-c port, and the aestetics.

But when it comes to products, execution makes all the difference, and unfortunately it seems Polyend don’t have a great track record there… :thinking:

5 Likes

Exactly! Sending mine back, the microphone issues alone (could just be mine but it is awful) are enough to say thanks but nevermind.

But the Polyend Play was a huge success which everyone li… oh wait…

4 Likes