It’s ooooooon 
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Hey guys,
I got the tracker almost a month ago, but did not had the time to play around with it much.
However I did notice the wheel started skipping when going backwards.
Do I need to return it? 
Looks like a bad one to me…
Did you buy it new or used? I thought the wheel problems were fixed on the new ones…
Bought it new from Thomann. It also came without the protective film on the screen.
I sent them serial number and they verified that it was indeed a new product, not a b-stock.
“New” to a retailer might just mean it wasn’t used or returned, not that it was part of a recent batch. Is the finish brushed aluminum? I think the latest ones are. I got a new one straight from the US distributor that was not from the latest batch. It was new out of the box, but not the latest iteration, I think. There was no screen protector on it. Nevertheless, that jog wheel is bad and it should be sent back. Polyend will do right by you, I’m sure.
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You are correct, this is probably from an older batch. It doesn’t have the brushed aluminum finish.
I will have to return it. It’s quite unusable this way. If I move the jog wheel slower it doesn’t skip that much, but as you’ve seen, on a longer sample it takes ages to move around.
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Yeah, it will only get worse. No need to fight with that. Most users don’t seem to have this issue and neither should you.
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If you’re brave enough you can either replace or clean it yourself
It seems that the jogwheel problems are from too much lubricant applied to the contacts
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@fletcher I notice on your video it makes a louder clicking when turned CCW, mine does not do that.
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Thanks for the suggestion. I am however still on the fence. The import tax and shipping costs were pretty big and don’t want to go thru the hassle, however considering that this is not even a month old product it kinda doesn’t make sense to try to repair it myself. I was contacted by Polyend and I will see with them first before making a decision.
Yeah, thanks for noticing. Actually I can only hear clicking when turned ccw, and almost no audible clicking when turned cw. I don’t know if this behavior is on every Tracker out there or not. There are probably different encoders that came with different batches.
Mine does that too
Mine doesn’t audibly ‘click’, but I can feel a very defined ‘stepping’ when turning the wheel in either direction. I believe this is the normal behavior.
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I checked mine again, it does sound different CW to CCW but not as noticeable as @fletcher video sounds, might be the way the mic is picking it up making it sound more drastic?
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I have no PT so my opinion is “only” based on experiences with other gear.
To a certain extent I’m willing to wait for FW updates especially when I look at newly released products that I had to buy immediately due to my GAS.
However I don’t accept mechanic flaws, e.g the skipping as shown in your video.
So Ì’d bite the bullet and return it ASAP. I couldn’t stand the permanent annoyance daily looking at a well paid item that does not work as expected.
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It is quite noticeable over here, going clockwise there is almost no click, but you can feel the stepping as Scot described, only when it’s not skipping.
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Hey there folks ! I’m pretty most people who are still looking at this thread already have a Tracker, but anyway, it is possible to get one for free for those who pre-order my next vinyl release on Bandcamp.
The digital is free (pay what you want should I say) here:
The three tracks from the EP have been started on the Tracker, usualy controlling some other hardware synth (mostly analog stuff such as Xoxbox, Medusa, Analog Four), recorded in multitrack and then re mashed into Ableton Live.
Have fun listening, and if you think it’s inapropriate to post this here just let me know and i’ll delete the post
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Finally made it through this entire thread after 2 days of straight eye bleeding reading and believe to have made up my mind to jump into a Polyend Tracker here soon. I’ve used Renoise but it seemed to be overkill for me and also FastTracker 2, which I really enjoyed but don’t want to be glued to a Computer.
I have a good sized studio, but have been wanting something to jam with on my couch, sketch ideas, and maybe later integrate with some of my other synths / gear in a larger setting if the situation calls for it. I just sold my Nanoloop FM because it was intended for making tunes in a more “on the go way” , however it was so confusing to use. If I didn’t play with it for awhile, I would completely forget how to operate the damn thing due to lack of visual feedback.
Now as it stands, I’ve heard many of the Pros / Cons about the Polyend Tracker. Some concerns I have would be
- Is the headroom really a huge issue? Can’t you just compensate by turning the track levels down? Or possibly use the in built Mastering Comp to prevent clipping?
- Is Polyphonic recording that difficult? You can just span out notes across a few different lanes right?
- are the filters really that lackluster? The samples you put in are, for the most part, what you’re going to get out of it.
- how many of you are actually finishing tracks with the song mode? Is it really helping to get things completed down the road? Or is it more fun to just have a few patterns and rock the performance mode?
I really want to thank @Stazma @Unifono @phaelam and others for speaking praises on the device which may have something to do with my decision. I know the unit didn’t work out for some others @glooms (m8 tracker preference ) and @nilsec (midi sync issues) , but everybody is different.
Thanks for all the information here and can’t wait till they announce a version 1.5 and hopefully add some features / squash some bugs.
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I’ve had mine a couple of weeks and it’s great for pissing about on on the sofa.
The filters aren’t very good, but they’re not so bad as to be unusable.
I’ve not had any headroom issues that I couldn’t deal with, and I like pushing things pretty hard. There’s obviously not a huge amount of headroom, but it really hasn’t been a problem for me.
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