Polyend Tracker

The Lounge Other Gear
#7879

I’m not 100% sure, but would be surprised if there’s any way to tell from the packaging.

#7880

thanx

#7881

  1. Throw it at a metal detector. If it dings or dents, it is metal. If it shatters, it is plastic.

  2. Have the seller play some music on it. If it sounds metal, it is metal.

  3. I’m not helping.

4 Likes
#7882

:grin:

1 Like
#7883

are the metal trackers worth more than the plastic ones?

#7884

To some, definitely. Having had both I can say that the plastic is perfectly fine so I don’t personally see why. Different strokes for different folks I guess :0)

#7885

The metal is nice, but the back case is made in a way that leaves some gaps at the corners. Honestly between the lighter weight and the more well-sealed case I might prefer the plastic back.

4 Likes
#7886

Indeed I have a plastic back one and it’s completely fine

It also ensures you have the improved encoder design.

1 Like
#7887

from what I can tell people are asking for more $ for the metal ones

1 Like
#7888

the mysterious “improved encoder” that no one can elaborate on… it’s like bigfoot or nessy!

wonder if is it actually a different encoder (if so whats the new part #), or just a reinforced area that supports the wheels weight (like the MPC Live big knob)?

2 Likes
#7889

Is anyone using the Polyend Tracker with an iPad?

There are YT videos of people doing it via camera kit but when I try it the Tracker doesn’t boot properly and the screen is all messed up (which usually signifies not enough power) even when using a 96w Mac charger as the power source.

#7890

Just wondering if you can externally sequence the PT individual tracks as one shot samples and play them all at the same time? I am looking to use one with a Squarp Pyramid and this would be handy to quickly get a drum beat going from one sequencer.

Thanks

#7891

Samples are disconnected from tracks. That’s not how trackers work.
You can ignore the sequencer and use the Tracker as an 8 voice sampler, though.
However, it has a ridiculous amount of latency.

#7892

Thanks

#7893

I’ve been on a bit of a 90s DnB kick recently and am tempted to get a polyend tracker (I used to play around making tracker music in an 8bit tracker which was a nightmare).

I wonder though have the hardware issues been fixed? And are there still any many software issues after the patches?

One thing I liked in the particular tracker I used to use, was that tracks were independent in the song mode, e.g. each track could be set independently in each step of the song. That meant if you wanted to switch up the drums in one step, you didn’t need to duplicate all the other tracks along with it. I get the impression you can’t do this on the tracker? But does it make it easy to add in variations in the song without spending ages creating new patterns and copy pasting?

Would it be sensible/possible to write a track only on the tracker (also using samples from a digitone etc) and potentially finish it off on a computer?

I’ve also been interested in an octatrack for ages, but I feel like it wouldn’t be as good for chopping breaks and bouncing tracks for finishing. Plus the tracker is a lot cheaper!

#7895

You can trigger samples via midi only if you are on the sample playback page I think.
And you can have 8 slices or more with different drum samples.

1 Like
#7896

It’s true that tracks are not independent in song mode, but the way song mode is laid out it’s quite easy to swap around tracks.

Song mode shows you a grid of pattern positions and tracks as blocks - so you can just copy / paste individual or multiple blocks (ie tracks) between patterns. You do need to be aware that if a pattern appears multiple times in the song, if you paste a track on it, that will occur for every instance of that pattern. But I tend to make sure each pattern position has a unique number to avoid that.

Tracks are independent in perform mode, so you very easily swap around tracks; but of course this is not baked into song mode or anything. Which I think is a shame.

If you have patterns of difference lengths; perform mode will let the tracks loop independently so that polymeters are possible - but this is not the case is song mode.

Regarding software/hardware issues - I think the software is stable now. Not perfect, but I hardly ever have problems with it. The hardware issue of the jog wheel remains - but it’s easy to replace the top half of the encoder without any soldering or anything if you need to.

#7897

Just tried this for you - I have a model before M1 iPad Pro - boots up just fine.

#7898

Thanks!

Mines an iPad Air 2 so pretty old now maybe that’s why.

The PT clearly doesn’t need much juice as it will boot up from my laptop’s usb ports.

#7899

I had one of those, the lightning port didn’t power much of my stuff.