Polyend Tracker

I know, right?:blush:

1 Like

Enhance…

image

8 Likes

Well watching the guy who’s demoing (who should know what he’s doing to demo) struggle and try to figure out why stuff isn’t werking doesn’t sell it. :grimacing:

1 Like

:rofl::rofl::rofl: I know! Did me best​:man_shrugging:t2:

2 Likes

If I’m not mistaken, there’s an unmistakable SD card slot on the device! So that’s something!

3 Likes

Kinda bummed that it seems to not be internal battery powered.

1 Like

Me too. As others have said when I expressed disappointment about the Elektron Battery Handle thing being regular battery powered- it has the benefit of longevity(and maybe for keeping the cost down.

If this thing could be USB powered tho, that would certainly make up for that in my mind

I’m curious. Never got into Trackers in the 90s, unfortunately. This could be a fun way to dip into that experience.

But aside from vertical tracker programming workflow, not entirely sure it can do anything my OT cannot.

Re: 5 pin DIN MIDI vs 1/8ā€ mini jack… so much gear is becoming 1/8ā€ now, and I really dig using a $3 ā€œaux cableā€ for sync.
Heck, if you forget one at the gig, chances are someone in the crowd has one in their car.

5 Likes

Crap, maybe when I get off the road Sunday I’ll see if I can download Renoise and try to grasp what all this tracker tomfoolery is about. I just can’t see how one would improvise or jam in that format, but then, I have no idea what I’m talking about. On the surface it’s just looks so damn programmy. Some of the teaser demos sure sound good though

2 Likes

Programmy is the way to be, brother.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve spent HOURS working with hardware solely to make sure there’s a blatant ease in accessing every feature immediately. Renoise wets that thirst for absolute ease(after you internalize 40 pages of shortcuts).

When I poke around with Renoise, part of the excitement is recognizing its potential. The other part is recognizing my potential. Some glorious future- after I’ve finally become intimate with its workflow, and my workflow that I spent so long to acquire, doesn’t require movement of the arms or twisting of the body, but keystrokes.

It’s efficient. It’s ergonomic. It’s Renoise :smiley:

5 Likes

Besides some obvious features like the FM radio part I’m also not sure it can go beyond what the OT supports. Maybe the granular engine (but I doubt it to support many grains or any sophisticated features of a real granular synth like the GR-1), maybe a more open pattern length structure …

But there are already some obvious restrictions compared to the OT: Having just one big knob isn’t nice for jamming and parameter modifications. Just 2 control lines per track is also a letdown (on the OT you can plock as many parameters you want per step and per track).

(Re-)Sampling/recording is also a big question mark. I guess it won’t support much on-the-fly stuff like the OT.

Trackers back in the day (or Renoise nowadays) provided tons of functionality, but I don’t see how these features would make it appearance in a standalone box with such a restricted control surface (no real keyboard, just a big knob, cursor keys and a few buttons). IMHO it will be a quite ā€œwatered-downā€ version of a tracker: easy to learn and get into, but not the (almost) endless depth of the real thing.

But that’s all guesswork unless we get more details. How goes that saying? Hope dies last … :wink:

1 Like

renoise is $70 or around that price and it’s pretty amazing what can be done w/it. quite exceptional and was ahead of the curve w/automation and modular type of modulations. it had internal LFOs and envelope and envelope followers etc assignable to almost any parameter a few versions ago. the ability to ā€˜play’ in automation on/off commands is really fast and powerful and can be done w/any vst plug and it’s dead simple to target any plug in in a long plug in chain. you don’t need a super fast computer to run it. it can bulk export all your tracks if you want to import them as stems for mixing in a daw.

there’s many tutorial videos for getting to know it and once you have the basics it’s fun to jam with it.

i think the polyend tracker looks cool. probably gonna be a fast work flow. they’ve sent out beta units for feedback to a lot of people who make very different music so i’m sure they’ll get lot’s of good feedback. venetian snares got one and he’s a tracker wizard though doesn’t use computers any more.

as a standalone instrument i think it’ll appeal to a lot of people if the price is right and they get the workflow/features right.

2 Likes

Nothing can do what the OT can :sunglasses:

In the end, it comes down a lot to workflow for me when it’s about samplers. I was on the OT for years and it really hurt to switch to the Blackbox, but it was the first sampler to beat the OT when it came to how my brain’s wired for making music. The OT is bang on immediate once you learn it and you can get so far, so fast, with it when you know it.

And in that aspect, the Blackbox was just even better for me. I’m not feeling it for the Polyend yet.

1 Like

Downfall of 1/8 midi is the lack of 5V power for mergers, splitters etc. imo

1 Like

I can only speculate, but I’m wondering if the lack of knobs will be made up for by allowing users to set the pads below the screen as individual parameter locks for performance edits etc, like what the medusa does, where each pad can contain different parameter settings.

That would certainly make sequencing and editing in syncopation etc ultra fast.

5 Likes

you’re already in praising mode. I’m still in trial mode :slight_smile:
So how about Renoise vs your beloved DT?

Does somebody know of a good mapping for Maschine Jam in combination with Renoise or another similar controller? Looks like a good alternative for Polyend Tracker.

Looked for it online but could not find much, did not try myself yet to map something in Renoise.

1/8th/3.5mm/2.5mm still carries 5v though, it is 3 conductors which is all that is used in 5 pin din midi.

Source, Sink and Ground.

1 Like

You can hook them up with a USB cable and they work very well together.

I’m considering selling my DT, among the rest of my Elektrons actually.

Renoise I can do all of the things I can do with the DT(except internally resample, I think?) but within the context of a larger scale. It’s easier for me to stay mentally organized in Renoise and experimenting is also infinitely easier.

The DT was great, but Renoise is next level. It’s actually made working with a computer fulfilling to me.

15 Likes