we’re spoiled by the wonders of renoise
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I do like how comprehensive it seems to write an actual piece of music on it. That it gives an overview that other sequencers simply don’t. That is what keeps me coming back here.
Trackers always made sense to me back in the days, in so much as that you actually not only had a fluent pipeline to work with, but also a very comprehensive image of what was actually going on in the music. Not entirely unlike sheet music, where it’s just there, on paper, what exactly is happening now and what’s going to happen next.
Can’t recall any other hardware sequencer who has that kind of visual grasp over the process of writing music, as this one.
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i guess the biggest difference is that you can use the PT like a classical tracker with some limitations here and there but on the other hand, break out of that structure while recording, sampling and synthesize the inner machines.
there’s a lot of time to grow for PT til June
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The performance mode is a very cool addition also
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Not sure I’ll bite down on this in the summer, but I’m definitely sure it’ll be awesome with one or two other bits of gear, despite the limitations mentioned above. I can see this being used with a synth and then feeding both in an OT, for example. The easy to understand performance mode looks great for glitching up beats on the fly. The limited sample memory is old school compared to modern boxes, agreed, but the trackers/samplers of yesteryear were limited in this way too. It’s what you do to get the most out of small snippets, I suppose. The major downside for me is the destructive effects section on the sample level. Screw using that without being able to hear the changes in real time. But then again the resampling a little sections of the arrangement is awesome! 
The problem is that the tracker let you only define sample based instrument. I regret it is not possible to create midi instrument too, each of them having a list of midi CC that have name, and that can be modified within tracks.
In the same way im not sure if it possible to change all the synth parameters from the sequencer ?
Thanks for the tip! I haven’t explored phrases yet.
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You can get here…
You’ll save some bucks. But not much.
Werd of warning tho. I got something from them. They are easily the worst shop I’ve ver dealt with. No communication. No stock. It’s all by order. And take forever. 5 months. FOR SOMETHING THEY SAID THEY HAD IN STOCK!
Worst experience I’ve ever had with a retailer.
But when it comes to warranty you won’t have to deal with customs again. Unfortunately you’ll deal with the shop. So time vs money.
Maybe Long and Mcquade will get it. That shop is great.
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Like the MPC One, I’ll change from Nay to Yay if stream from SD is implemented.
Should be possible right? I mean the speed and bandwidth of modern SD interfaces is > than Amiga RAM performance from the 90s.
I’m holding onto a glimmer of hope, but still giving my OT and MS a daily workout.
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I don’t stream from SD on the Live, and keep all my samples there for organizational purposes. No sweat. Werks great!
I wouldn’t worry about it being an issue with the One. The Live is fun. I’ll assume the One is fun+, simply cuz the dedicated buttons will just add to flow. Shift+pad on the Live is fine once you memorize the pad relation. But the buttons on the One just seem like they’ll be that much better!
Yea I’m not drawing an equivalency. Just saying in both cases, a higher spec would allow me to realize their use sooner.
I’d actually use the One and the PT for very different purposes.
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Agreed, it wont be replacing any other gear…
MPC One / Digitakt / PT all have their pros and cons in workflow.
I am so used to the Elektron workflow and sequencer that I didnt really have any interest in the PT at first.
The more I see the videos, the more I see it as a box you grab when you have exhausted all ideas from the other sequencers you are used to work on.
It looks like it will be used best as a sequencer with a few sampling / sample playback tricks up its sleeve with an other box besides it to maximise it strenghts.
Imagine having it sending program changes to a Digitakt.
Could be a great live performance portable rig.
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Tell me again why the Blackbox isn’t for you. You keep coming back to streaming from SD, and that sucker can stream 16 stems at once, in stereo.
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touch screens make me stabby
only coming back to streaming from SD here since PT has an SD card.
More internal RAM would also do the job for what I want to do with PT.
I wouldn’t actually run stems on PT, i just need more than 90 seconds of sample RAM for performing with it live.
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You just need two of them and a DJ mixer. 
I was kind of half-joking, but I think that could be a really fun setup.
Edit: “Two P-Trackers and a microphoooonnnneee.” I think that might be where it’s at.
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ha!
Yea, I previously used an A41+TM2 as a “deck” with a Rytm1 as “deck 2” and a DJ mixer to play live. an old vestax with stereo aux send that I sent to an infinity looper pedal to use as the third deck too!
Fun that way. But these days OT is my mixer and looper.
I was just hoping to be able to put about 15-30 tunes on the Polyend Tracker to play live, from a single project, with the help of OT for transitions. The 90 second sample ram makes this practically impossible, unless i really rely on wavetable/single cycle synthesis in track creation. And frankly, MS and OT already do this well. MS particularly as it is so knobby and fun.
Elektron have spoiled me with these capabilities, honestly. Any two Elektrons and a mixer, or any one and an OT and I’m good to go. It’s put a framework in my mind on how to perform, and every possible new instrument with an intriguing workflow that I see has to fit into this framework.
(MPC One would get the job done here too, but for reasons I’m more interested in that for stem playback, hence the SD references)
I’m over the “only 2 automation lanes” gripe on the PT too.
My Drumatix had zero automation lanes and did just fine. Just a limitation to overcome. But it is a mild bummer that slicing occupies one of those lanes.
Still, I hold onto some hope from my brief message with Polyend where they said “8MB, 90sec mono. This may change though”.
I think there is more to come, folks.
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Yeah, 90sec is a bit cheap, isn’t it? The Circuit’s got 60sec stereo, as does the Volca, I believe. Not to mention the first gen Electribes. Odd choice. There’s nothing old school romantic about all the things that just weren’t great back then.
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I totally get your point of view there. To me trackers were always about programming music, so I never really thought of them as a live tool (despite the fact that the Polyend Tracker seems to have some interesting live-ish tools). For me it would be for composing on the go, on the couch, etc. but also used with other devices when in the studio. I couldn’t really see a single tracker based device being the pinnacle of live performance tools even if it had a ton of RAM. I could definitely see it as part of a live setup though. You’re right though, if it had a bit more sample memory, it COULD be used this way pretty well. No argument there.
I think the sample time isn’t even a concern for me because when I’ve used sample based trackers in the past, the computers I ran them on didn’t even have what this does for total system RAM. 
Plus the other trackers I’ve used/use are either FM synthesis based, or based on old chips like the NES tracker, or SID types. I think many people have tried something modern like Renoise, but maybe haven’t had as much experience with classic trackers, so have a different idea of what they’d like this thing to be.
This does limit the audience a bit I think, but I also think there’s a big enough audience that will find this interesting at the same time. I said it before, but if this thing is popular, I think it would be cool for them to release a “Pro” version with tons of IO, more tracks, more processing power, more synthesis, etc.
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Agreed.
Perhaps that is part of the strategy. Instead of roll out a beta, unfinished, just roll it out with a little less capability. Get the hype from the tried and true tracker heads who are like “F yea gotta have it”, and let that revenue develop the next major firmware update that makes it more appealing to the wider audience.
Or maybe not, who knows.
Still, I am consistently impressed with Polyend’s ability to come up with interesting products that combine familiar interfaces with modern capabilities.
I’m rather impressed the whole thing runs on 1A/5V USB.
And then there is the intangible effect it could have on the rest of the market. Like how low cost, immediate, knobby interfaces helped to give us the Model series. Who knows what influence the PT could have on other products from other companies.
It’s good to have some hope about anything these days.
The Electribe ES-1, my first sampler, had 95 seconds mono, 32khz, 16bit
Sounded like utter garbage (and I am usually pretty forgiving on these things).
That was 20 years ago.
It made my MPC2KXL with 32MB RAM a total oasis.
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Interesting discussion from you both.
I think the Medusa was a product rolled out with a little less capability. I think to some extent that burned them a little, remember how they had to make a big deal about the V2 of that, to break over a market resistance. That said Polyend does innovate in ways others don’t, and deserve some real plaudits for that.
I think this will be a real marking point for Polyend – and we’ll see them moving from sideline and into more a the mainstream.
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