Polyend Tracker

[Jukka]

Sarah Longfield has a Polyend Tracker !

She only briefly mentions ithe PT in her tiny studio tour video (she may have the world’s smallest studio), but stay tuned she is planning to do lots of videos with it so i’m looking forward to that. She also has a Zoia – she probably uses the Zoia as a real guitar pedal, but i think the PT and the Zoia might be an interesting pairing.

If you are wondering who Sarah Longfield is?
She is an outrageously good guitarist as well as a very good drummer. By chance i posted about her tapping guitar style over in the Guitar Thread just a few days ago. Lookng forward to some very original work from her with the PT.

ADDED: I see that Sarah is quoted on the Polyend website:
“I’ve been all about the fill function, randomly generating patterns is great, especially within restricted parameters like scale/range of samples it can pull from. I’ve practically written an entire album just experimenting with that alone.”

[Muddler]

Where are ppl finding the tracker with carry case?

[chapelierfou]

I did not receive any mail, although I preordered…

[Petajaja]

it might be in your spam folder, it was for me

[chapelierfou]

Unfortunately not

[Petajaja]

That’s odd, try getting in touch with them, they’re generally very helpful

[Kpucski]

https://polyend.com/tracker/

Just click on the preorder button and it will show Tracker + free hard case.

[Zijnvolt]

Wouldn’t worry too much. It’s an automated batch mail. I didn’t get it either.

Edit, looked in my spam. Did get it.

[Vldsls_Drkwlya]

I’ve always been interested in trackers. They looked cool and I understood the general concepts, but I just thought it would be too cumbersome a workflow to really be practical, and that it would take too long to become proficient in using them. But this PT had me seriously interested again, so I downloaded Sunvox to see if this tracker business is right for me.

And…I love it. Entering lines and commands, creating automation, lots of the conditional stuff Elektron is known for plus some great generative and micro pitch/time options…it’s definitely got me hooked.

But here’s the catch: a lot of this software is free. And a lot of it is already pretty capable. Looking at the PT, it seems like what you would be getting from PT over a lot of the free software is a couple more effect options, plus an extra effect column per step. Is that worth $600 USD? I don’t know.

With the original nerdseq module I can understand the price, because of all the cv capabilities.

[Buska]

Many free trackers have an add effect column feature, you can have 10 FX columns if you like.

The 2 FX column on the PT is a bit of a bummer actually, especially because vol and pan are FX too in the PT…

[toot]

For sure Renoise is incredibly fully featured and cheap in comparison, the draw to PT is that it’s a standalone box away from the distractions that a computer brings.

[Vldsls_Drkwlya]

I hear you. I’m still hoping to (some day) get my hands on this thing and give it a spin. I’m hoping that I’m pleasantly surprised. The demos sound pretty damn good.

But you know, with a synth or drum machine I can understand the desire for a physical object to interact with. A lot of people just want these instruments to be hardware, even if it’s all digital and could easily just run on a computer. But trackers ARE software, everyone knows them as software, and the interface is optimized for use with a computer keyboard.

I get that nobody wants to deal with the crashes, conflicts, updates, long wake-up times etc that come with using a computer for music. BUUUUUT Sunvox is super light on CPU and can run on anything, including ancient computers, linux systems, raspberry pi, palm devices (remember those?), phones, and some refrigerators.

I’m not knocking it, I’m just a little skeptical. We’ll see.

[Zijnvolt]

Hardware sequencers have been around for a long time so the PT is nothing new. Akai pioneered it MPC.

For me it’s having a dedicated piece of gear that is optimized and limited that makes it special. I get really unproductive when using software that allows me to do everything in a bad and unoptimized workflow.

[mpiecora]

Why isn’t it June already, I want to play with this tracker!

[Zijnvolt]

Nice to have something to look forward to in these dark times. But yeah, do want it asap.

[alspacka]

I haven’t seen much on the capabilities of the grid buttons; just chromatic note playing and changing settings in menus. Is there any kind of musical scale mode or scale highlighting? Can they be assigned to samples to play them like a drum kit (aside from assigning to slices in a single sample)?

Also, it seems like all of the testers are scrolling through vertical lists with the arrow keys rather than the jog wheel. Really hoping you’re able to use the wheel in the final software, my RSI is bad enough already.

[tnussb]

Can they be assigned to samples to play them like a drum kit

Definitely “yes”. There is a mode where the 48 keys map directly to the 48 possible instruments.

[Zijnvolt]

Seeing as the PT doesn’t do CV out(directly) and I have time to learn, I treated myself to a Nerdseq. I knew this thing was packed, but the amount of features is stunning. Especially for a module

[chapelierfou]

Received it already ? Enjoy !!

[Zijnvolt]

Yes! Within 24h. Thanks!