Polyend Tracker Sale
reverb.com/item/72791153-polyend-tracker?utm_...
reverb.comPosted Aug 30, 2023, 12:44 PM UTC
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reverb.comHopefully the Play goes on sale in a few years 🤞
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I haven’t “played” with one of those yet. You have any experience with it? I really like the FX per step with the tracker but am not sure if the play has a similar feature set?
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No experience with it, but every demo I’ve seen has me sold. I don’t remember, it’s been a while since I’ve binged-watched demos, but I’m 90% sure FX per step is a feature. The per-track sequencing abilities is what I like about the Play.
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The Play had it too! Basically any parameter can be changed per step
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The Play is amazing. I’ve spent a lot of time with other grooveboxes and this one just clicks for me. I bought it during the first run and they’ve had 4 firmware updates since (introducing melodic fills, piano roll, ect)
Using / loading samples is great, but I love using it to control my other gear via midi. The 2 functions per knob with zero menu diving is the magic I think.
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I got mine for $599 through them a B-Stock unit, but it looked like no cosmetic issues. They have on the official forums a contact to get one.
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Noticed it’s also on sale at Sweetwater
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Zzounds and American musical supply too
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Bought from zzounds during this sale and it went into backorder - no news yet. Did you happen to scoop one up?
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I got one from American musical supply. Got here in two days.
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Damn. Both sites still show restocking soon. Grrrr. I almost bought the open box one AMS had on sale @ $589 - then they happened to pop on sale right at the same time!!! Too slow and now I wait, trackerless. lol, oh well - I went on a shopping spree and picked up an MPC One that gets in tomorrow, so I have something to learn to tide me over.
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And thomann
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This is one of those things that's tempting and yet at the same time I can see myself buying it "because it's cheap" and then never using it.
That said, there have been a few "basement price" synths and stuff that went on sale. VP-03, Sirin, and then a year later they pop back on and they're back to MSRP or even higher. Not sure though if this has that kind of longevity.
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Yeah tbh you could see some cheaper used ones pop up in the next few months after this wave of folks decide they aren’t into it.
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This is likely a fire sale to help get rid it the last remaining units before the tracker mini is released in a month or two. I doubt it will go back up to full msrp, but it probably won’t be this cheap new Depending on how the mini is received, there could be a demand for the original tracker on the used market or the market could be flooded with them.
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Its also the old version (black) not the latest hardware revision (silver)
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Yeah but that’s just a paint job isn’t it? Internals are still the same as far as I know. If we are talking aesthetics, I liked the Pete canon artist edition the most but I actually prefer the black over the silver.
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cough opsix cough
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When Korg drops I buy. Opsix, SQ64
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Same. I have 2 of the latter. Sigh. Wavestate and Modwave are insta-buys for me if they drop to those opsix prices.
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I was so sad i missed out on the SQ64. At the time i could not scrape the cash together for the life of me. I checked Reverb every day and kept thinking "oh wow i can't believe it's still on sale, I bet I'll be able to get one soon!", and then one day the sale was done and I was sad. 3 weeks later I had huge hours come in through my contacting gig...
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Make me an offer mine is used once
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Buying the opsix at $350 was one of the best moves I’ve made. What an incredible instrument
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I am never going to stop being salty that I missed out on that sale. Opsix is awesome (ignoring the mediocre build quality).
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Ugh I'm so mad I missed out on that deal
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I’ve gradually bought all the Korg iOS apps over time knowing they frequently run half price sales but had no idea that extended to hardware too, I am verklempt
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Except for the keybed, but my $170 V50 that I bought last weekend fixed that
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Yeah the keybed is pretty bad. I have a weighted 88 key I use for pretty much everything though
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I bought it at $700 and I'm not mad :p ... OK, maybe a little annoyed, but still.
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That sale was the best synth sale.
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then they release the exact engine as a VST for a fraction the price and a better interface
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I know what feeling.. Saw it's just under £300 gbp and thought wow.. Then thought I'll not use it... Got my hands full with the hydrasynth, pigments 4 and bitwig as it is.
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Where did you find it for under £300? Cheapest I found on their reverb store is around £350 and Thomann isn't far off that
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hopefully not a mistake, I ordered one and cancelled my M8
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I had and sold a m8. I think it’s probably objectively more fully featured or whatever, but the tiny screen and some other stuff made it feel tedious. If you haven’t played with a tracker before I think the Polyend is a good entry. Renoise is a great/cheaper option as well (and definitely the most fully featured).
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Thank you - my fear with the M8 is the small screen. I have headless on an Anbernic/Teensy and it's my understanding that the M8 display is even smaller. Cool device, but I don't know if it's +$600 cool when this was less than $400.
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I got the m8 and the tracker around the same time. The m8 is much cooler, to hold in your hand. The tracker is so so so much more fun to actually use in my opinion. I sold the m8 after a couple months.
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I have one and its great. I haven't used it nearly as much as I would like but every time I do it feels natural. The button layout really lends itself to some easy to learn muscle memory. The buttons are also super satisfying.
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I would love to buy one but shipping to Germany costs a fortune.
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Looks like Thomann has them on sale as well.
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You're right, I didn't check them yet. Not as cheap as the us prices but still not bad for 400€.
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US prices are usually without taxes.
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It's good timing cause I've been eyeing the mini and the M8 but I can't really understand what they do, like everything, sort of like a weird DAW? I was about to get a squarp pyramid (which is a lot clearer in what it does, and its purpose in life) then saw these, and just waited it out until I really understand what I'd click with.
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It's basically a sequencer/sampler that scrolls vertically instead of horizontally. The tracker format was popular back in the 90s especially with the Commodore Amiga for making video game music and then just music in its own right. I was hesitant on getting one since I never got into the tracker scene, but after watching a lot of videos I took a chance (at full price) and it's really fun and different from a normal daw workflow.
You can download and try out Renoise or one of the other tracker software on PC to see if you'd jive with the workflow before picking up a Polyend Tracker, but this sale price is really too good to pass up.
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Nice cheers I'll check out Renoise. As someone who's pretty much fully DAWless (my dayjob forces my computer in another from my instruments unfortunately) this kind of stuff is really interesting
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I feel you. During the lockdown I didn't want to sit in front of my PC after sitting in front of it for 8 hours each day so I moved into the hardware modular synthesis world. :D
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It's basically a sequencer/sampler that scrolls vertically instead of horizontally.
Not only, a tracker is characterized by specific "step effects", and hexadecimal counting. It's not just a vertical sequencer. The MPC has a list edit, which display events vertically, it doesn't make the MPC a tracker.
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I didn't want to get into all of the specifics, but yes one of the best features is per step editing. Each step can be a different instrument, have a different effect, modulation, etc on one track.
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How is programming melodies on it? I can barely get good melodies on my circuit tracks pads, I need a piano style keyboard to do it
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You can play the pads in real time if you'd like, but it's not as easy as using an external keyboard at least to me. I'm usually using the fill function and then editing from there. There are a lot of fill options.
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It's a tracker.
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Nice, thanks for the link
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No problem. If you want to mess around with one on your phone, check out SunVox. I think it's free on iPhone and $1 or so on Android.
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Sunvox is free on Mac and PC but its $5.99 for iPhone
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Got one yesterday. Been using Renoise for years and I know that this doesn't compare to Renoise, but it could be a fun portable sketchpad and it has a few features that open up new avenues of creation. It looks super simple to use too. Excited to make a track with it.
Has anyone imported a Polyend track into Renoise?
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I think it can save as XM, which Renoise can read.
I had one for a bit, my main frustrations:
- no internal battery, which it really aught to have!
- layout of function buttons is not that good. commonly used functions hidden behind shift, when there was room for an extra row of buttons.
- the biggest one to me: a tracker is not really a tracker without a QWERTY keyboard, for my money. It's hard to build up any muscle memory on it, and the little rubber keys are really naff. The whole point of a tracker is that once you've learnt all the keyboard shortcuts, you can fly around it effortlessly. This device unfortunately requires a lot of menu diving and slow jog-wheeling around.
I think in principle, it's a really nice little device and I think its DACs and sample transposing algos sound great. But the workflow is hobbled in ways that would have been easy to fix with some small tweaks, and that frustrated me to the point where I sold it. They could have at least allowed you to plugin a keyboard!!
I think for people who don't main trackers, it might seem more appealing. As a tracker veteran, it's frustrating. So near, yet so far.
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the biggest one to me: a tracker is not really a tracker without a QWERTY keyboard, for my money. It's hard to build up any muscle memory on it, and the little rubber keys are really naff. The whole point of a tracker is that once you've learnt all the keyboard shortcuts, you can fly around it effortlessly.
Nailed it. I've used Trackers since FT2, and still use RENoise. There's so much I want to like about this device, and I'd be willing to overlook a few faults but the lack of a QWERTY, or even something resembling QWERTY, really changes what this is. I'm still on the fence about it, because it does look like fun - but I suspect it'll just end up being a box that sits around and I'll go back to RENoise...
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I would absolutely consider picking one up again if they added USB keyboard support, that'd be a real game changer.
Because yeah, that's what happened with me, I went back to Renoise ultimately. But I still wanted a dedicated bit of tracking kit with a different, more restricted vibe. So I wound up going with an Amiga + Octamed instead, which I've honestly found much more fruitful. Even more limited, yes, but it's a classic platform and once you know how to work it, you can fly around it and sketch things out quickly without distrcation.
I think if someone really wanted to make a modern hardware tracker in a box, something running software similar to what the Polyend runs, but in the form factor of an Amiga like wedge w/ midi ports, a dial for CC entry and multiple outs would be the way to go.
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Something new is coming or it’s simply not selling well at the old price… 🤔
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They just released the portable polyend tracker thus the price drop on the old one.
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Temporary price drop. The Mini's release might not have to do with that.
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Rumour is they'll discontinue this model, and release a MK2 with the updated internals from the Mini Tracker, i.e. audio over USB & stereo samples
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Yeah, this makes the most sense.
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I love mine. Great deal!
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if play I’d buy in a glimpse
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Grabbed it. Normally not my thing but honestly a great deal and I will have fun with it.
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I always hear this thing has a lot of bugs, is that true
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They were probably fixed already.
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Thomann has it for the same price.
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Got one but sold it. Great device but
1/ 48 instrument per project... even a SP404 MKII can hold more samples than that.
2/ 2 minutes sampling... in 2020?
The rest is nice, the sequencer is nice, the way it can handle polyphony, unlike the Digitakt, is smart and the sampling engine is more advanced that the Play.
Do I recommend it? Yes, as long as you are aware of the limitations.
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I dunno, I'm waiting to see what "labor day blowout" sales will pop up before I make any decisions. I should probably be smart and not buy anything else right now. The polyend does look appealing tho.
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Like Abletons 50% sell out of the Push 2 a few months before the Push3... is there a Polyend Tracker MK2 on the horizon??????
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I scored one.
The interface is so awesome and fast, I love it. Getting a groove going is almost as quick as an Electribe2 (blue) once your sounds are setup, but without the Electribe2's irritating polyphony and arrangement limitations. The sample playback is crazy with the options it has, it is its own rabbit hole apart from the rest of the device, damn (I'll have to take care with not delving too much into it out of fear that I'll spend all year long mangling each sample just for one mix, lol)
Kinda wish the pattern view was more technical like the tracker view of my FA-06's sequencer, though, but I can live with it.
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I’d had one and sold one in the past but this price was too good to pass up. Excited to jump back in!
Also had one and I’m considering doing the same thing, especially with the lax return policy.