I’ve curbed my gear acquisition syndrome for a good 2 years, but this sold me. Been itching for the Polyend Tracker for sometime now after playing with a friend’s and ReNoise, but this is 100% more what I’m looking for, and a Day 1 buy for me. Big fan from Miami, come back soon! Would love to book a Flashbulb show. 🙂
Justin, I did too, but then had to get the new boos space echo, an RK-008,and a moog grandmother! All the other gear is going in the closet whilst I master the grandmother! By then ill have more space for setting all my gear out nice and ordered
Man, the pattern editing and chance/random functions, along with the intelligent musicality of repeats and fills sold me. AND THEN you mentioned it played with a Tracker. I'm like...I'm REALLY jonesing, Benn. At the very least, it's a sketchbook you can output later via stems to muddle around with, but you're right that it definitely adds some push to really fleshing out ideas and not just make boring loops. Cheers, and thanks for the video!
I am someone who is an extremely avid consumer of music (yours especially) but has ZERO knowledge about music production/theory. And yet, for perhaps the first time in my life, I find myself fantasizing about making my own music with the Polyend Play. This is just mesmerizing!
I felt the exact same way after watching this. I've already placed my preorder. This device is the first time I've felt like this world was approachable. I highly recommend checking out Loopops video where he goes into much more detail on operation.
That intro was so good! I would love to watch a feature length film starring you, in that style. Polyend is continually raising the bar, very impressive sequencer, and cheaper than the Hapax!
Looks like they went the Elektron route for sequencing and added some generative stuff. The problem with fully generative is that they all sound the same after a while. It's hard to describe, but when you're composing a rhythm on your own, even if you're trying to do randomness, you still have those happy accidents that might be something like an off key note, or a sequence that just sounds random but goes into a fantastic hook. I have yet to have that happen with my marbles or various vsts that produce generative sequences like the play does here. It just sounds sort of ok? What you did here in the video is what it usually ends up as in my DAW. If someone were blindfolded they could probably tell you X is generated. A good starting point? Maybe. Just an observation. I've found randomness is cool for slower delay/reverb filled trippy notes over long pads and such. And hihats. Everything else beyond that, I couldn't find a place for it. Still, I've been pushing equipment producers to include a probability function for every step in their sequencer. I think it helps more than hurt. Fully blown random? I've dabbled enough to know it's not my cup of tea.
"The problem with fully generative is that they all sound the same after a while." they are many unique ways to do generative and semi-generative. You're still the one controlling what's random and how much; and you're still getting happy accidents this way. personaly I use it for rythms (and sometimes use the random function of an arp); and this is where I've got the most interesting results compared to the process of carefully crafting a pattern (which I often find tedious). Still not convinced it's an interesting tools for melody/harmony though, but I'll have to dig more on that front.
Agreed. It's nice to have the option to do generative sequencing... but I don't often find it useful. It's nice for auxiliary parts, sprinkling randomized texture on top of a solid foundation, but a generative foundation usually sounds pretty bad. This will probably improve when AI makes its way into sequencers, but... for now, it's still pretty primitive.
Interesting observation. I haven’t used randomizing enough to recognize a “sameness“ in the different rhythms or patterns it produces, but the problem I have with it is that it just feels like I’m cheating. I like to create those “happy accidents“ completely on my own and not just save something that the machine comes up with. That being said, I do understand that the Play has this “deterministic“ randomizing which gives you a bit more control and as Benn says if it just jumpstarts your creativity and songwriting, then power to it. I am interested to see more opinions about this unit as time goes on. I do love my Tracker I will say.
I use a little bit to much of my time looking for interesting things for my home studio and boy am I glad to find Mr Benn Jordan today introducing this phenomenal gear! Wow! I´ll subscribe to the channel!! Thanks! 😇
Hugely exciting. How you focussed this down in the way you have is a great achievement. If I wasn't already overwhelmed with the learning required by the kit I already own, Maschine, Kontact et al, I would be right there with you on it. I can see it generating a whole new world of rhythm at the very least. I can see why you were so explosive with excitement about what you were about to present. It finally is that one box composing tool. In my 'Afterlife ' project, it will be my companion for long journeys. No wait! The go anywhere, compositional tool of my dreams needs a power pack or a socket (ok lots of trains and even buses have sockets) but if this modest machine was double thickness it could have a wonderful laptop type battery and charging system. Total independence. It's the next evolutionary step, surely. Many thanks
Excellent enthusiasm and review! The way you bounced all over is proof enough for me that you were having so much fun playing with Polyend you lost focus on review! Earned a sub and looking forward to hearing what you create!
Another wonderful device. I am a recent Polyend Tracker fan. Great video, btw. Thanks, this helps a lot in understanding what the device (devinstrument, as I like to call the Tracker) is all about.
What I love about the Polyend devices is that they will happily produce randomly generated sequences/patterns for you (which is what I did a lot at the beginning with the Tracker). But at the _same_ time it's really intuitive and extensive to manually arrange, tweak and sound-design whole tracks on it. I always wondered how a step sequencer by Polyend would look like (I've not been around when the SEQ was a thing), and I think they absolutely nailed it; integrating the best features from both the tracker- and step-sequencer world
Wow! Fascinating device! So my dream of generative drum machine has been realised. Way back in the mid-to-late 90s I was using a tracker called OctaMED on the Commodore Amiga A500 computer to sequence MIDI hardware. I was also attempting to write software that would generate "random" 16-step drum patterns and save them as little MIDI "clips" that I could load into OctaMED. Of course, I didn't want just totally random, but have some kind of "feel" to it. So say it could take in an existing pattern and process it. Probability was easy - just drop a percentage of the existing notes. Swing too by shifting a certaining percentage of notes around. Reversing, MIDI "echo", randomise panning, etc. But, 25 years later, the Polyend Player is in a totally different universe!!! AMAZING.
Wow.. Thank you... I got the polyend play a few months ago and was overwhelmed in a good way with it's feature.//. thank you for this tutorial , this gave me a better understanding on how to use it..
The little music video at the start reminded me very much of Otto von Schirach's 'Tipo Tropical' Ofcourse also not a stranger to Miami bass and breakcore
Great vid my man, really enjoy your productions! Got to say Poly not selling me on this seq, their tracker though is another world and reminds me of my childhood.
dude your videos just keep getting better. Been a but since I last peeped one, but this was great. Love the little Benn above the Play, much better than just Hans.
So, they put all of my favourite electronic artists in a box you say? Takes me back to the reason 4 days. Not that I was any good at it, but I did doodle with some breakcore producing back then. This nifty little box and your tutorial gave me a nostalgic urge to revisit doing that. Might pick this one up, although i have a digitakt and a pyramid. Damn these sequencers demos :p
The intro to this is pretty funny. I wonder what you would think of the Deluge, which just got a sizeable new update (added wavetable synthesis, mpe, Euclidean sequencing, other stuff). I like that this has a reasonable display and looks easier to get up and going. Deluge seems to have less constraints though, also has a sampler mic and battery.
Great video as usual, I would point out though that (only because you mentioned you've not seen it elsewhere) that the Elektron seqences, Digitakt for example, can ratchet across multiple steps, so you can program 10 ratchets across 3 steps if you like.
Wow, I watched Loopop's video first and was disappointed by the things the Play CAN'T do. Then I watched your video and you start by showing just how much more than the Seq it can do (which I own and I love) and it's AMAZING! I will probably still stick to the Seq for a while since I only just started with electronic music, the Seq is in its reducedness very straightforward and I feel a bit overwhelmed by the Play. But in the long run, I might get a play (haha, if they add audio in and stereo samples, that is).
Keep in mind that there are only a couple of videos out so far. It's impossible to cover everything Play CAN do in just a few videos. There will be more and more informatoin in the coming weeks about all of the great features of Play.
More knobs, mechanical keys and decent screen, plus advanced step randomization/automation though. My Deluge is versatile but it takes a bit of work to get to the point of sounding good, I spend half the time trying to figure out what animal I have to sacrifice to get it to record an audio clip without time stretching it. You can't really leave it for a week and come back to beautiful sound, it's always that flat first synth preset that greets you when you boot it up, which always starts me off exhausted.
Great video! How does scales works in relation to the base pitch of the samples? Is there some kind of audio analysis going on there or does the play assumes that all samples are in eg c ?
Thinking about selling my deluge to snag one of these. Deluge does more but this workflow looks so much better to my eyes. If it had a synth engine it would be a no brainer.
You have done it AGAIN! I bought a Polyend Tracker because of YOU, I didn't get on with it unfortunately so I sold it. BUT this is more up my alley. I was impressed with the build quality of the tracker so I am assuming the Polyend Play will be the same. So I now have to find £700 or so, and its ALL your fault, I hope Polyend are paying you a big commission because I bet this video sells shedloads of them.
The Tracker would be great if it had more than 8 tracks. Chords take up three or four, bass takes one, melody takes one, then there's nothing left for drums
Now you have me wanting the mini tracker, I mean, I didn't get on with the OG tracker, so why would I get on with the mini tracker. BUT I still want one GRRRR
Haha, as soon as I saw this I knew Benn Jordan would love it. Super nerdy but cool, like everything polyend does. But so many buttons on such a freakishly small form factor was necessary?
so is my laptop, and that's not a single purpose low-end computer running a clunky ass, legacy workflow DAW wrapped in a midi controller. in fact for less than the One I can get the primo version of any major DAW out there which will run circles around that MPC. Does that mean the MPC is bad? Nope. To each their own :)
B. Can you do a deep dive on the midi implementation? I'm super familiar w midi. But for some reason the polyend products In General give me head aches. What am I missing?? Like slaving my tracker or medusa to play etc. Etc. There is some probably very obvious step I am over looking. Noone else has really done this. Thanks in advance. If possible. G.
Dang.... I just stumbled onto these instruments and this video got me SO hyped. I'm a keyboardist primarily and have been looking for a fun way to get back back into electronic production and this or the tracker are definitely the way I wanna go. Great video. Just realized you plugged in a midi keyboard so I gotta finish watching haha. I commented about midi controlling before seeing it.
Great video and great device! One thing with grooveboxes I don't understand is that they never make outputs for each track like they do on drummachines. That should be standard.
I wish they'd have called it Phil. Or Euclidean Phil, in honour of Phil Collin's retirement from drumming. I'm wondering how the generative sequencer aspects compare to the Squarp Hapax, or Oxi One, since the Sample Playback Engine isn't amazingly super powerful. Frustrating the sample playback is mono, since this is exactly why I ditched my Digitakt. Edit: but the sequencer here is fascinating.
Great intro to the device, thanks! My open ended question after watching... how easy is it to get off the grid? I love the "play live and then hand-quantize any bits that sucks" workflow which - for example - the Electron Model:Cycles makes relatively nice. I have a Polyend Tracker and it's definitely not optimised for that use case, so I wonder if the Play is the same Am also still not clear if it has any synth engines built in! Although that's very much not an open ended question :)
Thanks for showing us the beatmaking process! btw - is there a MPC "note repeat" type of note play / entry available in here? (I don't mean 13:30 though that is also good.)
There is. Repeat type/grid knob for each pad. You can trigger on the fly or per step or through "chance". There's also different "flavors" of repeat which essentially are pre-made envelopes controlling the repeats over beat synced intervals.
@@MarkKunoff Yes, there are "repeat modes", which are great! but "Note Repeat" is a very specific feature on MPC which quantizes the input and sound of the pads to 1/16th or other timings. It can be used to perform perfectly on time, and to enter patterns. (It's the way "Trap" Hip Hop is often produced.) Does that exist in this unit, yet? And do you think it might, in future
What a great review. I really want this now, being able to chop the beat up that finely and add velocity ramps so easily is something thats not been possible easily outside my DAW before! I've never felt I would get along with the Polyend Tracker before because of how the sequences are written, but would it be worth buying the Tracker solely to go along with this and make use of its soft synth polyphony? I love granular as well, which makes it a very big plus for me
Polyend is sunsetting the Poly 2. That's actually a major issue imo. While they updated the Poly 2 for quite a while, they ultimately decided to discontinue it before resolving major problems like screen burn in. That really turned me off from this company. If you're going to release a digital product, you need to support it properly and work out kinks that show up along the way. There's a good chance that their other products also turn out to have issues, perhaps even introduced by firmware updates. That's not a big deal if it's fixed (all humans make mistakes), but given their history I'm not at all convinced they'll fix everything before dropping support. Companies like Expert Sleepers (who make a great midi to CV module btw, the FH-2) show that that's entirely possible to provide proper long term support. Regarding the Play, it sound like it can make a lot of cool music and looks like the workflow is fun, but there are some design choices I don't understand. Why not have more I/O? That limits you to essentially doing everything in the Play, or recording on track at a time. Like, what if you want to side-chain some other synth against the kick? Even the Blackbox has 3 stereo outputs. Another weird thing is the tiny amount of sample memory and the lack of support for stereo samples. It's 2022, those are deal breakers for me in this price range.
