Just a heads up everyone, Polyend has actually fixed a TON of the export features and settings, this video was not made on the latest firmware and the issues i expeirienced should be fixed. Check the latest firmware here - polyend.com/downloads/ Thanks for hanging out, peace and love.
Dude, the fact you don't edit your videos and just do it in one take is so amazing! In a time when everything is so hyper edited, it's so relaxing to just hang out in real time. Inspiring stuff man!
Exactly this! One of the reasons Ricky is my favourite reviewer/commentator on electronic music stuff. Plus, he has a great balance between sharing his craft, his process and knowledge of the gear. But yeah, the one take video approach delivers a fantastic result for the viewer. You gotta have bravery though to pull it off.
@@sketchdashaman yes he is authentic not trying to get others down but there too much fake guys out there trying to be cool with a fake attitude and this guy is just Authentic
11:14 - actually using sequencers with hexadecimal numbered steps is much more easier because this number system perfect fits music with 16th notes. The first digit will basically tell you the number of the bar and the second one the number of the 16th note in this bar, mega convenient.
One plus for hex numbers in 4/4 music is that it is base 16, so the digit rolls over after 16 steps - 0 to F for the first bar, then the next bar is 10 to 1F etc. Quite intuitive once you get your head around it.
I absolutely love that you keep it all in. This is the kind of content I want to see. I enjoy when people just do the thing but the world needs to see people really use something and see how they go about it. Thank you!
This is the first hardware instrument that I actually fully connected with immediately. I really sunk my teeth into Renoise for a few years and when I first got the Electribe Sampler 2, I always found myself saying, "I wish I could do this thing that I know how to do in a tracker." lol Anyways, I adore this box. Probably my favorite thing I ever bought (in terms of beat production stuff). I guess I get why it doesn't click with everyone, but I love this thing.
Wow! i love that feeling. that was me with the MPC 4000. It just felt like an extension of my brain. I'm happy you understand its quirkiness, but accept it. After that, its soooo much fun
Your first video of the Polyend Tracker referenced Renoise and that was the first time I heard of it. Been using it ever since and it's amazing. Even though you don't use Renoise, thanks for mentioning it. + You should make a video about actually trying to make a full track in Renoise! It's super fun and crazy, make some jungle.
@@sebp400 How well are Polyend and Renoise able to talk with each other? Is there a combined workflow possible? I currently use Renoise and would like to use the Polyend for "on the couch" , but I'd like them to sync or at least talk to eachother in both directions.
@@sebp400 I've done some house-ish beats playing around but am primarily doing jungle, it definitely seems versatile and like it's just a matter of workflow/organization. I find it so much easier to work with than other DAWs
Maybe it's already written in another comment, anyways: Regarding 14:07 'Sample is too long'. With the newer firmware, they added an import functionality to just load a portion of a sample into RAM. And in case you realize that you only need a portion of the sample, but already loaded and worked with the full one: When you replace/overwrite a sample, all instrument parameters like LPF, oscillators etc. will be preserved, so you could overwrite the sample with its shorter version (via import function) without loosing anything.
I do want to say, re: hexadecimal, it's really really quick once you get used to it - just another notation like writing notes as C3 or tempos in Italian or whatever. And it lets you talk about numbers between 0 and 255 (i.e. all MIDI message values!) in just 2 digits.
Agreed and like it says in the manual, "This allows for easy alignment with music: bars will always start with pattern steps 00, 10, 20, 30 and so on. Each bar’s quarternote beat steps end with the digits ..0, ..4, ..8, and ..C." So you actually end up doing less math once you've memorized that.
@@shitmandood it's one of those things that's very hard to grasp, but once you understand it, you then understand why people say it's the superior way of doing things. Kinda like writing with a pencil all your life, then learning how to use a typewriter.
@@G8tr1522 Have you ever tried to go back and write after using a keyboard? The muscles don't work the same. My hand doesn't know how to hold a pencil. I used to write all the time but didn't know that my hands would be affected by not writing for a very long time.
To understand hexadecimal, it helps to understand "regular"/base-10 numbers. When you have multiple digits (ex: 123), you can break it down into a sum of simpler numbers: 100 + 20 + 3. That can be broken down into a sum of products, or multiplications: (1 x 100) + (2 x 10) + (3 x 1), or (1 x 10^2) + (2 * 10^1) + (1 * 10^0). (Math reminder: any number raised to the 0th power equals 1.) Notice that in the last form, the exponent of the 10 decreases in each position? That's what the 10s, 100s, 1000s "place" really means. Hexadecimal works the same way but with 16 instead of 10, so if we use the same example, 0x123 = (1 x 16^2) + (2 x 16^1) + (3 x 16^0) = 291. Now, what do the letters mean? Well, if we only had 0x0 to 0x9 to work with, then we would be missing a bunch of numbers between 0x9 (9 x 16^0 = 9) and 0x10 (1 x 16^1 = 16). How would you write a 10 or 13 in hex? That's what the letters are for: after 0x0 (0) to 0x9 (9), we continue to 0xA (10), 0xB (11), 0xC (12), 0xD (13), 0xE (14), or 0xF (15). Each digit has one of 16 values, hence hexadecimal or base-16. So, if we have a number like 0x1BF, we use our formula and get: (0x1 x 16^2) + (0xB x 16^1) + (0xF x 16^0) = (1 x 16^2) + (11 x 16^1) + (15 x 16^0) = 447. Why is this useful? Well, consider midi CC's which have values 256 values, from 0 to 255. In hexadecimal, 255 = 0xFF, so if you drop the 0x prefix it's... shorter. Is it worth it? Definitely not if you aren't cramming a bunch of numbers on the screen, but trackers do exactly that so compactness can be useful. If it's still kind of confusing, try counting. Let's count to 23, which is 16 + 7: 0x0, 0x1, 0x2, 0x3, 0x4, 0x5, 0x6, 0x7, 0x8, 0x9, 0xA, 0xB, 0xC, 0xD, 0xE, 0xF, 0x10, 0x11, 0x12, 0x13, 0x14, 0x15, 0x16, 0x17. Try some other numbers and the pattern may become more clear.
about hexadecimal numbers - seems crazy but I think it's actually pretty useful for the row numbers: since each step is a sixteenth note, every 10 ends up representing a bar. For example: 4 bars of music would be 64 steps in decimal, or it would be 40 in hexadecimal.
Also in the beta firmware: "Added Import function in Sample Loader which allows cropping samples" so you could have cropped that long drone sample prior to importing into the project.
wtf this cmd trick while importing lots of different stems will save a lot of my lifetime!! thanks for sharing you knowledge! this gives me more time for the important part!!! making music! rock on man
I don't understand trackers. I'm glad there are options and that there are people who get them and love it. I know a lot of my favorite artists, especially in DnB Land, use them to make amazing stuff. This is the first video you made that didn't give me gas 😄👊
In the 1.4.0 firmware update they disabled the USB media transfer because it was buggy. Hopefully it will be back soon, but in the meantime, popping out the SD card is the way to go
Great video! Absolutely loving my tracker and it's interesting seeing it from the perspective of someone who makes a different style of music than I do.
11:14 - actually using sequencers with hexadecimal numbered steps is much more easier because this number system perfect fits music with 16th notes. The first digit will basically tell you the number of the bar and the second one the number of the 16th note in this bar, mega convenient. When using default decimal mumber system it's hard to tell which bar you're in without didiving the step number by 16. E.g. Pattern step "66" in default default decimal system is bar #4, step #2. With hexadecimal option on the number of this step is displayed as "41" which is much easier to comprehend (steps start from 0).
It's so much fun to watch you play with the Tracker. Also, the "condom" thing (around 6:40 in) made me laugh out loud. My Tracker should arrive any day now, can't wait to play with it.
The auto naming is one of my favorite things from Korg Gadget. Especially useful when I just want to make music. If the name didn’t sit well, then I’d change it.
Even though I'm a big yam fan and gullible asf, I knew instantly when you said it that your old DJ name was NOT Earthy Yam! Awesome work Ricky. Excellent video. Loved it.
The "File Transfer" mode doesn't work the way you'd expect it to: it doesn't mount the tracker as regular USB mass storage device. It uses the Media Transfer Protocol, like an android device. I think you can shunt files around from OSX using the Android Transfer app, but it's a hassle compared to just using a card reader.
Tried this. It was much faster to pop the microSD and mount it on the mac than to use that Android file transfer application. It's super annoying, too, because Android is built on Linux and Mac is built on BSD; they should be kissin' cousins able to communicate easily, but I guess someone is being anal about file transfer permissions...?
But hex numbers are great for music especially when you have 4/4 grooves. Because every digit is just 4x4 so it's really easy to see where in the grid you are 😁
So I’ve been using Renoise as my main Daw for about 13 years. (Sheeeeeeesh time flies ) Ive been pining over the Polyend Tracker since the announcement , but I’m glad I cancelled preorder because they improved the hardware and software since then. However, I can tell that the “archaic” workflow was not a instant gratification like most devices these days.. Let me tell you a secret, Once you learn the specifics of a tracker based workflow and the nuances of the particular tracker your working with , you will be hard pressed to find something that ever replaces its ease and swiftness.
Yes, titles, especially for instrumental songs and abstract soundscapes are not easy to name. Autechre, PanSonic, etc. are using nonsense syllables, pseudo-technical, etc. I totally agree that suggested track titles is a really nice idea, at least for a temporary label while working on something. I really am interested in granular devices, so I will probably get the Polyend Tracker.
I grew on trackers - back in days when Amiga was the thing, however, all this it's kind of loosing "the music". Really appreciate those videos about Polyend because actually helping me NOT spend hard earn cash on this device.
Ricky is on an old firmware version, almost everything is solved in the latest version. Also many other features have been added. I also started on screamtracker and impulse tracker 26 years ago ;)
@Ricky Tinez At 4:10 Is it possible to restrain that from happening, i.e. poly-notes overflowing to other tracks?? Like, "Keep notes within single track (mono record)" or something? I think this is a major feature otherwise. Having to manually fix this would stop the creative flow.
For anyone considering the polyend tracker don’t be too discouraged by the inability to use the sample editor for long samples, it has only happened to me once before and the sample was easily half the ram
I love this machine so much. File Transfer works everytime for me. The firmware is under heavy development it seems. More fixes and features arriving fast. Waiting for the bug fix for section sampling, which allows to select anything and sample it. Currently is samples from all tracks... need to mute the tracks that are not in the selected section... Anyway.. I am starting to setup my stuff with the Tracker being the central machine..
Hey Ricky, Makeup Gain just applies automatic compensation based on the amount of gain reduction happening. If it's reducing by 3dB then it'll apply +3dB on the out. This should result in a more even sound so you're hearing the compression more but as you noted, when you're slamming it the output will be quite loud because you're juicing the entire signal.
That's about right but the compressor doesn't set the makeup gain based on actual gain reduction. Instead it assumes your signal has a certain rms volume and applies make up gain as per threshhold and ratio setting. If your signals are very quiet then the make up will be way too high as your signal is way below the assumed rms and there is no actual compression happening.
@@hanszollner1837 well then I stand corrected. I always worked under the impression that it matched input level in order to remove loudness bias. TIL, thanks!
"shift the entire condom" lmao. Great vid. I'm stuck on the tracker or the mpc one atm. This thing looks sooo fun but the mpc seems a bit more full featured for production...
Nothing wrong with Hex, it's what we grew up using on the old trackers on Amiga etc. You soon get the used to it and the columns are a digit shorter ;)
at 16:50, i think it's useful to know that the number of cycles doesn't affect the pitch, but rather the wavelength of the cycle itself. it will sound like its going down an octave, but that's because you moved the loop markers out of perfect zero transit position, so essentially you create a new wave. but if you are looping a single cycle waveform, if the loop is correct, 3 cycles will be the same pitch as 1 cycle.
Sold mine to get an octatrack. I found it very picky about clipping and sound levels. I also wasn’t a huge fan of the pads and their scale layouts. In concept I found it cool but I can do what I want elsewhere with less trouble
Yeah man, the stem export has been slightly off tempo since the beginning. I’ve been working with them via email and then via their github for a few months asking to fix that bug. In their 1.3.0b release they say they’ve fixed the problem, but I have not tested it yet. My work around for previous firmware releases has been time stretching each track individually (in Reason) to get them each to precise whole number tempo.
Amazing video Ricky! I just now listen to these videos while painting. I have a question. When you pick a part of a sample to make it granular, does it automatically detects the pitch of the segment, say, does it say, AH, this granule is C? Or how does the chromatic arrangement work? (I have a tracker too but I haven't figured it out.) Also, could you make a video of the performance mode/screen? I haven't made much sense out of it yet. Love, paisano! ¡Ya véngase a comer chilaquiles al DF!
So hexadecimal numbers actually work great for a tracker because sequences are 16 steps so 00-0F is the first bar 10-1F is the second and so on. And you know from the second digit of any number what step you're on in a pattern. all quarter notes are on 0 4 8 and C (C is a little hard to remember) Personally thats super easy for me to keep track of compared to seeing that i'm step 37 and thats the start of the second beat in second pattern. I like it a lot but for some reason it also numbers your patterns in song mode in hexadecimal, which is confusing as shit because the pad grid is only 12 wide so then yea... you gotta do math. I wish I could make it show steps in hex but patterns in decimal.
Hexadecimal gives you more resolution with two characters. 0-99 vs 0-127 (0xFF) ... seems annoying but has intent. Also spreads more evenly than base 10 over the length of a pattern.
Nice video! You wondered about the different volume levels on the recording (at around 12:30 minutes). When recording, the tracker distributes the notes on available tracks and when the tracks have different volumes, you think the individual notes have different velocities (which of course is not true).
Hah, I'm just recently getting back into music and wasn't aware of these sort of trackers. When the tracks started scrolling by as you were recording, I was like, "ah, that takes me back to the Amiga and Sound Tracker..." and then I saw one of the sample names: amigatightsnare.wav. :)
I didn't see it mentioned in the comments, and maybe this didn't exist in a previous firmware, but as you demonstrated, the tracker will move onto another track if there is polyphony. That's the default, but you can set it so that only specific tracks are armed for live record and then that won't happen. Think it's "Master + Record" buttons.
Hi Ricky, pleased to meet you... I just received my polyend tracker. I bought it as a brand new one, but I feel I'm not the first owner, you see... Could you just tell me how it comes when you power it for the first time ? I mean, are patterns empty ? Or maybe there is already demo patterns? When I first put the power on, all patterns were full of strange and shit... What do you think about it please ? Thank you very much Alex
looks super interesting. Especially for the price. I've been saving up for a digitone which is what i really want but almost every review has said the 4 tracks are limiting. Maybe I'll buy a polyend tracker :)
