Polyend TRacker for life!!!! I can easily get 1 or two more, because they are such a value for the money. Now understand this device rocks when you can think outside of the MPC/rippin records mentality and you want to go far left. The FM radio sampling, monster sequencer, granular synthesis alone for $700 is insane. I carry the Tracker,the cable,a Zoom recorder, my tablet,and a USB powerbank,and that's a whole studio..
Wow that was so thorough and well put together! Well done! Good that you included some background info on LSDJ, Renoise, M8 and where the Polyend Tracker sits in terms of everything too. - i was looking to get one a couple of years ago when they went out of stock everywhere. I've talked myself out of one many times since, instead delving into Renoise, but don't think I'll be happy until I've had one. thanks for the 1 year on review :)
Cheers Alkaliner, I wanted to highlight where it sits as there isn't much in that portable protracker style space, and the Polyend filled it quite will. Maybe 1 day ill pick up a M8 and do a thorough comparison, however I feel it would be comparing apples and oranges as the workflow is different. With 1.5 and 1.6 just around the corner. its a fully capable machine and I use Renoise now for VST work. I may not be helping your gas :).
This is a great video! Excited to get to play with the device so soon! I’m coming from a modular background so I’m very excited to be able to see what’s going on in the sequencer and also structure longform stuff with specific detail!
This is exactly what i need to hear.. Thanks for your Video..i ordered one and should have in the mail next week..i just hope it's easy to start sequencing...i'm heavily into sequencing...and also sampling my own sounds into the machine...i was going to get the MPC one but i got the tracker used on the FB Market place at a great price...so i'm excited..Thanks for sharing your experience
Glad you got a deal, the tracker is really good for grid sequencing and workflow can get really granular. It takes a bit to get with the workflow however it is a super fast process.
Belated, but just want to thank you for a very thoughtful review. Indeed, specs are not king, it's the workflow that counts. Love the way you show how this can be a very immediate, rewarding machine.
Thanks. Really helpful! Good thoughts regarding limitations etc. I share your view on the fact that limitations on a spec sheet are not the way to judge a device for music creation.
I got a lot of synth beauties in my studio, but the last 6 months ive only been busy with the polyend, my next one will be the medusa, i just love it! You have done a majestic job with the tracker, THANK YOU POLYEND! 🙏👍 And thank you Aisjam , you've done a great job with this video!
@@Aisjam its such a creative machine, and it makes me make music in a different way than the other toy's so to speak. This is my first experience with a tracker and it absolutely wonders me how easy you get such interesting results in such a short time! I will be following polyend and its future products very closely, and see what magic toys they will produce.
Thanks once again for a very well structured and inspiring video! Awesome idea to make this 1-year review. While I continue to love the Tracker, the biggest concern I have is that my jogwheel starts to have hiccups and might stop working at all at some time. As it is supposed to be subject to wear, it's not covered by the guarantee. Which is quite odd since it started to have hiccups only a few weeks after the purchase; so it's rather due to bad engineering than heavy use... Another thing I really don't like is the way it records external MIDI, populating multiple tracks. Which is kind of expected due to monophonic tracks, but since half of the space is occupied by NOTE OFF commands it populates even more tracks. Like 2-3 for a simple melody and up to 6 or so for chords. And if you arm only 1 track, multiple notes might be omitted since the OFF notes have priority over new incoming notes. Sure you can program everything much more efficient, using just 2-3 tracks for very complex musical ideas. Nonetheless, sometimes I really would prefer to quickly live-record s/th without populating all tracks at once and without having to copy/cut/paste events afterwards to condense it down to fewer tracks. Having said that, the Tracker was my first gear leading into the tracker world and I'm extremely happy I discovered it.
Cheers man. Also if you are having issues with the jog wheel, Maybe get in touch with polyend. My tracker's jogwheel hasn't had any issues however that was a section of the video left on the cutting room floor. Polyend and other companies were hit with the part apocalypse. because of covid, Quality Assurance was thrown out the window and a bunch of bad parts hit the market. I know as some of the parts I have ordered were DoA. A real big shame as I feel this caused a massive anxiety about getting the tracker for a lot of users (it was on my mind when purchasing it). Since mine is out of warranty, I opened it up to check out what they did, and I am really happy with their circuit design. Its a single board and all the SMD components are far away from the input components. I am not an expert with electronics, however I would feel comfortable replacing a key switch or that rotary encoder with my soldering skills. Disclaimer you do this at your own risk, but chat to Polyend to see what you can do. I asked and they have switched the rotary encoder with Alpha branded encoder, that makes me happy. For the midi, I can see how that can be limiting for you. I been trying out recording my live plays in a working pattern then render that pattern to a sample. its been really fun chopping it up. Could be something you could try.
I ordered mine yesterday and got it for less than $500 USD which I think is a steal. I'm new to song writing but primarily work in Renoise so this is perfect for if I wanna make music at my girlfriends house or if I ever end up actually performing live
That is a good price. I feel you're on the same journey as renoise is my goto when I need vsts. Currently I am working on building sets on my trackers to play live similar to how use to run with my gameboys with lsdj. You're in for a lot of fun
That nice beach tax definitely stinging atm. Check out Foundsound here in aus. I got my tracker through them and they were really helpful. It's has been one of my best synth purchases as still after a year I use it daily. Do want to get a play to get that juicy youtube algorithm views. But sustainable gas therapy is a part of this channel so lots more tracker tutorials.
I just bought one because I love trackers. Having said that, I hope to use it mostly as my primary sequencer for my eurorack setup. I have a midi to CV module that'll get me 4 channels out. Has anyone used it in that capacity? I could have bought the NerdSeq for approximately the same price, but I'm running out of rack space and thought the external sequencer would be better and the Polyend tracker just looks fun to use.
I haven't got into the modular space yet however the midi capability works really well on my synth table. running 4 different synths at once. Would like to see what you do.
you mentioned that using a gooseneck and sampling into the tracker didn't really work they way you wanted, why not? i have an xlr to 3.5mm on the way to hook up a dynamic mic so i can sample live percussion to my tracks for a bit of organismic vibration.
In the studio its was pretty good. Similar to the goose neck on the Microfreak. However taking the device outside made me paranoid, especially throwing logs to make drum sounds. I have a H5 with a shotgun mic which is much safer for me and the tech.
Hi there ! You mentioned using the mic in to record sample on the spot, and that i didn't really work out as expected. Would you elaborate a bit ? What went wrong ? :) That's what I'd like to do with a Zoom H1 or a piezzo mic.
I had been a bit touchy in previous firmware, however 1.5 is solid. I covered the export features in the Mastering tutorial here ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Ntavax0BcUM.html at 8:20. I didn't make it daw specific however its export works.
I've written and arranged songs in the song mode in the tracker, then used the "export song stems" function and put them straight into my DAW for mixing and final touches. Works a charm :)
I feel there needs to be another catch term for these new devices. I say music easel, I hear hardware DAW, however some term that captures the all in one aspect would be nice
What microphone and lead do you recommend?I only have condensors and obviously this wont power thos through the line. Just looking for something cheap and cheerful but ok sounding... many thanks. Just making my way through your new video
Bit of a tough one. The main 2 microphones I use with the Polyend Tracker is the rode videomic ntg and zoom h5. Its weird choice but the sound is great. However I have been testing the Rode VideoMicro as it fits a lot of my needs (small form factor, 3.5mm jack, mountable) However there is a noticeable audio difference. Listen to the section about portability, I use the videomicro when showing off my studio. I am at a point I want to try and 3d print a housing around a small capsule and try making the microphone I want for polyend tracker. Cables, I use hosa in the video. However a cable is a cable (unless its a cheap knockoff), I make mine from parts at Jaycar. If they are long like 10ft you will get impedance, also shielding if you are near power leads. However you should be able to find some decent cables for under $10 at any reputable electronics/ hifi store
Hey ! Thanks for the in-depth review. I have a question. Can you independently play through a midi controller keyboard(s), while playing the constructed tracks themselves ? Can you use it as an instrument sound source in addition to live playing with the tracks ?
When I try to load up a directory in the Sample loader, it takes forever, and when it loads, it shows the files in groups of hundreds... i.e. 2600-2699, 2700-2799, etc... and then it takes forever to navigate into those directories. How do I fix this??
Each folder of samples can only store 100 so the Tracker generates them, that's is why its taking forever. My process is to organise them into sub categories on the PC and go through a process of culling and only keeping my favourite sounds. I do this for all my samplers.
@@Aisjam That's fine and good for you, but as a professional producer I have literally hundreds of gigabytes of samples I have collected over the years. A typical commercial sample pack can contain thousands of samples. If the Tracker can't be configured to navigate a directory on an SD card in a conventional manner than that's a dealbreaker for using the PT in a professional environment.
An important question : when you have a sample for example a piano C5 sound, if you play a different note for instance D6 will it be shortened ? or can you EASILY change the pitch without changing the length of the note ? (I want to play live on a midi keyboard and sequence it with the tracker)
Normal samples will be played at a higher pitch and therefore be shortened. You can however record a piano playing multiple notes, for example 2 full scales. And then use a split track to chop it up in slices. It is some work but you will only have to do this once per instrument. After that you can just copy this instrument to new projects.
So there is a couple of ways to do this on the tracker. @Paul Kuiper is right with multiple samples. You can use the beat slice functionality of the Polyend tracker so you keep all the samples in one .wav and have 1 piano instrument then chop it up. Another way is to use the granular synth to live timestretch like shown here ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-dIZsvMkvrjQ.html, very useful technique. Me personally I like the artefacts of using amigas and tracker samples that aren't time stretched. if i need to jump multiple octaves, I will record multiple samples like C4 C5 C6, or need a little more fidelity I would record C4 F#4 C5 F#5 C6 F#6 (f# is half way between). Hope this helps.
Do you find the reliance on samples to be limiting? Where do you get your library of samples or do you have tips for making/accumulating them? Compared to other instruments I've used (where maybe synthesis is involved), I've biggest limitation I've had creatively with the Polyend is I'm not excited about the samples I've collected. (I have a Polyend Tracker and a DirtyWave M8 and I love them both for different reasons)
Transitioning from LSDj, Nanoloop, famitracker and trackers running synths. I did struggle with a straight sample workflow. However this pushed me creatively towards some of the tricks you see with pro-tracker and demo scene users. single cycle waveforms, position slicing and messing with the wave smoother on top of the instrument parameters really has a sound to its own. So sneakily using the instrument parameters to create synth engines and with 1.6 i have been saving them for future use. Just touching up the video for tomorrow about making single instrument drum kits. I been really delving deep on making tutorials to explain techniques with the Tracker for different genres of music. Its has dominated this channel. I made the library so I could make tutorials with out getting copyright claims on the videos. Tried to keep it generic enough buts still a fan of chiptunes and all the sounds I created. On the making sounds, the M8 has a lot of mutable instruments sounds (I use the microfreak/ polyend tracker as a hobo M8) and you have the op-z, I spend time just mucking around making sounds with my synths and record them with the daw. Then save the best ones and see how I can mangle them in the Polyend Tracker sample engine. Creativity wise, I find it more inspirational to look at mod files and other tracker users, try and see how they do it. this is a good spot modarchive.org/ and check out A for amiga by CTrix, one of my favorate protracker albums. Also check out my tutorials for sound design and automation with the Polyend Tracker. Keep making videos too :). I might get a M8 one day.
