Wow, I juuuust bought the Tracker thanks to your earlier vids, it's on its way (ETA Monday...) ... And here you pop up in my feed with a review of an update I didn't even knew was coming! You are the awesomest of awesome!
I absolutely love the new project sub-folders! I tend to challenge myself with 1 loop per day / week quests, and since I save every attempt I ended up with a 200-projects-mess with very mixed quality ranging from trashy 1-pattern-loops up to fully worked out songs which I would never find again when in search of. The folders are so immensely useful to organize projects by quality, genre, or progress...
Regarding the dropped .mod/.it support (which I didn't use so far), I look at the good news aspect of this: To me it means that they are no longer obliged to keep all projects in .mod/.it standard... Which in the long run means that they are free to implement whatever new feature they want without looking for compatibility. So maybe in future upgrades we might see more / new FX types, instruments or whatever they might not have been able to implement due to mod/it compatibility...
They really do either need to support Mod/MTM/S3M/XM/IT or they should not put the name "Tracker" in the title.. one fix might be a "new standard" which supports the polytracker extentions and they just need to write a "tracker" application that runs on Win/Mac/Linux for editing on a computer so we can make the best of both hardware only and computer aided.. etc.. Just my two cents =) Thanks mate for putting this video together, it was really good to hear your opinions on the changes and to discuss the options for the firmware rollbacks etc. cheers.
A new standard by definition would not be backwards compatable, there would also be no guarantee anyone else would pick it up and support it. All they really needed to do was to continue MOD/IT and make it clear (on a polyend page specific to the import export) that importing & exporting wouldn't guarantee success - like a ruff guide on what will and wont carry across on each platform (ie notes will carry across by LFOs wont on this intended machine). I like the idea of a polyend program to do conversions though, they should give that some thought as that could potentially resolve any incompatability.
@@artisans8521 for me, i was spamming preview on a few patterns and going between them kinda fast, that kinda workflow almost never or rarely froze my tracker in 1.6 so hopefully 1.7.1 or something is in the works
Have you experienced any freezing with 1.7? I’ve only had my unit for 2 days and have had to pull the power 3 times… luckily everything auto saves so it’s not really an issue but should be addressed by Polyend
Read a few people have. But I haven't experienced a freeze yet. Made a few songs to get my head around this vid so if it happens to me. I'll add it over on the forum
had two my self in the first night of upgrading it, there's some posts on the backstage forums, believe polyend said they're aware and are working on a fix
I wish there was a horizontal revolver mode. It was nice to implement the new recording mode. I do love the new look and adding colors, and numbering system. Much improvement to the visual interface. I have 2 tracker and I used them both to export out to midi synth engine. Can you sync them together and make them act as one tracker with 16 tracks?
That was something I didn't check. If you go to config > general > pattern arrangement you can switch it to horizontal mode. also you can sync them through midi to play sounds however don't know if you can duel link them for 16 midi channels. Might look at this tonight.
I feel they are juggling space on the tracker chip so wouldn't hold my breath for stereo. However there are tools to make the tracker stereo with panning and split layering. The tracker offers about 80% of the features I would like however its my favourite piece of gear. You will never find something that does 100% but if you use it daily, its a good device :).
I love it too❤ and I like devices with limitations. I just know this is a main feature they gonna put forward to make you buy the next generation device.
There are loads and loads of tracker history and mod/it files out there. I think its unwise to remove that feature. Even if its not fully implemented. It works, leave it there.
Looks pretty nice now, ans user experience seems much better. I would like to ask you as I dont have the machine yet, do you think the machine is capable, on its own, to assemble a whole 45 mints to perform live, based on samples and its internal synths? How do you see it also being use as a sequencer for a drum machine and a mono synth for live performance? Thanks in advance!
Well, you’ve got about 130 seconds of available sampling time per project. So it really depends on the project - some sample-heavy hip-hop might not work, some 4/4 techno could work for weeks. But then you can also create several projects, and the only problem would be switching between them seamlessly. As for external gear - i’ve hooked mine to a synth via midi, and this occupied the only available midi output. Not sure if you can work with several devices at once.
@@kentishka-iz-naliva if the second synth can pass midi should be ok, or even using a midi splitter box may do the work ;) regarding the whole live set, I'm not worry about the sampling time, as I guess it can cover pretty much using its internals synths, single cycle waveforms, and also one hit samples.
@@aki_gong6271 well, yeah, you should be more than covered for 45 minutes then =) My opinion on the device overall, after 1 year of ownership, - it’s great, and definitely helped me focus on creating stuff (turned out my computer just gives me too many options like vsts and effects and i just totally get lost for hours in this with no results). At the same time, i don’t think it’s capable enough to replace a daw and a synth. And yeah, having stereo on the Mini and being stuck with mono on the OG just made things a little bit more sad 😔
@@kentishka-iz-naliva thanks for the detailed reply, I think it can indeed bring some different approach to my current setup. Looking forward to make music with it. Definitely the price drop is a great opportunity to get one now ;) thanks!
Wow, I juuuust bought the Tracker thanks to your earlier vids, it's on its way (ETA Monday...) ... And here you pop up in my feed with a review of an update I didn't even knew was coming! You are the awesomest of awesome!
Well I hope it rocks up Monday and you have a lot of fun making music on it.
Just buy used PT , sampled my sounds and frases , basslines and I enjoy whole day just with 8 mute buttons😊
I absolutely love the new project sub-folders!
I tend to challenge myself with 1 loop per day / week quests, and since I save every attempt I ended up with a 200-projects-mess with very mixed quality ranging from trashy 1-pattern-loops up to fully worked out songs which I would never find again when in search of. The folders are so immensely useful to organize projects by quality, genre, or progress...
Regarding the dropped .mod/.it support (which I didn't use so far), I look at the good news aspect of this: To me it means that they are no longer obliged to keep all projects in .mod/.it standard... Which in the long run means that they are free to implement whatever new feature they want without looking for compatibility. So maybe in future upgrades we might see more / new FX types, instruments or whatever they might not have been able to implement due to mod/it compatibility...
They really do either need to support Mod/MTM/S3M/XM/IT or they should not put the name "Tracker" in the title.. one fix might be a "new standard" which supports the polytracker extentions and they just need to write a "tracker" application that runs on Win/Mac/Linux for editing on a computer so we can make the best of both hardware only and computer aided.. etc.. Just my two cents =) Thanks mate for putting this video together, it was really good to hear your opinions on the changes and to discuss the options for the firmware rollbacks etc. cheers.
A new standard by definition would not be backwards compatable, there would also be no guarantee anyone else would pick it up and support it.
All they really needed to do was to continue MOD/IT and make it clear (on a polyend page specific to the import export) that importing & exporting wouldn't guarantee success - like a ruff guide on what will and wont carry across on each platform (ie notes will carry across by LFOs wont on this intended machine).
I like the idea of a polyend program to do conversions though, they should give that some thought as that could potentially resolve any incompatability.
Yes finally ! I was really waiting for those changes
I was too :)
Thanks for this thorough review of 1.7! also awesome music and tutorials ,I’ve watched them all
Thank you Richard.
To all concerned about mod import, it's really easy to switch back to 1.6. if it's a deal breaker for you, just switch firmwares.
Thanks for the work ... The import of "Mod" was one of the main reasons why I had to buy the tracker :(
Luckily it's super easy to just run 1.6 but yeah, I thought it was a weird change!
@@alicemyslime but with bugs 😀
It may have a come back? 😅
Tracker with mod import removed, just doesn’t fit, the only piece of hardware ever with a feature removed. Mistake.
Woah...did not know this. Damn :(
They dropped .mod support in firmware 1.7 so I cancelled my order. Polyend making some really bad decisions.
1.7 is buggy, the first day i had it, crashed like 3 or 4 times, hopefully they have a fix for it soon!
@@artisans8521 for me, i was spamming preview on a few patterns and going between them kinda fast, that kinda workflow almost never or rarely froze my tracker in 1.6 so hopefully 1.7.1 or something is in the works
Have you experienced any freezing with 1.7? I’ve only had my unit for 2 days and have had to pull the power 3 times… luckily everything auto saves so it’s not really an issue but should be addressed by Polyend
Read a few people have. But I haven't experienced a freeze yet. Made a few songs to get my head around this vid so if it happens to me. I'll add it over on the forum
had two my self in the first night of upgrading it, there's some posts on the backstage forums, believe polyend said they're aware and are working on a fix
Yeah I had a pretty bad freeze complete with a loud tonal glitch while I was going crazy in Perform mode lol
I've had freezes both sessions since updating.
It happenned to me 3 times already... the new features are cool, but firmware 1.6 was stable and this version not :(
I wish there was a horizontal revolver mode. It was nice to implement the new recording mode. I do love the new look and adding colors, and numbering system. Much improvement to the visual interface.
I have 2 tracker and I used them both to export out to midi synth engine. Can you sync them together and make them act as one tracker with 16 tracks?
That was something I didn't check. If you go to config > general > pattern arrangement you can switch it to horizontal mode. also you can sync them through midi to play sounds however don't know if you can duel link them for 16 midi channels. Might look at this tonight.
@@Aisjam the horizontal mode doesn't have revolver mode.
I tried syncing two but sync was unstable and drifting apart. Maybe this is better in 1.7. Would love to know cause I dropped the idea and sold one
9:19 "Use the Polyend Tracker to learn the Polyend tracker"
Say what you want about the Tracker, but that's not something many devices can do.
Haha yeah, could you imagine trying to load the digitone manual on that screen :).
Can this unit sample in stereo one day or we will have to buy a tracker MKII? Love mono but would be nice to have the option
I feel they are juggling space on the tracker chip so wouldn't hold my breath for stereo. However there are tools to make the tracker stereo with panning and split layering. The tracker offers about 80% of the features I would like however its my favourite piece of gear. You will never find something that does 100% but if you use it daily, its a good device :).
I love it too❤ and I like devices with limitations. I just know this is a main feature they gonna put forward to make you buy the next generation device.
There are loads and loads of tracker history and mod/it files out there. I think its unwise to remove that feature. Even if its not fully implemented. It works, leave it there.
Still no FTP. 🙄
Looks pretty nice now, ans user experience seems much better. I would like to ask you as I dont have the machine yet, do you think the machine is capable, on its own, to assemble a whole 45 mints to perform live, based on samples and its internal synths? How do you see it also being use as a sequencer for a drum machine and a mono synth for live performance? Thanks in advance!
Well, you’ve got about 130 seconds of available sampling time per project. So it really depends on the project - some sample-heavy hip-hop might not work, some 4/4 techno could work for weeks. But then you can also create several projects, and the only problem would be switching between them seamlessly.
As for external gear - i’ve hooked mine to a synth via midi, and this occupied the only available midi output. Not sure if you can work with several devices at once.
@@kentishka-iz-naliva if the second synth can pass midi should be ok, or even using a midi splitter box may do the work ;) regarding the whole live set, I'm not worry about the sampling time, as I guess it can cover pretty much using its internals synths, single cycle waveforms, and also one hit samples.
@@aki_gong6271 well, yeah, you should be more than covered for 45 minutes then =)
My opinion on the device overall, after 1 year of ownership, - it’s great, and definitely helped me focus on creating stuff (turned out my computer just gives me too many options like vsts and effects and i just totally get lost for hours in this with no results). At the same time, i don’t think it’s capable enough to replace a daw and a synth. And yeah, having stereo on the Mini and being stuck with mono on the OG just made things a little bit more sad 😔
@@kentishka-iz-naliva thanks for the detailed reply, I think it can indeed bring some different approach to my current setup. Looking forward to make music with it. Definitely the price drop is a great opportunity to get one now ;) thanks!
Picked this up on reverb for $360 brand new. It's taking forever for the mini to ship to me.
Hope you get your mini soon. also that 40% was pretty good. Though nice beach tax was a bit much also postage time to Australia is a fun one too.