Trying to Love the Polyend Tracker
Vložit
- čas přidán 7. 07. 2024
- I explore the features that make the Polyend Tracker unique as a groovebox and show the making of a bunch of beats and jams, all while trying to re-review the device.
Subscribe for more electronic music!
Subscribe to my second channel: / gabemiller2
Get my $5 sample pack: gumroad.com/l/gabeoneshots
Get my MPC Keygroup pack: gabemiller.gumroad.com/l/keyg...
Get my $3.50 MicroFreak patch pack: gum.co/GabeMicroFreak
Edited by Coastland Creative: www.coastlandcreative.com
Stickers! www.redbubble.com/people/Gabe...
Get 7% off your first year of DistroKid: distrokid.com/vip/gabe
00:00 Intro
01:43 Beat 1: Note fill
04:25 Beat 1: FX fill
07:39 Traveling with the Tracker
08:05 Beat 2
09:44 Beat 3
10:21 Beat 4
10:44 Beat 5: Random notes
11:34 Beat 6
13:17 Final thoughts
14:39 Outro
My current favorite music production gear:
MPC One: www.zzounds.com/a--3972602/it...
Circuit Tracks: www.zzounds.com/a--3972602/it...
Circuit Rhythm: www.zzounds.com/a--3972602/it...
Roland MC-101: www.zzounds.com/a--3972602/it...
Arturia MicroFreak: www.zzounds.com/a--3972602/it...
ATH M40 headphones: www.zzounds.com/a--3972602/it...
Note that some of the above links are affiliate links, which give me a commission (at NO extra cost to you!) if you use them to buy something.
Website: GabeMillerMusic.com
Instagram: GabeMillerMusic
Soundcloud: Soundcloud.com/GabeMillerMusic1 - Hudba
Was hoping you'd give it some more attention!
Hi Gaber. I was one of the first tracker buyer, and now I have 2 of them. I’m not a musician but I’m a machine expert (mostly buying for GAS). I have got MPC, Circuit Rhythm, Polyend Tracker and Play, Roland Sp 404 MK2, and many synths and controllers. I don’t have a YT channel but I just want contribute to the discussion: in my opinion MPC live is the winning machine on many sides . True portability, DAW friendly attitude, internal synths, high level and quality of sampling , and many more. 2d place I would put the Circuit Rhythm. Most “difficult”to use? Roland SP 404 mk2. (I don’t have any Elektron machine but I know them well.). Regards 👍👋🏻
The immediate way you can use random or crescendoed CC's is what I like the most.. Automating stuff like the TB-03 (and most of the boutiques which have a huge list of CC controllable features) makes things really interesting.
Cutting loops up is also an absolute joy when compared to most other methods.
Just ordered one !
Only 4 minutes in so maybe you address this later, but I find that random fill works EXTREMELY well with bass lines. Great way to flesh out a little rhythm that you can base your track on. For like pads and leads, not so much.
What I do is I pick out my bass instrument, fill my bass with a density of about 30-35% and give it an octave of a scale I'm working with. From there, run fill a couple times until I get something I like.
Anyway just wanted to share!
I hear the original 303's tendency to corrupt memory and replace patterns with random ones that where "often better then the ones carefully sequenced".
Jam at the beginning is pure madness
I love grabbing it as something small and easy to power in my backpack, allows a lot of creative output in a small footprint with very satisfying controls.
At home it sits on a stand with midi in coming from my MPC and keyboard, its out going to my mixer with an aux send to the mpc inputs. It's really easy for me to bounce & edit samples across devices, use it as a granular/wavetable synth, or use it for adding extra percussion and samples to a track.
Didn't get on with the tracker so I let it go!! BUT I was impressed by how well made it was and its feel, so when they bought out the Polyend Play I couldn't resist and I love it😀😀😁😁😎😎
Decksaver and a large tablet case has worked great for travel, with no jog wheel issues.
Great video Gabe. The Tracker has so much more potential. If only a handful of the enhancements over on the Polyend Tracker Beta Testing GitHub are implemented by Polyend, it’ll be an even more versatile and powerful creative tool. “Boolean operators for fill selection” proposed by redsquares is only one of them. Here’s hoping 🤞
This thing has a real Amiga vibe about it. I like it just for that.
Nice one Gabe. Glad you found time to come back to the Tracker.
I see it as a song-finishing device for some reason. It's not as fun as something you can 'play', like a 16x16 MPC pad grid, but as you demo'd, the FILL feature can make song creation so fast... especially coupled with the SONG arranger.
I've been really enjoying the Deluge too lately...
Wow... "16x16 MPC pad grid", my MPC have only 4x4... 😉😜
@@VTOLKits lol yeah, whoops 😅
I’ve been a maschine plus user and got the PE tracker in October. I love it. Just hope they keep updating. Really hoping for the next iteration have a battery, more effects, and allow stereo samples. One can only hope 🙏🏾…
Ayyye, you didn't even know you were describing (predicting?) what would become the mini! Maybe minus the effects? Although I've read people having luck using a USB charger to go portable with the OG tracker.
Happy 2024!
@@thomascrownbuerger that jogwheel and pads are important. I’m no go on the mini. Hopefully for a real MK2 of the OG tracker. OG tracker workflow is one the best I’ve had in a groovebox. I hope they release something soon. Don’t know why they went with Play +. They have one more to play with me and I’ll just move to another company lol
If your jog wheel is becoming iffy you can email Polyend about it. I ended replacing the encoder and they sent me a support rig for it that prevents that from happening again. You can send it for repair or go the DIY way like I did hehe. They have pretty good support I find :)
I really liked mine for about a year. Haven’t touched the pe tracker since getting an m8.
You say you don't regret choosing this over the Digitakt. Could you elaborate on what made you make that choice? It seems that the Digitakt would be closer to your preferred workflow. Also, are you intrigued by the Tracker Mini given that you love portability?
I love the bits you hate :) reminded me why I love this thing
Fair! Helping people find what they like and lean into it is the goal of these videos
@@GabeMillerMusic Just reread my comment and it comes across as snarky sorry! What I meant was: awesome video, shows how it caters to many tastes if you dig the workflow...inspired me to go power mine on.
That's better :)
No worries, you're all good! I figured that's what you meant
Fair take. I got mine after the price drop as a learning tool, to both learn to get comfortable working with samples and to check out trackers and it's working for both purposes. I like it, but while I think it's capable enough to make entire albums on its probably not going to be my endgame.
Rad, glad you're enjoying it!
At 11:08 I was wondering how you will manage to make that mess of random notes work and at 11:16 I was pleasantly surprised! Well done! 👏
I've never been able to get into the groove with a tracker workflow, it just always seems too tedious to make big changes to the track, but I totally respect that it's a lot of people's preferred workflow. I love the M8, which is a tracker, but it's definitely more of a travel, zen music-making device for me.
I like the random notes thing a lot actually. I don't think it needs cleaning up, it works fine as-is to my ears.
Get mine few days ago, quite like the song mode and I like discovering this device more and more.
That said the pads would gain being more responsive for live on the fly recordings.
I really liked the portability and power battery option to power it up. Great for traveling.
As you like to live play so much, I'm not surprised you're mixed feelings about it.
Personnaly I like the tetris/lego aspect of the workflow, yet I regret and wished the live on the fly recording using the pads were better.
I'm still gonna dig into this one.
BTW quick question, have you tried to pair it up alongside a volca keys or any small portable ext synth ?
Do you think this combo would do well?
Cheers and thanks for all the good content
You should try the Play. It can do less but it’s more fun.
It’s more fun but the sampling capability missing it’s something to consider. I have been a 10hours a day tracker addicted but without realizing it I dismissed it in favor of Circuit Rhythm (I love it’s workflow!). The tracker has the ability to export on its side. A simple thing I find annoying about the tracker and play it’s the need to bring a cable with a power bank attached . You never feel really free to move. Just my opinion…
Maybe at some point!
Good video 👍. I can see why people like this (especially those who grew up with the tracker paradigm) but for me its strengths aren't in my musical direction. I like to play my instruments into the MPC's sampler and chop them around. If only Akai would make the sampler auto-trigger from the start of a sequence (after the count-in or when it loops) it would be perfect.
Thanks for that. I think life is too short to force yourself to like something. I was the same with the Novation Tracks. I just couldn't vibe with it. Sold it and got a Roland MC707 and have loved it ever since. Which I swapped ages ago
Fair! It's one of those things that I'm not forcing myself to like, I just have periods of time where I can't get it out of my head, but it still doesn't fully stick.
I find it hard to sell gear but I should if it doesn't inspire. I'm on the fence with my MonoStation and my JP-08. My Proteus/1 only hangs around to remind me to NEVER settle for less (in that case I should have held out for a U220).
Imagine throwing in random panning on those percs!
My question would be: Is it the Polyend Tracker or is it trackers in general for you? Is it different with the M8?
Heh. The timing of this video. I'm laid up in bed ill today, but have my Tracker on my lap and wanted to actually start trying to use it over my main studio gear.
This video makes me more interested! Mostly with the percussion and glitch. I agree it’s not good on melody. I prefer playing my melody stuff.
Nice! The goal of videos like this is to help people find something they like based off of my experience
Olsztyn represent
Yeah, i saw your first review. And its wierd and has a quite hard sound profile. I would recommend you to look into its midi-capabilities. And also one important thing about the tracker is that it’s a tracker, hehehe. And due to its nature, the workflow is different. You literally have total control of every parameter. That can be tedious for people. I would love to have a better approach for shaping samples. I don’t dig the preview option after you’ve added an eq.
Dear Gabe, been a subscriber for about two years now. We’ve had small talk in comments before, hope you’re doing well. I had a question. I am trying to create a “dawless“ songwriter setup with my Ju-6a, behringer crave and guitars. Would this be a good “brain“ to step sequence my drum samples, record some guitars and my vocals? (with overdubs etc.) Trying to create kind of like a 80s porta studio situation. I was looking into the circuit tracks as well but not enough channels for gtr and vocals after ju6a and crave (i dont mind the mono). Any suggestions? Thank you! :D
Tbh I haven't used midi with the Tracker much, but I don't think it'll be great for non-step based stuff (I'm not 100% sure on that though).
For what you're trying to do, you might have better luck with something like the Roland Verselab MV-1, since it has midi out, both line and XLR in, and the ability to record audio loops up to 8 bars and a dedicated "vocal" track that runs the length of the arrangement created in song mode. Although note that it's fairly menu divey and working with the vocal track is a pain in the butt.
If you don't mind something more DAWlike, one of the standalone MPCs might be worth a look.
@@GabeMillerMusic i have a mpc studio mk2 i use sometimes, thanks for sharing your thoughts! Have you tried the Sonicware SmplTrek? :D cheers!
Where did you get the Marlow Diggs Sample packs
From his MPC Head Bandcamp:
mpchead.bandcamp.com
Mood. The Polyend Tracker is an amazing device ... for someone who isn't me. Trackers just don't work the way I do.
the randomizer and roll pest. to many tracked tracks use this and people think wonder of it, but it gets boring very quick. surprise: it's possible to make great controled tracks with it, but it takes hours of work on the details. but you get quite unique results
I'm always so torn on this thing. Cause on paper it's such a cool concept for a groovebox, but novelty aside, you can get far more capable tracker softwares on your computer for much cheaper. And you've already got a laptop, that's portability covered to boot.
Yeah it's a weird one, but it keeps calling me back every now and again
@@acidlab9586 I hear that happens a lot between the PT and tracker software; people who like one usually don't gel with the other. For me, mouse and keyboard is second nature, so I tend to be more comfortable working in a DAW.
Renoise is powerful but there is more programming, you have to know the commends to really do stuff in it, the tracker has a lot of what renoise has but stripped down and laid out for you, much user friendly interface than renoise, and I love renoise but would rather get on this, hook my synth up and start making a track, it’s pretty fast after learning the workflow
That's exactly how I felt about the circuit tracks. I liked the overall design of the device, but the work flow as well as the sound engine didn't do it for me. I got rid of it eventually
Fair enough!
Got a MPC one recently and just went back to this, after learning the workflow, just had more fun and easier time using it than trying to figure out the MPC workflow
Can the mc-101 make those kind of idm beats?
There are a lot of step by step effects, but you can do note rolls on drum tracks and use the scatter effects, so you could probably get close but it would be more laborious.
The mc 101 can absolutely
I get that the Tracker is a good tool but I just can’t with it. I just don’t work this way
I love your channel and watch all the time, but the kind of music you make isn’t generally my cup of tea. It’s good, it’s just not the kind of thing I generally find myself enjoying. However, the stuff you made on this is absolutely sick, even/especially the stuff that you said was too busy or not good. I thought that stuff was awesome! Just goes to show how much taste/perception affects how we mesh with gear. Really great video, keep doin it.
this is when reading a manual can be helpful.
why review and pontificate when you dont fully know how to use something. youtubers 🤦🏾♀
The workflow seems like a pain
It definitely can be, it seems to really depend on who you ask.
@@GabeMillerMusic I do like the random pattern feature
Yeah - seems like this is a polarizing topic. To me, it made more sense more quickly than any other box I’ve used. However, it’s fundamentally different from how a lot of other boxes work.
I also am enjoying the Deluge workflow, but the learning curve was harder for me.
The MPC, to me, still remains a mystery. I’m sure I could get it eventually, but it seems unnecessarily unintuitive out of the box. Reminds me of Microsoft Office.
@@synth-studio once ya get the mpc it’s not bad but agreed it’s Hella unintuitive and most people who like the tracker workflow have used trackers in the past I could see liking the polyend tracker. The deluge looks interesting, because of the grid workflow but that no export a deal breaker it’s funny how all these companies can’t seem to figure out a groovebox like they never asked people who actually make music .
If your trying, your doing something wrong.
Dont try , the tracking workflow is no for you, leave it, go to use a sequencer you like