I had an original model 1 Tracker and liked that I could import Amiga mod files and play around with them. I ended up returning it because I was having certain issues with it like the scroll dial being very touchy at times. That and no matter what I would do, the sound I got out of it always felt incredibly flat despite all efforts to use internal effects. I think that might have been because it was an earlier model. Still not sure about the sound part though as demos I heard online were not like that.
Anyways, I’m interested in trying out the Mini and seeing if my experience is different. A big make or break for me is the ability to load Amiga tracker mod files. Is this possible on the Mini? I ask because I’ve seen conflicting information on this. I saw a post by someone in here saying that the feature was removed in 1.7, but I’ve also seen posts online about how you can use mod files again? So I’m really confused on the whole thing and just wanted clarification on it.
Personally, I feel that feature is hands down one of the best things about the Polyend Trackers that literally no other hardware tracker does (to my knowledge). Why was it removed?
The feature was indeed removed but then brought back by popular demand.
It is still the same functionality as you know it from the OG Tracker and it’s available on all the Trackers
Thank you for the link, but as I don’t know it before, I don’t know it now. Let’s say you take a classic mod file from the good old Red Sector Megadeno. Pick “Wasteland” by BitArts…
It would be great to hear a recording of what it sounds like on a direct import, and hear first hand from people what the main issues are.
I get that there were many tracker formats and that the control codes don’t necessarily map to midi, but I do feel like Polyend are missing a huge trick here - there is absolutely no reason at all why you couldn’t include mod/tracker file playback like you’d get on any kind of software player. Even if that’s all it did, just guarantee playback in a “legacy mode” then at least you’d have a device that could at worst, just play old tracker files with the notes scrolling past, but at best, allow users to copy note data from them and individual samples maybe to craft their own creations from the raw materials.
There isn’t really another platform out there like this, short of a tablet and something like renoise, but there’s something about Polyend that has captures the essence and nostalgia while backing it up with some serious software aynth engines.
Failing that, create some conversion software that runs on PC or Mac that lets you import tracker files and have more hands on controls and processing to manipulate and export a more compatible Polyend project file.
Creating a tracker device that can’t reliably play old tracker files is a bit like creating an FM synth that can’t import old sysex files.
Joking aside, there’s obviously a couple issues as you point out:
Polyendtracker supports .mod and .it only
Not all commands exist or are mappable 1:1 to the Polyend Tracker. So it really depends on your .mod files and you will have varying success in playback
Right at the top of my head i can tell you the Jump commands for example do not exist on the Polyend Tracker, so that will break playback of course for some of the crazier mods.
There is no legacy playback mode, but that’s a pretty cool idea!
For me personally it works good enough to get my old .mod files into the tracker so i can re-imagine them if i want to. The Pattern data (most importantly the note data) is there and correct.
If i find time tomorrow i’ll download Wasteland from the Megademo, record it playing and will report back, if that helps you.
I never created any bug report for mod/it import because its beta/unsupported but in my experience:
Tempo is always ignored and defaults to 130
End of file in song mode constantly repeats pattern 1
In 1000s of tests of my library mod files are mostly opened correctly, it files failed nearly always ending up with corrupt samples. They also tend to have more channels and in PT+ they are spread across midi/synth channels.
Thanks all for the information, it’s really useful. I would be very interested to just hear Wasteland playing native/raw without any fixing. Ultimately it’s a first world problem - I can play these mod files on my phone just fine. But, in a hardware device dedicated to it, that’s where the magic is.
I do think a separate legacy mode that basically acts like any software tracker player would be a really neat idea though, even if it was just “load and play” with no editing. If the current import lets you access thr samples and note data, you then have most bases covered.
As @Patrick mentioned, for some reason they always open at 130 bpm.
So i fixed two things here:
Changed the tempo to the original 125 bpm (as shown in the video)
Normalized the recording (to bring up the volume, in post).
If you want the raw recording:
This link will expire on 7/12/2025 at 17:44 GMT+2
Might be a bit noisy as i record this through a Reloop RMX DJ Mixer, that has a crappy noisefloor. Will replace with a proper mixer for video recordings at some point down the line.
Dude, you’re an absolute legend, that’s more than good enough for my needs and, thank you soooo much for taking the time out, really do appreciate it. Order for a mini will be placed soon!
