Could-have-been Greatest Groovebox... but

General
,
1

Dear Polyend Team,

Please take this rant as feedback from a user that absolutely LOVES the form factor and actually want this beautiful machine to succeed!

I’ve had the Play Plus for about 2-3 weeks. And I’m returning it for a total refund, as it is by my standards, defective;
First, let me say this: It is VERY intuitive, once you get the gist of the machine… 5 minutes in, you’re sitting with a relative simple, but dope house track. Taking it a step further takes another 5 minutes. Chain the sequences, boom - a track. It’s really fantastic in ALMOST all aspects. The workflow is absolutely amazing, the physical 8 X 16 step sequencing buttons… man, it just makes sketching ideas into actual tracks in such a short and comprehensive time, it is absolutely insane! Form factor = 10/10!
The thing is though…
It is glitchy… SO glitchy that I can’t even bother with it anymore. In these 3 weeks, it has crashed and frozen up more than 50 times - it is just an estimated guess, but in just one evening it had more than 10 crashes and a handful of glitches.
Even by loading projects on SOLELY STOCK sounds. It is more stable on stock samples, but it sure HATES ‘custom’ samples… no matter the character length/no special characters, bit rate, compression… it hates most, if not all of my samples that works flawlessly on all my other hardware.

And then the mysterious pattern deletions, synth patches that resets, or copy/pasting simply not working untill you load into another project, reload back in or restart the device etc.

Oh, and I was not skipped in having a DOA SD-card, had that pleasure as well :P.
I’ve seen posts with people saying that you should run this machine from the wall socket if you experience issues - did that, same shit happening.
Now, I know that there’s talk about this unit hasn’t been abandonded from the devs, and the firmware guys are tick-tacking away to solve some of these (got to be honest) product-breaking issues. But as far as I can see, it’s been WAY too many months in the making - these problems shouldn’t have been there from the start - or at least, not to such an extend? Disappointing, really.
There is no doubt in my mind, that the Tracker gets more attention than this product. Which is fair… if the Play+ was actually useable, like if it glitched out in the functions once in a while, or just occasionally froze when loading projects.

Now… some of yall’s gonna say along the lines of “It’s probably a dud, send it back for a new one.” Initially, yeah, but after reading on several forums, this is by far not just me experiencing these glitches and crashes. It is most definately Firmware issues.

Even if it worked flawlessly:
Even without any of the glitches, I found out that this thing can’t sample… Now, I know I should’ve researched more before buying it, that’s on me.
I actually just figured that this thing, especially from the price point, could sample and time stretch and so forth - being a sample based machine and all? Another thing is the sample pool… you exceed the amount SO quick, 30mb isn’t nowhere nearly enough.

Conclusion:
The past 3 weeks, it has been the most bitter-sweet experience I’ve ever had in producing music… maybe even just in general, music producing aside. Despite how much I like the workflow and capabilities this machine offers, and the fact that you can easily make a freaking dope house track AND a sick old school LoFi Boom Bap beat in 10 minutes with low effort (if it doesn’t crash lol), the lack of sampling and sample editing doesn’t make it worth it in my book.

This beatiful machine could’ve been the absolute GREATEST OF ALL TIME groovebox… I really hope Polyend will re-imagine this machine, and make a groovebox similar to this with actual sampling and time stretching etc. and get the firmware tested BEFORE shipping them out of the R&D dpartment.

7 Likes
2

Sorry you had some bad experiences. I’ve had crashes too. I’ve had weird issues. I’ve had mini heartbreaks with this things. I’m ready for 2.0, I really am.

But as a hobbyist, it’s still the ideal machine for me.

I believe the constraints of this device are real, because programming on custom hardware is hard. So while we all wish it did x and y, it also does so many things in a way other grooveboxes don’t that seem to keep people like me engaged with it. So it’s still a winner for me.

Assume best intent from Polyend. I am. And I mostly love it as much as anyone should love a dumb piece of electronic equipment. Time spent with this thing is time I’m not spending mindlessly on video games or doomscrolling. 5 minutes with the play elevates my mood. 10 minutes gets my head bobbing — yours too, as you said. An hour and I’m entranced. I appreciate all that. It’s what it is.

3 Likes
3

I’ve had Play+ for 1 week and I’m also blown away by how fast and fun and creative this thing is. I’ve owned many, many grooveboxes, samplers and drum machines over the last 25 years or so and I’ve never fallen so hard, so fast for a machine before. That said, I do have to agree, this thing is buggy. My experience has not been as rough as OP’s but I’m still regularly experiencing issues. For me, crashing during custom sample loading is the worst. I’ve been building Play formatted sample packs and most of the time, on my first attempt to load the pack it crashes early during the loading… but then I power it off, power it back on, load the same sample pack and it loads just fine. Anyway, just wanted to add my voice to the sentiment of this post. Personally, I am most definitely keeping mine and praying for a massive firmware update!

EDIT: OP’s mention about “character length” led me to this thread Freeze whilst loading sample packs, folders or files which exceed 32 char

Many of my samples have very long filenames, early tests indicate that truncating those filenames does seem to help!

3 Likes
4

I love the concept of play+. It has so much potential. But the bugs are too much. I haven’t touched it in months and I’m hoping/praying the next firmware makes it stable.

At this point, I don’t care about any new features. I don’t care about midi performance mode and I don’t care about the perc synth.

I am concerned that these new features are just going to introduce more bugs.

I’m eagerly waiting for the next firmware so I can decide whether to keep it or sell it.

5 Likes
5

I’m with you on this one. I bought the play+ over the OG play specifically for the synth engines, and as they are today, they are unusably buggy. They reset randomly, change parameters on reboots, and don’t even sequence correctly. If I lay down a few notes in the piano roll and then delete all of them, some will still get triggered with no way to delete them.

They sound great, I just decided to wait for bug fixes after several hours of frustration trying to get them working. That was several months ago.

7

s much as I love the Play Plus, it’s hard to overlook the fact that, despite its high price point, the hardware feels underdeveloped. This wasn’t an inexpensive piece of equipment, and when compared to other boutique companies that have delivered more reliable products, it’s disappointing to see such potential left unfulfilled.

A synth influencer whom I admire and who endorses Polyend’s products once said about the Akai MPC Keys, “users are not beta testers.” That sentiment feels especially relevant here.

When the Play Plus was updated, one of the major selling points was the new processor, which hinted at more than just the synth engines (they were another selling point) —it gave the impression that new features were on the way. Instead, we’re left with an ever-growing wishlist while the machine remains buggy. To date, there have been no new features, and little communication about future updates or bug fixes.

The Play Plus is an innovative and exciting piece of hardware, and it’s a shame to see it not receive the love and attention it deserves. If Polyend cannot address these issues and provide regular updates, it might be worth considering open-sourcing the firmware. This would allow the community to help realize the full potential of the machine, turning what is currently a frustrating experience into one that matches the creativity and promise that the Play Plus initially represented.

I fear that this thread might be dismissed as non-productive, but I want to stress that the sentiment I express seems to be shared by many users. Play Plus owners are passionate about the machine and simply want more from it. It’s not just about fixing bugs—it’s about fulfilling the promise of what the Play Plus can be.

12 Likes
8

the synth are so buggy and hard the program that I bought a digitone, but the midi sequencer on on the play is incredible for sequencing an external synth. I’m still rooting for this device when the firmwere upgrade comes, good luck can’t wait

9

same deal with the Tracker+ … The very first time I used it, the first time I turned it on, while doing the offical polyend tutorial on how it works, in the first 15 minutes, using all stock sounds, it crashed… I had to unplug it from the wall.

The newest patch introduced a bug that breaks entering notes, straight up, and the only support is from 2 weeks ago saying “we are working on it”… I would return mine, but I work on a ship and wont be home for months.

10

To be fair - there is a dead simple workaround for this issue in my bug report as well:

If sequencing was completely broken, i would agree that waiting 2 weeks is unacceptable. But like this, i’d rather they take the time they need to fix it properly.

4 Likes
11

I understand what you are saying, and the machine is great, but I have been buying samplers/sequencers since 2003, and have never had anything crash like my tracker+.

And I disagree. I think that live recording being broken is a big deal. Not everyone is going to research the temporary workaround on this small forum, they will just return it or sell it because $800 is a lot of money. Imagine using this thing live, its like running into a minefield

1 Like
12

Oi! We are 9.5k users here. Don’t call us small :joy:

I’m not saying it’s not a big deal. And i hope as well, that it is fixed soon. As i’m sure it does affect people that use quantized live recording. All i’m saying is that live recording still works with the workaround. Hence live recording is not broken in it’s entirety. It’s quantized live recording that is borked at the moment.

Now this i fully agree with. Core functionality breaking is never a good thing and should be avoided at all costs.

I’m a software dev by trade, so maybe i just see things a little more relaxed. Because with software - there is always a chance of breaking things. Especially once a codebase grows.

And if you are not a big team that has the capacity to do a shitton of testing (like Polyend), there is always a chance of something going unnoticed when releasing an update.

The good thing though, it’s software! :laughing: It can (and i’m sure will) be fixed. This by the way, i believe is true for the Play and Tracker devices.

2 Likes
13

We all have high hopes for that, I guess. But truth to be said, inspration is a tricky thing. Today you want to create, you’re passionate about your hobby, two years later when the patch is ready, you don’t care that much. I came to the conclusion that if something doesn’t work for you right away, just return or sell it. So many competitive products out there. Life is too short to wait for always delayed patches. And when they’re ready, you can grab one again new of second hand.

Overall, I agree with the point:

3 Likes
14

The problem is that Polyend released the Play+ just a year after the Play was released. And this new version is full of bugs.

I know Polyend is a small company, and I understand that there can always be bugs in software. But wouldn’t it have been better to polish the Play experience before releasing the Play+? Was there a need to release it to the market, angering both old users and new ones because of the amount of bugs it has?

I think the Play+ is an amazing device with a lot of potential, but it has too many bugs for a device that was released so many months ago.

These bugs ruin the experience and the perception of Polyend as a brand. I hope Polyend has learned from all this, I really like their devices and having this forum where they show their face makes me not lose hope. But if they continue like this… people are going to lose all confidence.

2 Likes
15

if the trackers get more updates before play+ gets bug fixes I’ll lose my sh** :joy:

I’ve been trying to use play+ on an album I’m writing but the synth engines are too buggy so I’ve had to shelve it for this project. back to my elektrons for the foreseeable.

I’m still really looking forward to what the future of play+ brings. it sounds amazin and has crazy potential.

1 Like
16

I grew sick of the “small company” excuse. Because polyend is a small company is indeed allowed to have buggy products. Because it is a small company, it is considered a “boutique” company and their products are not quite affordable for what they do.
I don’t know, and correct me if I’m wrong, elektron started as a small company and grew, not to the point of roland or korg, just because they released well supported, innovative products.
Squarp did the same, small, boutique company that releases innovative and well supported products.

Small companies mean faster decisions, crazier ideas, little “bureaucracy” in decision making and swift delivery in software. Not this situation of begging for updates, features and the bare minimum.

8 Likes
17

Well, we see the world differently, my friend. I too am a software dev and manager (since 1976 when I was 12; I have pretty much seen it all), and all I can say is I have concluded Polyend are clueless when it comes to managing software development. People have been clamoring for bugfixes for the Play+ for nearly a year, and the typical excuse I have seen offered is that MIDI perform mode is complex. If I was running this railroad, I would have parked that feature work and long ago shipped a bugfix release. Otherwise you’re just shipping complexity on top of instability, sand on quicksand. If they end up shipping this, and it turns out it’s still buggy, are we to wait another year? They could have done several bug fix releases by now, even if small, and had people hammering on them and making sure the base functionality is sound. My confidence in any of their estimates is long out the window, and I have little faith that the update, when it comes, is going to be stable.

Meanwhile the Deluge is getting way more features added and bugs fixed, and with more stability, with 80% of the commits coming from one person, and he’s a community volunteer. The small group of volunteers over there do feature and bug releases, nightlies, RCs, run a proper issues and discussion tracker (sorry, Backstage is not one), are comfortable punting features to later releases if they impact stability (as they have done with MIDI loop back), and generally exhibit a level of professionalism sadly lacking here.

There’s no question Polyend have great ideas, and have made some innovative hardware, but something is fundamentally wrong in how they execute.

10 Likes
18

What I don’t really understand. They did the same buggyy release with Medusa, the OG tracker. Polyend only release bug fixes with new feature. The reputation was pretty bad multiple times, while they make the most fun devices. It’s really sad to see, this up and down, because they worth more love.
I love my Tracker. So fun to play with it, nowaday I feel complete.
I am sure non of us, cares if a fix come with feature packed or alone. So I wish they had a better release workflow (as another professional dev).

1 Like
19

(post deleted by author)

1 Like
20

I completely share your opinion and emotions. My first purchase was the Polyend Play Plus. It has an incredibly convenient form factor. There is no simpler tool for creating rhythms. But as you delve deeper, you realize how this instrument doesn’t fully unleash its potential. The built-in synthesizers - only 3 presets for the entire project and all patterns, make their use practically meaningless, with a lack of many functions and glitches. Constant diverse glitches that no one fixes. I thought that maybe the Polyend Tracker would be a more advanced product, but it turned out to have even more bugs and problems. After the last recent update, it’s become completely unusable.

Great design, very convenient workflow, but a completely incomprehensible number of limitations in such a modern product make it mediocre and underdeveloped. All products have bugs, and I’ve never encountered any musical instrument I’ve worked with having so many bugs. These bugs are not being fixed, and updates are extremely rare.

In the end, Polyend just decorates my studio and is pleasing to the eye. It’s actually impossible to work with. You either encounter bugs that become annoying, or limitations that are also frustrating. It’s hard to consider Polyend as a serious and reliable tool on par with Maschine+, Elektron, Akai MPC. Even the fact that you can’t fully connect two instruments, Play + Tracker, because there’s a basic bug in the Line In, and that’s just the beginning. Beautiful, convenient, modern but ineffective.

1 Like