Man I love the Tracker Mini

Tracker
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I have a lot of grooveboxes in my studio, probably most of them. However I have been skeptical about the trackers and never really looked into these. I did have an M8 at one point and while I liked playing with it, I just didn’t make/finish anything on it. The Tracker Mini 2.0 update combined with the sale made me impulse by the Tracker Mini and after a month or so, I have to say it is my favorite piece in my studio. So much so that will most likely purchase the Tracker+ in the next few months.

While it is a tracker, the workflow is very similar to a regular groovebox so getting used to it was a lot faster than I expected. I will write up a detailed impressions in a few weeks but for now, I just want to thank Polyend for making this amazing little device :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

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Totally agree! I spent a week traveling with the M8 to give it a spin and find it good for sketching. There is a lot of power in the Tables which I wish I was better at. Also think they could implement a variation of that on the Tracker Family which would be great.

One box only situations, the Mini is king!

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Out of curiosity what boxes are you comparing it too?

As someone on the verge of picking up a portable workstation its hard not to look at OPZ for more imidiacy (seams to be more oriented towards grooves/sketches though, but can stack step FX and has chord/transpose , tape and fx tracks,) and parameter locks …and tracks can do poly meters

Its limited on sampling … and perhaps 2nd class when it comes to details of full production… but impressive on most all fronts

If I go a level up it’s hard not to look at the MC707 wich has a super deep synth/sampling engines + a very fast sequenceer capable of independent playback orders, with key zones splitting its actually functioning like a modular (each layer has ita own filter and envelopes, the LFO is basically a independent CC sequenceer :sunglasses:… and scatter is like a programmable performance mode (has its own MFX1 & 2) … its hard not to consider the 707

The down side is the 90’s JV workflow when editing and lawyering the synth in detail…

Ive been on MPCs for a long time they are great and powerful in the studio but not as fun as a portable workspace compared to OPZ, play etc

Now I don’t mean to hijacke the thread, you just seams genuinely exited and its not the first time I hear someone say that the tracker is their most favorite groovebox :heart_eyes: so Please be so kind to drop some intel on tracker magic :loud_sound::loud_sound:

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Hello!
I have or have had a Deluge, MC-707, MC-101, Circuit Tracks, Circuit Rhythm, Woovebox, Force, MPC, a 168hp 6U modular, a TR-8S, TR-6S, P.O. 133 KO II.

The 707 and OP-Z both great boxes though I did end up selling both of them.

MC-707
While great, the 707 isn’t battery powered nor portable so it’s a bit of apples to orange when comparing it to the Tracker Mini. The 707 is great and can definitely be your studio brain, sampling on it isn’t great/fun but it has a ton of amazing sounds. Yes, you can get deep using the menu, but will you? Probably not, deep editing of presets is tedious and very divey, and I rarely did it other than assigning something to the knobs. My current favorite studio brain is the Akai Force, which supports many different workflows, and is very fun to perform/jam on.

OP-Z
I had the OP-Z for about 6 months. While I loved it, it’s one of the boxes that’s amazing on paper but doesn’t quite deliver on the specs. It is very inspiring though, and I really enjoyed using mine. My main issues with it were the build quality (absolutely terrible), I had to purchase 3 NEW units to get one with zero issues. If you purchase an OP-Z, I recommend you get it from a place that sells an extended warranty because you will have issues in a couple years. The ergonomics are quite poor and my hands would cramp after using it for about twenty minutes. the corners are very sharp which will dig in your hands as well. Sampling and finishing tracks is MUCH better/easier on the Tracker Mini. The dials are amazing though, and I would love the Tracker Mini MKII to have something like that. Another big plus is the battery life, I get about 6 hours of use “real life” use which is amazing.

Freebeat has a video where he talks about the Polyend Tracker being his favorite groovebox. I was pretty skeptical but now I can’t imaging taking anything else on the go (Woovebox would be close second).

It’s honestly hard to explain why I’m jiving with the Tracker Mini so much. First, the form factor is nice, comfortable to use, and easy to throw in a bag. No knobs or parts will get caught on anything. It’s pretty comfortable in the hand, though you have to press the buttons pretty hard which I don’t like very much. I think my favorite thing about Tracker Mini is the workflow, it’s fast, fun, and very inspiring. It’s also very easy to finish tracks and export them in song mode (as long as you figured out that you can add a new empty pattern). It’s a bit light in modulation and is missing a few things that come standard on other grooveboxes (such as the ability to have different track length, and no insert effects on sample tracks (non-destructive). I also love that it has internal synths. Though many of the presets aren’t super usable, the synths themselves seem versatile.

Hope that helps but feel free to ask any questions!

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What an awesome and informative reply :clap: :fire:

You summed up my doubts about the 707 and dropped some real talk on the OPZ…

Thank you so much for your insight!

I guess my main concerns with the tracker workinflow is the endless tickling around the grid :thinking:.

Like lets say I wanted to edit notes in mid seq/ do I have to tick down 60 times to get there ? Same if I want to jump to track 14 to adjust a Perc drum in coordination to a beat on track1 … do I have to click x13 times back and forth to jump between if balancing a beat on the two channels?

:point_up:Comming from decades of crusading the cursor’s on a MPC4k … I want to be far away from the burning arrows all night long, but perhaps Im missing something/?

A follow up would be general summing on what /where it can be improved in your view?. I can honestly say that note input on the Mini is a bit worrisome/?

Now on to the positive,

It seams like happy accidents are dime a dozen😎, like when changing resolution on chopped up samples (samples being closer or further apart depending on grid resolution), generative commands and random step FX possibilities also look super fun🥳

… would love to hear what it does better vs the competition and its best highlights from your perspective :v:

Cheers :clinking_glasses:

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Happy to help.

Regarding navigating the grid
I had the same concern and here is what I found:

  • Anything on the first 8 tracks is very quick to get to, even if your sequence is 128 steps. The reason for that is that the large +/- buttons navigate in increments of 10 units at a time when navigating the grid in play mode, or in menus, and if you are working with notes, the small +/- buttons increment by 1 semitone, and the large +/- increment by 1 octave. After a couple of hours, it’s fast and intuitive. I actually think I will miss these buttons when I get the Tracker+.
  • You do have to click quite a few times to get to the midi tracks. While I think it’s great that they are there, I almost never use them as it’s too many clicks to get to those. The other things is that if you have midi tracks that you want to mute, you have to change screen since you can only view 8 tracks on the mixer (makes sense since there are 8 buttons).
  • Regarding finding a place you need to edit within the grid, this is super easy. You just play the sequence and whenever you get to the section you want to edit, you just stop the sequence and the cursor will be where you stopped. You can then “preview” any steps or combination of steps which makes it super fast to “find that wrong note”. You can also press SHIFT and PLAY to play from anywhere in the sequence.
  • For the most part, the Tracker is very well designed and the UI/workflow make sense.
  • Sampling and editing samples is fast and satisfying.
  • Chopping samples is surprisingly easy and you get good results.
  • Song mode is one of the best I’ve seen (though it’s destructive so be careful when deleting patterns on that screen!)
  • The FILL mode is pure magic and will help you in a ton of ways. This is one of the thing that make these Trackers very special.

As far as what can be improved
None of these have been deal breakers in practice and as I mentioned, I am extremely pleased with the Tracker Mini. Also, please know I haven’t finished reading the manual so there may be ways to do some of the following.

  • The biggest friction I have with it is the enter button being on the left. This is fighting 30 years worth of video game training and I don’t understand why Polyend did that. It’s just not efficient and while I am now used to it, it still feels unintuitive.
  • I really wish you could have one insert fx per track. You have a reverb and delay send for each track (which sound great), but I really wish you could pick one insert effect from a list for each track. There are destructive fx you can use but I can’t get them to sound like how I want so I don’t use them. For example I can’t get the chorus to give me that satisfying stereo width/breadth that I get when I usually use chorus. A third send that you could choose would be a good alternative if the processor can handle that much load.
  • All tracks have to be the same length. This is a weird limitation on a tracker as most trackers have an FX that can take you back to step 1. Not a dal breaker but I was a bit bumbed out when I learned this.
  • When you use a midi controller, any overlapping notes spill out into the next track. While this is sometimes desirable (like setting up some chords to render), I wish I could toggle it on/off in the options. I have to manually clean up a lot of basslines played with my keyboard which end up with notes on multiple tracks which is a bit of friction. There might be a way to do that so i’ll keep looking.

Again, no groovebox is perfect and this one have the least amount of flaws, and is the most inspiring (for me at this time). Hope that helps!

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Hi,

About one of your improvement comments regarding multi-note spread in tracks while recording a sequence.

You can arm the tracks you want to use to record into (at least in the OG tracker). I’m sure that the mini would have a similar option. When you do this, notes only land in the armed track/s.

I hope that this helps. Enjoyed reading all your comments.

Cheers.

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Oh this great, I will look up how to do this, thank you!

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Last time I checked the Mini doesnt let you do recording in a track. Has this changed?

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Recording notes in a track using a midi controller works just fine. Are you talking about audio?

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I am in the same boat. I have all 3 trackers, but the mini goes everywhere with me, and the plus/OG both need power so they stay home, and I only use them there or at gigs.

Between the SP404MKII and the Mini, what else do you need (depends on your stage of GAS, I suppose)? The Yamaha Seqtrak or one of the teenage eng’g kbds might be nice in my travel bag… :slight_smile:

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I have the Tracker+ and should be getting the Mini in the near future.
Is it possible to transfer and continue on a song made on the Tracker+ on the Mini?

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No need to drag my answer out: yes :blush:

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