I’ve owned the Play+ for a few months now. I use it every day, but there are a few issues I constantly run into. I’ll provide my list as feedback, hoping these can be implemented in the future.
To be able to lock a MIDI channel to a specific track. I keep jumping between MIDI tracks and realizing after adding a new note to the track that it is assigned to a completely different MIDI channel. While I understand this concept with samples, it doesn’t work well with MIDI tracks. I would love to have the ability to lock a channel to a track.
MIDI channel polyphony. This would be a total game changer. Currently, I can use multiple tracks, but with chords I can run out of tracks fairly quickly. And it’s not really convenient when you switch to piano view.
To allow running the sequencer across all 4 pages without the need for Live Rec. While this is great, I keep forgetting and keep changing some parameters which get recorded. This happens pretty much every single session when using Live Rec, so I stay away from it.
I would love to have the tempo stored per pattern. For live performance, it takes quite some time to switch between songs—30 seconds or more. For this reason, I could precreate a set in a single song and just switch patterns. The problem is the tempo. I have to remember to adjust it prior to a new song or use an external clock.
I found the synth implementation a bit useless. I’d rather use the Play to sequence external gear. So I’m hoping that the next firmware will focus on core features rather than extending the synth part which I don’t use at all.
I’m fascinated to know if there will be anymore updates to the Play+. Polyend had said more synths would be coming, but there’s been no update on that and no firmware for 6 months.
Pretty much why I chose to sell mine, and even the person who bought it was hesitant for that exact reason. It’s an amazing device with tons of potential, but the disproportionate amount of attention Polyend gives to Tracker eventually pushed me back to a Digitakt. I still keep my eye on the forums in the hopes that it will get more substantial updates but can’t say I regret parting ways with it.
Re point 2, the synth/midi page has a chord feature that lets you turn a single note into a chord.
What’s not immediately obvious though, is that you can access chord extensions as well as inversions, making it pretty flexible and lets you dedicate a single track to chord progressions on midi gear as well as the built in synths.
This one was only things the Play+ could do sorry!(synth editor, USB storage)Announcing Play+ Firmware 1.3 and the New Dirt Synth Engine
If something is updated on Play+ that Play can do, they will both recieve the update, the same way Trackers have been updated.
Hi @Mitch, I wrote the original post. I’m happy there’s ongoing development on the PP+. However, none of my points were actually implemented, so I’m feeling a bit ignored. I’ll definitely test the new synth improvements, but I specifically stated my preference for improving anything other than the synth engine, which I hardly use. Anyway, I’m happy you’re listening to users. I’m a software developer myself, so I understand you can’t satisfy everyone. But please solve my issues as a highest priority
