Having outgrown the capabilities of the Polyend Play as primary sequencer, it would be nice to have it perform a secondary role. I’d like to load a project with samples then assign each sample to a place on the grid. Then MIDI input to the Play would trigger the desired sample. The 1010music Tangerine does this by means of note numbers. The small grid of eight is triggered by C2; C#2; …G2. It would be awesome to have the Polyend able to trigger 128 samples by MIDI note. And to the Polyend programmers: Make it an entirely separate boot/mode (or branch firmware). You don’t have to integrate it into the existing code.
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I like your suggestion. I recently added Squarp’s Hapax to my collection and just about all of the sequencing responsibilites have moved to the Hapax.
Two things might present a hurdle here.
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Even without a lot of the other features I’m not sure the architecture of the OG Play will accomadate 128 samples at one time in memory. If the Play incorporated disk/card streaming then maybe.
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I doubt there is much incentive on Polyend’s side to indulge in such requests because there doesn’t seem to be a way to get paid for the work.
However, your request and another persons’s request to trigger patterns externally would give extended life to the Play and one day the Play+. And I am sure there are other requests that might bring new life into the Play. I have had it for a while (Aug/22) and like it for what it is but truth be told I don’t use it much unless I am traveling.
Snce experience has taught me that the Polyend’s Team read these threads from time to time I’d like to piggy-back this idea/thought/request with another. Would the Polyend team consider making such a software upgrade a “paid” software upgrade?
I am one of those that did not upgrade to the Play+ as it did not offer me anything new in my workflow. I am ok with current functionality, kinda… But I would gladly shell out 50-100 bucks for an alternative firmware that would allow options like this. It could be a little like Noise Engineering offering different firmware’s for their eurorack modules. I’d pay even more if it provided a platform where the clever amongst us could write new code for it. I’d definitely buy into it and support it.
Ok, rant over. Hope I didn’t derail things much. If I did, my apologies…
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SP-404 mk2 will fit way better. It has 160 slots to be triggered externally, each about 16 minutes long maximum. Or Dirtywave M8 which is the beast overall both as a synth, a sampler and a sequencer – and it streams from SD-card, so no such thing as 2 minute memory limit. I wonder what is the reason to have Play if you moved to another sequencer.
For me it just sits around. I have the Hapax running to my Blackbox and Micromonsta 2 mainly. When its in the studio its also sequencing my Medusa, Matrixbrute and small eurorack setup. Not selling the Play because its still travels well (small package) and I’d never get enough in the sale to make it worth it. Also, in my case, I never intended it to be my main sequencer.
I agree. Glad to hear your perspective. It’s the Hapax for me as well. On another post I talked about discovering a work-around for the Play. It is possible to chain patterns on the Play using an external clock (Hapax). This allows the Play to run sequences as long as the Hapax. I do this only to trigger samples. Not using MIDI out on the Play.
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Rant away, friend! lol I dig the idea for some software to complete the entire Play package. Personally, I feel that if the software only takes care of the basics such as file managment, firmware updates, audio previews, etc., then it should be free as these seem to be some of the proverbial sticks that Polyend is putting in their own spokes when if comes to the Play/Play+. Since the majority of the work has to be done on a separate computer anyway, it’d be nice if they just went completely in that direction like the audio over USB function.
Now if they wanna come up with a super sweet piece of software that allows me to completely organize AND customize everything to my heart’s content (similar to the open source philosophy of the Deluge, but only giving the user the ability to change things on the front-end so that Polyend can keep things in-house), then I’d be glad to chip in for something like that.
I guess what I’m tryin to say here is that while Polyend might not have much incentive to make software for it without being paid for it (which is totally fair), I also don’t see the current user pool being willing to pay much, if anything at all, for software that only does what we’ve come acustomed to taking care of, even if begrudgingly so. Maybe that’s just me, though🤷♂️
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