Hi
This is not meant to be a bashing on Polyend Play… this is to help make the product stronger … so the title says it all…
What is the problem ? Cry your hearts out … 
this is the topic for it
Keep it civil
2 Likes
Users wanting more features and not playing more.
6 Likes
- no ‚class compliant’ usb audio
2 usb audio not stable - usb midi and audio are shared in one connector with the powering the unit.
- synths are menu controlled
- not enough choices of effects
1 Like
Let me say this first: I’m a huge Polyend fan. No ill will here at all. I have the Tracker and Tracker Mini. But I recently bought the Play+.
To me, it felt like the firmware wasn’t very stable at all. I had a ton of glitches and freezes. So that was an issue for me because it was bad enough to where it made it hard to finish music.
Finally, my display was loose. I assumed it was damage or a manufacturing defect, so I returned it. Turns out it’s by design, which to me, I just didn’t like that something felt broken by design (to me).
So I’m really bummed, because otherwise I loved the box so much. The workflow is amazing. Yes, I wish it could chop samples, but I could live without that.
So i’ll wait for another major version I guess… once more time has passed to further stabilize the firmware. And I’d like to not have a loose display.
2 Likes
Wanted to post an update to my previous reply here.
I ended up reordering a Play+. Turns out a lot of my glitches and freezes were down to the battery & cable combo that I was using. Since I changed that up, it’s been very stable. Really glad I gave it another try.
So I’ll just say what everyone else will say: sample chopping ; )
8 Likes
Thank you for the updated post… I’m still patiently awaiting for the next OS, quite certain this will be the instrument I will travel the world with and your post just reassured that
you mind sharing what was the problem with the power bank and what/ why it’s working now?
Also I find it particular strange that some units are working perfect whilst some user’s have issues
IMO polyend team should conduct a survey here on the forum as if its not the units (they are all built tested the same … so something like
Where the problem reflects (performance, files, freeze etc)
And connected that to:
What type of memory card
Compatibility of samples
the name character length names, samples size and formatt
Power current and related issues
Pattern complexity (does the problem occur only on patterns with heavy calculations or simple ones too, is it the same when using 100s of patters with full memory or just a few with few samples…etc
Hence isolating the problems, I bet my ensoniq DP4 on that most of these can be addressed from the users side, as all units are equal when leaving factory…
Completely anecdotal but it seems the SD card it comes with seems to be the source of a lot of problems.
I used my own bigger SD card almost immediately so I haven’t had any major issues.
1 Like
that used to happen with octatracks too. a lot of older users switched cf cards n never had any issues. think that’s been rectified in more recent OT’s.
I’ve backed up my play+ sd card just in case but still using the stock card. Haven’t had any issues whatsoever myself yet.
I have the stock card and works perfect. No glitches or problems
2 Likes
Ok without owning a play … what strike’s me as problematic is the note off quantize when playing polyphonic melodies.
. like on a mpc or a mc707 with quantize off you’ll get pretty much the notes you played into the recording… the mpc not having any problems whatsoever as it’s resolution is fixed and bar length goes to 99bars iirc … on the 707 and the play you are forced to downgrade the resolution if extending the bars …
Now as the play is running 4x “bar” recording a 16bar solo would mean a 4th note resolution. which is quite steep … you can still shift notes around if I am not mistaken but it’s an algorithm rather than grid resolution so it’s always going to quantize to 4th note … For this; Ok II can do workarounds by using 2nd seq …
Yet if your recording just polyphonic 4bars in 16th notes … the sequencer still quantizeds the note offs , or so it seams and it’s shows clearly in a bad gear eppesode… Is this correct??
Thx!
@adamicopus If I understand your comment correctly… In the Plays you can have tracks of up to 64 steps. This means that, without touching anything, you can have a 16th note resolution. If you enter the notes step by step, you can then use Micromove to move the notes +/- 24 subunits. If you record live, then the notes will be placed wherever you are hitting them, with the logical limitation that two notes can’t be placed within one step.
If you need even more precision that this, you can have it, at the expense of faster track speed and therefore shorter loop time. You can go to up to 8x speed.
This fits the typical music you would create with a groovebox. If you need to record longer melodic lines, you can always copy and paste into the next pattern and continue there.
The Play concept is different than what you explain… on Audio/samples side there are no Note Offs, the sequencer just tiggers samples which play until the end which is controlled by combination of Sample Start/End/Attack/Decay parameters per step. On MIDI side Note Length controls the Note Offs and which can be set in 0.25 step division from 0 to 64 steps (full pattern length). On top of this, as @icaria36 explained you can further twist the “grid” by using Micromove per step, and Track Speed/Swing per track, which stretches the grid quite a bit in a lot of ways.
3 Likes
Thank you very much replying, your answers are encouraging… just to clear any confusion
Are you saying that when you record live it records into subunits? … or is " wherever" referring to the step closest to the quantize resolution
Just to clarify the length is predetermined? Meaning the user needs to set it up? …
Does it not just record the set note sustain in a midi recording…
Just for a reference… what is happening on minute 6.09 in this video
If you Live Rec notes with the onboard keyboard or a controller, the notes will we placed exactly in the points where you play them. The only exception is to record two notes within the range of one step, that won’t happen.
In the bad gear video, the problem is that he still is pressing the previous pad when he starts pressing the second one. With only one track recording, the first note keeps counting until you stop pressing the pad. Other presses are ignored. He should either be more careful, or use just one finger, or use two fingers and two tracks. I have tested what he does with two fingers but two tracks selected instead of one, and the sound recorded is the expected.
In Live Rec, if you press a pad quickly, it will record that note length. If you do a long press, it will record that note length. The sound you hear is the sound that will be recorded. It all depends on the ADSR envelope configured in the synth, of course.
3 Likes
Excellent!!! Thank you so much for clearing this up …
So… if I set up a 16 bar realtime record… the notes will fall wherever I play them within: -/+ 24 substep of 4th note? … am I understanding this correctly? …
what’s the longest length a pattern can be set to btw
Thx!!
You have up to 64 steps per track. 16 bars * 4 fourths = 64 steps, so yes. And each note can be placed within +/-24 substeps, yes.
Now you owe us one in Share your tunes.
2 Likes
Lol 
now we have to pay for backstage information with our blood and soul hahaha…
Loan me a play+ and I’ll send you mad tunes son …
. if you don’t like it I’ll return it back ., if you like it I’ll contact & create video content going around Europe playing the plus and partying all over the place …from sunset’s to sunrise, hotel rooms to beaches … and throw in a list of 100 ideas as a bonus … I’m anything but profound in these matters… ego aside Im being semi serious here 
I’ve only got a few gripes with the Play:
Sample length isn’t visualized like note length is on the Midi side, and it’s only adjustable in ms, so you have to listen and let it play through to tell where the sample ends and make adjustments. It’d be great to have a toggle to switch between ms and note divisions, and the pads to light up dimly to represent the sample duration
Sample audition always plays when tweaking a parameter, so it’s not worth it to play around with the filter cutoff while performing (yes, you can do it with the performer, but using a knob is so much more satisfying).
It’s difficult to determine how much space you’ve got for a sample pack from the PC side of things. You’ve got six minutes to work with, but there’s not really a good way, at least as far as I’ve found, to add the length of all of the samples up before they’re loaded onto the Play without manually adding them together. This is more of a gripe with Windows than the device itself, but maybe a little app or add-in could help out with this.
No sample looping–every sample is a one shot. It’d be nice to be able to set a loop independently of the sample start and stop, and maybe an adjustable cross fade so it’d loop back into itself smoothly. I figure, given that there aren’t any more knobs on the device that don’t already have a designated function with regard to workstep editing, maybe this type of advanced sample playing could be implemented as a new synth on the Play +, like a PCM synth or similar. Basically, just replace the oscillator section of one of the synths with a loopable sample player and you’re good to go, at the cost of giving up one of your synth slots.
And I’ll repeat: no beat slicer. I figure that this might also be another form of PCM synth, but more like Dr Rex in Reason, where individual slices are mapped to keyboard keys, and again, at the cost of giving up one of your synth slots. Maybe this could be integrated into the same PCM synth mentioned above.
1 Like
you can turn off audition in settings, so parameter adjustments don’t retrigger the sample.
1 Like
Nice1 Beautron!!.. For a second this was almost a deal breaker… I had imagined one could jam in realtime with sample start end points while performing without it a it sounding like someone is making cocktails with a broken blender
1 Like