Hi folks, I’ve no idea if this is the right place for this, nor if it’s warranted. But I wondered if there was a possibility of a Polyend super device, combining elements of all of the previous devices? I understand that breaking the functionality out into different boxes can be good for ease of use, and that putting many features into one also creates compromises. But hey… why not think about it?
In a nutshell, there are certain standout features that make all of the Polyend boxes valuable. We now have Synth which has a nice, dedicated interface for hands on synthesis control. There’s Play with the generative/algorithmic way of controlling sequences. And then Tracker has the advantage of a full screen interface and detailed sample scultping, plus a sample/resample
I can imagine a box that has the synth enginers from Synth, the sample slicing and instrument approach to samples from the Tracker, but also the pick and place approach to sequencing we get on the Play. In my head, it would work best if this was done in the Synth form factor, with the I/O of Tracker for sampling/resampling. Because of the lower amount of pads, I feel this would be more like a track by track display, so imagine a column of 8 pads on the left hand side that would display a single 16 step sequence over 2 rows, and maybe a keyboard of notes underneath. And the right hand column of the remaining 4 could be used for things from the Play, like Mute, Solo, Variation etc. A more limited form of scatter style effects could be applied globally or to the tracks also in this way, but obviously not as many as the Play. Perhaps you’d have to set up your perform page like you do on the Tracker, and apply the effects to the chosen tracks to affect. The GUI of the Synth looks like it makes a lot of good use of the screen, so maybe we could see something like the Tracker sample slicing implemented with zoom, or even a screen double the size of the one on the Play? And of course the famous flat file structure with the ability to export stems would be important as always.
Maybe this wouldn’t work and I’m probably overlooking something from a UI/cost/power standpoint, but I thought I’d share in case it’s interesting.
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Long story short, you want Polyend to make a Akai MPC Live?
Oof! Haha. Well, having considered MPCs in the past, what I really value about Polyend is how the products are advanced enough to do interesting things, but they’re also limited in useful ways. MPCs seem very “kitchen sink” to me.
What made me think of this is how there is a cross pollination of the hardware across all 3 of the recent releases, and I’m guessing the underlying OS is maybe shared or partially shared? (Like how there are the same synths in the Tracker and the Play.) So that made me wonder if there was some way that you could take the most loved features of each and make it into a box that covers the strengths of each.
Anyway, it was a fun thing to think about either way.
Theory. Agree, it’s fun to think about these things. This is what we do. We see things and think, man, if it had this or that. Or what if. There is nothing wrong with this thinking. Everyone does it.
Reality. We need to play more with what we have for theory is the theft of time and joy. We have a plethora of options as a consumer and there are more consumers wants than there are companies to do it all. If there was such a company with that thing, either we’d all have it or there would be a fight to get it.
Suggestion. Dream 10% Wish 10% Play with what we have 80%.
Wild card. Miracles do happen.
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Hey Wabbit - enjoy the channel! I do proceed. Sometimes.
I fully agree with you. In general I have come to a good place with music having returned to hardware via the Tracker. It’s nice to have a couple of physical boxes to mess around with and I’m getting the balance between hardware and software a bit tighter. Hardware for ideas and stem creation away from the computer >> DAW for making those ideas into a full track. I do like more visual and tactile stuff so I may also look at the Play which has been a marmite device, but I think it would be a different flavour to pull out vs the Tracker if I’m not feeling that programming vibe. In a way this ideas is almost because I wish all these devices were in one box so that’s I guess where the thought of simplicity came from. That made me think… hmmm imagine if this was one box. And for now, with Tracker - it is one box for me!
Sometimes my random dreaming unfortunatley spills out onto the internet here and there! But as you say, you never know, so it can be fun to share.
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