The Future of Play Plus

[adamicopus]

Hello players

I’m on the outside looking in, anxiously waiting for the play to reach its mature state and holding my breath for the next update. bugs and the menu driven synth editing to be addressed mainly…

I’m quite sold for reasons we all share, I don’t see many workstations as freely design for breaking breakbeat boundaries

The workflow/ unlimited shades of seq dicing and amazing FX (man that reverb) plus the characteristics of the synth engines are all highly appealing.

Yet

…what’s irritating to me is some very basics. Likes stringing an arrangement together. I know you have pattern chaining but its far from a arcing a complete complex arrangement.

it’s puzzling that song mode is so neglected considering how inviting this format is to complex arrangements.

I assume one could just stream (p+) a live jam through USB host… so naturally I will ask:

**Is the USB audio working flawlessly ?

Yet underlined artform of storytelling is the composition itself so I’d like to pitch a concept of a song mode.

Here a Song mode needs overlay (say shift + hold patter to display song mode)
Each pad in a liner manner is a song step (8x16) and patterns and can be copied into each song step similar to how pattern mode works.

Each song step holds
+Number of pattern repeats
+Solo/mute status for tracks
+Variations

This way you can milk patterns instead of creating new ones all the time to extend a pre-ordered chain.

It also be interesting if a song could hold BAR information, so instead of playing all bars it play just selected bars.

I would work overtime in my MPC4K to break up the bars but repeating song steps and recording of muted was quick and natural.

So this beings the next questions

**Can we expect a proper song arrangement mode in the future?

And some more future pounding

** Will the LCD ever get a GUI overhaul (it reminds me of a safe chell phone for the elderly

**Will saving FX and synths presets ever be on a pattern level?
(It would greatly expand the pattern pool)

Sample slice and loop are the samplist greatest tools
So …
**Will there ever be a Sampler plugin? Fruiting these options

What is the ETA on the next firmware update?

Thanks for your time to all on team Polyend for creating such a brilliant platform/ instrument

With love and respect

[beautron]

I agree with most of your wishes.

better synth editing ux, slicing, per pattern synths etc, yes please.

re: song mode - it would be cool if in pattern mode chains would continue playing subsequent rows when they reach the end of a row. sadly atm once you reach the end of a pad row the chain stops. having up to 128 patterns in a chain would be song mode enough for me personally. currently having only 16 is a bit limiting.

and yes, the reverb is glorious. the synth engines are full of character. & perform mode is the icing on the cake. I love my play+

[sksixk]

I also find the synth (editing and 3 max) to be lacking. So I’m leaning more on the sample side, which highlights the lack of sample workflow.

No slicing, no looping, constantly taking out the sd card, and no way to modulate samples.

What I would like is some idea of the roadmap from polyend even though that’s not happening.

[Mitch]

It should skip to the row below, so pattern 16 goes to 17 etc.

[beautron]

ah deadly, that’s amazing news

and weird, I was testing it earlier n it didn’t work.
I musta done something wrong. I’ll try again later.

cheers mitch

[Mitch]

I can’t reveal an entire roadmap because whatever I tell you will likely change. I will say the next update feature that both Play and Play+ will get is a MIDI (and synth for +) performance mode. ETA would be before summer as a conservative estimate, probably sooner.

We are watching the wishlist, and considering anything that we allowed voting for. We are wary of altering the Play in ways that make it more complicated to use. We will be granting some wishes this year via firmware updates though.

I’ve said “yes it will be getting this feature” before (for other products at other companies) and then they take 2 years to develop, and that just makes it worse for everyone.

[icaria36]

Even if it is more work, it probably is also more impactful to search for wishes, vote for them, and comment on them in their respective topics.

@adamicopus

I’d like to pitch a concept of a song mode.

Please do it here: Allow patterns to play in certain orders and certain times - Song Mode - 4th most voted Wishlist item, second for Play.

@adamicopus

It also be interesting if a song could hold BAR information, so instead of playing all bars it play just selected bars.

Track reset after X steps/bars welcomes votes.

@adamicopus

Will the LCD ever get a GUI overhaul

If you are talking purely about aesthetics, I don’t recall anyone creating a wish for that (or even complaining) – see Writing a good feature request. If you are missing data or you expect other features from the current LCD display, please be specific so we can discuss ideas better. Meanwhile, this is probably a non-exhaustive list of current wishes related to data in the display (sorted by oldest):

• Show the MIDI Note number in the display (e.g. C2 36)
• Automatic sleep mode
• Waveform view with Sample Start and End
• Overview of multiple parameters for the selected track
• Make synths easier to program
• Screen brightness setting

@adamicopus

Will saving FX and synths presets ever be on a pattern level?

Related:

• Loop FX for separate tracks
• Make synths easier to program
• Synth patch per step / per pattern
• Synth Macros Performance Mode

@adamicopus

Will there ever be a Sampler plugin?

Sample slicing mode is the second most voted Wishlist item, top for Play.

@adamicopus

Is the USB audio working flawlessly ?

(Define “flawlessly”, but in my experience, Yes.)

@sksixk

I also find the synth (editing and 3 max) to be lacking.

I don’t recall anyone asking for the possibility to use more than 3 synths simultaneously. On the other hand, I can’t imagine Polyend offering 3 if 4 or more would be technically possible with the current hardware.

Anyway, related: Synth patch per step / per pattern

It has already been suggested the possibility to record synth steps to use them as samples and free up slots for more synths. This wish would make this easier: Bounce multiple Tracks (Synths and Samples) directly into the Sample Pool for the Play+

@sksixk

some idea of the roadmap from polyend

While more transparency feels desirable for some users in the short term, in the longer-term a public roadmap is likely to harm the business of any profitable company in this competitive capitalist world we live in. Said that, I cannot name a music gear company with more than one employee sharing more about their future plans than this:

Wishlist

Archive

(In any project, the archive of discarded options is as telling or more as any roadmap, because it contains decisions made.)

[beautron]

if slicing becomes a reality it’d be cool to have a Digitakt style faux-timestretch / pitchshift function, to auto-warp loops to project tempo. its really elegant on the digitakt. super simple & works like a charm.

[3xm]

@adamicopus

…what’s irritating to me is some very basics. Likes stringing an arrangement together. I know you have pattern chaining but its far from a arcing a complete complex arrangement.

I’m sure your ideas for a song mode would be great as well. I just want to say that the current way of constructing a “song” by chaining patterns together works really well for me. It was, in fact, a game changer for me. Before the Play, with other devices, I very rarely moved past the few bars of a single pattern. I love how this works on they Play(s). The visual overview is key for me. Only thing I’d wish for, is custom colours of patterns, so I can make it even more visually obvious where I am in a song (e.g. green for verses, blue for choruses, etc. or whatever convention you’d prefer).

@adamicopus

Is the USB audio working flawlessly ?

Yes. YES! At least for me. Being able to pull in everything as separate channels has given me completely new ways of working and experimenting with the Play+ along with a DAW, without having to export stuff to the SD card at all. And it allows me to still focus on the Play+ and only use the DAW as a supportive device for additional effects, automation, etc.

@beautron

it would be cool if in pattern mode chains would continue playing subsequent rows when they reach the end of a row

As @Mitch already said: This is what it already does? Maybe you had a missing pattern either at the end of the last row or beginning of the next row? And being able to have several, separate chains (“songs”) in the same project makes this even greater in my opinion.

[beautron]

yea i dunno what I was doin. user error innit

I agree, its a great song mode imo. straight forward, loads of available pattern slots.

one issue with most song modes is that they feel like they’re sorta stuck away in the settings, n personally it puts me off using em. polyend gear is great in this regard. tracker & play it’s right there n feels part of the main interface.

[icaria36]

@3xm

custom colours of patterns

I you agree with @3xm, Possibility to choose different colors for patterns welcomes votes.

[chris.lorensson]

@adamicopus

…what’s irritating to me is some very basics. Likes stringing an arrangement together. I know you have pattern chaining but its far from a arcing a complete complex arrangement.

I had to respond to this, too, because for me, the Play’s song mode has the exactly perfect amount of ‘constraints’ to make it so easy to use… it’s basically forced linear pattern chaining, which sounds like a bummer, but because it’s so fast to copy/paste patterns around, it’s not that hard to rearrange them to suit the linear playback requirement. The fact that the chain of patterns must linear left-to-right is feature, not a bug, to simplify the user experience. My only personal gripe about song mode is that I have to have an exact duplicate pattern if I want more than 64 bars.

@adamicopus

**Is the USB audio working flawlessly ?

For me, yes. In fact, surprisingly well. I plugged directly into my iPhone 15 Pro and launched Garageband and it just all worked exactly as expected. Same for my Macbook Air. This is a game-changer for me, personally. (I wish the Export stems feature was more reliable, though. That’s another topic.)

@adamicopus

Sample slice and loop are the samplist greatest tools
So …

Agreed. Need slicing IMO.

[3xm]

@chris.lorensson

it’s not that hard to rearrange them

I very much agree. But imagine having something similar to the Move function for steps, but for patterns instead: Select a range of patterns and push the back and forth.

@chris.lorensson

My only personal gripe about song mode is that I have to have an exact duplicate pattern if I want more than 64 bars.

I also run into this once in a while. I did find a hack around it that works for me in most cases: Make one the tracks run at half speed. E.g. an empty MIDI/synth track you’re not using anyway. Make it full 64 steps and set the Track Speed to 1/2[1]. Alternatively, if you’re using all 16 tracks, find one of them where you are able to “compress” it to only use half the amount of steps. E.g. if you have 4/4 kick on every 4 steps, you can make it play on every 2 steps during all 64 steps and set it to half tempo. You still have a vacant step between each downbeat to fill in things breaking the regular beat. And a lot can be achieved using Micromove and/or Repeat.

[1] The extreme version of this is to set the Track Length to 16 steps and Track Speed to 1/8: This way, the orange “active” step moving through the track will give you an indication of how far you are through your play-the-pattern-twice. You can even lower the Track Speed to 1/16 in order to get the pattern to run 4 times and still have the indication. And then make the Track Length the full 64 steps and your pattern will play 16 times. Lots of possibilities

[beautron]

I would LOVE a filter envelope for samples

and an “osc” mode in sample playback, for single cycle waveforms.

[adamicopus]

@sksixk

No slicing, no looping, constantly taking out the sd card, and no way to modulate samples.

I will say coming from the luxuries modulation matrix (MPC4k) that 60-80% of the mod assignments are to liven out samples

so having a random generator to affect each sample aspect on the Play is quite powerfull and much of rest can be done via paremeter locking

personally I am thrilled by the modulation options in the play, although a dASR FM range LFO and a loop in release options would have been arcing my highest wishes

@Mitch

It should skip to the row below, so pattern 16 goes to 17 etc.

Ok … this is not very well documented online but this is the absolutes brilliants

@icaria36

If you are talking purely about aesthetics, I don’t recall anyone creating a wish for that (or even complaining)

Well I’m referring to the LCD , once you have the synth placed on the panel an envelope graphics doe come in handy as does a waveform view in slice mode … likely more reasons…

@beautron

if slicing becomes a reality it’d be cool to have a Digitakt style faux-timestretch / pitchshift function, to auto-warp loops to project tempo. its really elegant on the digitakt. super simple & works like a charm.

It be brilliant / how is the Digit doing that btw? … synced LFO to sample start iirc

@3xm

I’m sure your ideas for a song mode would be great as well. I just want to say that the current way of constructing a “song” by chaining patterns together works really well for me. It was, in fact, a game changer for me. Before the Play, with other devices, I very rarely moved past the few bars of a single pattern. I love how this works on they Play(s). The visual overview is key for me. Only thing I’d wish for, is custom colours of patterns, so I can make it even more visually obvious where I am in a song (e.g. green for verses, blue for choruses, etc. or whatever convention you’d prefer).

@icaria36

I you agree with @3xm, Possibility to choose different colors for patterns welcomes votes.

this Times a centaur … completely agree … cant believe this only has 22 votes …this is next level stuff
Thank you for the wish !!!

@chris.lorensson

My only personal gripe about song mode is that I have to have an exact duplicate pattern if I want more than 64 bars.

That’s the idea of song mode overlay, one could run the pattern mode like an idea pool of patterns

whereas a song mode could milk this pool into a few hour live set/ album etc …
(‘‘song step= mute/solo status, section (x4), number of repeats’’)
but after the light of information in this thread this is in no way a necessity and I cant wait to try out the pattern chaining in play 128 slots you say …

@3xm

I also run into this once in a while. I did find a hack around it that works for me in most cases: Make one the tracks run at half speed. E.g. an empty MIDI/synth track you’re not using anyway. Make it full 64 steps and set the Track Speed to 1/2[1]. Alternatively, if you’re using all 16 tracks, find one of them where you are able to “compress” it to only use half the amount of steps. E.g. if you have 4/4 kick on every 4 steps, you can make it play on every 2 steps during all 64 steps and set it to half tempo. You still have a vacant step between each downbeat to fill in things breaking the regular beat. And a lot can be achieved using Micromove and/or Repeat.

[1] The extreme version of this is to set the Track Length to 16 steps and Track Speed to 1/8: This way, the orange “active” step moving through the track will give you an indication of how far you are through your play-the-pattern-twice. You can even lower the Track Speed to 1/16 in order to get the pattern to run 4 times and still have the indication. And then make the Track Length the full 64 steps and your pattern will play 16 times. Lots of possibilities

We need a tip and trick thread … that’s one super cutie of a hack

@beautron

I would LOVE a filter envelope for samples

and an “osc” mode in sample playback, for single cycle waveforms.

Yhea a loop option even if only a ‘‘1sec window’’ would be amazing …

Id like to add some thoughts while I am here … some may already be in play

• ++Customizable keyboard / notes scale /user keyboard / microtonality

• ++Layer two Mono samples (on +) if stereo is not in play
  (induvidual> tuning, sample start/end per each mono layer)

• ++One shot (in Bars) LFOs /animation curves applicable to velocity/ volume or cuttoff (for fade ins/out build ups/downs) only need one per track

• +Reverse velocity (100 or - 100 … negative means polar opposite ‘‘velocity to volume’’ reversing the accentsing feel

• +Smoothing of animation option
  if animation is recorded on low resolution (say 4th or 2nd note resolution) so an long extended CC automation that might sound stepped smothe out

• ++Class compliant I/O so I can build a modular around the play with multiple out puts

• ++**Offline old school Akai timstreatch /**think the tracker does it quite well …

• ++ Granular plugin with advanced looping

• ++ Drum sampler plugin / envlopes for pitch filter, Fm range LFO

• ++Velocity assignment to FX parameter modulation

so many more but I will hold my tounge untill I hold one in my hands

thank you again for creating this instrumnet

[ameliagagarin]

For me, the essentials are:

Better song mode: I have a digitone and although the new song mode of elektron is basic it’s very very powerful: number of repeats of patterns, length of patterns and tempo per pattern.

And I can’t understand why you can only be allowed to have one chance of all the possible chance options. At first when I bought the play + can’t believe it was not possible to have multiple chances…
There is a wish about that, so it’s possible to implement and for me, it’s a must have feature.

[beautron]

here it is, if anyone wants to add their vote…

Ability to combine multiple chance options

What is the problem? “Chance” can be only used with one action at a time. We have only one layer of live randomization which can be limiting. “Randomize” setting allows some additional options, but it doesn’t provide live randomization. What do you want to achieve? The ability to combine multiple “Chance” settings. For instance, select “Play Step” action and use 70% chance, then select “Random Sample” action and use “Play 1 Skip 1”. Are there any workarounds? Make longer sequences out of short…

[ameliagagarin]

I hope this wish come true, it’s essential

[tbeltrans]

Glad to read that you are considering what impact feature creep would add to complication of operation. Sometimes, a device is introduced to market and it hits a sweet spot and becomes popular. Then as customers learn their way around the device, the inevitable feature requests begin and over time, the device becomes too cluttered to be the grab-and-go it was initially. New features are great, but if done with an eye toward preserving what made the device attractive in the first place.

Tony

[adamicopus]

@ameliagagarin

Better song mode: I have a digitone and although the new song mode of elektron is basic it’s very very powerful: number of repeats of patterns, length of patterns and tempo per pattern.

Yep add to that mute solo status … yet on the flip side’’ as pointed out:
play has 128 slots available for chaining and as 3xm pointed out you can do tricks to extend the pattern length, so its might even be better the way it is now… I mean what is the gain of repeats now? …having dedicated steps for patterns with mutes states seams ok in a 128 step matrix for one song tbh … a live set would need optimization but that’s another topic alltogether

@ameliagagarin

And I can’t understand why you can only be allowed to have one chance of all the possible chance options. At first when I bought the play + can’t believe it was not possible to have multiple chances…
There is a wish about that, so it’s possible to implement and for me, it’s a must have feature.

Wait… you are saying you can only randome generate data of one destination at a time ? isn’t it per step at least?

@tbeltrans

Glad to read that you are considering what impact feature creep would add to complication of operation. Sometimes, a device is introduced to market and it hits a sweet spot and becomes popular. Then as customers learn their way around the device, the inevitable feature requests begin and over time, the device becomes too cluttered to be the grab-and-go it was initially. New features are great, but if done with an eye toward preserving what made the device attractive in the first place.

Tony

Geez bro, is this the forum for stalemates ?..
We are just discussing ideas, sharing perspectives, how the unit can expand as an instrument, how is that a bad thing? Do you mind point out what exactly you think is cluttering operation?, … I mean what is the merit of your input?, are you just attacking users for having opinions on a forum dedicated to exactly that…

Aslo I would like to add:
It be extremely nice when generating random sequences that the: notes/samples you like in that occurrence can be step-locked to the grid … and then be unaffected on next/ future random generation … or until locked step is is de-selected…

I know one can copy paste notes to new tracks and then copy them back but this would just make thing simple… you just roll the dice, lock what you like and keep rolling