The Play+ loads faster than the Play (Thanks, Polyend)

Play
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Just a quick word of appreciation for the Polyend team.

I just received my Play upgrade to the Play+, and I’m happy to report the samples seem to load about twice as fast.

Back in January of 2023 I had created the Load sample packs faster on the Play post to explore if the original Play could be made to load faster than about 0.4 MB/s. That wish was closed a month later, arguing about “hardware limitations”.

Now I don’t have the Play anymore, but I can load the same sample pack I had performed my test with back then, the “Tech House Pack” (27.5 MB):

  • loads in 65 seconds on the Play, at a rate of about 0.4 MB/s.
  • loads in about 30 seconds on the Play+.

Thanks Polyend, and thanks for the full-color 46 pages “Polyend Play+ Essentials” manual, that’s a nice addition too.

6 Likes
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Interesting, I have the 2 machines… I’ll try. In my experience the SD Card size helps a lot to ameliorate the overall performance…

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Thanks, I’d be curious to know. You mean the larger, the faster, or the opposite?

As for the speed boost, this was not exactly news, (most) people who upgraded received an email saying: “Include the microSD card. SD Card - Play+ has a new card optimized for faster loading, do not use the old SD cards.”. I just wanted to find out how much faster…

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Sorry I was not so clear. I mean: larger (bigger in size SD CARDS, I use a 128 gb one) ensure a better overall experience. Source: daily machine usage. Measured? No, just empiric observation. Hope this helps.

Have a look here: Almost full SD card causes Volume Knob and Memory Lag - #10 by acaposotta

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Just got my Play+ tonight and I can confirm that there is a very noticeable difference when loading sample packs and/or projects.

2 Likes
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Just bought the following after hearing someone got faster load times with this card on the OG Play: SanDisk 64GB Extreme microSDXC UHS-I Memory Card with Adapter - Up to 170MB/s, C10, U3, V30, 4K, 5K, A2, Micro SD Card - SDSQXAH-064G-GN6MA

The Play + stock SD card loaded 28 seconds with Moms80s pack
The Play + SanDisk card loaded 40-48 seconds on several runs with same pack. Formatted to FAT32.

In my unscientific testing, stock Polyend SD is the more extreme.