Hello fellow music makers! Recently, I discovered these beautiful machines from Polyend, and I’m eager to acquire one. I’m eyeing the mini model, but after perusing numerous Reddit posts, I have some questions regarding its build quality.
Have any of you experienced issues with the coating degrading over time, resulting in a sticky mess, or are these individual problems stemming from defective hardware? Additionally, I’ve heard concerns about the quality of the buttons not being the best, with some feeling loose or having gaps, which may detract from the enjoyment of these beautiful machines. Almost bought one in Thomann, but this quality issues heard from users scared me a lot.
I’ve had mine for about three months now. So far everything is fine.
I’ve had mine about 4 months, a little bit of fade on the + and - key on the right side everything else is fine.
Personally I’m not a fan of the soft touch finish on electronics (or books) but it has held up on the tracker, not sticky at all so far.
Make sure that the company you buy it from has a solid return policy, so if you are not satisfied with a product, they can’t quibble about it being sent back for a full cash refund.
A common flaw that I notice on the Mini is the gap at the very bottom of the screen. The casing might be flush to the screen one side with a ‘warped-like’ gap the other, very noticeable looking from top to bottom, an angle that not many YT videos usually show. Beside the cosmetically ugly side of this, it seems to be a perfect gap to welcome in the elements you don’t want inside your £600+ new device. Don’t expect the premium feel. But certainly try one out to see if you like it as what it can do is superb. Fingers crossed for ya!
Hey there,
Here’s my case of 5-month use:
Coating: It gets fingerprints, but it’s not sticky at all and feels good to the touch for me.
Buttons: they are “half-clicky” and are quite responsive on my unit. They also have good reach without much stretch.
Screen: There is a minor gap between the screen and the frame on the left, but it is not a big deal to me. Although the screen itself has a soft matte finish, not a “glassy” one. This did not seem durable to me, so I covered the top with organic plastic glass.
The shape and the weight: It is perfect for me to hold and play without my fingers getting tired.
Although having inputs and outputs in front was not a great design choice.
Battery: It is great. It lasts long enough for me not to be bothered. Also, playing while plugged in does not affect the battery health negatively (as I was told by their support here).
Speakers: I find the lack of speakers hindersome. I know it’s a matter of taste, but to me, portability means not having to take my headphones to a park when I want to play (and listen to my surroundings).
Workflow: Obviously, you’re gonna have to check out some tutorials to get the feel of it. The lack of live note input makes it less usable for me.
Also, as far as I know, it does not have FULL MIDI cc implementation to be used with an external controller (it mainly receives Performance Effects CCs).
And its MIDI IN is not Track-based but plays the last used sample, which to me is inconvenient.
Updates: A major update since its release was handling stereo samples, which was supposed to be its primary feature. But I hope they will keep updating it with user-requested features.
(They are still releasing updates for Tracker OG, so there is hope.)
Overall, there could be many reasons to purchase or not to purchase Tracker Mini, but I would not consider build quality to be its con.
To be honest, I would have bought Dirtywave M8 Model:02 over Tracker Mini.
P.S.
There is a rumor they might announce Tracker+ at SuperBooth, so if I were you, I would keep an eye on that.
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When is that info from? And does it concern Tracker (which already has a + version), or Tracker Mini?
@antic604 May 2024 for SB’24
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