I played on an OG, owned the Mini and upgraded to Plus. Sold the Plus but am considering coming back…
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OG: Still great for simplicity, and can be found on sale new in some limited stores. For a mono sampling simple workflow, it’s still very good and an excellent price.
Plus: In theory the main addition is “just” the 3 synths you can use. But if you’ve ever felt “I need a little pad in here” then the Tracker+ gives you that room to breathe with the 8 track restriction. As a result, it’s arguably a step closer to the “make an album” strapline of the orignal. In my opinion the extra buttons make the Plus more like a musical instrument, where the Mini is by definition closer to the strictly programming workflow.
Mini: I feel this is a step down in terms of build and also has some decisions that I wasn’t completely keen on. Namely the headphone jack in the bottom and the mushy key feel. If they moved the jack to the top it would make a lot more sense imo. That said, the way the software works, they did a great job mapping it to the form factor - Polyend’s UX is top notch. And when you factor in the hard case you get into the price, it’s a really great value overall. Pleased to see the option to play slices and notes was added. Also the mic, if you care about that.
But which to pick? In theory, it should be the Tracker+, but it isn’t that straightforward. Side note: I’m not a big fan of the recent trend where most gear reviews on Youtube call for batteries in gear. Lithium ion batteries are the worst option environmentally, and so their use should be kept to where portability is mandatory for the device to function. End side note.
The Tracker+ has a premium feel, and I actually think the current iPad rectangle format Polyend favour is about as portable as it gets. Really. There are much bigger and bulkier studio centrepieces like the Roland gear, Push, Maschine, MPCs etc. Polyend stuff is portable even in its “full” form. That is, unless you need something extremely small or don’t want to take a studio centrepiece on the road. If it’s a central part of your studio in any way, I’d go with the Plus.
For the Mini to be a use case I feel you’d either want it for outright portability away from the studio, or because you just prefer the handheld. In those cases the Mini kinda wins by default. The other way the Mini might be a better choice, is if the Tracker is a supporting instrument for you (ie: you already have a centrepiece in the studio). You could use the Mini to create sequences and ideas and export them elsewhere, and have access to the Tracker goodness but invest your total setup money in other devices. It’s almost like a perfect opposite choice to the SP404mk2.
Where does that leave the OG? Some may argue that now Synth exists with a dedicated workflow for sound design, the OGs are more rather than less valuable. As long as you don’t mind mono samples, both Tracker and Play can be had for their basic core features, but without stereo samples and synths, and it’s not a complete slam dunk to upgrade depending on what you want. You can get an OG Tracker for the fantastic sampling abilities and use the money you saved to pick up a synth module and hook them up. With stem export, you’re not losing much by processing the ideas there in another place to gain stereo spread.
For my use case, the Plus has all the latest features, and has enough Synth for me for it to be my main Polyend device. So for those reasons I‘d take the Plus over the others, but the others are great. I just think the jogwheel design is special, and as such it’s one of the best designed instruments I’ve ever had the pleasure of playing with. Next time I’ll keep it (promise) 