The Polyend Synth is absurdly fun

[@Two-Eyed_Boy]

I'm a huge fan of the form factor detaching itself from the keyboard style layout. This seems endlessly inspiring for this reason alone! Polyend, ya got my attention

[@SlowHaste]

@@Two-Eyed_Boy oh yeah, it’s a fun approach & especially welcome for non-key-centric players/programmers like myself!

[@brawndothethirstmutilator9848]

I just purchased earlier today thinking, “That looks like it would be great to feed samples to my SP404”, and here I am getting a preview as you do the same 👍. Anything meant for live play is a great match for the 404.

[@BounceChord]

This looks truly rad. I love the setup with the 404 too. You’re right, these two machines could make for endless fun.

[@SlowHaste]

@@BounceChord yeah, it’s a blast once you’ve got a few scenes set up & start looping!

[@MadelnMachines]

I've been saying for a decade imagine how good elektron products would be if they had a screen like this. So much bettter!

[@SlowHaste]

@@MadelnMachines I do love this screen!

[@visisydandthevoid]

They desperately need to upgrade the screen considering the issues they've had recently 🤕

[@DylanParisMusic]

Love this overview, this seems like a really good synth for the price. Especially compared to something like the MiniFreak (which I love), this is cheaper and in some ways more powerful and interesting as someone who likes playing with pads. Really lovely jams in this video too, pairing with the SP404 was genius

[@SlowHaste]

@@DylanParisMusic thanks Dylan! Yeah it’s a really good time, the pad workflow is fun (speaking from someone who isn’t worth potatoes @ playing keys)

[@garethbull5303]

I just love the sound's you have got going there. I've heard a lot of criticism at the limitations of the device, but this is a brill example of what you can do with it. Their price point being much lower than a play+ and tracker+ have the community thinking there will be a synth+ at a higher price at some point. I don't want to be one who shares that thought though.

[@SlowHaste]

@@garethbull5303 thank you! I personally think it’s a pretty fair price for what it is

[@bondi5000]

I got mine today. I’m not technical at all with more of a dj background. Straight out of the box I was jamming and having loads of fun within a couple of minutes. It really was SO. MUCH. FUN!! And isn’t what so much of this is meant to be about? Having accessible fun, jamming and making music. Well done Polyend!! And doing it all for a super reasonable price. I don’t care is there’s a + version coming - I’ll probably happily buy that one as well 😂

[@SlowHaste]

@@bondi5000 that seems to be Polyend’s whole thing - have fun as quick as possible with the ability to dive much deeper if you’re into that!

[@ryanhursh6322]

Damn, this seems cool af. Hadn’t heard about its release. I hope it has an onboard sequencer. Something like Overbridge would come in clutch for a box like this.

[@SlowHaste]

It has a sequencer (for each individual synth) ! Simple, but effective

[@brainbox9219]

Once I buy this, I will be happy for a long time

[@aphickeyaphickey]

I keep saying that....

[@SlowHaste]

@@brainbox9219 haha, I wish you the best!!

[@danwentz]

Is there a straight up sampler engine included? Otherwise, very head scratcher...

[@SlowHaste]

@@danwentz no sampler engine included!

[@AB_ATT]

@@SlowHaste can you live play sequence or just step sequence? If live play, does it also pick up the MPE data?

[@_wrks]

Follower allows you to program a pattern in one section, and that section will play automatically and follow the scale that you play in another section.

[@alexiwiedemann]

Nice vid 🎉. Want to see you controlling the digitone with the polyend synth 😊. How do you compare the two? Which is better from sound design and synths engine’s perspective

[@vinylselektaz6475]

Can your melody be sequenced within the unit itself ?

[@SlowHaste]

@@vinylselektaz6475 yes, there is a simple sequencer built into the sequence/arp menu!

[@luciousfl0w]

Is Synth running through the Boum in this video? Sounds warmer than I’ve heard in other vids.

[@SlowHaste]

@@luciousfl0w I’ve got the synth going into the 404 and that runs into the Boum. I’m just using it for a tiny bit of compression here though! I tend to gravitate toward warmer/hazier synth patches. This does both clean & lofi very well!

[@randomVEL]

i bet this+pf3 be a joy. i just worry about processing crashing. i’ve seen geartubers b sayin’ it has crashed on them. kinda scary

[@SlowHaste]

I have had a crash yet. Bugs I’ve encountered are a couple of notes getting stuck on with the sequencer, and some of the menus temporarily not working, requiring a power cycle to resolve.

[@NoSky84]

could i combine it with digitone 2 and use the pads also as midi controlling for the digitone?

[@apeman939]

Yes. Digitone can control/be controlled with anything that sends/receives MIDI

[@icemannbmw]

Can you change the root note all together? Every demo is playing with C as the the root note. I'd like to see if it can play something like an F# minor scale and chords.

[@SlowHaste]

Yep! I mentioned that option is in the “grid” setup page

[@RobotSnake]

It really does sound great and the price is right. I just don't understand 8 notes of polyphony. It's rather annoying how so many modern synths just cripple themselves with embarrassingly low poly count. In the 80s and 90s we have 16 part multitimbral digital synths with 64-128 not polyphony. Now we get 8 voices if we are lucky. The Blofeld and Virus were the last major synths to have multiple instances and large voice counts. Make it make sense.

[@SlowHaste]

@@RobotSnake more voices would def be a big plus!

[@Ancaja123]

I agree. I would buy if it at least had 16.

[@mikecerame9008]

I'd guess it's a cost saving measure and a preference on Polyend's part to avoid allowing the user to surpass the DSP headroom of the processor. The Roland Sh4d has the opposite problem where they advertised 60 note polyphony but they bug out or crash if people try to play more than 8-9 notes at a time.

[@JoeM1314]

The DSP is audibly more complex than 90s synths, which got to the polyphony they did because they relied on really good PCM samples to carry the sounds. Sorry to say it but it sounds better than the virus too (and the novation peak). Sure you could stick a beefier processor in there, but no one else is doing it

[@RobotSnake]

@ I'm not confused about the process but with everyone dumping Raspberry pi's into hardware it's not like the processors are that expensive and you can chain as many as you like.

[@444levels9]

nice video, does the chord feature and chord pack features transmit all of that midi to the outputs?

[@tColorsinspacerecordings]

Nope

[@choogaface-musicproduction2416]

I need to figure out how to create my own ‘chord packs’ - anyone know how to do it?

[@SlowHaste]

@@choogaface-musicproduction2416 I have not yet ventured into this (only so much time, and I focused more on trying to make some tunes with it as quickly as I could!). Have you checked out the manual?

[@bondi5000]

You can do it as a beta feature in version 1.01 - I haven’t looked into that yet though as mine only arrived today

[@wholeheartedsongs]

Interesting layout but how do you know what notes or chords you are actually playing?

[@SlowHaste]

The manual is the most helpful resource to explain that! I have the product page linked in the description. But to start, the brighter “white” pads are the root notes of the scale you set each synth to

[@wholeheartedsongs]

@@SlowHasteappreciate that clarification. I'm guessing adding a midi keyboard would eliminate the ability to play 3 engines simultaneously on tne midi keyboard?

[@SlowHaste]

@@wholeheartedsongs I truthfully haven’t played around with MIDI yet - but I do believe the 3 engines could be simultaneously sequenced with something like a keystep

[@bluesgit7]

You can set each synth to a different (or the same) midi channel. So, if your keyboard supports splits you can play different synths. Or switch midi channel on the keyboard to play a different synth.

[@NathanChisholm041]

While a cool device the way Polyend just dumps all there old unit with no updates isn't good.

[@itsemurha0]

and when did that happen?