Polyend Tracker Hardware Audio Workstation, What We Know So Far (Features, Price…)

March 16, 2020 Synth Anatomy Grooveboxes, Hardware, News, Sampler 0

On Tuesday, Polyend will present a next-generation hardware tracker with live sampling that is versatile, flexible and portable.

In two days we will finally get all full details about the Polyend Tracker workstation. If you can’t wait, you can find out all the details that we have known so far. If you can’t wait and want to find out everything beforehand, read on here. We know from many teasers and leaks that Polyend’s new instrument will become a very unique audio workstation. Unique because it is not based on a traditional design like a DAW but on a tracker. We know this concept from the 90s, the XOR Electronics NerdSeq Eurorack sequencer or the Renoise software.

All this will be super compact, small and portable. According to the leaks, it is possible to power the Polyend Tracker with an external battery, i.e. battery pack so it can be used on the go. The YouTuber Loopop even confirmed this on this Instagram story. The interface is very nicely designed: large display, colored buttons with individual functions (note, instrument, FX1, FX2, play, copy/paste, insert…) as well as a large wheel on the right side.

Sampler & Granular Sampler

From the same leak came the information that the tracker has a sampler, Synthesizer, and FM radio. Also from the same IG story, you can read that it will feature in total 8 tracks where each track is in mono. The latest official teaser dealt with this topic in more detail. It’s true, there is a sampler with live sampling functionalities from three destinations (line-in, FM radio and mic input). The samples are in mono but the engine features a stereo panning function. At least that.

The sampler can be operated in different modes: 1-shot, forward loop, backward loop, ping-pong loop, slice, and granular. Basically everything you know from software samplers. Yes, there is also a granular sample engine onboard but we don’t know much about it so far. You can see it in action in the latest trailer including a first look at the parameters: preview, position, length, shape, and loop. It will be exciting how versatile you can use this engine.

FM Radio

There will also be a wavetable and FM radio engine (confirmed by Loopop) where we don’t know much either. Here, he teasers in its IQ story that it offers an FM radio where “you can load up FM style wavetables”. Not sure what he means here but it sounds like you can transform FM radio signals into wavetables or so. Very curious to see this in action.

In my last article about the upcoming Polyend Tracker, I said that a wavetable engine would make sense because it allows you to design quickly such retro-style (8-bit) sounds that it of course to this audio workstation.

Powerful But Affordable

But there is something new to report. Firstly, the connections are now known: line or headphone out (?), line-in, microphone in, MIDI In and MIDI out via DIN adapters. Since the device has MIDI Out, it can probably also be used as a hardware MIDI tracker sequencer. Also nice to read that it has a USB-C port, welcome to 2020.

On the other hand, there is now price information. According to a leak (thanks to one of my FB comments), the Polyend Tracker will have an MSRP price of €999 Further, the leak says: “Tracker comes complete with a USB-A power adapter, 2m USB-C cable, 3.5mm to 2x 6.3mm adapter, minijack to MIDI DIN adapter, 16 microSD card, and a microSD to USB-A adapter”.

And that’s how it sounds when Richard Devine works with the Tracker.