Bad Gear - Polyend Tracker

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Chapters:

00:00 Intro tune
01:31 Trackers in general
02:31 Overview
05:58 Hate
06:22 Jam 1
07:12 Jam 2
08:19 Finale
08:50 Verdict

Welcome to Bad Gear, the show about the world's most hated audio tools. Today we are going to talk about the Polyend Tracker. Is this hardware take on the ancient software-based music production technique yet another hipster toy???

Thanks to Polyend for sending me a Tracker as a long term loan.

The original Ultimate Soundtracker sample packs can be found here:

[AlexBallMusic]

Not hipster enough. I sequence with a fuse box, 16 reclaimed light switches and a typewriter. All powered by soil.

[urfavoritehumanbean]

This is like a utilitarian answer to the OP-1... a compact instrument that costs half as much, teaches you how a tracker works, and despite being limited on paper you can still whack super complex stuff out of it. The demos you made were amazing. A no-frills groovebox for modern times!

[henninghoefer]

Huge props to @Polyend for having the balls to send their product to a show named "Bad Gear"!
Also: Awesome episode!

[zooblestyx]

"The circle is now complete. When last we met, I was but the software. Now -- I -- am the hardware."

[Existence_denied]

I love DnB, Jungle and keygen music and this thing is a tracker in a box

[kenflagg]

I love this! SoundTracker / ProTracker / OctaMED were my jam back in the day. My mind was blown the first time I saw LSDJ on a Gameboy back in 2010. And when I learned that Aphex Twin used trackers, a lot of things started to make sense.

[Polyend]

Dis gear so bad! Thank you, certified hipster!

[metramusic]

Oh god no.... Not my baby! 😅 Fair play to Polyend for sending it in...., it's like trusting a Bulldog with your Sunday roast 😁

[iagmusicandflying]

The tracker era of the late 80s through the mid 90s was so much fun. It's neat seeing it resurrected in hardware now.

[chordorgan]

I picked up my tracker about 10 months ago after selling off the digitakt, which had plenty of limitations of its own. This tracker has worked better for me if only for the song mode! The tracker's song mode makes it very easy to chain patterns and build complete jams. The midi capabilities are excellent for controlling external gear. Not as powerful as the MPC one, but much easier workflow and what does it matter anyway? I like the polyend tracker.

[joemurray]

Man I may be a complete n00b but every single episode, I would be pretty happy with any of the "bad" gear - this thing looks incredible!

[matthewlister]

You had me at "It's a tracker." You made this thing shine as usual. Damnit AudioPilz, now I want one! Guess I'll stick with Renoise for now. At $60 it's a tenth of the price and does quite a lot.

[jamesbarels]

I quite like that you can export files that other trackers can import. I grabbed ReNoise after getting my tracker and the combination is fantastic. Some of the data can't be transferred, but for using as a portable device you can bang out ideas quickly, I have to say I love it. It is right up there with my Korg ER-1 or fun.

[JamesRamboPearce]

I love the tracker for taking around if you want something portable but capable, also works with a powerbank!

[nickfbatombrew]

The hipster rocks it again with big style. I will have to get in the loft and dig out my fully spec’d Amiga 500 and run the joy that is octamed again if only to see how my music production has improved or not as the case may be. I think of it as a digital piano roll for 20th century but I think with the midi capabilities this neat bit of kit will inspire 21st century generation of musicians even hipster ones 👍☢️

[mattkaz]

I love it when you review a popular unit as 'bad gear'. You can feel a great disturbance in the force, like a thousand synth nerds crying out.

[jimonaldo]

Your jams on this video were some of my favorites you’ve done. Love the videos.

[matthewtunnicliffe]

I love this thing so much that I've based my entire setup around one. My musical journey started with Octamed so it's quite fitting that I've ended up here..

[.petabytes]

I grew up using trackers on an Amiga. I bought the Polyend Tracker last spring and I love it!

[kcosminhz]

my favourite episode! great information, great demonstrations, and great tunes. I had a blackbox, i thought it was shit, it had all the features of a huge sampler, 1/16th the size. i didnt know i wanted a tracker, thank you.