Play Plus: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly // 3 Month User Review of Polyends Upgraded Groovebox

After a controversial release, I take a closer look at Polyend´s Play Plus, an upgraded version of the original that offers new synths, stereo samples and more but that comes with a few missteps of its own. Hope you enjoy it!

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[beamifrend]

I posted a negative comment a few days ago. I apologise, I have deleted it. No excuses that was all on me, I was having a bad day. Keep up the stellar work 🙏

[ghostintheloop]

Synthstrom Audible sets a remarkable example in prioritizing user feedback, delivering what users want from their instruments, and steering the machine's evolution over time without incessantly introducing half-finished, functional products. Rethinking our approach to "consuming" technological devices, particularly considering ecological impact and CO2 emissions, is crucial. Synthstrom's innovative and respectful approach resonates with me, and I take pride in using the Deluge, confident it will remain a cutting-edge performer for years to come. Total respect.

[Geekraver]

They have said MIDI performance mode (including synths) is coming in a spring/summer update. Also while you can't sample external gear, you can export internal tracks to SD and then reload as samples.

[Spacial_]

To every Reverb junkie here: Synths are not cars, fuck resale value.

I try to only buy gear i intend to keep for a LONG time, and not go for every latest and greatest fad that brands push onto us. Hell, even with cars i think this way (love you, Toyota)

All that said, very good take suggesting a initial price raise on the Play+. Wouldn’t have caused all that backlash.

[hut]

Really glad i upgraded to the Plus, and can't wait til midi/synth performance mode is available! But, def wish they had firmware updates on a more regular basis, lots of very minor fixes take 6mos to a year to get fixed. Look at how often Oxi pushes out updates, and their team is super small

[Geekraver]

Agree about locking a synth to a track. I think locking a track to a MIDI channel would be useful too, especially once MIDI performance mode comes.

[ChristopheTornieri]

The Play (original one) has been a Huge disappointment for me. And also the company itself. A lot of misleading info on their website. A huge denial of the issues, wrong info etc from the team itself.

[krazywabbit]

Who is that krazy wabbit channel? Strange cat 🤣
Seriously, thanks for the mention. Super cool.

In terms of the Play+, I borrow something you shared a while back. What is my objective? For me, the Play + is immediate and fun. Perform mode is severely underrated and I don’t find any issues not being able to use on the synth side. I did find one little quirk when Play is being controlled by another device. I can’t play both sample and synth simultaneously.

In terms of the controversy, it’s in the past. It’ll happen someplace else down the road. I can only control what I can. To play.

Stay safe. Keep jammin!

[maikvanrossum]

They should have offered a temporary discount to existing users for upgrading… simple as that. Glad I’ve bought the OG after the price drop, because it’s a great performance sequencer without botthering about the mono-sampler (like the Digitakt, making stereo results). Thanks for your honest review.

[kevingrieger]

I just bought my polyend play plus and I'm having a blast with it, but there are a lot of odd limitations. No synths work in performance mode, you can't change synth parameters/effects in piano roll mode, If you are working on a preset and you accidentally select another preset you loose your work, it takes a while to load packs, I could go on. I can totally live with all these issues though.

[mrsharkyshark]

This video is 6 months old now and Polyend still wasn’t able to provide a firmware update to fix at least some of the mentioned issues?! How lame is that?!

How can this machine be called »Play« with a Plus when it even can’t play the synths (for which you are paying all this extra money) in performance mode?!

And btw, where is the „new” PERC synth for this machine which already is working on the Tracker Mini and the Tracker Plus since quite a while now?

[samprock]

It’s my bed partner for a month now (sounds awkward). Fixing synth or sample to a track I also need badly. Also option to impact track instrument across patterns. Multi sample to play Hung drum. Making it to work with DAW, sync and USB audio to Mac. Other bugs. That’s all I want, hopefully w/o shipping + $400 to fix all this 😂 when it all works $800 will be a right price

[davelee]

I’ll stick to my Tracker mini I love the workflow on it !

[TreyBruceable]

Great commentary. As a Play owner and enthusiast, I felt a little left behind with the announcement of the Play+. Rather than upgrade, I’ve paired a second-hand Roland S-1 with it.

[Argailes]

Thanks for the review! But what is that absolute great watch?

[harveytherobot]

The thing that keeps me from upgrading is that you can only have 1 patch per each of the 3 synths per project. How the heck are you supposed to put a whole set’s worth of songs in one project with only 3 patches? I just don’t get it.

[RenoFriends]

I'm having Play+ since the release and just surprised that we are still under the first beta firmware with some bugs here and there going on.

Also, had a lot of problems connecting it to my new Macbook Pro. They give you a cable because according to them "the device/cable are so picky" and won't work fine on any USB port/hub, but they don't provide a USB-C cable for mac users.

Price is high, can't understand why they don't include a USB-C cable that they know it will work for sure.

[bill-o-visionstudios]

Bought the original Play the first week it was out, it was fun, but I waited and waited for some fixes and features to be added. Then comes the Play +, I was super bummed! What they should have done was upgrade the OG Play firmware with perhaps a single dinky synth engine (even just a monosynth), said look at the features we're trying to add here! Then explained that it's not powerful enough to do all the things that they want it to do, and given a heads up about the Play +. As it was the early adopters just felt abandoned.

[Iggxzy]

I got a used original Play for 350 EUR because of that.

[Jakker]

The original op1 was out for years - and te let a rumor distort the market to up the price. Synthstrom are a class act. Polyend did the dirty. I know what you're saying and it would be nice to be ethical but look at Te as an example. They let a rumor spread - said nothing and when people were tricked to buy at higher prices, the TE price went up. At no point did they look to quieten the rumor and they used it. Polyend could have done many things. In truth, many things but they didn't.