The Polyend Play Made me do This!

The Polyend Play Made me do This!

When Polyend sent me home from Knobcon with the Play (thanks again Mitch!) I had no clue that in just a few weeks I'd be willingly doing the thing I like least, and setting up a bunch of gear all at once. However, the vast MIDI sequencing capabilities of the Play were just too enticing for me to look past. While it's pretty poorly showcased in this video, the Play has massive potential for incredibly varied and dynamic performances, and I can't wait to keep working with it!

GEAR IN THIS VIDEO

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[unfair_potato]

I REALLY enjoyed this. I'm shopping for a synth, electronic music tools, and this showed that three devices can be managed with practice for live jams, etc. You have a winner!

[TrickmanTerry]

Yep, as you know from my setup, its sometimes a chore to get everything playing nice together. That's part of the process, but when it works, it's really fun to see what you can come up with. I hope you keep exploring all the different options of how all these different instruments interact with each other. It'll make for some very fun and enjoyable videos! 😊

[noisetheorem]

I love the video! It’s great to see people fumble around the same as we all do in the studio.

[Groovetwig]

Awesome to see you getting into the idea of a more permanent controllable setup!

[Pastryarchy]

Those little 6-way 3.5mm trs “headphone” jack adaptors are a godsend for midi setups with trs-midi connections on these smaller hardwares.
Gets you around a lot of the midi-thru issues you might run into.
If you run into compatibility with pinouts on the trs side, you can either go the type-A/type-B adaptor route, or just use crossover cables, or trs-rca adaptors and flip the pinout on them to get around it.

[wiggesobk]

Great Session! Would love to see more of that.

[lazymandoplayer]

I expect you're aware of such things but you can get a midi through/splitter box for a reasonable price that allows you to connect multiple devices without having to chain through them so you connect things in a star network. I have one that runs on the power of the midi source signal so it doesn't need any power connections or batteries

[ilovecatsandsynths]

When you had filter CCs in the sequencer steps they were overriding your attempts to change the filter cutoff with the knob. What would be cool is if the knob could offset the CC set in the steps so you could still tweak the cutoff while sequencing it. This is more common when working with CV, but I don’t know if any MIDI sequencers support this.

As for chaining all these devices, consider getting something like a MIDI Solutions Quadra Thru.

[alex-r-t]

Loved the video! Always appreciate the less glamorous documenting of "making electronic music at it is" and not "as we'd like to pretend it is"😅Regarding the comment at the end about considering another synth: what about using the play to control synths on your computer (e.g. the MiniFreak V software synth). Could the Play do something like that?

[mikemeengs]

You just need a MIDI thru box. 👍
But I admit...even with my little 1in/4out, I still daisy-chain some things. But the synths using their own internal sequencer only need a clock, so that's easy.
Btw...I only use DIN MIDI...it's been our friend for 40 years now, and I rarely have any issues. (But sometimes my NTS-1 just doesn't sync reliably enough for me.)
Be well...keep the great videos coming!

[mrrafsk]

I suppose the polyend is more simple/assessable with less shortcuts than the a Deluge?

[FuZZbaLLbee]

Interesting problem with the scale quantization and sending notes to the drum machine.

[zmmmzmmmz]

I'm looking for a companion to my microfreak to jam, is the volca drums enough? I know you like the NTS-1 for effects and the drum brute/ polyend play seem like a lot more than I need

[douglaskane]

I’m pretty sure the Arturia software editor will allow you to use the out as a thru

[sirm]

To get the NTS1 going You need a mini TRS to midi type A, Arturia comes with Type B

[TheBrainvision]

Have you considered a midi thru device?

[oliverakadjrunnerspoint]

I don't understand your problem, MIDI cables and connecting them correctly is part of the process when you connect synthesizers and drum machines to each other, that's the 1*1 of making music