Thinking about the Polyend Play+ // Are its synths worth the extra cost?
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- Опубліковано 8 чер 2024
- The Polyend Play+ has got Synths, Stereo and Audio over USB... but if that's not your bag could you save some cash by buying or sticking with the original ? What do the synths do? how do they work? what do they sound like? are they easy to use?
All answered in here... hopefully!
I look at the synth voices in some depth (not too much I hope) to demo what you can get from them and their overall tone, usefulness and playability. As a synth head I have to say I like them and think they're a worthy addition to Team Play.
/ starskycarr
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► Clubbing TV From the Studio:
• From The Studio
0:00 What's This All About
2:36 Using the Synths
10:46 ACD
13:42 FAT
16:41 VAP
21:06 WTFM
#polyendplay #review @Polyend
Love your channel but to be clear, if you bought the Polyend before the Plus came out and it was within the previous month, they would have upgraded it for free. Happened to me and no issues. Difficult situation for them and can understand why some people were upset. But it's a great device and they tried to be fair. Note I don't work for Polyend and I think the limit was a month but I could be wrong. In other news - GREAT device.
Thanks and pinned.
After asking the support, I got my upgrade shotly after release for 199 - that's really fair
Same here :) i got it for free too. And you can use the tempo knob to change the synth parameters
Editing synthparameters is a little easier and faster by using the tempo-encoder to adjust the highlited parameter. I think this function is often overlooked -or maybe not used by youtubers because the screen woud be covered for the camera ?
I made that patch Balloon. I was very excited to see you use it.
I’ve even got a Balloon 2
@@StarskyCarr After Boards of Canada "Everything You Do is a Balloon"
Someone on the Polyend Backstage forum said it best - they really need to take the Elektron approach in terms of assigning certain functions to the knobs then just displaying their respective functions on the screen - with the two buttons on the left of the screen serving as a page up/page down. As a Play+ owner I really like the additional synths but editing them just feels clunky and I often resort to just using samples for most of my needs. This seems like something that could be addressed with a firmware update, hopefully it happens.
Wouldn't that make the labels for the knobs redundant/outdated? Or is that already the case because the knobs are labelled with the OG Play in mind, i.e. not the synths?
8 of the main knobs change functions when using the synths. The printed text doesn't change but in a lot of cases it's the synth version of what that knob does for the sampler, except for the last 3 knobs which are 6 assignable macros.
We are getting some very nice sequencers with samples black back, but the question is how good is the D/A. Anytime I bring in must custom kits and sounds and sequence with these machines the sample never sound accurate as appose to when sequence in the DAW with a good audio interface.
only reason to upgrade is if you only have the Play and dont have or dont want to buy any external synths (because you are a polyend-exclusive fan boy). For the 400 bucks upgrade, instead you better off getting a couple of behringer analogues or just buy some awesome VSTs or Bitwig, and you will make better sound than any of these cheesy 16 bit "synth engines" combined. I lost respect for PE after this + stunt, and I own the Play and 2 Trackers. that said, I love your vids bro, you have an extremely pleasant demeanor, a complete opposite of me :-)
😂😂
Well, you forgot to mention one important reason to have sequencer and synths in a single box and that reason is portability.
I have three other synths already so I didn't really buy it for that, but I did want the stereo functionality.
How does this workflow compare to an Akai MPC? anyone compared?
As I understand it, you can’t use more than 1 preset per synth per project? So that eliminates doing multiple song sets unless you either switch projects (with a lag between songs) or use the same presets for all your songs (not practical). Is that correct?
Yes. You select the synth and the preset for that slot.
You could technically assign the synth to the project multiple times and use a synth slot for each patch. But for switching songs, there is not realistic way to do that expect waiting for another project to open which can take a while.
How about sharing the patches you made pls? 😊
Will do, I’ll upload and add a link when I get a chance.
@@StarskyCarr awesome, thanks so much 🙌🙌🙌
I bought the non + because I already have a fantastic groove box, an SP16 and another with synth engines, an Akai Force. What I don't have is a cheap, affordable sequencer that does so much more than the same priced other offerings.
Then add the sample based offerings and you have a really affordable groove box that not many others can touch in its $ range.
People will cite the Deluge, well that's almost 3 times the $ of the Play I bought.
That buys another 2 affordable synths or w/e you want.
The non + version has a lot on offer, if you want the stereo samples and synth engines, maybe this could be better, but when you use the synth engines, you use up the MIDI tracks that you may want to use to sequence external gear.
It was an easy quandary for me to solve, I want a sequencer that is powerful and does what all my other 20 or so sequencers could not do.
Is it perfect? No, but it gets close for the money and that's a pretty good outcome regarding how people see PE atm.
When someone gives you lemons, make lemon drop Martinis.
Chin chin 🍸
I agree, but only if PE keep producing updates for it!?
@@waddy707 they are, they're working on a MIDI perf mode along side with the P+, if you read on their forums, they're pretty close to release.
Can it do parameter locks like the digitakt?
Yes… that and the randomisation are very much its ‘thing’. Each step can be considered an individual event - so although you mainly program in tracks there’s no reason not to. Every step can have its own set of unique parameters, including different samples, FX, filters start/end point etc.
@@StarskyCarr awesome. My digitakt died, I'm considering trying this instead. Maybe the og one as funds are an issue. I like randomization. Thanks!
@@surfthetsunami5596 Your Digitakt died? Wow, I've never had a piece of gear die, except for a circuit that I stupidly killed with the wrong power supply. Is this a thing with Elektron?
(I own a singular Samples that I rarely use)
Honestly i never understood any sampler that operates with 16 but depth. Especially in 2024. Only if it's like two or three hundreds. I can see Yamaha Seqtrack doing that but not Polyend. After all you drop your files to PC and work with them there... and then boom it's basically not even worth of editing coz 16 bit depth is like double-low bitrate for video. Yup i know a lot of ppl buy it as a toy and never gonna edit anything in mastering software... well good for them.
Why does any sampler need a bit depth of more than 16 bits? You think 96 db isn't enough?
I can see why you don't understand.
If your TV goes to 100, there are 100 steps of volume up or down on the remote. In this case, instead of 100 steps, 16-bit means 65,536 steps, measured over 40 thousand times per second (twice if it's stereo). This is objectively a huge resolution for playback and it's the highest fidelity most of us will realistically hear on the average commercial music release (lossless or uncompressed WAV). That's playback. When recording, we step that up to 24 bits or 16.77 million, or even more colossal numbers, for the sake of archival and a few other technical reasons as it's pretty trivial for a full-sized CPU operating at a higher voltage to handle. Every time you ask the CPU for another audio track, a synthesizer voice, reverb, etc., it's another big set of math equations using one or more instances of these 16+ million numbers. There are tricks that process those tasks efficiently, like how we look at parts of a song as 16 loops of pad C instead of every single individual notes, but it's still 16+ million instead of 65 thousand. Again, over 40 thousand times per second. The "buffer" in DAWs creates a small delay between between when you hit playback so it can do a lot of these insane calculations in advance to make sure it has the answers ready when it's time to play. But the bigger that buffer, the bigger the delay, until the latency is unacceptable to use in a groovebox.
Didn't plan on writing a novel but it's good CS for anyone in this community and applies to so much of what we use.
@@Tofupancho nothing wrong with what you wrote, it's very well put, you don't need to have large overheads in a sample based machine, because all you're doing is making the onboard CPU work harder when you net almost zero results.
Most people want to bit crush their samples, so why having a 24 bit based library is beyond me.
It wastes resources and puts a burden on hardware that really could be put elsewhere.
24 bit is used for recording, 32 bit is floating point used in DAWs, which is to allow so many tracks and not lose headroom.
16 bit is more than enough to use in real world applications.
The Sequential Prophet X comes with 150GB of factory-installed 16-bit, 48 kHz sampled instruments.
This should come as no shock, given Dave knows a thing or 2 about sample based synths.
I bet you won't hear a difference between even 16 and 15 bit depth.
The play (and play +) is a great concept but has some really weird and incomprehensible missing features. For instance the chance parameter can only apply to one parameter at the time. So impossible to put a chance for triggering the step and a chance for the pitch for instance. Too bad, seems like an expected feature for a product that is mainly a lot oriented to randomisation and probability. Also the lack of continuous or step automation is absolutely underwhelming. Why the filter applies only on the trigger and cannot be modulated on the other steps…
I bought one and was really disappointed to discover these limitations.
wow, menu diving is soooo fun.
You should check out MPCs or DX7 then!
Preset machine. I would have to do some mental gymnastics to consider paying extra for these synths. Rather than MIDi something else for a synth engine, which isn't so unpalatable to control.
This just seems a lazy cash grab to me. Spinning a slow responding pot is a bummer. Which is why the Kyra didn't end up sitting on my desk, unfortunately.
Wonder what function they will remove in later updates, like they did with mod import on the tracker.
The mod import didn't work properly anyway
@@rorz999 so fix it , Don’t remove it ffs.
Hardware designers: Let's build a cute little box with lots of colored buttons and knobs!
Coders: What shall we do with that?
UI designer. Oh, sorry, we have no UI designer.
Honestly apart from stereo samples, I don't get why anyone should get this over OG tracker. I guess Play got so much hype because tracker interface looks complicated to most people, and grid buttons do not, although latter is less informative.
the stereo samples a big difference, and the workflow is different enough to justify both tbh
polish engineering lol
Not impressed with the synths. Stereo samples is good though. I was an OG play user. But thought that polyend reduction in price on the OG overnight wasn’t the best thing to do.
I appreciate this video and the detailed demo, but wow you must of been bored out your skull with this thing hehe... all that menu diving is awful, I nearly fell asleep, the messy UI s all over the place. A definite NO for me among other reasons!
Haha. I guess after originally learning on the alpha dial with the Juno 2 I’m battle hardened… this feels much easier! Every studio in a box has its quirks and after using so many over the years I’m used to navigating through them. I don’t see this as much or any more difficult than most tbh. But yeah… you can’t go wrong with a big old knob per function synth.
@StarskyCarr hehe very true, keep up the great work 😃 I do enjoy your channel 👍
G.A.S?
No Polyend for me for what they did
Do you apply this attitudes to cars, computer parts and tv`s? I mean throw a hizzy fit when a newer model comes out? Do you go "No Ford for me for what they did" when they release a newer model of your car with a few more horsepower and better infotainment solution?
@@rustknuckleirongut8107 it depends, but they sure will be unsympathetic and I probably won’t buy their products so the answer is yes.
@@rustknuckleirongut8107yes I do
@@rustknuckleirongut8107can’t believe this argument is still being made, first, synths are not cars on phones, you expect this kind of gear to be current AND SUPPORTED for years, second, even ford or Apple won’t lower the prices of last year’s models as much as these clowns screwing their buyers in the process
@@aoterou So to protect your resale value companies should not innovate? They still support the regular Play so that argument is mute. Give me one good reason besides resale value that companies should not iterate and improve products? If you were happy with the Play when you bought it and you get angry because something better came on the market the problem is located between your ears and not in the hardware. The product you were happy to buy did not change, you did.