@@Aisjam It's actually pretty crazy that the 2.0 manual just dropped and they don't have ANYTHING below surface level about synth editing haha. I mean most of it is pretty straightforward but some of the character settings on WTFM are a bit mysterious.
Thanks for the overview, very informative. Just a note, Polyend's readme for the install instructs to copy the patches folder from the firmware update directory to the root directory on the memory card. Just updated to 2.0 a couple minutes ago and I'm loving the new functionality. Night to day. I bring my Tracker Mini with me pretty much everywhere in my backpack and I've been bringing my Roland Aira S-1 and Aira T-8 as well and to sample them from the line in jack. Now I can just bring the Tracker Mini and ear buds. 🎶
As much as I love the mini, I find that I have a hard time entering the melodies I like on it. There's no possibility to directly enter notes in a friendly way (with a mini keyboard, for example). But I may have found a workaround, through the use of a midi keyboard app on my Android phone. I'll experiment with that as soon as I receive my USB-c to midi cable.
Question. I tried Play Plus. It made me crazy with “copy note” approach. On Tracker Mini can I lock one track to One synth sound on all clips across the song? TNX! I’m interested to see someone experienced going around making a simple handy song.
You can keep tracks to individual instruments and the same for the synths. Just trying new ways on organising projects with the synths sounds. So might plan some workflow videos.
@@chambre466 polyphony I'd based on tracks so 3 note chord needs 3 tracks. However you can arm tracks so they are recorded as you play live or you can make the tracker an instrument and have up to 8 note polyphony
Cool, but did they fix the actually product itself? I apprecriate your videos but I'd like the truth to be told as to how chunky this device actually feels to hold ie; cheap.
I guess it's really subjective, but I've been using line daily since I got it and I don't have any issues with the build. It is a fingerprint magnet for sure but that doesn't bother me - if aesthetics are up there with functionality for you then maybe it'd be an issue. Plastic seems tough enough, not noticed much flex and the keys are solid after thousands of jabs and quick switching between things/sweeping across multiple buttons to un mute etc. I kinda come from older school hardware built like tanks and this doesn't feel flimsy. It's light, sure, and I wouldn't want to drop it, but then again if it had a metal case I don't think it'd be as portable. Reminds me a bit of a kindle gen 2 in weight and feel. Now, I'm happy with mine and it's by far the best portable idea/arrangement tool going but there are a couple things. The first one isn't a fault or a real negative, or just a reality check as there are people out there saying that the tracker mini is everything you need from start to finish to create a track to the point of having it ready to upload. Perhaps this is the case for certain genres of music, but for me I can get maybe 80% of the way there, but I still need to export the stems and master in a daw to get it sounding the way I want. Luckily the mini makes it very easy because literally one of the export options is to export the stems and you get every track and separate send tracks and a master track you can use for reference. So it's pretty good in that regard. As to actual issues with it, one glaring issue, although it is an issue that I believe every piece of Hardware that is at the level of complexity modern Hardware is suffers from. I have had a few hardcore lockup moments when editing samples. As far as I can tell, it is only when you are editing longer files and chopping them up for use. It has only happened four or five times but it's a hard lockup and you have to turn off the machine and turn it back on again. Luckily it seems to have always saved everything I was doing up to that point so I have never lost anything other than say one slice. I know you weren't asking for a long review in the UA-cam comment section, but I thought I would mention my experience as I am someone who is not particularly into getting new bits of gear. I tend to get things second hand and this is the first time I've actually bought something new that is a bit of a trendy item one could say and for someone who did not have particularly high hopes and thought I would probably sell it after a couple of weeks. I am surprisingly happy with this tracker and honestly for the ability to be able to arrange music on the go. It is worth the cost of entry alone as that is something I struggle with when I have a daw or even my sp404 in front of me being able to start beats in one place and finish them pretty much anywhere else has helped me immensely. It's definitely not perfect. There are a few workflow quirks that I find downright clunky compared to other samplers that have been out for much longer, but the all-in-one package that you get from this thing is insane. I first started using trackers around 20 years ago and I suspect that this tiny little box I can hold in my hand has more power than the tracker software I was using then and is probably more powerful and even than the computer I was using then it's fucking wild.
@@arsebiscuitsandwine cheers for the excellent and detailed reply, much appreciated. I'm like you regarding buying habits. I prefer taking some time before purchasing gear, especially anything new, just to read/see how the product performs away from any spin reviews that sadly saturate some forms of media (hello UA-camrs!). As an avid Kindle user I fell hard for the form factor. I was concerned about the weight though. I waited for a couple of months after they came into stock, from a UK based online retailer. And let's just say I wasn't impressed. For me, it was far too light. The chassis moulding seams never aligned, massive gap at the bottom at the screen, and worst of all the back had a huge bulge. Also the buttons chaffed when pressed. Quite why there is so much transport depth to them is really odd. I decided not to use it, for fear of falling for it, excusing those faults. Sent it back for a refund with the intention of buying another at a later date when/if the production kinks had been ironed out. Yet I can still see some of those faults in different videos nearly one year on. Hence my concern.
Would love a video covering each synth engine! Thanks for this overview.
Oh yes we need a comparison between the mini and the plus, that would be amazing, greta video thanks a lot! ❤️
I would especially like a video focusing on using the perc engine vs using samples for beats.
Great review! I'm new to trackers and the Tracker Mini is my first. I'm blown away with how powerful this little device is.
Do like portable trackers. LSDJ was my first but the mini is always around me to capture music ideas
Love your vids, fly safe! Would love to see more about the synths and PERC, when you have the time.
Cheers Tom. Been learning the ins and outs of each one so it's in the plan now. Perc is pretty good though
I really wish they would make a one shot instruments synth. I could use my one shots in the synth area.
Great overview! Really helped clarify some aspects of the synth engines for me-
Glad it helped. Gonna try to do some deep dives into instrument creation with the synths
@@Aisjam It's actually pretty crazy that the 2.0 manual just dropped and they don't have ANYTHING below surface level about synth editing haha. I mean most of it is pretty straightforward but some of the character settings on WTFM are a bit mysterious.
Thanks for the overview, very informative. Just a note, Polyend's readme for the install instructs to copy the patches folder from the firmware update directory to the root directory on the memory card. Just updated to 2.0 a couple minutes ago and I'm loving the new functionality. Night to day. I bring my Tracker Mini with me pretty much everywhere in my backpack and I've been bringing my Roland Aira S-1 and Aira T-8 as well and to sample them from the line in jack. Now I can just bring the Tracker Mini and ear buds. 🎶
As much as I love the mini, I find that I have a hard time entering the melodies I like on it. There's no possibility to directly enter notes in a friendly way (with a mini keyboard, for example). But I may have found a workaround, through the use of a midi keyboard app on my Android phone. I'll experiment with that as soon as I receive my USB-c to midi cable.
Question. I tried Play Plus. It made me crazy with “copy note” approach. On Tracker Mini can I lock one track to One synth sound on all clips across the song? TNX!
I’m interested to see someone experienced going around making a simple handy song.
You can keep tracks to individual instruments and the same for the synths. Just trying new ways on organising projects with the synths sounds. So might plan some workflow videos.
@@AisjamCool, thanks! Will give it a try.
if you re using ext keys could you play poly synth on only one track?
@@chambre466 polyphony I'd based on tracks so 3 note chord needs 3 tracks. However you can arm tracks so they are recorded as you play live or you can make the tracker an instrument and have up to 8 note polyphony
16 steps?
Cool, but did they fix the actually product itself? I apprecriate your videos but I'd like the truth to be told as to how chunky this device actually feels to hold ie; cheap.
so you are asking him if the software update 2.0 solves a hardware problem which you are referring to as device feeling "chunky" and "cheap"?
what do you think dude, do you think the software update did that?
@@redboycaptures 🤣yeah, I got that completely wrong, my mistake.
I guess it's really subjective, but I've been using line daily since I got it and I don't have any issues with the build. It is a fingerprint magnet for sure but that doesn't bother me - if aesthetics are up there with functionality for you then maybe it'd be an issue.
Plastic seems tough enough, not noticed much flex and the keys are solid after thousands of jabs and quick switching between things/sweeping across multiple buttons to un mute etc. I kinda come from older school hardware built like tanks and this doesn't feel flimsy. It's light, sure, and I wouldn't want to drop it, but then again if it had a metal case I don't think it'd be as portable. Reminds me a bit of a kindle gen 2 in weight and feel.
Now, I'm happy with mine and it's by far the best portable idea/arrangement tool going but there are a couple things. The first one isn't a fault or a real negative, or just a reality check as there are people out there saying that the tracker mini is everything you need from start to finish to create a track to the point of having it ready to upload. Perhaps this is the case for certain genres of music, but for me I can get maybe 80% of the way there, but I still need to export the stems and master in a daw to get it sounding the way I want. Luckily the mini makes it very easy because literally one of the export options is to export the stems and you get every track and separate send tracks and a master track you can use for reference. So it's pretty good in that regard.
As to actual issues with it, one glaring issue, although it is an issue that I believe every piece of Hardware that is at the level of complexity modern Hardware is suffers from. I have had a few hardcore lockup moments when editing samples. As far as I can tell, it is only when you are editing longer files and chopping them up for use. It has only happened four or five times but it's a hard lockup and you have to turn off the machine and turn it back on again. Luckily it seems to have always saved everything I was doing up to that point so I have never lost anything other than say one slice.
I know you weren't asking for a long review in the UA-cam comment section, but I thought I would mention my experience as I am someone who is not particularly into getting new bits of gear. I tend to get things second hand and this is the first time I've actually bought something new that is a bit of a trendy item one could say and for someone who did not have particularly high hopes and thought I would probably sell it after a couple of weeks. I am surprisingly happy with this tracker and honestly for the ability to be able to arrange music on the go. It is worth the cost of entry alone as that is something I struggle with when I have a daw or even my sp404 in front of me being able to start beats in one place and finish them pretty much anywhere else has helped me immensely.
It's definitely not perfect. There are a few workflow quirks that I find downright clunky compared to other samplers that have been out for much longer, but the all-in-one package that you get from this thing is insane. I first started using trackers around 20 years ago and I suspect that this tiny little box I can hold in my hand has more power than the tracker software I was using then and is probably more powerful and even than the computer I was using then it's fucking wild.
@@arsebiscuitsandwine cheers for the excellent and detailed reply, much appreciated.
I'm like you regarding buying habits. I prefer taking some time before purchasing gear, especially anything new, just to read/see how the product performs away from any spin reviews that sadly saturate some forms of media (hello UA-camrs!). As an avid Kindle user I fell hard for the form factor. I was concerned about the weight though. I waited for a couple of months after they came into stock, from a UK based online retailer. And let's just say I wasn't impressed. For me, it was far too light. The chassis moulding seams never aligned, massive gap at the bottom at the screen, and worst of all the back had a huge bulge. Also the buttons chaffed when pressed. Quite why there is so much transport depth to them is really odd. I decided not to use it, for fear of falling for it, excusing those faults. Sent it back for a refund with the intention of buying another at a later date when/if the production kinks had been ironed out. Yet I can still see some of those faults in different videos nearly one year on.
Hence my concern.