I updated to 1.1 today and am seeing glitches and issues still. Even new ones I hadn’t seen before. This thing is still not ready for prime time and I would recommend not buying one at least until it is stable.
Do you have a spare SD card to try? I noticed two people with really bad issues, fixed it with a new SD card. In particular I would expect the loading issue to go away right away if this is the correct fix. It may be slow at loading, but not crashing or freezing normally. I ran into that zero times with mine even when I purposely made massive projects with tons of variations and many rows of sequences to make it run slow on purpose which is indeed a thing that may need to be fixed.
Did you ever have any issues with samples and memory usage? I would load my own custom samples (2-5 seconds) but they would sometimes use upwards of 10+ percent of my project memory. I'll try a different SD card
@@Antonio_Ortiz I think you can load up to 6 minutes mono or 3 minutes stereo samples, so if you are loading multiple samples at once that sounds like normal behavior. It's only really an issue if you want more than the max to be loaded.
@@radfaraf Yeah, I'm aware. Here's my issue: 3 minutes of stereo samples is 180 seconds. 5% of 180 seconds is 9 seconds. I load my own samples that are no more than 3-5 seconds and yet it sometimes uses upwards of 10+ percent (per *one* sample). I could say that perhaps the sample rate of my samples might be influencing how much memory is used, but, I believe all samples taken from the SD card are converted to 44.1 wavs anyway, so that shouldn't matter anyways. I am willing to concede that if Polyend has something written or communicated that explains this, I'll accept it as something already addressed. But I have yet to see it. I'll continue with the manual and some experiments to see if the issue can be resolved or explained.
@@Antonio_Ortiz I would load try loading just short of 3 minutes and see if it lets you, and if it doesn't there is some issue to investigate for sure. I honestly wouldn't have noticed if it seemed inaccurate because it only really matters to me if I can load enough to make something and I haven't ran into the limits causing me an issue except when trying to load excessive amounts where most weren't even going to be used in the track, and in that case I just remove some.
The click is relay protection so there isn’t a thump through the outputs to your speakers/headphones. This is a good thing, the tracker mk1 didn’t have this safeguard
im really happy with my OG Play. No crashes. Only lags at loading and loading samples. don't need the limited synth engines with limited interface, since I have other gear.
Your shift + select way to select the sound to figure out what it is can be done in a slightly simpler way. Press and hold for like 1/4th second. That will show you what that one is if the Sample knob is active, click too short and it treats it as delete.
@@1980VINZ yes but there is also undo. In practice I pretty much never accidentally delete because only really quick presses delete and once you know what it does you can adjust.
I can confirm that my Play+ also crashes frequently. Sometimes it freezes on the first sample I load. The load progress screen is shown but the bar does not advance and no buttons react. You can’t leave the screen. The file system needs attention to make it robust. Polyend, please fix this instability. Also, add way to read full file name if it’s longer than the screen width (scroll name). BPMs are often at the end of the file name so I can’t read it from the disk. You have to arrange your samples on the SD: rename, separate into folders, etc., before you can use them because the hardware will not show you the full file name. Polyend please reconsider any workflow that necessitates working on a computer to organize samples. The point of hardware is to do the work away from the computer. These are mostly file system issues so I hope that Polyend focuses attention there first. I know they have new synths coming but I think the stability and usability issues are more important.
There were two people on the online forums that reported very similar sounding severe issues, and the fix was using a new SD card. Also people need to report these bugs on the forums, I reported a few, but have not ran into a crashing one, or seen one posted, so how can they fix it if possibly they don't know about it, or are mistaken about the number of people it is happening to when people don't report.
I own two Polyend Plays - one for me and one I bought for my brother. All problems, glitches, crashes you mentioned happened to us multiple times. Once the sd card of my brother's play got corrupted (somehow) and its internal folder structure was completely messed up; we had to format and restore the initial data on it with a computer. I had multiple crashes, freezed knobs that couldn't be changed until you restarted the device, values that changed on their own... very often some of the touch knobs switched as if they got touched - even though they didn't got touched. We left the Plays laying on the table and occasionally this would happen repeatedly to both devices. Some performance effects got "stuck" until the device got restarted. Some knobs can be turned to invalid values in specific circumstances (while multiple steps are selected). When using the praised fill feature for Kick/Snare/Hat preset patterns, the used samples won't respect the undo function, so you can't go back to a sample set but only generate "forward" new random sets of your Kick/Snare/Hat samples. Most of the performance Reorder functions (green) make the track only play the first note repeatedly, if that track has a slower playback speed than 100%... I gave it a try... Often... I really wanted to like the Polyend Play... But again and again and again it led to frustration about preventable shortcomings, problems, bugs,... It just feels not good designed the deeper and more serious you dive into it - in terms of Workflow, Control and UX. Also you have to go crossed-armed for a lot of functions - it wasn't pleasant to work with for longer (unergonomic and tedious/tensing gestures/finger-strains). And in the end they took away the ability to sell it for something what would be worth the effort, by making the upgrade to the better internal board overall as expensive as a new unit (you even have to pay for shipping and tax and everything yourself + the better chip, which should cost a fraction of that price, if you know a thing or two about electronics and chips). Overall and in the end I really wanted to like it but am disappointed with it. Looking forward to buying a Deluge - and some day a Reliq to unify all my hardware.
I upgraded my play to a play plus when the option was given. The unit I got was horribly buggy and crashed a lot and features were missing. I updated the firmware to the 1.0.1 beta and it went from unreliable and frustrating as hell to just a little jank. Make sure you update your firmware and it's much more usable
Yeah. I think it's good for for people that already have one to know though. I don't know why they shipped it with that awful firmware in it; other demos I've seen on TH-cam def had the newer firmware on it. It still does weird things from time to time, but holy cow is it better
I have a tracker mini & it has been solid so far, had it for a few weeks but really using it for beats with an occasional melodic sample. I can’t say that I’ve pushed it to its limits but I like it a lot.
These hardware companies can't fix the glitches if people aren't reviewing them. Don't feel like your burning a bridge. Right now there's someone sitting in a closet at that company fixing the issues and you've saved someone from running out and realized they've made a mistake.
Thank you!! Even loopop said that the didn’t add features they promised from the play. It’s underdeveloped. Just like the play was. And I don’t want to pay for a product that needs multiple firmware updates to be fully functioning again in the future. I will not upgrade. I will keep my play and use it once in a while. The bad trend for software and boutique hardware is releasing unfinished products and letting reviewers, beta testers, and end users complete their R & D. An 800 or 900 $ groovebox should be a finished product. 👍🏻
damn I really appreciate this video bro. Play has been next up on my list as soon as I can afford it since release, now replaced with Play Plus, and this is one of the most genuine videos I've seen talking about the downsides. hope Polyend sees this.
Seams like the tracker is better when researching both of these. These companies need to stop trying to use us as beta testers all while paying for the product. Don’t release shit until it’s READY to release. This music thing isn’t just a hobby for a lot of us it’s our lives and we EXPECT a certain level of professionalism and dependability out of a product
No doubt. Honestly I don’t go for any company who obviously makes their products lose value like this cuz it shows a lack of respect for their customers. Gear should last and it should hold its value , certainly shouldn’t lose value on purpose. But when it comes to Trackers I would have to stick with Renoise for now, then when they get it ironed out I be getting on that stand alone hardware Renoise! The community makes it even more of a bargain.
I bought the original about a month before the plus came out and I’ve had the same experience. I think the longest I’ve managed to use it without a crash is about 5 minutes. It’s just feels completely unfinished and unusable. This is the main reason I was pissed when they announced the plus, they’ve not even managed to make the original work properly yet.
I bought the original play about two months ago and I have been using it without any problems so far. I think the original after fw 1.4 has matured to a stable product. Perhaps your particular unit is defective. Just send it back while its still under warranty.
Thank you for mentioning how quiet the synths are compared to the samples. This drives me absolutely insane. I know you can change the gain for each synth but I don't understand why they're like that.
I think they have a reason for that. If you begin to stack chords it may be clipping easily Select all sample channels and lower it's gain to the same level as the synths. Use that project as template.
I have a Medusa, tracker og and play. It’s embarrassing for polyend to say this is the device they wanted to make. Instead of an upgrade I bought a used mc707 for £50 more, and I have no regrets. Polyend have a lot of software improvements to make this work. It’s worrying to think they are trying to support OG trackers, tracker minis, OG play and the beta play plus. Somethings gonna give, and that will leave a bunch of customers disappointed.
The MC707 is crazy powerful and sound fking good. My brother bought one and I have to say I’m very impressed by what he’s capable to do with. And more than that, HE NEVER STOPS TO USE IT, he is having a ton of fun with it. But he had to learn first. He paid a printing company to have a proper paper manual, learned and now he’s enjoying a ton since months.
@@1980VINZso much menu diving on the mc707, but I reckon that if you spend a tons of time on it, to learn the work flow, it might be hell of a device with a strong sample data a'd great sounds on board. I also found the song mode quite tricky and unclear. But all in all in few weeks, at my really noob level, I've been able to make some nice work a'd little so'gs on it. I have to say that, even if I really like my OG Tracker. With is a better match for my brain on the work flow side and also with what I think is a way better song mode compare to the 707... Inadmit that a part of me is missing the 707.. I might look around some day to get one back and dedicate the time needed to make good out of it. For now I'm really happy with the og tracker and I even think about having the mini to get the portable Holliday travel version to play around. I also have the opportunity of having an OG Play.. But I'm not sure about that one... Even if it would be to use it quite light without importing samples and the likes.. But to use it for the smooth work flow and coupled it with my OG tracker. For what I've seen on the comment. The OG play looks much more stable than the play+ (as lo'g as you did not ouch it too hard by loading tons of samples) (that basically how I crashed my OG tracker, by trying to upload bunch of samples on it. I had to reset and reinstall the all firmware.. That the only time I had trouble with my OG tracker tho) So I feel like those device should just be used for Hat they are. And probably not to import tons of sampled on them. Wich I agree.. Is a bit of a shame for the price. Cheers from belgium
You own 3 polyend products…so do I , I can confirm even medusa on version 4 was far from a decent product…polyend = Great ideas poor execution, wonder why I’m on product #3 already…
But Benn Jordan and Venus Theory LOVE Polyend and the Play+. They're definitely NOT shills, so there must be some thing we are failing to understand here.
Pretty obvious to me that some units will have bad hardware when you sell enough devices, so people with working ones like myself will have vastly different experiences with people with broken ones that should have been RMAed, but didn't bother trying to.
@@radfaraf Yeah fair enough. I’m just not happy about spending $1230 on a device thats only $899, but I did it anyway because its the superior device so I went through with the trade in. Plus Benn Jordan is a douchebag so generally just dont like him.
You could have a lemon as well? I’ve had weird glitches that seemed like software and ended up just being a hardware problem. Did you try a swap before making the video?
I’ve never had issues with my OG Play. It’s a midi beast and such a bargain at the price it is selling. I do think you weren’t able to actually use the device to assess it properly and that’s a bummer.
I’ve talked to some other homies in the TH-cam space who have the same issue, and some of the bugs are still noted as existing on the release notes for 1.1 so I don’t think it’s a lemon at this point or there’s a lot of lemons
@@DylanParisMusic That's unfortunate. I guess it's good I delayed upgrading. PE is usually pretty good at updating, so hopefully, it improves before the update is available again. I do love the OG Tracker and the Mini. Some of my favorite gear.
The Play/Play+ is probably my favourite device I’ve ever owned, I just honestly think they marketed it wrong. It’s by far the most intuitive IDM and experimental music sequencer on the market. Yeah, if you’re just loading the stock sample packs and hitting beat fill you’re definitely not getting the most out of it. But it has incredible randomization options, Euclidean sequencing, dozens of different retrigger styles, probability, and performance effects. The folder system is amazing for auditioning and varying up your beats in a way that perfectly fits a lot of electronica styles of music: there’s a reason all the presets are named after AFX, BoC, and Autechre songs. A few of your comments here just sounded like you were coming at it expecting something more like a production workflow (specific tracks for kick/snare/hats, EQing for a professional mix) rather than a weird generative drum and synth box. So yeah. Incredible device, but mismarketed, I think. The 1.0.0 firmware it shipped with was a bit buggy for sure, but the 1.0.1 beta is definitely more stable and I never really had a problem with the OG Play.
Sounds like you’ve had a different experience with it which is cool too! The amount of bugs and crashes I’ve seen and that even happened while filming this are worth noting for potential buyers. I’m glad a beta is looking better and I hope they can iron out all the issues.
I've played with the play and while it excels in generative aspects of IDM it is definitely not as robust as the elektron sequencer, just faster to achieve a specific (uncontrolled) result. really fun device tho
Have to agree with the OP: have not had stability issues or the speed issues, so I think I’m a “light” user but I’m also using it very differently from this reviewer. But it makes me nervous now :)
I suspect that bad sd cards probably play a big role in crashes that's not an uncommon cause for crashes with other devices. I also have found the feature that creates rhe distinction between a sampler and a sample player to be kind of wasted on me. Because I much prefer a sampling directly into my daw and pre-processing samples in my daw add organizing sample folders on my computer because it's just faster at the organization process. Also with the daw you have way more granular precision for sound sculpting for sample shaping. I am kind of looking into getting the play plus know about his shortcomings also before making a decision I mean this is like over a half a year later, and like a lot of your complaints with the lack of direct sampling and the only having three synth engines things that aren't things that I see as negatives. I basically want it to be my midi sequencer sample player/sequencer. Play still need to figure out where it's at currently I would imagine that by now the vast majority of The originals functionality should be implemented with this version. I mean otherwise I may get the original one.
glad I stumbled on this. I was bummed out when they ditched the play and its users, but was thinking maybe I'll upgrade just b/c of the potential, but it seems like it's still flawed. I don't wanna pay that much money to upgrade for something this fickle lol
i see no controversy. Maybe a bit too dramatic. It's a great device ad it is not a sampler. Have you tried chance/ramdomize? This is where this machine really shines.
Polyend gave me a great deal on a refurbished play a while ago, but a lot of the workflow things you've talked about are things that I think are intentional. (I don't like them either, to be frank.) It sucks to hear that there are a bunch of play+ bugs - I didn't get hit by any when I was using the play, but I just didn't enjoy the process of using it at all even when it did work. Some of the effects can't be used on a per-track basis - for instance sometimes I want to loop individual tracks instead of the entire track and that's just impossible because of reasons? And there's no ability to record the effects you can use in Perform Mode (supposedly according to polyend due to technical reasons so ... maybe they'll change that in the play+), which makes using the effects in recorded music feel impossible. Those limitations felt very arbitrary and took the immediacy out of using it, and having a half-decent randomization tool didn't help that process at all. And I have no idea how "adding stereo samples and built-in synths" is supposed to help any of that.
Anyone considering the Play should look into the Deluge - especially since it's gone open source. Its absolutely amazing, and in my opinion crushes the Play and Play Plus - even though the Deluge has been around for years now.
it looks amazing, price is pretty high now but people seem very happy with it! I am tempted to try one someday but is hard to justify buying full price with the other devices I already own
@@DylanParisMusic yeah, it is expensive (Synthstrom being a very small company, smaller than Polyend even, drives the price up I think - but it's got built in sampling, built in mic and speaker, runs on battery with very good battery life). Also, you are right, for your case, you already have gear that can achieve similar functionality. It's by no means a perfect groovebox either, but the sequencer is really awesome, and I personally find it very quick to use - opening a song on Deluge is INSTANT, samples are streamed from SD card, so there is no loading or saving time for anything really. It's also instant to turn on. If I was considering the Play Plus, I'd definitely look deeper into the Deluge, I personally think it's worth the extra cost. But hey, all these things are luxury items, and really, we don't need ANY of this hardware! Great video by the way. You'll get a strong following by keeping your channel honest - it's hard to find trustworthy channels that are open to really discuss the flaws of a device... If we gotta pay so much money for this stuff, it's pretty insulting that companies launch incomplete products on us!
@@drwalka10 I always forget about the recent price increase. I got mine years ago when it was more affordable. It's worth the extra cost though in my opinion - it's a super flexible device, and now that it's Open Source, nothing comes close. If I couldn't afford a Deluge, I'd just keep my money. The Play seems a bit limited IMHO
sorry to admit, i have the polyend play original, it doesnt crash. however, i dont push it to such a high level, and dont make full songs on it. but i still love it. its fun for a groove if i get writers block, and it should be marketed as a groovebox because its definitely not a sampler. when i get serious i still go to my mpc. i dont feel as mad about the price drop of the original because i got a good deal on it (630usd) a yr ago. so in your position,... glitches get stitches. unfortunate man, sorry.
I have the OG play and did encounter a lot of crashes, glitches, freezes, also some weird bugs when paired to an external controller. When it works it is awesome, but this is a device that CANNOT be trusted and that is the worst a music device could be.
This isn't negativity this is valid criticism. Don't feel bad or guilty. We need MORE critical takes to inspire progress. How can the problems be fixed if we dont talk about them?
I’ve own several Polyend products and they’ve all come out buggy and the bugs never get 100% sorted out. I’d the Polyend Play Plus was the product they wanted to release all along perhaps they shouldn’t have charged people $800 when the original wasn’t worth that much to begin with (new one isn’t worth it either, if we’re being honest… it’s a $100 midi controller with a $50 chipset in it). I won’t ever support Polyend again. Stick with Elektron if you want quality products.
I thought about upgrading my Polyend Play to a plus, But £400 and postage(about £50), so £450 give or take a tenner and god knows how long it will take until I get it back🤔. BUT I came across an advert for the silver edition of the tracker for £489 inc postage! So Guess what, I ordered the tracker even though I already own the Tracker mini. £450 for what will always seem to me like what should have been a free upgrade VS a brand new sparkling box of tricks, NO CONTEST 🤣and your review confirmed that I made the right decision.❤❤❤❤❤❤😎😎
These devices should be explored on its strengths, the sequencer is where this and the original play shine. That alone is why I would choose the OG play over the plus.
I’m not sure I understand this comment. I tried to use this device as designed and it consistently had major issues. I’m not going to not talk about major issues if they show up
@@DylanParisMusic it’s a great video and stuff like this needs to addressed and brought to peoples attention. But with nothing good to say about a product can sway people might never give it a second thought again. To me this device the sample play back is secondary and the sequencer is first. I just believe in the product here. That’s all. Much appreciate your videos especially the ones on the force!
I hear you! Thanks for watching and sharing your thoughts! I think there’s a lot of positive videos about the Play so hopefully they balance out some of my experience. I also hope Polyend is able to fix the Plus because with enough changes it could be a winner potentially
Solid! I think my big thing is there’s no way to look at a track of white dots, especially a project you haven’t worked on in a while, and have any sense of what any of the sounds are without pausing the track and pad by pad checking sample name or auditioning like that.
Lot of people on reddit are also talking about polyend as a company has serious issues. Some have said they have returned their units multiple times and the customer service people give others an attitude. Sounds like maybe they are selling a good looking device and not an instrument for serious musicians. So it's not just you. A lot of people have had issues with polyend products and the service with it. Seems the company is still working things out. Hopefully they get better over time. I think they are one of the most innovative companies out there right now. But they need to fix some shit.
That fact it can't do any of the randomization features as the og unit cause it's limited to one synth voice and the way they did there own community after 1 short yr just kinda left a bad taste in my mouth, but i never used either device. But had i been a og play user i think i would be salty about it and the upgrade price spend over 1k and ship my device to get a device upgrade a new user can get for 800. And why can't it sample line in when the tracker can it's weird to me the main draw is the randomisation feat and performance features so sad it can't fully do that og unit can and price dropped but had ya been able to sample line in and chop then we would be talking like a upgraded tracker .
Yeah honestly I didn’t even get super into the synth engines in this video but they feel sort of tacked on. Other videos have mentioned it but the knob labels are not super helpful for the synths and sound design is the definition of menu diving for each engine which feels antithetical to the rest of the device
I’m confident the files are okay cause they’re all samples I use on tons of devices, it could be the sd card but that would still be damning cause they chose this sd card to ship with it
Please consider that others who have replaced the original polyend card fixed these issues and Device s have different ways of reading files, I've had units that are sensitive to the number of characters in the name, or being too short.. this video is not fair to Polyend and only a half truth if you don't put in to effort and try other cards. Thanks!
@@PlayBackRate if it’s unfair to review a unit as it’s shipped, and making it potentially work requires spending additional money for the consumer, I’m gonna have to disagree
@@DylanParisMusic The world isn't perfect, Polyend sells a ton of these and initial test likey don't include long loading sessions, please understand they need to order cards in large quantities and quality QC resources have many levels .. things can go wrong in/ from manufacturing to supply to shipping, from condition's to human errors. And if you are Ok to excuse yourself from doing a little test to find out, then you are just another broken link in the QC chain or just don't care about the instrument.. and ironically complaining about the same standard you yourself are embracing.. Is that fair to potential buyers Polyend or yourself? Be the change you want to see in the world 😉✌️
@user-fs3uu1br2q other commenters have replaced their cards and still had major issues. I totally understand wanting to help the company and thinking this is the way to do it, but I made a video reflective of the experiences I had as a user. If they want to be the change they should update the firmware and change the issues a huge amount of people are having on a device that costs 800 dollars
This was supposed to be the hardware they wanted to create before the supply shortages. And it has hardly enough memory or power to make use of its features?
Hard to say honestly. I’ll concede that every single product ever made is a balance between cost and desired feature set, but for me personally this one feels like it needed another year in the oven to make it more cohesive. I’m pretty sure not every sample pack takes most of the ram, and you can clear unused samples, but especially during the track creation process you want access to as many of those samples in a single project as possible before you clear out the unused ones. For 800 this feels off to me.
At its price point, why would anyone want to have this over Deluge, MPC One, Elekron or Roland stuff? This device has always felt like it is 400 euros max, not 700+. I would rather get Model Samples.
I think, this device is far to innovative, thats why people cant deal with it. The play (and most of the polyend stuff) is so different from the normal "same s*** in new cloth" stuff. And lets face it, people making music are often not the most clever guys on the planet ;-)
Ah yeah, the “this guy disagrees with my opinion and despite sharing literal realtime examples of real issues and having covered this area of tech weekly for over 3 years is just an idiot” argument I hope they send you a free one 😎
This comment was especially funny to receive after I updated the plus to the new release 1.1, made a rad sketch, tried to save it and the save button just started taking me to the sample start tab and wouldn’t let me save: innovation baby
@@DylanParisMusic Sorry, not directly pointed at you. Its more a general theme. What an interesting synth the medusa was and people simply ignored it because they could not deal with a new concept. Funny that the tracker worked, because it was an old concept „Oh, tracker, I have done that in my childhood, I buy it“. Sadly thats why will not see not many fresh ideas. I am not talking about your stability issues, despite my play is working fine.
@ayakkrob1011 I hear you, honestly it seems like people have been pretty receptive to the play though? I wouldn’t say the tracker or the play have been flops? My glitches aside it seems like people like the play it’s just frustrating for some of them that the plus came out so soon and dropped the value of the original
It really does seem like the polyend way is to release things before the software is ready, and hope people will deal with it. They rather have the sales come in quicker and get it in the hands of people and work on it over time. But that makes for a bad experience for most unless you're willing to be really understanding.
It's our fault that we keep buying the new shiny object. If we had a different attitude, companies should really try their best to make us buy a new instrument. That's also the reason why in 2023 we still have this underpowered devices that can't do a lot of things. We are the market, not companies. If they can exploit our weaknesses, they will
@doverbeachxyz I’m actually gonna go ahead and say it’s not our fault for being sold a product that should work but doesn’t. I get the general sentiment but no way. This is on the companies not us, and if they keep doing this they will lose future customers whose trust they lost
At first I didn't want to hear this video, but we must all be objective and not just turn a blind eye just because we are fanboys or want to support/forgive a company we like. While I love it's features, I agree that upgrade path is overpriced, theres tons crashes and bugs and one of it's limitations (the project memory) is inherently frustrating. I still like the product, and knew I would essentially be beta testing as an early adopter, but if anything, for that amount, at least iron out the basics first. Even if the sample memory usage was consistent with my custom samples vs. the stock samples, I could forgive the rest of it. Not salty about my purchase, just annoyed. I'll be patient because it has a lot of potential, but I don't take offense to anyone who can offer constructive criticism and not sugarcoat what will help us all in the long run. You earned a sub. 👏🏾
I appreciate you watching and I totally hear where you're coming from! Thanks for subscribing as well! I'm hopeful that Polyend will fix these issues, they're a pretty rad company who makes inventive stuff. I've said it before but the industry is better with them in it. I've heard others say the sd card might be part of the issue. If that's true I suppose it's a quick fix but also a real shame they'd ship the device with a bad one.
I bought a new SD card, copied the Polyend card directly to it, and it still freezes and crashes. At least I figured out the sample memory issue: my samples were 192khz and 24-bit. When I exported them as 44.1 and 16-bit, the sample memory usage went down significantly. I also contacted Polyend customer support for any official advice; been about 3 days, *crickets*
Unfortunately, i was suckered into buying this device.. i am lucky to have a deluge and its just so good. i thought this was going to be a different flavour of it..oh boy was i wrong..either way the deluge has gone open source and the community firmware is solid..main bus compression is a god send
Agreed, they seem like good folks and they make really interesting stuff. I hope they can turn this weird phase around cause the industry is absolutely better with them in it
Its $800 if you buy it new now. If you're a true sucker like most of us you bought the original Play for $800, then paid $30 to send that back to them and paid an additional $400 for the current version (who knows how long that will last, considering) - so if you're a dumb asshole like me, then congratulations, you paid $1230 for the Play +
I mean it's pretty commonly suggested in many synth communities to wait at least a year if not two to buy any synth after it's released. First of all you don't know whether it could turn out to be abandonware, and they can promise the moon and never deliver. The only guarantee you have about a product is what it is currently capable of when you pay the money for it
After all the Bs everyone has been through and the godamned release fiasco, Not only will I not buy this unit, but I will never support polyend ever… which is a bummer because i really wanted this to be a great maker
Possible! I’d have to imagine if every unit had the issues myself and others have they wouldn’t have shipped them, so it would make sense that some people wouldn’t have issues. Even the Xbox 360 red ring of death only affected about 30ish percent of users at the time.
You don't release a device that doesn't work. Can't for the life of me understand why you would release a product that doesn't work. Talk about shooting yourself in the head. There is a difference between a company that pioneers and one that releases crap that simply doesn't work... expecting their customers to debug it for them. I get paid for doing work. I'm not an influencer you can offer $150 for a few videos. Not doing it. No way.
Your take on generative music making is bitchy. Hating on other processes is weirdo behavior and I don't want that for you. Repeating the same formulaic patterns(maybe drums was the worse example for this take? idk) may make you yourself feel more connected to the music, but that doesn't make it or other processes lesser.
I hear you, I do feel like it’s a bit weird to have prebuilt samples and prebuilt patterns and then be like “I made this thing” but I can own having an ‘old head’ take on this and if someone doesn’t like how I feel about it they can definitely ignore it cause I’m just a random dude on the internet. Personally I think there are maybe some interesting applications for generative art but given the massive amounts of resources for premade stuff already it feels less than ideal to throw computers that make the whole song for you out in the world. Again just my feeling though if you feel differently I get it
@@DylanParisMusic The weirdo shit is not about your opinion on the matter it's you belittling other processes. I know I can ignore your opinion, but thanks for the reassurance lol? If you don't welcome discourse here then lmk.
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I updated to 1.1 today and am seeing glitches and issues still. Even new ones I hadn’t seen before. This thing is still not ready for prime time and I would recommend not buying one at least until it is stable.
Do you have a spare SD card to try? I noticed two people with really bad issues, fixed it with a new SD card. In particular I would expect the loading issue to go away right away if this is the correct fix. It may be slow at loading, but not crashing or freezing normally. I ran into that zero times with mine even when I purposely made massive projects with tons of variations and many rows of sequences to make it run slow on purpose which is indeed a thing that may need to be fixed.
Did you ever have any issues with samples and memory usage? I would load my own custom samples (2-5 seconds) but they would sometimes use upwards of 10+ percent of my project memory. I'll try a different SD card
@@Antonio_Ortiz I think you can load up to 6 minutes mono or 3 minutes stereo samples, so if you are loading multiple samples at once that sounds like normal behavior. It's only really an issue if you want more than the max to be loaded.
@@radfaraf Yeah, I'm aware. Here's my issue:
3 minutes of stereo samples is 180 seconds.
5% of 180 seconds is 9 seconds.
I load my own samples that are no more than 3-5 seconds and yet it sometimes uses upwards of 10+ percent (per *one* sample).
I could say that perhaps the sample rate of my samples might be influencing how much memory is used, but, I believe all samples taken from the SD card are converted to 44.1 wavs anyway, so that shouldn't matter anyways.
I am willing to concede that if Polyend has something written or communicated that explains this, I'll accept it as something already addressed. But I have yet to see it.
I'll continue with the manual and some experiments to see if the issue can be resolved or explained.
@@Antonio_Ortiz I would load try loading just short of 3 minutes and see if it lets you, and if it doesn't there is some issue to investigate for sure. I honestly wouldn't have noticed if it seemed inaccurate because it only really matters to me if I can load enough to make something and I haven't ran into the limits causing me an issue except when trying to load excessive amounts where most weren't even going to be used in the track, and in that case I just remove some.
The click is relay protection so there isn’t a thump through the outputs to your speakers/headphones. This is a good thing, the tracker mk1 didn’t have this safeguard
Good to know! Thank you
this. RME and other some other high-end interfaces have this too.
exactly Man, tracker OG is doing same noise
It seem like most of us have polyend minus
im really happy with my OG Play. No crashes. Only lags at loading and loading samples.
don't need the limited synth engines with limited interface, since I have other gear.
Happy to hear the OG is working well for you!
Your shift + select way to select the sound to figure out what it is can be done in a slightly simpler way. Press and hold for like 1/4th second. That will show you what that one is if the Sample knob is active, click too short and it treats it as delete.
Oh FANTASTIC !! If you make a mistake of 1/100th second of holding the button you DELETE.
WTF? Terrible design
@@1980VINZ yes but there is also undo. In practice I pretty much never accidentally delete because only really quick presses delete and once you know what it does you can adjust.
I can confirm that my Play+ also crashes frequently. Sometimes it freezes on the first sample I load. The load progress screen is shown but the bar does not advance and no buttons react. You can’t leave the screen. The file system needs attention to make it robust. Polyend, please fix this instability. Also, add way to read full file name if it’s longer than the screen width (scroll name). BPMs are often at the end of the file name so I can’t read it from the disk. You have to arrange your samples on the SD: rename, separate into folders, etc., before you can use them because the hardware will not show you the full file name. Polyend please reconsider any workflow that necessitates working on a computer to organize samples. The point of hardware is to do the work away from the computer. These are mostly file system issues so I hope that Polyend focuses attention there first. I know they have new synths coming but I think the stability and usability issues are more important.
Does this still happen with the latest 1.0.1 firmware?
There were two people on the online forums that reported very similar sounding severe issues, and the fix was using a new SD card. Also people need to report these bugs on the forums, I reported a few, but have not ran into a crashing one, or seen one posted, so how can they fix it if possibly they don't know about it, or are mistaken about the number of people it is happening to when people don't report.
I have a feeling they’ll hear about my issues from this video
I own two Polyend Plays - one for me and one I bought for my brother. All problems, glitches, crashes you mentioned happened to us multiple times. Once the sd card of my brother's play got corrupted (somehow) and its internal folder structure was completely messed up; we had to format and restore the initial data on it with a computer. I had multiple crashes, freezed knobs that couldn't be changed until you restarted the device, values that changed on their own... very often some of the touch knobs switched as if they got touched - even though they didn't got touched. We left the Plays laying on the table and occasionally this would happen repeatedly to both devices. Some performance effects got "stuck" until the device got restarted. Some knobs can be turned to invalid values in specific circumstances (while multiple steps are selected). When using the praised fill feature for Kick/Snare/Hat preset patterns, the used samples won't respect the undo function, so you can't go back to a sample set but only generate "forward" new random sets of your Kick/Snare/Hat samples. Most of the performance Reorder functions (green) make the track only play the first note repeatedly, if that track has a slower playback speed than 100%... I gave it a try... Often... I really wanted to like the Polyend Play... But again and again and again it led to frustration about preventable shortcomings, problems, bugs,... It just feels not good designed the deeper and more serious you dive into it - in terms of Workflow, Control and UX. Also you have to go crossed-armed for a lot of functions - it wasn't pleasant to work with for longer (unergonomic and tedious/tensing gestures/finger-strains). And in the end they took away the ability to sell it for something what would be worth the effort, by making the upgrade to the better internal board overall as expensive as a new unit (you even have to pay for shipping and tax and everything yourself + the better chip, which should cost a fraction of that price, if you know a thing or two about electronics and chips). Overall and in the end I really wanted to like it but am disappointed with it. Looking forward to buying a Deluge - and some day a Reliq to unify all my hardware.
I’m sorry you had to deal with all those headaches!
I don't have any problem with mine, but I have the first version. It has some really nice features, I love this machine
Glad to hear it! I’ve heard the original is much more stable
I upgraded my play to a play plus when the option was given. The unit I got was horribly buggy and crashed a lot and features were missing.
I updated the firmware to the 1.0.1 beta and it went from unreliable and frustrating as hell to just a little jank.
Make sure you update your firmware and it's much more usable
That’s good to hear! Like I said in the video I don’t review anything based on beta software but I’m glad it’s getting better!
Yeah. I think it's good for for people that already have one to know though. I don't know why they shipped it with that awful firmware in it; other demos I've seen on TH-cam def had the newer firmware on it. It still does weird things from time to time, but holy cow is it better
@slackalopeYT very good point!
I have a tracker mini & it has been solid so far, had it for a few weeks but really using it for beats with an occasional melodic sample. I can’t say that I’ve pushed it to its limits but I like it a lot.
That’s good to hear! I’m glad it’s working for you!
These hardware companies can't fix the glitches if people aren't reviewing them. Don't feel like your burning a bridge. Right now there's someone sitting in a closet at that company fixing the issues and you've saved someone from running out and realized they've made a mistake.
I've had the Play for a week now with no glitches, crashing/freezing or long waits for launching projects.
Play or Plus? I've only heard of these issues on the Plus
I have the Play +@@DylanParisMusic
Thank you!! Even loopop said that the didn’t add features they promised from the play.
It’s underdeveloped. Just like the play was. And I don’t want to pay for a product that needs multiple firmware updates to be fully functioning again in the future. I will not upgrade. I will keep my play and use it once in a while.
The bad trend for software and boutique hardware is releasing unfinished products and letting reviewers, beta testers, and end users complete their R & D.
An 800 or 900 $ groovebox should be a finished product. 👍🏻
damn I really appreciate this video bro. Play has been next up on my list as soon as I can afford it since release, now replaced with Play Plus, and this is one of the most genuine videos I've seen talking about the downsides. hope Polyend sees this.
Seams like the tracker is better when researching both of these. These companies need to stop trying to use us as beta testers all while paying for the product. Don’t release shit until it’s READY to release. This music thing isn’t just a hobby for a lot of us it’s our lives and we EXPECT a certain level of professionalism and dependability out of a product
No doubt. Honestly I don’t go for any company who obviously makes their products lose value like this cuz it shows a lack of respect for their customers. Gear should last and it should hold its value , certainly shouldn’t lose value on purpose. But when it comes to Trackers I would have to stick with Renoise for now, then when they get it ironed out I be getting on that stand alone hardware Renoise! The community makes it even more of a bargain.
Used in live performances no glitches or crashes… mine is the original
That’s good to hear! Sounds like most folks had a smoother time with the original, hope they can get any glitches on this one patched out
I bought the original about a month before the plus came out and I’ve had the same experience. I think the longest I’ve managed to use it without a crash is about 5 minutes. It’s just feels completely unfinished and unusable. This is the main reason I was pissed when they announced the plus, they’ve not even managed to make the original work properly yet.
I bought the original play about two months ago and I have been using it without any problems so far. I think the original after fw 1.4 has matured to a stable product. Perhaps your particular unit is defective. Just send it back while its still under warranty.
Thank you so much! I was so close to buying one...!!
Worth doing research to see if they’ve gotten any better but it was definitely rough when I tried it
Thank you for mentioning how quiet the synths are compared to the samples. This drives me absolutely insane. I know you can change the gain for each synth but I don't understand why they're like that.
I think they have a reason for that. If you begin to stack chords it may be clipping easily Select all sample channels and lower it's gain to the same level as the synths. Use that project as template.
I have a Medusa, tracker og and play. It’s embarrassing for polyend to say this is the device they wanted to make. Instead of an upgrade I bought a used mc707 for £50 more, and I have no regrets. Polyend have a lot of software improvements to make this work. It’s worrying to think they are trying to support OG trackers, tracker minis, OG play and the beta play plus. Somethings gonna give, and that will leave a bunch of customers disappointed.
I sold my MC707 a few years ago and it's probably my biggest gear sale regret. What an underrated piece of kit, I hope it's treating you well!
The MC707 is crazy powerful and sound fking good.
My brother bought one and I have to say I’m very impressed by what he’s capable to do with.
And more than that, HE NEVER STOPS TO USE IT, he is having a ton of fun with it.
But he had to learn first. He paid a printing company to have a proper paper manual, learned and now he’s enjoying a ton since months.
@@1980VINZso much menu diving on the mc707, but I reckon that if you spend a tons of time on it, to learn the work flow, it might be hell of a device with a strong sample data a'd great sounds on board.
I also found the song mode quite tricky and unclear.
But all in all in few weeks, at my really noob level, I've been able to make some nice work a'd little so'gs on it.
I have to say that, even if I really like my OG Tracker. With is a better match for my brain on the work flow side and also with what I think is a way better song mode compare to the 707...
Inadmit that a part of me is missing the 707..
I might look around some day to get one back and dedicate the time needed to make good out of it.
For now I'm really happy with the og tracker and I even think about having the mini to get the portable Holliday travel version to play around.
I also have the opportunity of having an OG Play.. But I'm not sure about that one... Even if it would be to use it quite light without importing samples and the likes..
But to use it for the smooth work flow and coupled it with my OG tracker.
For what I've seen on the comment.
The OG play looks much more stable than the play+
(as lo'g as you did not ouch it too hard by loading tons of samples)
(that basically how I crashed my OG tracker, by trying to upload bunch of samples on it. I had to reset and reinstall the all firmware.. That the only time I had trouble with my OG tracker tho)
So I feel like those device should just be used for Hat they are. And probably not to import tons of sampled on them.
Wich I agree.. Is a bit of a shame for the price.
Cheers from belgium
You own 3 polyend products…so do I , I can confirm even medusa on version 4 was far from a decent product…polyend = Great ideas poor execution, wonder why I’m on product #3 already…
But Benn Jordan and Venus Theory LOVE Polyend and the Play+. They're definitely NOT shills, so there must be some thing we are failing to understand here.
Pretty obvious to me that some units will have bad hardware when you sell enough devices, so people with working ones like myself will have vastly different experiences with people with broken ones that should have been RMAed, but didn't bother trying to.
@@radfaraf Yeah fair enough. I’m just not happy about spending $1230 on a device thats only $899, but I did it anyway because its the superior device so I went through with the trade in. Plus Benn Jordan is a douchebag so generally just dont like him.
You could have a lemon as well? I’ve had weird glitches that seemed like software and ended up just being a hardware problem. Did you try a swap before making the video?
A way of automagically creating the sample folders would be nice.
I’ve never had issues with my OG Play. It’s a midi beast and such a bargain at the price it is selling.
I do think you weren’t able to actually use the device to assess it properly and that’s a bummer.
I’ve talked to some other homies in the TH-cam space who have the same issue, and some of the bugs are still noted as existing on the release notes for 1.1 so I don’t think it’s a lemon at this point or there’s a lot of lemons
@@DylanParisMusic That's unfortunate. I guess it's good I delayed upgrading. PE is usually pretty good at updating, so hopefully, it improves before the update is available again. I do love the OG Tracker and the Mini. Some of my favorite gear.
The Play/Play+ is probably my favourite device I’ve ever owned, I just honestly think they marketed it wrong.
It’s by far the most intuitive IDM and experimental music sequencer on the market.
Yeah, if you’re just loading the stock sample packs and hitting beat fill you’re definitely not getting the most out of it.
But it has incredible randomization options, Euclidean sequencing, dozens of different retrigger styles, probability, and performance effects. The folder system is amazing for auditioning and varying up your beats in a way that perfectly fits a lot of electronica styles of music: there’s a reason all the presets are named after AFX, BoC, and Autechre songs.
A few of your comments here just sounded like you were coming at it expecting something more like a production workflow (specific tracks for kick/snare/hats, EQing for a professional mix) rather than a weird generative drum and synth box.
So yeah. Incredible device, but mismarketed, I think.
The 1.0.0 firmware it shipped with was a bit buggy for sure, but the 1.0.1 beta is definitely more stable and I never really had a problem with the OG Play.
Sounds like you’ve had a different experience with it which is cool too! The amount of bugs and crashes I’ve seen and that even happened while filming this are worth noting for potential buyers. I’m glad a beta is looking better and I hope they can iron out all the issues.
I've played with the play and while it excels in generative aspects of IDM it is definitely not as robust as the elektron sequencer, just faster to achieve a specific (uncontrolled) result. really fun device tho
Have to agree with the OP: have not had stability issues or the speed issues, so I think I’m a “light” user but I’m also using it very differently from this reviewer. But it makes me nervous now :)
OT is superior
I suspect that bad sd cards probably play a big role in crashes that's not an uncommon cause for crashes with other devices. I also have found the feature that creates rhe distinction between a sampler and a sample player to be kind of wasted on me. Because I much prefer a sampling directly into my daw and pre-processing samples in my daw add organizing sample folders on my computer because it's just faster at the organization process. Also with the daw you have way more granular precision for sound sculpting for sample shaping. I am kind of looking into getting the play plus know about his shortcomings also before making a decision I mean this is like over a half a year later, and like a lot of your complaints with the lack of direct sampling and the only having three synth engines things that aren't things that I see as negatives. I basically want it to be my midi sequencer sample player/sequencer. Play still need to figure out where it's at currently I would imagine that by now the vast majority of The originals functionality should be implemented with this version. I mean otherwise I may get the original one.
glad I stumbled on this. I was bummed out when they ditched the play and its users, but was thinking maybe I'll upgrade just b/c of the potential, but it seems like it's still flawed. I don't wanna pay that much money to upgrade for something this fickle lol
i see no controversy. Maybe a bit too dramatic. It's a great device ad it is not a sampler. Have you tried chance/ramdomize? This is where this machine really shines.
Never pay $800 for a randomizer with no audio input capture😂
Polyend gave me a great deal on a refurbished play a while ago, but a lot of the workflow things you've talked about are things that I think are intentional. (I don't like them either, to be frank.) It sucks to hear that there are a bunch of play+ bugs - I didn't get hit by any when I was using the play, but I just didn't enjoy the process of using it at all even when it did work. Some of the effects can't be used on a per-track basis - for instance sometimes I want to loop individual tracks instead of the entire track and that's just impossible because of reasons? And there's no ability to record the effects you can use in Perform Mode (supposedly according to polyend due to technical reasons so ... maybe they'll change that in the play+), which makes using the effects in recorded music feel impossible.
Those limitations felt very arbitrary and took the immediacy out of using it, and having a half-decent randomization tool didn't help that process at all. And I have no idea how "adding stereo samples and built-in synths" is supposed to help any of that.
Anyone considering the Play should look into the Deluge - especially since it's gone open source. Its absolutely amazing, and in my opinion crushes the Play and Play Plus - even though the Deluge has been around for years now.
it looks amazing, price is pretty high now but people seem very happy with it! I am tempted to try one someday but is hard to justify buying full price with the other devices I already own
@@DylanParisMusic yeah, it is expensive (Synthstrom being a very small company, smaller than Polyend even, drives the price up I think - but it's got built in sampling, built in mic and speaker, runs on battery with very good battery life). Also, you are right, for your case, you already have gear that can achieve similar functionality.
It's by no means a perfect groovebox either, but the sequencer is really awesome, and I personally find it very quick to use - opening a song on Deluge is INSTANT, samples are streamed from SD card, so there is no loading or saving time for anything really. It's also instant to turn on.
If I was considering the Play Plus, I'd definitely look deeper into the Deluge, I personally think it's worth the extra cost. But hey, all these things are luxury items, and really, we don't need ANY of this hardware!
Great video by the way. You'll get a strong following by keeping your channel honest - it's hard to find trustworthy channels that are open to really discuss the flaws of a device... If we gotta pay so much money for this stuff, it's pretty insulting that companies launch incomplete products on us!
Yeah … it only cost $500 more bucks
@@drwalka10 I always forget about the recent price increase. I got mine years ago when it was more affordable. It's worth the extra cost though in my opinion - it's a super flexible device, and now that it's Open Source, nothing comes close. If I couldn't afford a Deluge, I'd just keep my money. The Play seems a bit limited IMHO
sorry to admit, i have the polyend play original, it doesnt crash. however, i dont push it to such a high level, and dont make full songs on it. but i still love it. its fun for a groove if i get writers block, and it should be marketed as a groovebox because its definitely not a sampler. when i get serious i still go to my mpc.
i dont feel as mad about the price drop of the original because i got a good deal on it (630usd) a yr ago.
so in your position,... glitches get stitches. unfortunate man, sorry.
I’m glad that the original is treating you well and that you got a good deal on it!
I have the OG play and did encounter a lot of crashes, glitches, freezes, also some weird bugs when paired to an external controller. When it works it is awesome, but this is a device that CANNOT be trusted and that is the worst a music device could be.
must be defective. Never experienced anything like that
@@TheCakeAtWood I will never know, sold it and never touching other Polyend product 🙃. Good luck with yours!!
I am stuck on the Synthstrom Deluge. This thing is just beyond, and it seems like Polyend has been trying to catch up ever since they saw it...
Deluge looks rad! There’s a lot of overlap with other gear I have so it’s hard to justify the price but a lot of people love it!
The deluge is the dogs bollocks. Great for generating long evolving sequences, then internally resampling and going half speed ambient stuff ..
This isn't negativity this is valid criticism. Don't feel bad or guilty. We need MORE critical takes to inspire progress. How can the problems be fixed if we dont talk about them?
I’ve own several Polyend products and they’ve all come out buggy and the bugs never get 100% sorted out. I’d the Polyend Play Plus was the product they wanted to release all along perhaps they shouldn’t have charged people $800 when the original wasn’t worth that much to begin with (new one isn’t worth it either, if we’re being honest… it’s a $100 midi controller with a $50 chipset in it).
I won’t ever support Polyend again. Stick with Elektron if you want quality products.
I thought about upgrading my Polyend Play to a plus, But £400 and postage(about £50), so £450 give or take a tenner and god knows how long it will take until I get it back🤔. BUT I came across an advert for the silver edition of the tracker for £489 inc postage! So Guess what, I ordered the tracker even though I already own the Tracker mini. £450 for what will always seem to me like what should have been a free upgrade VS a brand new sparkling box of tricks, NO CONTEST 🤣and your review confirmed that I made the right decision.❤❤❤❤❤❤😎😎
Hi,
How happy are you with the OG play?
And have you tried project used both devices together?
Cheers.
These devices should be explored on its strengths, the sequencer is where this and the original play shine. That alone is why I would choose the OG play over the plus.
I’m not sure I understand this comment. I tried to use this device as designed and it consistently had major issues.
I’m not going to not talk about major issues if they show up
@@DylanParisMusic it’s a great video and stuff like this needs to addressed and brought to peoples attention. But with nothing good to say about a product can sway people might never give it a second thought again. To me this device the sample play back is secondary and the sequencer is first. I just believe in the product here. That’s all. Much appreciate your videos especially the ones on the force!
I hear you! Thanks for watching and sharing your thoughts! I think there’s a lot of positive videos about the Play so hopefully they balance out some of my experience. I also hope Polyend is able to fix the Plus because with enough changes it could be a winner potentially
Happy I got the circuit rhythm & tracks combo
That sounds like a rad combo!
You can preview sound pushing on data knob and pad on the grid.
That click on statup - i was scaried that my OG is dyeing...
Solid! I think my big thing is there’s no way to look at a track of white dots, especially a project you haven’t worked on in a while, and have any sense of what any of the sounds are without pausing the track and pad by pad checking sample name or auditioning like that.
@@DylanParisMusic It's same for Deluge... At least Play have only 8 tracks =)
Oh man, good to know haha
Lot of people on reddit are also talking about polyend as a company has serious issues. Some have said they have returned their units multiple times and the customer service people give others an attitude. Sounds like maybe they are selling a good looking device and not an instrument for serious musicians. So it's not just you. A lot of people have had issues with polyend products and the service with it. Seems the company is still working things out. Hopefully they get better over time. I think they are one of the most innovative companies out there right now. But they need to fix some shit.
Im not a fanboy of Polyend but Play + isbvery very well designed. Its a sample recorder, you know it when you bought it.
It has enough memory to make an entire set. If you know how to program synths you have enough with the 3 synth engines and three patches.
I'm with you with the payment of 400 for upgrade. Mine haven't crashed one single time. It's an awesome device to make music.
If you are easily scared do NOT watch 12:59 ha ha ha great talk Dylan.
hahaha apologies, thanks for watching!
Thx for the reality check. Sometimes hard to see with all the hype channels what using the device is actually like for a normal person.
thanks for watching!
Bloody superb review. Wish certain others would be as honest as your good self.
Appreciate the kind words! 🙏😎
That fact it can't do any of the randomization features as the og unit cause it's limited to one synth voice and the way they did there own community after 1 short yr just kinda left a bad taste in my mouth, but i never used either device. But had i been a og play user i think i would be salty about it and the upgrade price spend over 1k and ship my device to get a device upgrade a new user can get for 800. And why can't it sample line in when the tracker can it's weird to me the main draw is the randomisation feat and performance features so sad it can't fully do that og unit can and price dropped but had ya been able to sample line in and chop then we would be talking like a upgraded tracker .
Yeah honestly I didn’t even get super into the synth engines in this video but they feel sort of tacked on. Other videos have mentioned it but the knob labels are not super helpful for the synths and sound design is the definition of menu diving for each engine which feels antithetical to the rest of the device
yeah to menu dive every parameter change had to be a fun one @@DylanParisMusic
The 1.01 firmware is out of beta. I wonder how many of the issues you had are fixed now.
I'm glad they put that out, I hope it fixes all the issues others and myself are having, still can't believe they released this thing in this state.
This is a very serious video. First thanks for making it. 2nd are you 100% your claims are not related to SD cards, corrupted or incorrect files?
I’m confident the files are okay cause they’re all samples I use on tons of devices, it could be the sd card but that would still be damning cause they chose this sd card to ship with it
Please consider that others who have replaced the original polyend card fixed these issues and Device s have different ways of reading files, I've had units that are sensitive to the number of characters in the name, or being too short.. this video is not fair to Polyend and only a half truth if you don't put in to effort and try other cards. Thanks!
@@PlayBackRate if it’s unfair to review a unit as it’s shipped, and making it potentially work requires spending additional money for the consumer, I’m gonna have to disagree
@@DylanParisMusic The world isn't perfect, Polyend sells a ton of these and initial test likey don't include long loading sessions, please understand they need to order cards in large quantities and quality QC resources have many levels .. things can go wrong in/ from manufacturing to supply to shipping, from condition's to human errors.
And if you are Ok to excuse yourself from doing a little test to find out, then you are just another broken link in the QC chain or just don't care about the instrument.. and ironically complaining about the same standard you yourself are embracing..
Is that fair to potential buyers Polyend or yourself? Be the change you want to see in the world 😉✌️
@user-fs3uu1br2q other commenters have replaced their cards and still had major issues. I totally understand wanting to help the company and thinking this is the way to do it, but I made a video reflective of the experiences I had as a user. If they want to be the change they should update the firmware and change the issues a huge amount of people are having on a device that costs 800 dollars
maybe they can make it open source?
This was supposed to be the hardware they wanted to create before the supply shortages. And it has hardly enough memory or power to make use of its features?
Hard to say honestly. I’ll concede that every single product ever made is a balance between cost and desired feature set, but for me personally this one feels like it needed another year in the oven to make it more cohesive. I’m pretty sure not every sample pack takes most of the ram, and you can clear unused samples, but especially during the track creation process you want access to as many of those samples in a single project as possible before you clear out the unused ones. For 800 this feels off to me.
At its price point, why would anyone want to have this over Deluge, MPC One, Elekron or Roland stuff? This device has always felt like it is 400 euros max, not 700+. I would rather get Model Samples.
Thats a great honest review
I think, this device is far to innovative, thats why people cant deal with it. The play (and most of the polyend stuff) is so different from the normal "same s*** in new cloth" stuff. And lets face it, people making music are often not the most clever guys on the planet ;-)
Ah yeah, the “this guy disagrees with my opinion and despite sharing literal realtime examples of real issues and having covered this area of tech weekly for over 3 years is just an idiot” argument
I hope they send you a free one 😎
This comment was especially funny to receive after I updated the plus to the new release 1.1, made a rad sketch, tried to save it and the save button just started taking me to the sample start tab and wouldn’t let me save: innovation baby
@@DylanParisMusic Sorry, not directly pointed at you. Its more a general theme. What an interesting synth the medusa was and people simply ignored it because they could not deal with a new concept. Funny that the tracker worked, because it was an old concept „Oh, tracker, I have done that in my childhood, I buy it“.
Sadly thats why will not see not many fresh ideas.
I am not talking about your stability issues, despite my play is working fine.
@ayakkrob1011 I hear you, honestly it seems like people have been pretty receptive to the play though? I wouldn’t say the tracker or the play have been flops? My glitches aside it seems like people like the play it’s just frustrating for some of them that the plus came out so soon and dropped the value of the original
Gald you went to the effort to make this video, it's good for consumer's to have a more reviews/examples of devices failing.
Thanks for watching and for the kind words. I definitely never try to go out of my way to trash gear but this one was a big disappointment
Polyend, so much promise but never delivers!
It does make for a sensational drum machine, but that’s it for me. I don’t like it for sequencing midi or anything melodic really.
What you all want is a Deluge.
Can’t stand this beta level release product culture anymore 🤦♂️
It’s a bummer to see it in this state honestly
It really does seem like the polyend way is to release things before the software is ready, and hope people will deal with it. They rather have the sales come in quicker and get it in the hands of people and work on it over time. But that makes for a bad experience for most unless you're willing to be really understanding.
Yep! Bad industry trend. Wait and wait. Let everyone finish the work
It's our fault that we keep buying the new shiny object. If we had a different attitude, companies should really try their best to make us buy a new instrument.
That's also the reason why in 2023 we still have this underpowered devices that can't do a lot of things. We are the market, not companies. If they can exploit our weaknesses, they will
@doverbeachxyz I’m actually gonna go ahead and say it’s not our fault for being sold a product that should work but doesn’t. I get the general sentiment but no way. This is on the companies not us, and if they keep doing this they will lose future customers whose trust they lost
At first I didn't want to hear this video, but we must all be objective and not just turn a blind eye just because we are fanboys or want to support/forgive a company we like.
While I love it's features, I agree that upgrade path is overpriced, theres tons crashes and bugs and one of it's limitations (the project memory) is inherently frustrating.
I still like the product, and knew I would essentially be beta testing as an early adopter, but if anything, for that amount, at least iron out the basics first.
Even if the sample memory usage was consistent with my custom samples vs. the stock samples, I could forgive the rest of it.
Not salty about my purchase, just annoyed. I'll be patient because it has a lot of potential, but I don't take offense to anyone who can offer constructive criticism and not sugarcoat what will help us all in the long run.
You earned a sub. 👏🏾
I appreciate you watching and I totally hear where you're coming from! Thanks for subscribing as well!
I'm hopeful that Polyend will fix these issues, they're a pretty rad company who makes inventive stuff. I've said it before but the industry is better with them in it.
I've heard others say the sd card might be part of the issue. If that's true I suppose it's a quick fix but also a real shame they'd ship the device with a bad one.
I bought a new SD card, copied the Polyend card directly to it, and it still freezes and crashes.
At least I figured out the sample memory issue: my samples were 192khz and 24-bit. When I exported them as 44.1 and 16-bit, the sample memory usage went down significantly.
I also contacted Polyend customer support for any official advice; been about 3 days, *crickets*
Aw man, that’s a bummer across the board! Glad the sample memory thing at least is helped by lower rates
Unfortunately, i was suckered into buying this device.. i am lucky to have a deluge and its just so good. i thought this was going to be a different flavour of it..oh boy was i wrong..either way the deluge has gone open source and the community firmware is solid..main bus compression is a god send
They need to make a tracker plus that has stereo sampling and it will be better than this thing
Man I would love an improved tracker for sure
Thank you for an accurate review. I was laying my eyes on it recently.
I love Polyend and i love their products but man its getting hard to trust their choices
Agreed, they seem like good folks and they make really interesting stuff. I hope they can turn this weird phase around cause the industry is absolutely better with them in it
Its $800 if you buy it new now. If you're a true sucker like most of us you bought the original Play for $800, then paid $30 to send that back to them and paid an additional $400 for the current version (who knows how long that will last, considering) - so if you're a dumb asshole like me, then congratulations, you paid $1230 for the Play +
I mean it's pretty commonly suggested in many synth communities to wait at least a year if not two to buy any synth after it's released. First of all you don't know whether it could turn out to be abandonware, and they can promise the moon and never deliver. The only guarantee you have about a product is what it is currently capable of when you pay the money for it
@@donnydarko7624 Commonly suggested, rarely followed
After all the Bs everyone has been through and the godamned release fiasco, Not only will I not buy this unit, but I will never support polyend ever… which is a bummer because i really wanted this to be a great maker
Disagree :)
Are you not experiencing any of the glitches myself an others have seen? Cause if not, fair enough!
@@DylanParisMusic zero issues so far, maybe your approach and trying to use it may be different than my experience
Possible! I’d have to imagine if every unit had the issues myself and others have they wouldn’t have shipped them, so it would make sense that some people wouldn’t have issues. Even the Xbox 360 red ring of death only affected about 30ish percent of users at the time.
@@DylanParisMusic one more thing, 1.0.1 is on their page, click on downloads then play+, it's got a huge list of changes
I have a pinned comment about it but I did update to that and it didn’t resolve it
You don't release a device that doesn't work. Can't for the life of me understand why you would release a product that doesn't work. Talk about shooting yourself in the head. There is a difference between a company that pioneers and one that releases crap that simply doesn't work... expecting their customers to debug it for them. I get paid for doing work. I'm not an influencer you can offer $150 for a few videos. Not doing it. No way.
Your take on generative music making is bitchy. Hating on other processes is weirdo behavior and I don't want that for you. Repeating the same formulaic patterns(maybe drums was the worse example for this take? idk) may make you yourself feel more connected to the music, but that doesn't make it or other processes lesser.
I hear you, I do feel like it’s a bit weird to have prebuilt samples and prebuilt patterns and then be like “I made this thing” but I can own having an ‘old head’ take on this and if someone doesn’t like how I feel about it they can definitely ignore it cause I’m just a random dude on the internet.
Personally I think there are maybe some interesting applications for generative art but given the massive amounts of resources for premade stuff already it feels less than ideal to throw computers that make the whole song for you out in the world. Again just my feeling though if you feel differently I get it
@@DylanParisMusic The weirdo shit is not about your opinion on the matter it's you belittling other processes. I know I can ignore your opinion, but thanks for the reassurance lol? If you don't welcome discourse here then lmk.