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Polyend Tracker Standalone Audio Workstation Wavetable Synthesizer & Sequencer

$359
$550.00
+ Free Shipping
+21 Deal Score
14,389 Views
Sweetwater Audio has Polyend Tracker Standalone Audio Workstation Wavetable Synthesizer & Sequencer for $359. Shipping is free.
  • Note: Includes Sweetwater's Free 2-Year Total Confidence Coverage Warranty
GearNuts via Amazon also has Polyend Tracker Standalone Audio Workstation Wavetable Synthesizer & Sequencer for $359. Shipping is free.

Thanks to community member Selman for finding this deal.
Features:
  • All the essential software tracker elements plus more in a sleek, portable hardware device
  • Large display screen, mechanical buttons, and an intuitive interface
  • Vertical column configuration is an efficient and fun way to compose and arrange
  • Each project allows 48 instruments and 256 patterns with 128 steps per pattern for building massive tracks
  • Upload samples via microSD card or capture them on the unit through its mic and line inputs
  • Includes a radio receiver for grabbing samples off the airwaves
  • Manipulate samples in limitless ways with pitch-shifting, envelope generators, filters, one-shot, reverse, and ping-pong modes, and reverb
  • Wavetable and granular synthesis offer deep sound design capabilities
  • Performance features let you take the Polyend Tracker live
  • MIDI-equipped to sequence hardware devices or to receive MIDI commands from your DAW or an external MIDI controller
  • Export projects to a microSD card as master stereo tracks or stems
  • USB bus-powered
Includes:
  • Polyend Tracker
  • USB‑A power adapter
  • USB-C cable (2 m)
  • 3.5 mm to 2x 6.3 mm adapter
  • Minijack to MIDI DIN adapter
  • 16GB MicroSD Card
  • MicroSD to USB-A Adapter
  • Manual

Editor's Notes & Price Research

Written by
  • About this deal:
  • About this product:
    • 4.6 out of 5 stars rating at Amazon based on over 50 customer reviews
  • About this store:
    • Seller GearNuts has a 88% positive rating in the last 12 months with over 15930 lifetime feedback.
    • Don't have Amazon Prime? Students can get a free 6-Month Amazon Prime trial with free 2-day shipping, unlimited video streaming & more.
    • If you're not a student, there's also a free 1-Month Amazon Prime trial available.
  • Additional Note:
    • Please see the original post for additional details & give the WIKI and additional forum comments a read for helpful discussion.
Good Deal?

Original Post

Written by
Edited April 24, 2024 at 07:21 PM by
The Polyend Tracker is back at $359. You can get it for this price at Amazon too, but you get a little bag of candy from Sweetwater which sweetens the deal. Sorry.
  • Type:Sampler with Sequencer and Wavetable Synthesizer
  • Internal Sound Engine:Wavetable Synthesis, Granular Synthesis
  • Screen:7" LCD Screen
  • Pads:48 x Backlit Silicone Pads
  • Sounds:4,000 Preloaded Samples
  • Polyphony:8-voice recording
  • Sequencer:8-track, 256 Patterns, 128 Steps per Pattern
  • Sampling:2 minute Sampling, 1-shot, Forward, Backward, Ping-pong, Automatic Slicing
  • Effects:Normalizer, Reverse, Overdrive, Delay, Bitcrusher, Chorus, Flanger, 3-band EQ, Compressor, WT Smoother, Timestretch and more

https://www.sweetwater.com/c643--...&catrollup
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Created 04-24-2024 at 07:03 PM by Selman
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$359
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Featured Comments

I'd say this is not accurate at all. There are some great people at Sweetwater. Daniel Fisher alone is one of the most important people in the synth community in my opinion due to his very thoughtful demos. Amazon does nothing for customer education. Amazon doesn't weigh and photograph individual instruments.

I've been a Sweetwater customer for years. I've got a single phone call, not directly related to an order, from my sales rep in this time. He knows I don't engage, so he leaves me alone. I'm very happy with everything, every time. If you can buy from a smaller music shop, do it, but saying Sweetwater is the same as Amazon isn't true.
I bought one of these from The Midium (great small retailer) for the same price last time they were all on sale for $360. I don't remember if they send candy but they did send a handwritten thank you.

This is a fun device but I haven't put enough time in yet to really be productive with it. I've also seen people selling these locally for less recently, and the Tracker Mini for a similar price. The Dirtywave M8 is under $500 used these days, and is preferred by many people (check out Red Means Recording on YouTube).

My comment from the last post:

A tracker is like making music in a spreadsheet filled with hexadecimal codes, which is pretty obscure at first glance.

However, plenty of kids started making music on tracker programs in the 90s, so there have been beginners who found success with a similar interface. It probably depends on how your brain works. One advantage of the interface is that a lot of information is visible on the main page, once you understand what you're looking at.

I'd recommend watching this video to get a sense of how it works but remember that Loopop has years of music production experience, and you won't be able to make stuff that sounds nearly as good without lots of practice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQufJBVvAtY
(Watch up to 5:04, then skip to watch 42:50 until the end, then watch the middle if you're still interested)

Another good tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXu5254ayIM

You can also download a demo for Renoise, which has a similar interface although it's more powerful and probably a bit harder to learn. https://www.renoise.com/

If you're interested in a groovebox (an all-in-one hardware device that can make beats and melodies, i.e. a full track) like this, I'd consider the Novation Circuit Tracks for a similar price. The Roland MC-101 might also be good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aq3yveNXnQs
I found it very easy to use. I made a song without ever watching a video or reading the manual. It was one of the most intuitive devices I've ever used considering the complexity.

It's really cool to create a piece of music, and then throw it in perform mode where you can trigger reverb, delay, bitcrush, and a bunch of other effects on a per track basis and just chill. I've got tons of instruments to mess with when I want to play, but the more passive style of this is really chill to use in bed getting ready to sleep.

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Joined Jul 2009
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zoysiamo
04-25-2024 at 01:31 PM.

Our community has rated this post as helpful. If you agree, why not thank zoysiamo

04-25-2024 at 01:31 PM.
I bought one of these from The Midium (great small retailer) for the same price last time they were all on sale for $360. I don't remember if they send candy but they did send a handwritten thank you.

This is a fun device but I haven't put enough time in yet to really be productive with it. I've also seen people selling these locally for less recently, and the Tracker Mini for a similar price. The Dirtywave M8 is under $500 used these days, and is preferred by many people (check out Red Means Recording on YouTube).

My comment from the last post:

A tracker is like making music in a spreadsheet filled with hexadecimal codes, which is pretty obscure at first glance.

However, plenty of kids started making music on tracker programs in the 90s, so there have been beginners who found success with a similar interface. It probably depends on how your brain works. One advantage of the interface is that a lot of information is visible on the main page, once you understand what you're looking at.

I'd recommend watching this video to get a sense of how it works but remember that Loopop has years of music production experience, and you won't be able to make stuff that sounds nearly as good without lots of practice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQufJBVvAtY
(Watch up to 5:04, then skip to watch 42:50 until the end, then watch the middle if you're still interested)

Another good tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXu5254ayIM

You can also download a demo for Renoise, which has a similar interface although it's more powerful and probably a bit harder to learn. https://www.renoise.com/

If you're interested in a groovebox (an all-in-one hardware device that can make beats and melodies, i.e. a full track) like this, I'd consider the Novation Circuit Tracks for a similar price. The Roland MC-101 might also be good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aq3yveNXnQs
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Joined Jul 2009
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> bubble2 651 Posts
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zoysiamo
04-25-2024 at 01:33 PM.
04-25-2024 at 01:33 PM.
The Midium lists the Polyend Tracker for $340 but it's backordered or special order.

https://themidium.com/products/po...d-sampler?
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Joined Jul 2010
YӨЦЯ FishyΣƧƬ ПIGΉƬMΛЯΣ
> bubble2 3,703 Posts
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Selman
04-25-2024 at 06:42 PM.
04-25-2024 at 06:42 PM.
Quote from thetaco :
FWIW: Sweetwater is as bad as Amazon, if you care... just an investment fund now. But they'll also call and harass you every few months.
I'd say this is not accurate at all. There are some great people at Sweetwater. Daniel Fisher alone is one of the most important people in the synth community in my opinion due to his very thoughtful demos. Amazon does nothing for customer education. Amazon doesn't weigh and photograph individual instruments.

I've been a Sweetwater customer for years. I've got a single phone call, not directly related to an order, from my sales rep in this time. He knows I don't engage, so he leaves me alone. I'm very happy with everything, every time. If you can buy from a smaller music shop, do it, but saying Sweetwater is the same as Amazon isn't true.
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Last edited by Selman April 25, 2024 at 06:49 PM.
Joined Jul 2010
YӨЦЯ FishyΣƧƬ ПIGΉƬMΛЯΣ
> bubble2 3,703 Posts
1,624 Reputation
Original Poster
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Selman
04-25-2024 at 06:45 PM.
04-25-2024 at 06:45 PM.
I found it very easy to use. I made a song without ever watching a video or reading the manual. It was one of the most intuitive devices I've ever used considering the complexity.

It's really cool to create a piece of music, and then throw it in perform mode where you can trigger reverb, delay, bitcrush, and a bunch of other effects on a per track basis and just chill. I've got tons of instruments to mess with when I want to play, but the more passive style of this is really chill to use in bed getting ready to sleep.
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Last edited by Selman April 29, 2024 at 02:55 PM.
Joined Oct 2009
SAHD
> bubble2 43 Posts
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brettjmaxwell
04-26-2024 at 12:29 PM.
04-26-2024 at 12:29 PM.
Quote from Selman :
I'd say this is not accurate at all. There are some great people at Sweetwater. Daniel Fisher alone is one of the most important people in the synth community in my opinion due to his very thoughtful demos. Amazon does nothing for customer education. Amazon doesn't weigh and photograph individual instruments.

I've been a Sweetwater customer for years. I've got a single phone call, not directly related to an order, from my sales rep in this time. He knows I don't engage, so he leaves me alone. I'm very happy with everything, every time. If you can buy from a smaller music shop, do it, but saying Sweetwater is the same as Amazon isn't true.

Totally agree. My sweetwater rep, Cliff, is one of the longest standing relationships I've had in my life. And he still calls me to make sure I don't need anything. How sweet is that?
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Budderbear
04-26-2024 at 02:36 PM.
04-26-2024 at 02:36 PM.
Quote from brettjmaxwell :
Totally agree. My sweetwater rep, Cliff, is one of the longest standing relationships I've had in my life. And he still calls me to make sure I don't need anything. How sweet is that?
Sweet as making a dollar. I like Sweetwater too, but if you think all the after sales calls are because they genuinely like you... Perhaps, but most are just trying to drum up more sales.
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TNFergus
04-26-2024 at 05:05 PM.
04-26-2024 at 05:05 PM.
Quote from thetaco :
FWIW: Sweetwater is as bad as Amazon, if you care... just an investment fund now. But they'll also call and harass you every few months.

Not worth anything TBH.
Sweetwater is great. Very personal touch. My sales agent realized I'm not interested in phone calls so every once in awhile he would email just to touch base.
They don't harass.
Great service, great product, and great payment plans.
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TNFergus
04-26-2024 at 05:10 PM.
04-26-2024 at 05:10 PM.
Quote from Budderbear :
Sweet as making a dollar. I like Sweetwater too, but if you think all the after sales calls are because they genuinely like you... Perhaps, but most are just trying to drum up more sales.

Boy, you're a regular business major, eh? Good catch!

Yes, it's the salespeople who call. Not the shipping dept or the CEO.

They won't call if you don't want them too. My rep emailed.

I haven't heard from him in a couple years.
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air_towel
04-29-2024 at 08:56 AM.

Our community has rated this post as helpful. If you agree, why not thank air_towel

04-29-2024 at 08:56 AM.
This is a very niche piece of hardware, designed out of a nostalgia for tracker-based music production which started way back on the Amiga 500 (even Commodore 64 in a limited fashion). It's clinical and spreadsheet-like. Literally coding music in hexadecimal. And it's the greatest music creation tool I've used in over 15 years. The last time I was this wow'd was when the Waldorf Blofeld came out and you could get up to 16 channels of PPG Wave in a tiny little desktop box. It's not for everyone, but if it's for you, it's *really* for you.

Everything is where it should be, the entire UI makes sense. I owned a Digitone for a little bit and I constantly felt like I was fighting the interface, having to dive in the manual for weeks to get a workflow going. With the Tracker, most guesses I make end up being the function I wanted. Similarly, I tried a headless Dirtywave M8 and while more powerful, the UI is very dense and requires a big time commitment to learn.

Anyone buying should note, Polyend will likely release a Tracker+ at some point with (at least) the feature set of the Tracker Mini, stereo sampling, audio over USB, etc.. They also got some people angry by offering a trade-in program for their Play groovebox ($400 + your old Play for a Play+). But for what you get from a design perspective, $359 is a fantastic price, even if a shiny new one appears on the horizon.

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BostonBatman
04-29-2024 at 11:24 AM.
04-29-2024 at 11:24 AM.
Polyend has a real premium problem where they will DLC-lock features, kind of like you buying a base model car that has the automatic windows disabled unless you pay for the subscription upgrade. They really screwed over early adopters of their flagship synth with the required-trade-in upgrade and have killed their market because of it. Sweetwater has some of the most informed employees of any music hardware group, but they are still marketers at the end of the day, so use a fake phone number when signing up for their mandatory user account to get your receipt and not a lifetime of shilling and cash-grabs.
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kd_thedealman
04-29-2024 at 11:28 AM.
04-29-2024 at 11:28 AM.
I got in on the deal last time too. But I returned the device soon after. This is clearly not a device for those just learning about grove boxes and music making.
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CoralBuffalo1040
04-29-2024 at 11:41 AM.
04-29-2024 at 11:41 AM.
Can I use this to make sick beats?
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