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Polyend releases super-flexible sample and MIDI groovebox. The company’s new sample- and MIDI-based groovebox could be more to your tastes.

Play promises to be easy to use yet deceptively deep

Promising an ‘open sandbox’ approach to playing, performing and sequencing, this includes more than 30 sample kits to start jamming with right away, and offers eight audio tracks and eight polyphonic MIDI tracks. So, as well as being a standalone groovebox, it can also serve as a controller for other gear.

Fire up Play mode, choose a sample – more than 3,000 are included – and you can simply place it on the 16×8 step sequencing grid and start making a track. You get familiar controls for your samples, and for each track you can choose one of 35 different play modes.

The Smart Fill option will fill any area you choose with an entire beat, a random placement of steps or a Euclidean spread, while steps, tracks, track pages, variations and patterns can easily be copied and pasted. There’s scale filtering, as well, so only notes within a specific scale are outputted.

In Perform mode, you can make non-destructive changes to your tracks with a number of performance effects. You can record live automation or change individual step values on the fly and record MIDI from an external controller. There’s instant save and recall of patterns, and customisable pattern chaining enables you to map out entire sequences on the grid and perform them live.

Due to each track in Play can have independent length, BPM speed, playback mode and swing values, it should be easy to create polymetric and polyrhythmic sequences. Additionally, there are over 30,000 track variations; each of the 128 patterns can hold up to 16 tracks, with each track holding 16 variations.

As well as the sequencing grid, Play also features a 4×8 control grid for mute, solo, variation, select and keyboard note input. It has a split-screen display with 15 touch-capacitive knobs, and can be powered via USB-C (including from a power bank). In addition to MIDI I/O, you also have a microSD card slot. Users can expect regular firmware updates, as well.

Features:

• Compact standalone workstation, designed to have immediacy and simplicity at its core
• 8 audio tracks and 8 polyphonic MIDI tracks
• 30,000 track variations available, thanks to 128 Patterns holding 16 tracks, with up to 16 variations in each individual track.
• Track Length ranges from one to 64 steps, while each track can also benefit from different BPM-related Tempo, and even Swing values, as well as various types of playback.
• Control external synths and drum machines on individual tracks, with the ability to output a separate set of MIDI values per track.
• Flexible MIDI CC mapping per track for its individual rotary knobs, so users can connect an external controller for MIDI note input. It is possible to output chords, arpeggios, program and bank changes, pitch bend, clock, and more.
• 16×8 step sequencing grid
• Algorithmic or percentage-based probability
• Randomize
• Step Repeater (capable of making short stutters, pitch effects, volume fades, and more).
• Smart Fill tool
• Simple Select, Copy, and Paste controls make moving data — steps, tracks, track pages, variations — easy.
• Scale filtering to force Play to input and output only notes that fit the selected scale.
• Play’s Perform mode makes non-destructive changes to tracks via performance effects, including Filter Cutoff, Resonance, Microtune, Overdrive, and more.
• Master FX, including delay, limiter, reverb, saturator, and sound enhancer
• Live record automation (using the onscreen Live Rec button) or change individual step values on the fly
• Record monophonic or polyphonic MIDI data (using the Note knob, the View controller function, or an external controller).
• Customizable chaining of Patterns permit mapping out entire sequences anywhere on the grid for live performance,.
• Save and Reset patterns

The Polyend Play is available to preorder, priced at €799.00/$799.00 and will be shipping in July.

Find out more on the Polyend website

Behringer shared a sneak preview and audio demo for their upcoming Model-15 semi-modular Eurorack synthesizer.

The Behringer Model 15 copies the design of the Moog Grandmother and translates it into Eurorack format.

Behringer Model 15 features dual oscillators with 4 waveforms, oscillator sync, pulse-width modulation and a sub-oscillator. Other features include a step sequencer, allowing for 3 separate, 256-step memory slots, key transpose and multiple playback modes.

In addition, the synth features a spring reverb emulation, 48 points for modular connectivity, integration with external equipment and 37 controls for real-time access to key parameters.

No release date for the Behringer Model 15 has been announced. The company says that, “As soon as we receive the chips required to put this into production, MODEL-15 will ship immediately.” Pricing is expected to be about $329

Eventide Misha is a Eurorack-compatible interval-based instrument and sequencer that promises nothing less than “a new way to make music”.

At Superbooth 2022: As we are used to seeing Eventide announcing plugins and guitar pedals, but Misha is something else.

Misha is designed to be played like a keyboard instrument, but the ‘interval’ angle and demo video above indicate that there’s something else going on, too. You can make sound via MIDI, control voltage or outputting waveforms with the audio jack, and there are external control templates for MIDI and QWERTY keyboards.

100 scales are supplied as standard, and there are slots for up to 100 user/custom scales. Scala support is here too.

The tone row-based sequencer is inspired by the compositional technique used in serial music, and you can control sequence playback in a variety of ways.

Video via Reverb

Misha  is available for $599. Find out more on the Eventide website