Superbooth 2022: Polyend “Lets Play”, a ‘Sample and MIDI-Based Groovebox’
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
