Polyend Tracker+ vs Tracker Mini comparison and review

Didn't know Putin was into DX-7 at a younger age ;-) Don't worry, I'll let myself out...

Main drawback of Polyend trackers for me is that I can’t play live on it without buying, for example, mpk mini. Will be cool to have tracker with piano keyboard integrated or have chromatic mode like in DT/DN/ST 🤔
May be Polyend add such feature to their trackers.

Thanx for a great video. I was looking for a portable groovebox for a long time (Novation Circuit, Roland SP404mk2, Ableton Move). But I think for me Polyend Mini will suits me better as a small portable (batterydriven) box sitting somewhere and sketching some ideas.

I really hate that brushed aluminum aesthetic they used for the Tracker+, it isn't consistent with the other Polyend gear and I just don't like the look of it as much as the clean matte finish on the Mini. I should clarify metal isn't the problem and I love how the Elektron gear looks, I just do not like the brushed aluminum aesthetics.

You should try POLYEND PLAY + it will probably solve all your problems you had with TRACKER+

cool video, nicely explained!
I bought the Polyend tracker as a gamble, I never got any further in a DAW with my music and got overstimulated very quickly in a DAW, since I have the Polyend Tracker I have really made progress in terms of music production I think, it is a really cool way of working, certainly in my case with jungle and drum breaks

I do not agree at all that you must have a vision of the track and then type it in. Although I like to type in sheet music, usually we just start jamming without plan where to go. Using the fill function, randomizers, performance mode for instance you can easily build a track from scratch in an experimental way

I agree with your assessment that potential buyers need to fully grasp: the trackers are fun composition tools that gently induce you to keep returning to tweak a song until it is completely ready. While something like a digitakt is more like an instrument.
I like both approaches and especially, I immediately connected to the tracker as I never did with any other gear. I really like that workflow. In fact i have both, i like to bring the mini along and work more comfortably at home on the +. You can even swap the sd cards to continue working as they are functionally pretty identical.
The mini is more laborious for note entry however I read that you can use a midi keyboard app on an iphone that is connected over usb. Apparently it works better than similar apps on android. Must try that.
I can see improvements for a tracker++ : a few mappable knobs that can be mapped to synths to record as the pattern plays. It is quite cumbersome to record changing parameters now. For me the synths are currently really preset machines, not fun to change the settings. I could also wish for audio processing per track in addition to the currently only 2 simpler fx per step.
And much longer samples.
But really these are fun tools.
For home use i intend to send tracker midi into a freshly arrived roland sh-4d which i plan to use as a multitimbral sound box, and also into a dreadbox hades for fat bass tones; all combined with samples in the tracker.

I have an OG Tracker and I LOVE it. It runs for hours and hours on a power bank, I've never got below 80% even after hours of usage. I sample all my analog gear into it and also use it to sequence external gear, which I then loop back into the Tracker to use the reverb and delay in realtime. I take it all over the place - whilst the kids are at jiu jitsu I'm sitting there making beats :-)

The workflow is incredible for me. It's the sequencer I've clicked most with, maybe because I'm a programmer. I love my Squarp Pyramid and I enjoyed Beatstep Pro, but the Tracker just works for me. There's a few clumsy moments where I wish I had a few extra keyboard shortcuts for shuttling around with copy and paste, but generally it's very smooth once you've got the hang of it.

I bought it off a guy who just couldn't get on with the workflow and he didn't like the way it sounds with changing the pitch of instruments - it sounds fine to my cloth ears though! You can toggle the antialiasing off to get a really old-school sound.

I'd love a Mini and/or a +, but I'm extremely happy just with the OG.

Missing Feature 3: you can only midi control one track at a time on the tracker mini. That for me was the biggest letdown and the reason why I replaced it with a Syntakt. Also, editing synth engine sounds on the tracker mini is a nightmare. I ended up very frustrated with my tracker mini.

Yo dig the video and appreciate your input on both devices. I was flirting with the tracker + to have something more mobile/more buttons but I think i’d rather own the newer DT2 ( eventually ). Also some your gripes you brought up i think also deter me like not having an eq and not as many tracks etc.

Im sure they are great but I think but im happy with my og DT/DN.

Although I used to master the trackers back then on the Amiga, I find the polyend tracker mini to be difficult to use. If they had implemented the exact same interface with same kind of shortcuts, it would have been great.
Now i understand it's much more capable than pro-tracker but I would personally have started replicating pro-tracker with a subset of the shortcuts and then added the synth features with some additional buttons.
I think i'll sell it.
I bought the digitone 2 and this is a hell of a beast. It's really the kind of synth to experiment all kinds of sounds / styles. This is the best machine i had so far these last 5 years

save up and buy the digitakt 2. 😎

I had a Polyend tracker before they added synths. So how does a synth track works regarding playing chords? Do I still need 3 tracks for playing a chord?

I love the mini I still own it but the new dirtywave m8 v2 has got all my attention now
I love the immediacy of the workflow it streams seamlessly straight from the sd card that’s been a game changer .
Both are incredible machines in there own way

Mini lol … I got the OG and now the plus the mini ist a waste…

You don’t to have have a vision with these devices. They are just as capable as elekron devices and i have both elektron and polyend tracker.

Part of me was legit considering the Polyend Tracker mini or Polyend Tracker +, but the workflow just seems not quite there for me compared to what I've heard about the stuff from Elektron, glad I watched this video before I jumped the gun on either of them, but still not 100% against them yet, I do wonder if the MPC One + is similar to the Elektron groove boxes in workflows?

Needs Bluetooth audio out

You have the Tracker+ and the Mini, the only difference between those two devices is the button layout. That’s it. They are exactly the same on the inside, not as far as looks go, but as far as hardware. They are the exact same device just in different form factors.

Great video! Please just to clarify: is it possible to insert a full line of vocals or guitar into the tracker, adding groove on them? Like 2/3 minutes long, just like a daw? Thanks!!

Great review, appreciate the comparison. I kinda disagree with your take on the devices not being ‘exploration friendly’. I’ll explain.

I think the trackers (all trackers really) are fantastic for exploring music IF (and only if) tracking makes more sense to your brain than standard music notation.

I’ve noticed a pattern. People who spend a lot of time with data, IT stuff, Excel and the like see a tracker and it’s an almost effortless way to make music by comparison, while other folks who hate that stuff are like ‘this is cool but I don’t get it’

Tracking was developed for and by people who prefer seeing music in a more linear, untranslated ‘spreadsheet/code’ like fashion.

Everything you are saying about these I find true of most of the more standard grooveboxes everyone else likes. I’ve had a digitakt for years and I understand how it works quite well. I absolutely can’t seem to make a song on it whereas I had like 5 songs my first week of owning the PT. My brain does not like the ‘repetition/beat/tweak on the fly’ thing so many folks on here love to do. It likes full songs, and the tracker format just makes sense whereas classical music format seems needlessly complex and irritating and requires I translate it in my head. The tracker is just how my brain organizes info.

More than any other piece of gear, these trackers work with a certain type of brain, I think. I have known several chiptune artists who live trackers and they’re all like that.

So I’d say it’s great for exploring if you’re that kinda brain type, and bad if you’re not.

But regardless, great review. This helped me land on an upgrade to the mini.

What attracts me to the tracker idea & you touched upon as in ''how to journeys an idea'' (on synth based twiddle units it might be in the sound tweaking'') on the trackers it's more like an experiment of happy accidents that you track together into an arrangement (there are algos that random everything from notes via scales to instruments & step FX this + the frame by frame workflow is a fontain of creativity and often inspire braindance /jungle like rhythm programming.

What you didn't not touch on and I hope you will do so in an alpha video of all these groove boxes in ''vs to vs'' of audio quality: recordings AD/DA, playback pitch algos, filters FX, snappyness and in general envelope behavior, reverb should have a special part and over all fidelity test via spectrum and phase reversal playback.

Just thought Id pass that idea on;) As none has done it comprehensively and your channel is quite fertile both in content and variant of groove boxes.

That Yamaha KX5 throwback footage should just be quietly forgotten, forever.

Tracker music traditionally is made with very short sounds. One way of getting around mixing is to not let long sounds play at the same time. The magic is in the note programming.

I own both the Polyend Tracker+ and a Dirtywave M8. Some of the frustrations you feel have solutions on the M8. M8 has a usable mixer mode, and as of software release 8 they added EQs. They are a bit basic, but they are there and are being improved. Another thing, the M8 community is very active and integrated with development.

A lot of features come from user requests.

You mentioned the difficulty with coming up with ideas from noodling in performance mode. This is one thing that really frustrates me about the Tracker is that you program all 8 tracks in a single pattern. In the M8 you program a pattern per track, and the patterns are portable. The Polyend tracker design is based more on old-school tracker design. Most modern trackers have independent patterns per track. Also there is the concept of "islands" and looping. You can give space between patterns "vertically" on the song grid so you can have these little isolated islands that they loop within where you can experiment with new ideas. And there's a key combo which is nicknames "deep clone" where you can clone a pattern and all its chains into a new pattern you can then modify further without modifying the original. You can reuse patterns on other tracks, which is great because you can fake higher polyphony this way.

And lastly, you mentioned that you feel that the development seems stalled due to the limitations of the hardware. The M8 has a very small processor, it runs on a Teensy microcontroller. And the amount of power and capability the developer flexes into such a meager chip is quite magical.

The downside to the M8 is they are hard to get a hold of. Mk 01s do come up used with not ridiculous prices. They are the same functionality wise as the Mk2, just with a smaller screen smaller battery, and micro-USB instead of USB-C, and it doesn't have a microphone. If you want to try out the M8, you can get a Teensy board, and download the free headless firmware onto one and use one of the web editors as a display. Its a great way to try and find if you like the workflow and features.

You're NOT Beethoven? Now you tell us. I've been watching your channel under false pretenses. (PS nice comparison)

Dude what everybody wants to see is a comparison Tracker+ vs. Machine+. The Tracker mini is an other league.

You have become my favorite music channel, reason number one: You love syntakt as much as I do. Second of all - You like Polyend which is Polish and it is super tempting to me to try their devices :D. Anyway. I'm blown away with what You can do with just the Syntakt. Are You running any courses with it?

Just a small correction: it's up to 8 voices of polyphony (unless i missed a reason why you mention 7)
Anyway - Very nice and very balanced review. Glad to see that after all this time you still like the devices. ❤