Polyend Tracker Sequencer

General

The Polyend Tracker sequencer may look a little risky if you have no idea where it came from. Those who have reached as far as 40 or 50 years old should remember the tracker well, however. First produced by Amiga in the '80s, this kind of tracker soon became a standard feature on most computers. The younger generation might be more familiar with its incarnation as Buzz or Renoise, but other than that, the tracker offers access to a composition method that's been able to duck under the radar for a while now. Sitting on the edge of it all, this is essentially a complete music production tool. Fitted with audio ports including MIDI in and out, this MPC-style workstation in a box has the addition of a tracker-interface and a small army of drum pads.

The Features of the Polyend Tracker

Traditionally, the tracker is a sound-making method in itself. This could be described as a synthesizer (like the prevalent '80s FM synth form), but samples are also a fixed value. In the Polyend Tracker, a sample player and recorder has been integrated alongside a granular synthesizer and a wavetable synthesizer - giving it more than enough scope in terms of possible sound design. It also offers effects and is able to read classic MOD files (the file format used by the Amiga trackers from back in the day). All of this has been neatly packed inside a USB-powered box complete with microSD card slot and a clear, full colour display screen.

What is a Tracker?

To explain what a tracker is in the simplest terms, is to describe it as a two-dimensional grid divided into tracks onto which notes can be placed. In terms of navigation and the way of thinking, it's a actually a bit like Excel. Where a standard DAW program has a similar thought-process behind it as a tape-paradign, where real-time recording plays an important role, the tracker is a much more nerdy way of writing score. Classical musicians who want to place notes in precisely the right place without needing a metronome will probably find they work much better with a tracker than they'd first expect. Another hallmark of trackers is that they allow you to place notes incredibly quickly, much like typing a chunk of text into a word processing programme. This is the difference between a tracker and any standard DAW, where the interface is designed with a focus on using a mouse, and supported by masses of graphic menus while an experienced tracker user will simply type their notes in with the kind of rapid typewriter chatter worthy of a '50s newspaper reporter on the edge of a deadline.