#383

I agree with everything you’re saying, I just think that what RPLKTR might’ve been taken out of context a bit here.

I think what he was saying was in reference to someone else who was potentially interested in buying the Tracker but was wondering about these bugs in which he responded saying that it’d be wise to buy the Tracker based on what it currently is rather than what we hope it to be.

That doesn’t take away from the fact that Polyend advertised the stem export as a working feature and still are when in its current state, it’s unusable (taking peoples word for this as I’ve not used it and probably never will)

5 Likes
#384

That’s fair do’s! I’m definitely approaching everything (or trying to) in the knowledge that folks are operating in good faith, and doing their best, so happy to be mistaken about what was said being some kind of shifting of responsibility generally.

1 Like
#385

Hi! Um… you have any good resources for building midi through/utility boxes? :smiley:

#386

Yeah I think you’re speaking fairly about the issue, I just wanted to point out that one in particular as it seemed to be a misunderstanding and RPLKTR is engaging with users quite actively and has always been friendly / helpful so I really doubt they meant anything by it.

I don’t want to blindly stick up for Polyend either, there’s valid issues being raised, I too am not using mine as much as I’d like because of the instabilities but Polyend have also generally been good at fixing any bugs I’ve reported, even some very persistent ones that spanned a lot of firmwares, even some where it’d be said to have been fixed only for it to still be there, with that in mind, I still have faith that we’ll see a solution to the stems problem in time.

I’ve not read everything so I might’ve missed something but my view is like this currently: I can’t return my tracker and nor would I want to as I do really like it. Polyend’ve said that they’re working on these issues and that they have no plans to stop supporting it so I’ll take their word for it for the time being. The ball’s in Polyends court now, they can either listen to the feedback they’re getting (focus on bugs before features etc…) and act accordingly and make some fans of their brand in the process or they can ignore it all and tarnish their reputation as a company. I think their lack of want for the latter will drive them to do the former regardless of how they might personally feel or not feel about it (am I even saying anything at this point haha)

1 Like
#387

The MIDI v1.0 specification has it all - there’s a schematic there, but really it’s very very easy - I just built it on stripboard - very minimal parts…

https://www.midi.org/specifications-old/item/the-midi-1-0-specification

(electricdruid has a redrawn schematic as well)

Thinking about it - I’m about to order another batch of prototype pcbs (for other modules/synths) in a week or so - I may just layout out a board with 4 midi thrus as I could do with another one… thanks for the prompt !! I should probably do a 3d-printed case if I am going that far (Will put it all on github when done). Are you in the UK ?

#388

Thanks for the info! Sadly I’m in the states. I’ve been going back and forth between building something, just trying to rely on a mix of USB and midi-DIN or just getting Blokas MidiHub. I’ve kinda been all of the map, but a midi through box is such a cool idea.

#389

If there are no issues, I’ll put it all on github (the reason I asked about the UK is that 5x or 10x pcbs are so cheap I’d have just posted you one but postage to the states is a bit more !)

#390

You definitely are making sense, and this is how I felt up until about a week ago I think. I’m getting a bit more fed up at this point, partly because of some of the way this thread went. I’m probably just more salty because I didn’t quite have the cash to drop on the Tracker, but went for it anyway to help give something new to do over lockdown, and feel like it’s been a write-off so far.

Anyway, hopefully things will work out.

2 Likes
#391

I’ll chime in here on the thread as well, as a Tracker owner.

I really love this product. I think, especially as someone who is almost addicted to hardware, there is an urge to try and immediately compare this device with others in its category. I would say that superficially, the Tracker would be considered by the same audiences drawn to the 1010 Blackbox, the Digitakt or even Octatrack, the MC-X0X devices, the Teenage gear, and so on. But when the dust settles, like always, the realization comes that we are not on a constant quest for “one perfect hammer” that does it all, as it were, but a hammer of the proper size and weight for the nails I use. And therefore comparing the Tracker to other instruments is not very fair to anyone.

I’ve been very happy with my Tracker as a MIDI master, as a sampler, as a synth. The balance between screen and tactile buttons is very good, for me. The sound quality is very good, for me. I do not export stems to a DAW, nor do I plan to, but I understand the frustrations there. Even Elektron and their Overbridge implementation took a long time, and I think we’re perhaps given more leniency than Polyend has been given.

In general I think that if you are looking today for a hardware instrument, you will find that the Tracker does many many things very well and does some things that no sampler or sequencer can do at its price point. The Fill tool alone has done absolute wonders for me, it’s very powerful for quickly building dense and interesting sequences.

I am still not fully sure it is the instrument for me, but I am learning it and through that process learning myself. Can you ask for much more? I wouldn’t.

4 Likes
#392

Just chiming in as another tracker user. I have been really disappointed with the exporting function. Following the thread here, on github and muffs it seems I’m not alone. I just want what was advertised to work. The total rewrite of the export functionality being more broken than before doesn’t give me much hope.

I love the workflow. That said, I still experience plenty of daily frustrations with use and am not at all happy with the current state of the firmware.

2 Likes
#393

I think, you can ask for the instrument to be working as advertized. Otherwise it would be a fraud.

No one is saying that it is a bad instrument compared to other sample based devices in that area. In fact it is a very nice concept and fun to play with. That might be a part of the frustration.

3 Likes
#394

Like I said, I understand the frustration in general.

However, I think if you are seeing the Tracker as mainly a “stem export device” you are severely missing out on some of its best features. The stem export was always, to me, marketed as a nice-to-have feature and currently I’ve taken delivery of a Bluebox to better fill this role.

Even if Tracker had perfect stem export and rendering, it would not be the most killer feature. The device offers so much more than that.

And again, I think there was over a year, or longer, between Elektron marketing their Overbridge and it actually being functional. Not that it’s a good thing, but the market showed them great patience.

2 Likes
#395

I dont think this is a fair comparison at all - Tracker is far more buggy and prone to crashing for one. Also Elektron were clear in their advertising of the Digitakt - they clearly said overbridge wasnt available (I waited until it was before I bought a Digitakt and I was very aware of what was advertised).

If Polyend had advertised the tracker as having stem export that took 18 hours per song, stems were not aligned, not in sync, tempo was not that of the track and tempo varied across the stem and then I bought it, I would have no complaints. But they didnt. So I dont think your comparison is at all reasonable - you also seem to be saying “yeah they’re bad but another device someone may or may not have bought is bad”. I could list devices that are good in contrast… eg Rings, Plaits, etc but that gets pretty off topic as well and pretty pointless :slight_smile:

Also, when we make buying decisions we look at the features and decide if they are important to us or not. Saying that those of us who are upset that an unusable advertised feature which was important to us are missing out is really not appreciating the reason we are frustrated. It’s important to us but not you, but we bought it because we expected that feature to work - it’s nearly a year later and very broken…

1 Like
#396

“I think if you are seeing the Tracker as mainly a “stem export device” you are severely missing out on some of its best features”.

I’m not missing out on anything except that what was advertised isn’t there.The Tracker has plenty of other bugs. Performance mode issues, song mode crashes, simple hot key combos not working,random freezes, midi issues and plenty more.

“Even if Tracker had perfect stem export and rendering, it would not be the most killer feature” whether or not you consider the feature “killer” or not does not matter. The fact is the feature doesn’t work.

“The device offers so much more than that.” Sure it offers a lot more. But those other features are useless to me and others if we can’t actually use the music we create within.

2 Likes
#397

This last couple of days the conversation seems to go in circles. It would be understandable be it official support forum, but it isn’t :wink:

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#399

I think the way this thread went wasn’t completely ideal on both sides, obviously someone representing a company is expected to be professional but I also think they still deserve some respect in communication.

Yeah, I understand your frustration more now, it’s been a tough year for us all which isn’t helped when thing after thing don’t go as hoped… I know I’d probably be more annoyed personally if I was more dependent on the tracker than I am. I’d also be pissed if Polyend just decided to drop the project and leave it in its current state but all my interactions with them don’t point towards that happening, many of the developers use this thing themselves in their own music, outside of financial motive, they too want this thing to work but I imagine there’s so much more to this entire situation than what we can see at face value.

On the other hand, I don’t think this thread or Polyend need people to come in here and blindly defend things that are wrong about the Tracker. For example, I personally will probably never use the stem export because it’s not the way I work but I know for many people, this was a feature that sold them on it. To tell them that they’re missing the point of the product is insulting to say the least as we each have our own ideas for how to integrate this thing into our process.

For what it’s worth, I’m personally pretty happy with the Tracker and what it’s becoming and I’m also happy with Polyend presently in that yes, they released a product that maybe wasn’t quite finished but I think how active they’ve been in development since is a good sign and yeah… I feel confident that by the time they’re finished with supporting it, I’ll have a product that is so much better than what I thought I was getting when I ordered it. Again, I might’ve felt differently if this was my only option for making music, I’d probably feel less patient about the issues then.

6 Likes
#400

I just wanted to ask a quick follow-up about this. The 1.3 video on Line in monitoring says “Line In is connected to Master FX section”. Does that mean I can, for instance, apply EQ to both Tracker’s output and the Line In monitor at the same time?

#401

Been thinking about grabbing a 16n for this purpose. It’s working well controlling the Tracker?

2 Likes
#402

Absolutely! Here is my living room setup. Norns Shield powers the Tracker and the 16n Berlin Modular Edition. The advantage of this setup is that the 16n sends MIDI to the Norns Shield (via USB) AND the Tracker (via MIDI cable).

image
image3546×3004 2.38 MB

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#403

I got mine in and tested it. Yes, the EQ works on the line in. Also, something that’s not available in a lot of Trackers and I haven’t heard anyone mention: you can set the sequencer page guide lines to any value, even odd values, so composing in, say, 7/8 is no big deal.

6 Likes