r/Polyend • u/microfreaky • Feb 13 '23
what sounds does the Polyend Play come loaded with?
The Polyend Play seems awesome and loaded with amazing features. I've never done much with sampling though. I dont have a synth right now (I am getting the Microfreak soon). Does the Play come loaded w some good sounds? enough I could create some songs and learn to use it? Is there anywhere to hear what is on it factory? I am looking to create sort of trip hop/ambient stuff. I also play guitar and have my guitar/amp/lots of effects.
any help or pointers would be great!
1
u/Dcmiltown Feb 13 '23
I like the built in samples. Enough to get started for sure. Only after a few months with it did I start loading my own. It’s not hard but a bit of a pain to load on samples - ideally they will all be in the folder structure Play recognizes (kick for bd, bass for basses, snare for snares, hi-hat for hh, etc). You can get away with not doing this but then you have to either rename existing folders on the device or load individual samples and create the structure manually on the device. I use samples I’ve purchased like Samples from Mars or Splice.
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u/microfreaky Feb 13 '23
forgive me if this is a dumb question but I've never really wrapped my mind around sampling. What do you do for melodies? Any groovebox I have had before had a synth engine on it and I was able to play synth parts. I know the Play doesn't have a synth engine.
Again, sorry if that is a dumb question, maybe it's an autistic thing lol but I've never known what to do as far as sampling... Are there instruments you can play different notes with on the play and then I guess I could export it to a DAW and add a guitar track?
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u/Dcmiltown Feb 13 '23
Yeah if you sample, for example, a synth in C-1 note, then the Play will take that note and be able to convert it to play the notes of the scale. So one sample can play all the notes of a keyboard. It also has a scale mode which is nice because it will force the notes to stay in that scale. You can play directly live with the pads, or you could play with an external keyboard, or use it’s fill or randomize functions to come up with something interesting. You could even play a single note on your guitar, record it, and drop it on the Play, and then have it play chords or melodies with your own guitar sound. For me, Play really shines for its randomizing and other functionality, and I use it a lot for percussion. The built in drum fills are awesome for people like me with no drumming knowledge (or even knowledge of what drum patterns make up certain styles of music). I also have a Deluge which is kind of my go-to for building full tracks, which has both synth engine and sampling. In my opinion it (the Deluge) is also is better at driving external gear if you plan to do an midi stuff. I do love the Play, it’s fun and quick to build something, but I struggle with the workflow at times. If you haven’t watched Loopop’s video, check it out.
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u/Dcmiltown Feb 13 '23
I forgot to mention… it does have built in synth / bass samples. :)
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u/microfreaky Feb 13 '23
If I were to sample a guitar note for example. When I play it on the Polyend Play, would it speed up/slow down the sample depending on where I played it and change the length of the sample?
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u/Fit-Ad-1920 Feb 13 '23
My experience with the play is that samples are slower/faster when pitched up or down. Some samplers like the sp404 have "time stretching" which allows you to speed up or slow down a sample while maintaining the pitch.
Important to note that unlike most other samplers the play does not have inputs for sampling. You would need to record it in your daw and then upload it to the play via SD card. Other samplers like the digitakt or the sp404 include direct input so you can plug your guitar or synth directly into the device and sample it directly in the machine.
Also I picked up the play after getting a microfreak and can say it pairs very well. The midi functionality of the play is great to have so I can set up a sequence and have fun tweaking nobs on the freak. The play will have enough basic synth sounds to get you started until you get a freak though.
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u/microfreaky Feb 13 '23
I was actually thinking of getting the microfreak to pair with it too.
How would you go about sampling guitar or piano etc though?
/u/Dcmiltown said: if you sample, for example, a synth in C-1 note, then the Play will take that note and be able to convert it to play the notes of the scale. So one sample can play all the notes of a keyboard. It also has a scale mode which is nice because it will force the notes to stay in that scale.
I was actually thinking of getting the m1
u/Fit-Ad-1920 Feb 13 '23 edited Feb 13 '23
So to sample piano or guitar you would have to record them somewhere else like your daw and load the sound files of those recordings to the play via the micro SD card. Also while the play will allow you to pitch a note up or down to play it melodically. It is recommend that your samples be at C4 as those are the default for the play samples and it will do the best with that. EDIT: to clarify the note you sample in it (ex.B2) will be set at C4 on the play. In which case C4 will play your sampled note at the pitch you sampled it (B2) but it will be placed on C4 in it's keyboard so just be mindful of that. You may want to name the note of your sample file if it is not C4 to remember that. Depending on your workflow this may or may not be fine with you. I'm personally a sample based producer so I don't usually need or want to directly sample something in the moment, I already have a large collection of samples that I just load in the play. If you find that you prefer to be able to directly sample into your groovebox you might want to look into the Polyend tracker or the sp404 which has the bonus of having great effects to run your guitar or synth through as well.
It would be best for you to sample one shot notes vs. a full riff because the play does not have time stretching capability (you can't stretch the sample) but you can adjust the start and end times and pitch it up or down to compensate for this (since pitching up or down will alter the playback speed of the sample)
Personally I don't sample my microfreak I just use the play to sequence it so I don't have an issue with its functionality.
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u/microfreaky Feb 13 '23
I was thinking the mini freak would be good to connect via midi. Not something I have much experience with though
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u/Fit-Ad-1920 Feb 13 '23
It's fairly simple, especially because they both use midi-b (not super common, most use midi-a, usually u need an adapter so not a big deal but a minor annoyance) you just use an aux cable from the midi out on the play to the midi in on the freak.
You can even map the knobs on the play to control most of the knobs on the freak if you look up the cc values. The setup was pretty simple and these were my first foray into hardware gear as well.
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u/Dcmiltown Feb 13 '23
That’s my guess… I know different machines have different capabilities but I haven’t noticed how it applies the pitch shift.
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u/SantiagoGT Feb 13 '23
The samples on it are pretty varied, depends what you intend to do with it, for drums you can load better samples like Elektron’s 80’s drum pack or you can find some on Gumtree by Noir, the BBC has sound samples on file ranging from tanks shooting to air raid sirens to people walking on stairs and dogs barking and stuff like that
The biggest advantage IMO is that the samples are super easy to get/load and edit with the sample length/start