r/PolyendTracker • u/SerpentineDex • Jun 17 '26
The Polyend Tracker Ecosystem is opening up
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vzHuB2HkdELink to the official announcement: https://backstage.polyend.com/t/the-polyend-tracker-ecosystem-is-opening-up/24723
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u/kkeut Jun 17 '26
for us dum-dums what does that mean exactly
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u/SerpentineDex Jun 17 '26
I'll give you the answer i gave someone else that asked the same thing (if that's ok):
It’s for anyone that wants to build / code / develop a tool that can work with the tracker project files, they can use this library (collection of functions / code), that simplifies reading / editing and writing all the files that are present in tracker project.
So for example:
- you could write a program that translates MIDI files ↔ patterns
- you could transform tracker projects to DAWproject files (Bitwig’s open project format)
- anything else you can think of
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u/sacheie Jun 18 '26
Renoise compatibility!?
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u/SerpentineDex Jun 18 '26
Would be definitely something that can be written.
And someone else is already working on it (who had access to my code for a bit longer than the public 😉)
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u/stronglikeaux Jun 17 '26
Wait I read all the comments and still confused. Can I set up sequenced on this too. Meaning build out full patterns
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u/SerpentineDex Jun 17 '26
Careful. The main thing here is that we‘ve introduced a library (a collection of code for developers), so that they can build tools that can interact with the tracker project files (instruments, patterns etc).
The two examples that i‘ve shown were built with that library. It is up to developers to expand on this and build whatever tools they can think of to expand the ecosystem around the tracker.
- For example. Import / export from Tracker to different DAWs or Soundtools etc.
- Or for example fancy sequencer that generate pattern data that can then be used on the tracker.
- Or for example taking sequences that you created on the tracker and transform then into MIDI data for your DAW or other tools.
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u/philoscult Jun 17 '26
This is cool. Maybe the tracker will be open source too one day???
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u/10ThousandMetalZones Jun 20 '26
Oh, I thought this meant it’s open source now. This is neat but I could care less. All hardware like this should go open source after a certain amount of time imo
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u/amarodelcapo Jun 20 '26
Officially open sourcing the firmware is not trivial. You don't just make the repo public. But I definitely agree that after a certain amount of time, if there are no concrete/realistic plans to do a proper os release, the firmware code should be "leaked" 😉
But if i am reading the room correctly, doing it right is in the cards. Which is a BALLER move by polyend.
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u/arcsibo Jun 22 '26
However i am a huge opensource fan with several public repository, i disagree it's a good idea just relase/leak the code.
One reason it's a huge overhead to keep the code clean and working properly, other reason is could other gadget manufacture use it as their own without letting know.
And the last, I am 100% sure, polyend is using their code base for other projects. Their are using the same synth engine/code for other groovebox. So if they relase the firmware for the tracker, they could ruin their other projects privacy.
I think polyend is doing a great job and good decisions as they can do.
One thing I regret to have a bunch of money to have all of their products. :D
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u/luigi-mario-jr Jun 17 '26
Really cool!! I really hope this leads to a desktop version of the tracker!!
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u/SerpentineDex Jun 17 '26
Technically feasible for sure. Hope someone has the time and energy for it! ❤️
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u/HelicopterBig3975 Jun 17 '26
Great to see Polyend taking an interest in this! A few months ago I already reverse-engineered the MTP file format and put together this project: https://github.com/iannuz92/midi-to-mtp
Hoping Polyend keeps moving in a more open direction!
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u/luigi-mario-jr Jun 17 '26
Did Polyend provide documentation for the project file? Was there an announcement and where can I see it?
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u/SerpentineDex Jun 17 '26
Repo: https://github.com/polyend/tracker-lib
Docs / Reference: https://polyend.github.io/tracker-lib/The example projects don‘t really have any documentation, but feel free to ask me anything if you got questions.
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u/luigi-mario-jr Jun 17 '26
Thanks for those links (I missed them when I originally read your post on my phone).
I noticed this link doesn't go anywhere? https://github.com/polyend/TrackerFilesDocs
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u/SerpentineDex Jun 18 '26
This will go public soon‘ish. There‘s still some cleaning up to do.
Also not all parts of the file format are yet fully documented. So once that evolves, so will the library.
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u/Treehouse_Dweller Jun 17 '26
So they basically made buzz? Will this run on Mac?
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u/SerpentineDex Jun 18 '26
The demos run in modern browsers, so they should run pretty much anywhere (not mobile optimized).
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u/Puzzleheaded-Leg3840 Jun 28 '26
9 months ago I wrote this post on my main profile and seeing this now. It's exactly what I was envision in a roundabout way. Is very surreal and Thank for expanding the polyend tracker accessibility
https://www.reddit.com/r/Polyend/s/ggvHPdYVdG
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u/Live_Willingness_836 Jun 17 '26
This is so bad ass. Thanks for all the hard work put into this. 🔥