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Named after 1987’s Ultimate Soundtracker, a music program created for the Commodore Amiga, trackers are a flavor of a sequencer, intimidating to look at but relatively straightforward to use. Trackers present the user with a vertically scrolling multi-track alphanumeric step sequencer that triggers samples much like a futuristic pianola.

Back in 1987, the first tracker software program was introduced to the world. With its vertical column design and hexadecimal coding, it looked more like a moving spreadsheet than something that created music. However, when curious musicians started digging into the software, they discovered the idiosyncratic layout provided a highly efficient workflow; the vertical column configuration provided visibility over every component of a composition. The humble software tracker also possessed incredible flexibility in terms of sound design, letting you manipulate samples in entirely unique ways. By the early-1990s, electronic and synthpop artists had thoroughly embraced trackers and built a community around them, sharing samples, software, and innovations. The Polyend Tracker pays tribute to those pioneering software trackers, but it liberates them from the computer and puts them into a sophisticated, interactive, and inspiring hardware unit. Not only that, but the Polyend Tracker expands on the creative potential of the tracker format, adding a slew of effects to transform any sample into an instrument, along with wavetable and granular synthesis. And, it has backward compatibility with old school tracker files (called MODs), so that you can finally finish that jungle banger you started back in ‘92. With its sleek interface and slim portable design, the Polyend Tracker is a go-anywhere total music production system. And, electronic musicians and beatmakers at Sweetwater will tell you the Polyend Tracker is highly addictive. Once you go vertical, you’ll never go back!

Build massive patterns

Polyend Tracker projects hold up to a massive 48 instruments with 256 patterns and 128 steps per pattern — so compositions are only limited by your imagination! And they all play back in the iconic vertical column format, which tracker aficionados argue is the ideal way to compose electronic music. Beyond the sample effects section, the Polyend Tracker comes equipped with numerous compositional tools, including automatic pattern filling, per-step effects, sample rolls, and batch and global parameter editing. After you’ve constructed your patterns, Tracker’s Song Arranger makes it easy to assemble them into a finished piece, which you can save to a microSD card as a stereo master or as stems to upload to your DAW.

Endless sound manipulation

Like the trackers of yore, the Polyend Tracker is primarily a sample-based music production tool. And, to that end, it includes potent sample manipulation capabilities. Tracker lets you upload samples via microSD Card or capture them in real-time through its mic and line inputs. It also includes a radio receiver for snagging samples off the airwaves! Once you’ve got your sample, you can manually trim it or let the Tracker do it for you automatically. Then, it’s time to shape, mangle, and transmogrify your sample with Tracker’s deep toolkit of pitch-shifters, filters, reverbs, envelope generators, reverse and ping-pong modes, and granular and wavetable synthesis.

Specifications

All the essential software tracker elements plus more in a sleek, portable hardware device

Large display screen, mechanical buttons, and an intuitive interface Vertical column configuration is an efficient and fun way to compose and arrange

Each project allows 48 instruments and 256 patterns with 128 steps per pattern for building massive tracks

Upload samples via microSD card or capture them on the unit through its mic and line inputs

Includes a radio receiver for grabbing samples off the airwaves

Manipulate samples in limitless ways with pitch-shifting, envelope generators, filters, one-shot, reverse, and ping-pong modes, and reverb

Wavetable and granular synthesis offer deep sound design capabilities

Performance features let you take the Polyend Tracker live

MIDI-equipped to sequence hardware devices or to receive MIDI commands from your DAW or an external MIDI controller

Export projects to a microSD card as master stereo tracks or stems USB bus-powered

Manual

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