For all the accessibility of music tech, that relationship between artist and builder matters. So yeah, these Polyend Trackers are pretty, but they also come with sound and music releases, too, by Bogdan Raczynski, Legowelt, and Pete Cannon.
Big manufacturers do work on artist relations, but there’s something special about the smaller makers. At this point, we’ve gotten to know Jacek from Polyend, and he and his team are enormously responsive – not just to famous people, but to the whole crowd of people using their stuff. So it comes as little surprise these Artist Editions would be cool.
Plus the artist picks are right on point – Legowelt and Pete Cannon are musts and Bogdan, for those not in the know, is a Polish-American braindance legend.
At least, it’s a lot more fun than an NFT. Because you get a vinyl record LP of music made on the Tracker, sound content, and some crazy-colorful limited editions of the hardware to show off – each limited to 300. KORG have tried that – I talked about this when the OK Go edition. I mean, if you’re not into the artist or the look of the artist edition, you’re not going to go for this. But on the other hand, Polyend Tracker already has this unique, artist-tweaked feel to it.
As Legowelt puts it, there’s a ton of stuff to customize here. So for his edition, he wrote over the weekend:
This is a standalone hardware tracker-style sampler sequencer from Poland like Octamed and Protracker. This special edition comes with a faceplate designed by me, 5000+ sounds from my collection of synths and drummachines (1000 new exclusive fresh ones for this machine!), 26 finished tracks that you can play and study, preloaded drumkits etc.
Let there be acid:
Legowelt Official · Polyend Tracker Sampler Sequencer Demos
Updated: there’s an even longer discussion on Bogdan’s site of his involvement – and on top of it, he promises an introduction to trackers in general. Subscribe to his YouTube channel; I know I’ll be tuning in. More info:
https://www.bogdanraczynski.com/banans/
At this point, some folks are so loyal to their favorite machines that I fully expect some hardware – like Polyend’s – will inspire these kinds of editions from some artists, unsolicited by the manufacturers.
That said, I’d be happy if Polyend let us make our own custom skins. Or I can just finger-paint one.
Have a look.
699 EUR, but if you haven’t got the scratch, the non-limited edition goes for way below that.
(Hmm, could have used a non-male artist on there, and I know a few nonbinary/trans/women lining up, if you want to do a fourth, Polyend!)
We’ll stay tuned for more Polyend news; always great what’s coming out of there. Stay safe, Poland!