It may seem obvious, but music is all about the notes you choose and the order in which you play them. In electronic music, that's usually a sequencer's job, but what if the sequencer has a say in your composition? It's Polyend's new Play.
| Channel | Publish Date | Thumbnail & View Count | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|
 Polyend | 2023-01-05 13:33:46 |  29,914 Views |
Polyend Play Quick Guide
There are almost as many sequencers as there are opinions about the best kind. And Play, recently announced at Berlin's Superbooth music show, is a strange one. It plays samples, but it cannot record them. It can control synthesizers via MIDI, but it has no built-in sound generators. And yet it's one of the most interesting sequencers to appear in a while. It proves that focus, not an excess of features, can be an advantage rather than a hindrance.
"Personally, I think it's a great unit. I don't need deep synthesis or editing capabilities," said musician RFJ in a forum thread Lifewire participated in. "It's the sequencer here that really does the trick. The controlled random and glitched ratcheted fade types like it does, even the automatic beat generation, I think all of that really sets it apart."
First, a little look at what sequencers do. If you play the piano or guitar, you can record your performance live in recording software, a tape or a looper pedal. You can do this with a drum machine or synthesizer, but you're more likely to sequence these notes. Typically, a measure of music is divided into 16 steps (four quarter notes per beat), and you tell the device what to play (or not) on each step. You can also specify pitch, velocity (how loud it is) and much more.
