Tracker. The biggest update yet.

Although I never had the good fortune to test one of Polyend’s products (not for lack of wanting), I can’t help but applaud this–the popularity of the FM-1 and its openness is certainly having an impact, and Polyend is unusually well positioned to make a similar move. The firmware release covers the original Tracker as well as the Tracker+ and Mini, and the original even gets SD card sample streaming. There are SDKs for Sample Editor effects and, on the newer models, synth engines–which gives people a way to add their own sounds and tools to hardware they already own. A documented recovery procedure should also make experimenting with firmware a little less nerve-racking. There is a licensing catch: the firmware is source-available, under PolyForm Noncommercial with explicit permission to make commercial music, and some synth and DSP libraries are still proprietary binaries. The effects SDK is MIT-licensed, though, so people can sell their own plugins. I’d have preferred fewer…

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