Polyend Synth review: three is the magic number?

Immersive and expressive synthesizer that is almost unique, and easy to play

• Three synths, three step-sequencers and effects chains, one box
• Chord, key and progression composition across voices
• Poly aftertouch and macro controls

Available from Thomann (UK price, £422) or direct from Polyend ($499)

As the name suggests, the Polyend Synth is a synthesizer from a brand better known for sequencers and sample-based trackers. It’s not a groovebox, it’s not a full-blown sequencer, but it is a chord, key and rhythm driven instrument that pulls together a wide variety of sounds under your fingertips, and having bought one and played it for a couple of weeks, I’m impressed. it’s not without flaws and quirks, though.

This is not Polyend’s first synthesizer, and it’s not entirely a clean-sheet design, Some of the synth engines have been seen in the Tracker+ and Play+ previously, where they were added in response to demand from owners who wanted to use more than just samples.

But it is a new style of instrument, both for Polyend, and for the sub-£500 synth marketplace as a whole. There’s nothing quite like it on the market at the moment, and it’s very affordable for an expressive, and rather original synth.

Affordable and original don’t always mean ‘good’, or ‘useful’, of course. Whether the Synth feels like a prosumer gadget, a professional instrument, or a distracting toy may be down to the potential owner’s opinion rather than mine.

Polyend’s Synth – history and origins

I’ve owned a Polyend device before, the rather complex Medusa, and felt like I didn’t really get enough out of it. But it was relatively expensive, a collaboration with Dreadbox, and it was also a few years back in Polyend‘s history. The Poland-based inventors were better known for sequencing and modular tech, but subsequently introduced a couple of updates to their popular Tracker-type devices that include synth engines (Polyend Tracker Mini, Tracker+ and Play+).

The appearance of the Polyend Synth was a bit of a surprise when shopping for a power supply on Thomann. I looked at the spec, saw it was released a week before (12 November 2024), and I bought it partly because it looks like it does a lot of stuff I’ll like, but also partly to review – at £422 street price at the time of writing, it looks pretty impressive.

It made its debut in the same week that Teenage Engineering released the £1.899 ($2,299) OP-XY (to the usual chorus of price complaints), so perhaps slipped under the radar a bit, but despite some linking the two they’re really not remotely alike or comparable – beyond being a DSP-driven box with synth engines in.

This review is based on a real, shipping machine, bought with my own money (at a time when I’m looking for work and really don’t have any cash to throw around). That’s how compelling the Polyend Synth is for me, as someone who always wants the fastest way to just jam alone and make good sounds.

Keep reading to see if I’m genuinely happy with having spent the money – or if this synth is on the way back to Thomann already!

Polyend Synth: specs and sizzle – what’s the appeal?

The Polyend Synth almost falls into a class of device that annoys a lot of musicians, and appeals to many more; the ‘groovebox’ or all-in-one sort of thing. The 21st century approach generally involves leveraging compact DSP ‘virtual synths’ to challenge the multi-app workflow of a tablet or smartphone, and continues the concept previously intended to bring some composition and creativity to the tabletop for DJs and bedroom producers. rather than ‘musicians’.

I mention Teenage Engineering because OP-1, OP-Z and OP-XY use similar models of ‘little DSP synths’ and sequencing to good effect, but get criticised sometimes for poor sound quality as a result. A device called Synth really can’t cut corners in quite the same way as an ‘all in one sequencer/tracker/composition box’ where the synths are a matter of convenience for a musical sketch…

Polyend already offers a box or two for that ‘on the go composition’ market, and the 16-track Play+ sequencer (and the subsequent Tracker+) introduced four of the synth engines you find in Polyend Synth (the original Play was sample sequencing and MIDI only, like the Polyend Tracker). Hence, ‘almost’ – Synth’s sequencing capabilities are very basic by comparison.

The Polyend Play+ has a larger ‘grid’, made of smaller pads, and is more expensive (Thomann has the Play+ at £629 – £207 more than the Polyend Synth). Play+ and is focused on sequencing, however. The Polyend Synth leans into playing the instruments dynamically as a group, with sequences as part of the performance, and costs less than £500.

It’s the cheapest Polyend instrument yet, and that means it’s accessible to a wider audience. One that’s yet to experience Polyend’s instruments and way of working. It reminds me a lot of the ideas behind the 1980s MIDI-era Hotz Box and specifically, the Hotz Translator performance software, but without the need for an Atari ST and extensive programming patience to get results.

Polyend Synth review

The Polyend Synth is an eight-voice polyphonic, three-voice multi-timbral desktop module that offers eight different styles of synthesis – and can use your own wav files as wavetables or samples where appropriate. It’s a DSP synth, without extra analogue bolt-ons.

That means that the oscillators, routing, envelopes and filters are all defined by the software, like many affordable and powerful synthesizers on the market based around ARM cores and standard libraries.

Previous Polyend devices have used the NXP Semiconductor MK66 family of ARM Cortex M4-based MCUs, so there’s a good chance that the Polyend Synth is similar. What Tracker achieves from a 180MHz single-core CPU is pretty impressive, but it highlights the potential bang-for-buck you get with £500-worth of Zynthian 5 with Raspberry Pi 5.

Weighing in at 1.2kgs, and just under 30cm x 21cm, Polyend Synth packs 60 notes into one and half octaves of a piano keyboard. Compared with the 300-gram Tracker Mini it’s clearly a more robust, gig-worthy device, though it relies on a single 3.5mm headphone jack for output.

For compatibility with accessories like the Decksaver or protective cases, Polyend Synth is the same form factor as Tracker+ and Play+.

‘the Polyend Synth reminds me a lot of the ASM Hydrasynth desktop – except the expressive pads and pressure control three different sounds per performance’

However, the layout is different to either in terms of controls and grid, with Synth sporting a 5 x 12 array of pads, of a similar size to those on Novation Circuit (and very playable as a result). They sit almost flush, encouraging strumming and glissando effects.

It’s gig-worthy as long as you don’t mind plugging your desk into a 3.5mm TRS to standard jack mono splitter, anyway – the slim 3.3cm height includes the control knobs, and the audio and MIDI ports are reduced to a trio of 3.5mm jacks (though only one MIDI adaptor is provided), which means including both headphones and audio on the output.

That latter point is slightly irritating for anyone who might want to set up a sequence during a performance while still connected to a mixer, and this is probably the first synth I’ve wanted to wear headphones for programming with (scroll down to the ‘mixer’ section to read why) – though, the included splitter cable does mean you can unhook your stereo jacks and plug a set in relatively easily. I’ll probably use a switchbox with it.

A single USB-C port is used for power, mass storage mode and MIDI. Polyend has chosen not to include a USB audio interface – a feature that does limit it for some users, but personally I’m glad to avoid given the number of USB audio devices my DAW has to contend with as it is. There’s a micro SD card slot to store scenes, presets and patches, including samples, and it also makes firmware updates easy. A Piolyend-branded 16GB card comes with the machine.

You can use the Synth in mass storage mode over USB very quickly, but Polyend include a little USB to microSD card reader to lose along with your other tiny USB things.

A Polyend-branded international-plug equipped PSU is also included, and thanks to a near-2m long braided USB cable, the PSU is actually useful. Powered from a USB hub I have yet to hear any unwanted digital noise or artefacts, so it’s there as a fallback.

The engine room: oscillators, filters and styles

The Synth is divided into three ‘engines’, which have independent sequencers, mod matrices and synthesis technique chosen from eight oscillator models. Four of these have been seen on Polyend Tracker and Play devices previously and are described as ‘unique to Polyend’:

• ACD – a single oscillator model reminiscent of ‘early Japanese monosynths’. In other words, it’s a 303 clone.
• FAT – a three-oscillator model with ladder filter. Your basic versatile analogue synth.
• VAP – polyphonic virtual analogue (as opposed to the above mono virtual analogues). Two oscillators,
• PHZ – two ‘operator’ phase distortion. On paper, this sounds like one of the OP-1 engines, but hopefully with more control.
• WAVS – wavetable synth, with two oscillators, morphing between them.
• WTFM – two-operator FM engine with wavetable oscillators rather than simple waveforms.

Two synth engines are derived from Mutable Instruments’ open-source code that is found in a lot of eurorack devices and commercial synths as well as Mutable Instruments modules. Arturia Micro/MiniFreak and Behringer’s BRAINS and GRIND module and desktop synth respectively have employed Mutable’s oscillators.

WAVS and GRAIN allow user samples to be used for the oscillators, and these are easily added to the Synth by dragging to folders when it’s mounted on the desktop. The list refreshes almost immediately.

• GRAIN – Mutable Grains granular synth engine.
• PMD – physical modelling synth.

Polyend Play/Tracker users will no doubt notice there’s something missing (Circuit owners too). There’s no percussion. You can get a synth engine to provide percussive sound, but if anything highlights Polyend’s determination to position this as a synthesizer, rather than an expansion to the tracker/sequencer devices, this is it.

Playing Polyend Synth – quick overview

The ‘smart grid’ builds on Polyend’s respected sequencer technology by allowing the 12 x 5 array of pads to be assigned for different engines and different ranges and scales, while also interacting. This means you can set one engine as a master controller, and have others follow chord progressions, key and interval as desired but also change that behaviour quickly.

Grid layouts can be selected to divide the board between three synth engines (either vertically stacked 5×4, or a mix of horizontal 3×7 and 2×7, one 5×5 for example – there’s a selection of layouts to choose from), or the whole grid can address each engine individually with a horizontal note arrangement across four octaves (for a 12-note chromatic scale). The now-typical paradigm of ‘root note + scale’ is used for each, with a chord mode available for synths where you’ve allocated sufficient voices.

Chord pack editing on the device, for bespoke chords, are in beta at the moment but will be saved alongside scenes for easy recall during performances.

Dynamic transposition and chord following is what Teenage Engineering made a big fuss of when announcing the OP-XY, but here you’ve got something very similar in theory, available right now, for almost a quarter of the price. It’s got a wider hands-on interface to play with, too, but it can’t record long sequences or control 16 sound sources at once.

Polyend Synth: macros and performance control

Evolving sounds during a performance uses a group of three macro knobs, which are assignable to several parameters at once and work in conjunction with poly aftertouch and velocity pressure, giving five macros in total. Macros can affect common parameters on multiple voices if desired, and the display switches to show what is being controlled the moment the control is touched.

Similar to Polyend’s previous synthesizer, the hybrid Medusa, it takes time to learn how to play the pads without introducing unwanted modulation. I used to turn off the headline 3D-touch feature of that hybrid synthesizer more than I’d like, but Polyend Synth isn’t quite as sophisticated, only responding to velocity and aftertouch pressure rather than the three-dimensional pressure plus X and Y wobble of Medusa. There is an aftertouch delay feature to let you strike a pad for full attack, then apply modulation later, but it’s still not quite as intuitive as it sounds.

The lack of Medusa-style dynamic response seems like a shame, as when you’ve got three synth engines to control the extra expressive features could have been more relevant. For example, it should be fairly easy to pitch-bend with sideways pressure from a thumb on a drone pad – but the pitch bend is a rather stiff encoder, and it does not return to centre after a bend. Kinda weird to use.

Polyend has tuned Synth’s responses to be less eager, but for experienced pad players it can be set up to respond to very light touches. Similar in intent to the Medusa, and unlike many pad-based machines, the pads are almost flush with the surface of the instrument and can be stroked to play, rather than having to hit them,

Though, there is a velocity curve to suit if your finger drumming technique owes more to Stomp than a jazz club’s brushed snare.

Polyend Synth: mixer and effects

The three engines are fed into a single mixer, with sends for effects offering mod, delay and reverb models – and panning. The mixer arrangement is set per scene. Each synth engine has a global ‘volume’ parameter, so the mixer is not the only way of controlling relative levels, but the mixer levels or effects can’t be modified by the sequences as it stands at the moment.

That matters, because as the name implies the Synth is ‘a synth’. Not a workstation or groovebox. The three synth engines are mixed as if they were oscillator waveforms on an analogue setup, and they interact, phase, distort and misbehave accordingly. There’s no EQ beyond what you do with your filters and how you play, so with unity levels that allow one engine to express the full dynamic range, things get very gritty and unpleasant when the second engine competes for the same audio channel.

You can pan two engines and play distortion free at this level, but this is probably the most complicated part of making Synth sound good; sequences can be programmed that if the timing is spot on, have strong levels and sound great, but if you get out of sync, fall apart very quickly. It’s just digital clipping and crosstalk, a mess, not ‘pleasant distortion’, and some of the preset scenes display it highlighting just how crucial subtle, planned programming, panning and levels control can be.

The lack of mixer automation and parameter lock, even with the 64-step per engine ‘it’s a glorified, but clever, arpeggiator’ mindset, is probably Synth’s weakest area, and it could do with being smarter not just for inexperienced players – some degree of intelligent management of levels based on synth output would make it more convenient for professionals too.

As with the synth engines themselves, I’ll go into more detail on the effects once I’ve had time to properly understand what they are capable of, but again, they don’t seem to handle overload/peak signals very well (yet?).

How does the Polyend Synth sound?

My immediate takeaway from the first 24 hours is that it’s rather like the ASM Hydrasynth desktop, from a playing perspective, but considerably more flexible. Some of that is influenced by the PolyAT grid, but also the quality of the sounds. The big difference, aside from the very minimalist connectivity of Polyend Synth, is that the Polyend can be played expressively with three sounds at once, with their own animation.

After a couple of weeks, I’m more that satisfied with what can be got out of Polyend Synth. It’s not always easy to get a clean, unclipped output, but you can get basic rave, acid, dance out of it just fine, then it can also push into being a one-handed Lorn tribute or evoke the textures and beats of recent Kae Tempest recordings.

In essence, this is why I like the Polyend Synth so much. It can create textures and poems, as well as songs. Some of that is the ‘three-engine’ model, but it’s not like we’ve been starved of key-splits, sequencers and layers. A lot of it is just how it feels to play, even when the synth engines themselves aren’t always up to scratch.

Is Polyend’s Synth really as good as three synths playing at once?

Most of the engines are good enough to keep a hobbyist, novice or newcomer to music happy, good enough to pull onto stage, but studio producers will find fault for sure. On the other hand, Polyend Synth is more than just an instrument – it’s a composition, sketchbook tool, and serious musicians should try it out.

Even if the end result is to take everything Synth has been used to create then redo it as a full arrangement with more sophisticated instruments. The ‘musical sketchpad’ seems apt – part of inspired this review was a forum debate about the OP-1, and a point along the lines of ‘everyone saying positive things about Teenage Engineering talks about the build quality and sequencer, they never praise the synthesizers’.

The price, portability and ‘gimmicky’ novelty of Synth could imply a similar degree of ‘quantity over quality’ for the synth engines. You’ll be pleased to know that the engines sound much better than, say, the original OP-1 and are easier, more flexible than the OP-1 Field’s upgraded models. The virtual modelled ladder and ‘state variable’ filters are rather more characterful and lively than the ones you get in Modal Electronics’ CRAFT-derived synths as well.

It seems that the Polyend Synth could be the perfect portable ‘jam and create’ box for synth players (rather than sample/tracker users) who want a serious instrument for stage use as well, when things like OP-1 or OP-Z being used in performances can feel a bit gimmicky.

Alternatives to Polyend Synth

Although it looks like a groovebox, it isn’t. Synth is a synthesizer instrument with a reasonably configurable, isomorphic pad keyboard. Synth’s sequencing capabilities are susprisingly limited, compared with the rest of Polyend’s range. It’s a little bit like having three affordable Behringer synths squeezed into one box, as each instrument can have its own timebase, swing and sequence but the sequences are fixed-gate, 64-step similar to the little sequencer on many Behringer synths.

It feels more like an alternative to a Novation Circuit Mono Station, albeit with a more varied palette of sounds.

Looking at the manual, there’s a surprise or two. It looks like there’s no parameter lock with the sequencing. Surely a mistake, frankly – I love the idea of playing a note and having bassline arp and chords follow with their own sequences, but not being able to automate a sound’s evolution over a sequence seems like a backwards step compared with many instruments.

You can’t even sequence a macro’s movements per step, though you could, presumably, use velocity of aftertouch to achieve the same result with careful planning. It also looks like the mixer can’t be modulated or controlled by macros or sequences.For a synth that appears to be defined by layers, looks like an odd omission.

For many buyers on a budget the nearest comparison is probably the Novation Circuit Tracks (typically £239-279 on Amazon UK, or at the time of writing, £266 from Thomann). This gives you two Nova synth engines and a four-channel drum sample sequencer for a remarkably capable little creative tool – though it’s not that performance friendly, lacking a screen for feedback or much control over the sounds unless you use an external editor. It’s cheaper than the Polyend Synth, but is a little limited.

The same arguments about screen could be levelled at the Teenage Engineering OP-Z (from £362 on Thomann, but better at £414 as OP-Z plus Oplab MIDI/CV interface included – on Amazon UK it’s £362, in the USA, $429). It’s closer in capability to Polyend Synth, offering several synth engine slots, but lacks the isomorphic pad interface, is a bit flimsy-feeling (they are prone to bending, physically, over time) and like the Circuit, needs a smartphone or computer to provide a display for more advance sound editing.

It’s about the same price as Polyend Synth, but the synthesizer engines are not as versatile, deep, or accessible and MIDI control of external devices means the extra expense of buying the Oplab module as well.

I’m not familiar with it, but Sonicware’s ‘Liven’ family has an OP-1-esque relative – the ELZ_1 play. It is more expensive than Polyend Synth, OP-Z or Novation Circuit, costing around $599 + shipping and taxes bought directly from Sonicware. For UK/European buyers, Thomann lists the ELZ-1 play at £589, or £615 for the monochromatic ELZ_1 play black limited edition.

So Polyend’s recipe appears to offer a similar sense of playability with more sophisticated musical interaction between pre-programmed sequences when compared with the Circuit, and similarly flexible voicing to an OP-Z, but with deeper control, and less work to make in-tune, harmonic compositions. On the other hand, is it really that much better than playing £200-worth of Pocket Operators?

It should sound better that the OP-Z or Circuit at this price – though the engines do seem to be derivatives of essentially the now familiar open-source algorithms that lie behind implementations in OP-1. OP-Z, OP-XY and many other boutique and software synths.

Polyend Synth – what could be improved

It’s a portable device with USB power, yet it lacks a battery or speakers. The clear, colourful display for feedback and sound editing is an upgrade over the Play, and a bonus for creating scenes as performance, but the reduction of the sophisticated engines to a single stereo mix when many instruments at this price point offer multi-track audio over USB.

Surprisingly for Polyend, the sequencing seems to be a bit constrained. It makes sense to limit the arpeggiator or step sequencer ‘per engine’ for a given scene the way it has been, but at least based on the manual, there’s no ability to record an overall sequence and as mentioned before, no parameter sequencing. In making it more hands-on, Polyend seems to have abandoned more autonomous operation than seems logical.

Before I’d even plugged it in, it’s tripped me over on one key part of the initial appeal. Based on the manual it appears to lack the ability to crossfade (or pan) engines using pressure or modulation/macros, despite the ‘it’s a synthesizer with three engines’ paradigm, poly aftertouch and multi-zone grid.

This also ties into another shortcoming for ‘pick up and play convenicne’ – the mixer and three synths paradigm is crudely done, and it’s easy to overload the mixer output and get clipping and distortion in a not-very-appealing way that is only apparent when the three engines are pushing out higher volumes. Panning can help, but be prepred to spent a lot of time optimising levels in each scene.

The mod matrix and aftertouch routing only applies to synth engines, not the mixer or effects, which feels very much like a ‘sequencer’ approach rather than a new approach to sound generation.

Polyend Play+, Tracker+ or Synth – which one is best for me?

• Polyend Tracker+ and Tracker Mini are complete production boxes
• Polyend Play+ scales up the Tracker experience for studios
• Polyend Synth is a new device – more of an instrument, less of a workflow

Right now you can choose from four instruments offered by Polyend, starting at £422 for the Polyend Synth. The remaining three are £499 for the Tracker Mini, £629 for the Play+, and £659 for the Tracker+. These are, almost, the same device in different form factors with subtle changes in interface and ability, and all offer a built-in USB audio interface, sampling capability, and more tracks of external instrument control.

The synth is unique in the way that it links three synth engines – but it cannot sequence as many external MIDI devices as rival devices, and it can’t capture samples (user samples can be loaded for relevant engines). The Tracker Mini offers battery power and features a built-in microphone for recording ambient sounds, and it also features the four synth engines plus percussion synth found in Play+ and Tracker+.

If you have a larger budget the Tracker+ is arguably the most flexible device, with the Play+ more suited to serious studio composition, nut the Tracker Mini and Synth would be a pretty impressive combination depending on how the Synth’s pads worked with the Tracker Mini’s instruments.

Ultimately, it seems to boil down to how you want to play. If you want an instrument to play as part of a wider setup, with recording or composition on existing hardware, the Polyend Synth is a great addition, inspiring and easy to carry alongside a laptop for experimenting (though the lack of USB audio is disappointing there). If you want a self-contained box to produce complete tracks on the go, in the same style as Teenage Engineering’s OP devices, then the Tracker Mini is a better option within a £500 budget.

Conclusion: Polyend Synth is AI-free – bring your own ‘I’, and play

Before Polyend introduced Synth, how would you play three synths at once? Effortlessly playing three synths at your fingertips feels like a moment from science fiction, particularly when a couple of those synths can make truly impressive, sophisticated soundscapes in their own right.

I’ve had this experience before, when I first encountered a Korg Wavestation, but Polyend Synth opens up the possibility of using my own samples as well. The same joy of ‘these sounds are being made by my hands, my playing’ comes at a very affordable price here.

It’s very good at ambient and experimental textures, soundtracks, helped by the GRAINS and PMD engines, and feels very natural to compose on. Think of it like playing with a marionette, where a limited range of movements can bring a static object to life with expression and emotion.

Sure, skilled artists can achieve this combination, with a MIDI controller that offers zones, lots of musical theory and a set of synths to configure and program with their own sequencers and mixing. That’s a lot of kit and hassle though. Polyend have packed much of that into the space of two hands, with immediate access to a full range of pitches, timbres, intervals and chords – and at a very affordable price.

While I do recommend Polyend Synth for novices and newcomers to electronic instruments, it does have a learning curve and potential frustrations. It would be nice if the mixer were more reactive at maintaining sensible levels without clipping when handling all these voices. Clipping can also occur when complex scenes and combinations overload the CPU leading to gritty sounds and slow user interface behaviour. Synth is most rewarding when you take the time to craft scenes as a holistic approach, tuning patches to complement their partners, rather than merely grabbing a set of presets.

For percussion, Polyend has clearly designed Synth to sit alongside one of the tracker-style devices in that regard. In some ways this is a blessing – I must have about six devices that can provide a backing beat already. As a portable, compact ‘inspiration station’ the Polyend Synth stands out for feeling like an instrument you play, rather than simply press play on.

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