Ignition, Start: Eight Engines of Evocative Polyphonic Potential
Polyend’s no-frills, no-effort-spared approach to designing and building its galvanizing multimode instruments is evidenced by the names of the company’s offerings. Synth is no exception. Like the permutations of Tracker and Play before it, Synth — a multi-engine polyphonic synthesizer — is packed with a kaleidoscope of creative capabilities, stirring and teeming with electric fervor, just beneath the surface of its streamlined, minimalist interface. Synth blends a slew of synthesis styles, compositional tools, electrifying effects, and rhythmic capabilities into a highly customizable multi-instrumental machine, deploying eight synth engines across a 3-lane architecture, allowing you to control up to three synth engines simultaneously across an 8-voice polyphony. With so many combinatorial capabilities defining its foundations, Synth has Sweetwater’s production pros aghast at the expressivity of the 60 RGB-backlit performance pads’ myriad velocity and polyphonic aftertouch tools. Add to this a robust suite of per-engine step-sequencing and arpeggiation options, alongside extensive MIDI connectivity and vivid real-time visual feedback, and Synth becomes an all-in-one performance powerhouse that will drive you from the first ideas to showtime, all by itself.
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Pieces of eight: an octet of aural exploration
With Synth, Polyend’s value proposition is rooted in the idea of limitation. The access modern technology affords to virtually every sound under the sun is great, but this often comes at the cost of focus. So, Polyend masterfully constructed Synth to thread the needle between a vast array of synth engines, effects, and tools, and a set of carefully concocted guardrails that emerge through its physical interfacing and virtual boundaries. You’ll never feel limited, but the limitations will always propel you forward, and its eight synth-engine styles form a flexible, voltaic foundation, from analog-inspired warmth and cutting-edge modeling to ferocious FM and morphing texturization.
- PHZ: Polyend’s multimode take on phase-distortion synthesis, teeming with tones and textures that span retro and modern modes; classic and cutting-edge sounds abound.
- PMD: Using state-of-the-art physical modeling technologies, this engine painstakingly simulates a variety of real-life instruments and sounds with inventive avenues of all-new sonic sculpting.
- GRAIN: This is your dual-mode granular synthesis engine. Its Burst and Cloud modes supply a formidable array of lush ambience, dynamic layering, and rhythmic textures.
- WAVS: “Morphing” is the key word to this engine, thanks to its multiple wavetables, alongside extensive scanning and phase-shifting capabilities, open a world of evocative, evolving spaces.
- VAP: This polysynth uses a dual-oscillator architecture that’s inspired by a multitude of time-tested hardware synths, perfect for rich, layered pads with plenty of dimension.
- FAT: A constellation of vintage-style ladder filters and three oscillators, teeming with expression and dynamism, letting you sculpt and contour thundering basses, ripping leads, and more.
- ACD: This ode to the iconic monosynths of yore gives you the roaring power of vintage monophonic synthesizers but with a suite of cutting-edge customization tools.
- WTFM: An FM synthesis engine that distinguishes its sonic palette by using a garrison of wavetable-based oscillators, eliciting complex timbres and textures
Textural triumvirate: three lanes of customizable FX
Synth’s galvanizing eight-piece array of synth engines provides a pliable, robust bedrock of near-endless sound design, innovation, and overall creativity. Still, Polyend’s commitment to spurring and inspiring artistry doesn’t end there. A triad of effects styles provides three lanes of customizable texturization tools, arming you with next-level possibilities to explore with every engine combination that Synth supports, including engine-specific effects, even when using more than one engine at a time. Additionally, each engine accommodates up to two LFOs — or six per scene — and 14 filters that span Low-pass, High-pass, Bandpass, and Notch varieties.
- MOD: This effects engine is your comprehensive source of all things modulation across choruses, flangers, and stereo-spanning envelopes, from mild to wild and beyond.
- DEL: Take on time with a pentacle of dual-delay models; these five distinct models of delay feature expansive sync capabilities and ferocious complexity to form time-bending madness.
- REV: This is your reverb suite. Its three modes — natural, plate, and warp — form a tripartite foundation of subtle spatialization and intergalactic expression, from quaint to cavernous.
Rhythm and progression: a track-building titan
Though Synth is a bona fide brawler of a synthesizer instrument unto itself, Polyend has endowed it with a comprehensive suite of track-building tools by way of its polyphonic 64-step sequencers and arpeggiators. Yes, plural (and polyphonic): each engine has its own polyphonic step-sequencer and polyphonic arpeggiator, each with extensive swing, groove, transposition, scale, chord, and timing controls, arming you with the ability to summon transformative, multidimensional progressions. What’s more, with Synth’s Scenes tool, entire arrangements and configurations can be stored and recalled in an instant, saving you the hassle of starting from scratch every time inspiration strikes.
Hands-on groove crafting in 60 parts
Equal parts studio workhorse and live-performance powerhouse, Polyend built Synth to seamlessly move across, between, and around this two-body ecosystem. Its 60 RGB-backlit performance pads are a gateway to unrivaled expression and customization, thanks to Synth’s Smart Grid slew of onboard note, chord, and scale tools. Moreover, pads aren’t just velocity sensitive, but fully endowed with polyphonic aftertouch, enabling you to map up to five simultaneous parameters to aftertouch vectors, giving you total control of your sound. By just the pressure of your fingertips, detailed nuances and ferocious flourishes are meticulously captured and conveyed with every press of the button.
Customizable interfacing for any production or performance
For Synth’s dynamic, multilayered interface, Polyend pulled no punches in giving you the customization capabilities needed to suit your sound and style from the studio to the stage. Its 3-by-3 matrix of Combo Knobs gives you nine degrees of assignable performance and production power, allowing you to map any number of parameters, effects, or dynamics combinations to control engines individually or all at once. Up top, the sleek interface is incredibly intuitive and simple yet powerful, giving you the details you need sans the clutter or excessive menu-diving. Plus, Synth’s vivid display supplies real-time feedback, adapting to every change in parameter and input, with plenty of ways to optimize its arrangement to fit your needs.
All things I/O: connect, play, store, and create your way
Though Synth is a certified scorcher of comprehensive composition and production, Polyend understands that its versatility and power would fall short if it weren’t able to play nicely with other instruments and setups. To that end, Synth features a deceptively diverse suite of connectivity capabilities. Alongside its stereo headphone output, a pair of 3.5-millimeter TRS-B ports serve as the MIDI I/O, with 5-pin adapters included for immediate interoperative integration. Synth’s USB-C port pulls triple-duty, too, providing not just power but support for USB-MIDI and USB storage, further expanding your Polyened-fueled palette. Furthermore, Synth features a microSD Card reader, accommodating up to 16GB of additional storage for wavetables, presets, and even entire Scenes.
Polyend Synth Features:
- Multi-engine polyphonic synthesizer and beat machine supplies multitudes of electrifying production tools for an all-in-one groove-crafting powerhouse
- 8 synth engines spanning analog style, FM, wavetable, monosynth, granular synthesis, and further varieties
- 3-lane architecture supports using up to three different engines simultaneously for a deep, customizable configuration of 8-voice performances
- 3 effects lanes — modulation, delay, and reverb — feature malleable effects and tenacious textures to apply to individual engines or master output
- Polyphonic 64-step sequencers and polyphonic arpeggiators for each synth engine ensure near-endless rhythmic capabilities and evocative, dynamic track building
- 60 RGB-backlit performance pads include both velocity sensitivity and polyphonic aftertouch, with up to 5 simultaneous parameters able to be mapped for galvanizing aftertouch expression
- Smart Grid offers customizable note, chord, scale, and additional parameters, letting you set up your sound and interfacing in any way needed
- Scene files allow you to build entire live and studio setups that can be instantly saved, recalled, and shared
- 9 Combo Knobs form a 3x3 matrix of assignable parameters to tweak and turn at the per-engine level or for all 3 at once
- Vivid display screen supplies real-time feedback that readily adapts to whichever changes you’re making
- Extensive MIDI connectivity includes a 3.5mm TRS-B I/O, as well as USB-C over MIDI, guaranteeing expansive interoperative possibilities (5-pin adapter included)
- Multimode storage includes USB and micro SD Card (up to 16GB) expansion
