LEAK! Is this a new Polyend groovebox?

07 Jan 2022 by Robin Vincent | Approximate reading time: 2 Minutes

Polyend groovebox? · Source: Polyend

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An unannounced machine from Polyend was briefly glimpsed in an Instagram story. Is it a groovebox, synth or tracker? Here’s the current speculation.

Synth, tracker or groovebox?

The Instagram story was apparently posted by Polyend and no longer exists, however, Maciek Polak (@analogia.pl) also posted the same story which was captured and uploaded to Imgur:

Elektronauts

The story was first picked up on the Elektronauts forum where it also references a photo of the same device taken at Superbooth 21 and shared by Synthanatomy at the time of the show.

Polyend Groovebox? Synthanatomy

There’s lots of discussion as to whether it’s a compact version of the SEQ, a new Tracker, a synth or something like a groovebox. The video pushes me towards the groovebox camp but that assumes that all the sound is coming from the machine and not from some other source. For connections there only appears to be power and an audio output on the right, although this could possibly be MIDI… nah, it’s audio.

One Elektronauts user called Reloy said:

…ok…i spoil as little as possible if i say…it’ll be no next tracker but also no synth…
while the formfactor will be, somehow, some kind of familiar…

The sound on the video has some synth, sampled and FM style elements and the button matrix is clearly sequencing something. One suggestion, which I thought was very interesting, was that Polyend had recently added an FM engine to the Medusa which was then discontinued shortly afterwards. So, it would make sense to take all the work that went into creating that engine and plug it into a more suitable device. And there’s nothing to say it can’t do more than FM.

Anyway, it looks like a very neat and interesting device and I imagine we’ll be having some news from Polyend in the not too distant future.