First-time poster so I now seems like the best time to introduce myself. My name is Erik Tinberg – I’m a synthesizer enthusiast and sound design experimenter from Minneapolis, Minnesota. After spending a year with the Polyend Trackers and a few weeks with a Dirtywave m8 I wanted to write up an impartial comparison between the Tracker Mini and the m8 – which I originally posted on my website here. John asked if I’d post it here as well. I’m looking forward to continuing to experiment and participate in the AudioCookBook.
Polyend Tracker Mini and a Dirtywave m8, side by side.
Recently I became enamored with two portable hardware Tracker machines: the Polyend Tracker Mini and the Dirtywave m8. The Mini is the smaller successor to the Polyend Tracker and the predecessor to the Polyend Tracker+. I originally purchased a Polyend Tracker when they were significantly discounted when the Tracker Mini was announced. While I was aware of the Dirtywave m8, I decided to purchase the Tracker for the following reasons:
- The cost of the m8 was significantly more expensive.
- The Tracker features a far greater number of dedicated buttons – making it appear more immediately usable.
For the most part, I really enjoy the Polyend Tracker. The large screen is very readable, the ‘Performance’ mode is a lot of fun with the pads and it presents a very approachable means of song composition by sequencing Patterns with each Pattern being the Tracker style of sequencing. I decided to test the portability of the Tracker on a recent trip by trying to use it on an airplane. After MacGuyver’ing the Tracker into a modified iPad case and attaching a slim battery back, I was off.
Unfortunately, this proved to be a less than ideal situation. Perhaps the fault lies with Delta Airlines for reducing seating on a plane to nearly standing-room only but I was both uncomfortable and likely causing distress to my neighbors while trying to use the Tracker on the tray table at 20,000 feet. I felt awkwardly confined and restricted while my elbows shot into the space of the people seated to my right and left.
So when I found a used Tracker Mini available at a very appealing price – I decided to try it. My concerns about button count proved to be less of an issue than the benefit of having a small, battery-powered Tracker I could use anywhere. On the couch, walking the lake, riding a bike at the gym – anywhere proved to be the proper location to iterate on an idea or work on a song. Shortly after I received the Tracker Mini the 2.0 firmware update came that added multiple synth engines – vastly expanding the capabilities.
But my experience with the Mini made me wonder if my concerns about the button count and user-interface wouldn’t be an issue on the m8 and if it would be a valuable addition to my toolbox. So when the pre-order window opened a few months ago I was damn near first in line. I recently received the m8 and after about a month of use I feel like it would be worth discussing each device in some depth and then comparing them in a non-scientific manner.
Links to the discussed items are:
Polyend Tracker Mini
Polyend Tracker Mini
I’m going to focus on the Tracker Mini because it is the most direct comparison to the m8. The Tracker Mini continues Polyend’s notable mission of “make Tracker sequencing approachable”. Note: I haven’t seen Polyend say as much in their messaging of the Tracker line but compared to some of the greater complexity (and flexibility) present with the m8, it certainly feels like this mission is demonstrated through their design.
As mentioned, it is very easy to get a sequence a number of Patterns, arrange them in the Song mode and have an arrangement going very quickly.
They’ve also taken steps improve the Quality of Life for people unfamiliar with Trackers. The ability to name Patterns as well as display values in decimal (opposed to hexadecimal) make arrangement and navigation much easier The Mini also uses Shift-combinations to help the User quickly navigate the workflow with a limited number of physical buttons. There’s also an intuitive Fill functionality that makes the placement of Notes or Effects within a Pattern a breeze.
Perhaps the most interesting feature of the Tracker Mini (and the Tracker+) is the ability to send multitrack audio signals over USB. Each of the eight Tracks is sent over USB as an individual stereo pair, as well as a dedicated stereo outputs for Mix, Reverb and Delay. This opens the Tracker Mini to a lot of additional production and mixing techniques. For example, with just an older iPad with the Camera Connection Kit and a license of AUM you can get eight stereo tracks sent into AUM for additional processing or mixing. As someone who tends to skew into ambient or experimental performances – the potential here is incredible.
The Mini also features 8 additional Midi-only tracks which can be used to communicate with external equipment or the newly added Synth Engines. This is a tremendous update because it means you can focus on using the 8 core Tracks for your Instruments – reserving them for sequencing the samples you have loaded into Instruments. Now, a caveat regarding the Synth engines on the Mini, you have eight voices maximum – shared across the three engines. You can get around this to some degree with the Perc engine – as that consumes only one Voice across all of it’ internal drum engines – but playing a three-note chord on the WTFM engine will consume nearly half of the voices, for example.
Dirtywave m8
Dirtywave m8
The m8 is a boutique instrument – released in small batches from Dirtywave out of California. If you want to support Dirtywave, you have to be ready and willing when the ordering window for the batches open up – which tends to be about every two to three months. Pricing on the second-hand market can vary wildly and I’d encourage you to be patient and wait for the next ordering window – rather than send someone on Reverb a ridiculous amount for a m8 model 02.
While smaller in form-factor and button count compared to the Tracker Mini, the workflow is very efficient and the shortcut keys are pretty consistent. A lot of the muscle memory you build for one screen tends to perform a similar function on another – which proves very efficient.
The m8 features 8 Tracks which can target Instruments set to play Samples, a wide variety of internal Synth engines – from the Macrosynth (a port of the Mutable Instruments’ Braids engines, bless Émilie Gilet) to the Hypersynth, Wavsynth and FM-Synth, the m8 is feature packed with gorgeous synthesizer engines. Also like the Mini, you can process external audio as well.
Composition in the m8 is also somewhat different than the Tracker. Where as the Tracker uses Patterns that are shared across the Tracks, the m8 uses freely assignable Patterns that feature Chains – with each Chain containing a sequence of Phrases. Patterns are decoupled from Chains – meaning that you could have Pattern 11 contain references to Chains 52, 53, 53 and 5A. This decoupling is powerful – allowing the user to try different sequences of Chains with ease.
The m8 also features two Playback modes – Live and Song. Live allows you to cue up any Pattern on the view for playback when it would be soonest applicable due to Pattern length. As of Version 4.0, Live also includes support for the Novation Launchpad MK3. This turns Live mode into a kind of clip-launching improvisation interface – which is great. I cannot overstate how joyful and intuitive this experience is.
Song mode works similar to Live mode but it begins playback for all Rows at the nearest applicable Pattern to the cursor and will continue sequentially downward through the Patterns until it can rest to the beginning of the Island. Note: I’m really not going to dive into what Island and Patterns are with Trackers. Suffice to say that the Island are not supported with the sequencing style on the Polyend Tracker at this time but they’re tremendously useful when you want to iterate through a concept or, using Live mode on the m8, repeat a Pattern.
The M8 also features four freely assignable Modulators per Instrument as well as a Table per-Instrument .Tables are a beast unto themselves and I have only begun to scratch the surface of what they make possible. If I were to vainly attempt to describe Tables in a simple way – a Table is like having another Sequence available with three Effects columns for further sequencing effects, note offsets and so-forth.
While the m8 does support Audio over USB, you are limited to a single stereo pair.
Comparison Verdict
My opinions here may change over time – as experimentation is an ongoing process. As of this juncture, however – I’ve been most impressed with the Dirtwave m8. It has overtaken the Tracker Mini as my travelling music companion – party due to it’s smaller size but also because the Live experience is… well, fun. I can recline on a bicycle at the gym, cue up some Patterns and iterate on a few ideas with a speed that I simply cannot with the Song structure of the Tracker Mini.
The synth engines on the m8 are also far more plentiful than on the Tracker Mini. Beyond the synths made possible by Mutable Instruments’ engines you also have Hypersynth (which allows you to make very lush chords) as well as a Wavetable synth with interpolation (something sorely missing on the Tracker’s Wavetable playback engine). However, you cannot use your own files in the m8 Wavetable synth at this time but I’ll gladly take a lush and featured Wavetable synth locked to supplied wavetables over the wholly limited Wavetable Engine on the Tracker Mini.
And then you have the m8 supporting three Effect columns per Chain and then the Tables – giving you three more Effect columns per Instrument (… and I didn’t even get started on using the Table or Auxiliary Table effect to change the Table during Instrument playback or playing a second table – sheesh). The m8 features complexity and experimentation in spades.
I think it’s fairly clear that Polyend set to make an approachable Tracker – which I appreciate. It has quality of life updates to the classic Tracker workflow that make song construction easy and appealing as well as a wide amount of stereo tracks made available over USB for further processing. But as of late, when I want to reach for something on the couch to try a new idea – or hook up a Launchpad and try those ideas in performance – the m8 is the clear winner.
