Polyend Synth

It’s a synth called Synth!

In recent years, Polyend have become known for their sequencing and tracker products, namely Play and Tracker. In my recent review of the Tracker+, Polyend had added some new digital synthesizers to their tracker system. At the same time, they were busy developing several more algorithms and, in a move not rivalled since my mate Brian named his dog ‘Dog’, have packed them into ‘Synth’.

Synths, plural, might have been a better name choice because this is a three‑part multitimbral device, where each part uses one of eight different synth engines. Instead of a traditional keyboard, the Synth uses a 5x12 grid of silicone pads, which can be configured to play all three synth parts together in rather clever ways. The idea is that the three different sounds become one playable, interactive performance grid. Throw in effects, arpeggiation and sequencing into the mix, and you have a surprisingly configurable synthesis playground.

Synth Er Size

The Synth is a desktop unit measuring 282 x 207 x 35mm and largely follows the design philosophy of Polyend’s other desktop products like the Play and Tracker+. A small but informative colour LCD screen is used for editing along with touch‑sensitive encoders to change values and buttons to navigate. There are three dedicated encoders for master volume, tempo and pitch‑bend, three macro encoders, and nine soft encoders that follow whatever is shown on screen. Some dual‑use functions are accessed with a Shift key, but it is intuitive overall with some unavoidable menu‑diving.

The Synth is three‑part multitimbral and each part can be assigned one of eight synthesizers. These parts can then be mixed, panned and sent to three effects: chorus, delay and reverb. Let’s take a look at each of the synth engines.

The Synth is 100 percent digital, but the synthesis engines cover virtual analogue, wavetable, FM, phase distortion, granular, sample playback and physical modelling.

On the analogue side, there is ACD, which is inspired by 101s and 303s based around sawtooth and square oscillators, a sub‑oscillator, noise, pulse‑width modulation and a choice of low‑pass filters. FAT is more Minimoog‑inspired, with three oscillators, noise and ladder filters. VAP is a Prophet‑style polysynth with dual oscillators, soft‑sync and multi‑mode filters.

On the more digital side, we have WAVS, a wavetable synth with dual wavetables, morphing, warping and multi‑mode filters. WTFM is a 2‑op FM synthesizer with multiple feedback paths and waveshapes. PMD is a physical modelling engine capable of strings, bells, plucks, drums, breathy sounds and more. PHZ is a modern phase‑distortion engine with some unique waveshaping options. And finally, GRAIN is a granular sample‑playback engine capable of tempo‑sync rhythmic textures and the usual cloud‑based atmospheres. All in all, there is a lot of synth to choose from and plenty of excellent presets to get you started.

The synthesis engines generally share some common features. Envelopes and LFOs are often the same, although some engines offer more than others. The filter sections are often the same, too. Some engines share the same low‑pass designs, and some share the same multi‑mode designs. Each part also has an optional 64‑step sequencer or arpeggiator.

Most (although not all) of the engines also have a modulation matrix with six slots and varying source and destination lists, depending on which synth you have loaded....