That’sPolyend’s new Play.
There are almost as many sequencers as there are opinions about the best kind.
And the Play, recently announced atBerlin’s Superbooth music show, is a weird one.
Polyend
It plays samples, but it cannot record them.
It can control synthesizers via MIDI, but it has no built-in sound generators.
And yet it’s one of the most interesting sequencers to appear in a while.
Polyend
It proves that focus, not an excess of features, can be a benefit rather than a hindrance.
“Personally, I think it’s a great gear.
“It’s the sequencer here that is really turning the trick.
Sequencers
First, a little look at what sequencers do.
Its a bit of a chicken and egg situation.
Is electronic music loop-based and repetitive because it uses sequencers, or the other way around?
The Play works like this: You get a big grid of light-up buttons and a bunch of knobs.
You choose a sound, then tap any grid button to place it on that step.
In the case of the Play, this is a kind of guided generative music.
It can also change any applied audio effects.
This is applied anew every time a bar plays through.
The Random control is a kind of one-time dice-roll that can mix up your selected tracks.
Once you get a result you like, you hit the save button to keep it.
In this way, the Play invites playful interaction with the equipment.
The user (you) and the machine interact to create something either of you could have done alone.
In 2004, musician Tom Jenkinson, aka Squarepusher,published an essayin Flux magazine.
InCollaborating With Machines, Jenkinson posits that the machine is as active in the creative process as the artist.
That is, its limitations and its design force the musician to use it in a certain way.
This is true even of older instruments.
“Who uses Samples and doesn’t chop them up and resample these days?”
But its focus, and the flow states it enables, are exactly what a musician loves.
And that’s a pretty rare feature in today’s music boxes.
