Our review unit originally came with eight different digital synth engines, which Synth allows you to play three simultaneously, but when Polyend updated the firmware to 1.3, they added a new one, DWA, a dual wavetable synthesizer developed for more experimental sonic flavors. The original engines include ACD, based on a combination of the Roland SH-101 and the TB-303, but more 101; FAT a three oscillator synth with slight detuning that hits its sweet spot with the SuperSaw waveform; WABS features two wavetable oscillators with a morph function; VAP is a Virtual Analog Polyphonic synth model based loosely on the Prophet-5; Wavetable FM is, you guessed it, a FM Synth with morphing capabilities; PMD is a Physical Modeling synth; PHZ is a Phase Distortion Synth based on the Casio CZ series; and finally, Grain is a granular synth to tackle more textured and visceral sounds.
Polyend is no stranger to a firmware update…
It’s not unusual for manufacturers these days to release products with the firmware not 100% perfect and Polyend is no stranger to a firmware update. However, unlike some companies, Polyend is not just squashing bugs or fixing usability problems, they’re also adding new features and re-evaluating their programming. This is one of the benefits of a long-term evaluation, we can actually track the improvements over time and see how it directly affects our reviewer’s experiences.
