Old Reliable! :-)
Rediscovered, again. And, again, I grow and Poly 2 grows with me!
Every time I think I’ve come to a limitation of Poly 2, it turns out that it was really mine. lol
Right now I’m listening to one of the moody’ish ambient music loops I’e ever heard. ‘Swollen Pads’. I’ve made 6 variations of their original. So much fun on an iPhone 12 on iOS 17.6 and not a single problem and the ‘smartest’ iPhone music app ever! It’s as if I had given them both a features list as well as the perfect iPhone user interface, documentation, and sound quality. Right here in the ‘palm’ of my hand, watching the World translating it into sound.
Every time I think I’ve come to a limitation of Poly 2, it turns out that it was really mine. lol
Right now I’m listening to one of the moody’ish ambient music loops I’e ever heard. ‘Swollen Pads’. I’ve made 6 variations of their original. So much fun on an iPhone 12 on iOS 17.6 and not a single problem and the ‘smartest’ iPhone music app ever! It’s as if I had given them both a features list as well as the perfect iPhone user interface, documentation, and sound quality. Right here in the ‘palm’ of my hand, watching the World translating it into sound.
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Unique & fun but some limitations
I recently returned to the Poly 2 sequencer and it still stands out as a unique, creative tool. It’s a really fun app to explore. Customization took a little time to figure out, but I’m very happy with the overall design and development.
One issue -which after 5+ years still hasn’t been addressed- is the lack of sustain/voice ring-out when the transport is stopped.
When playback is stopped—whether through the internal transport or an external hardware MIDI sequencer—the project’s voices do not sustain or ring out. I couldn’t find any updated preference settings to address this. Taking into consideration delay and reverb settings applied for each track, I would expect the voices from each of the eight tracks to sustain naturally when stopped or paused. To be candid, I had totally forgotten about this until I came back to the app.
A limited workaround is to switch to an empty pattern, which lets the active patterns ring out. However, this is restrictive since one of the 16 pattern slots must be allocated for this purpose. Even then, it doesn’t fully solve the issue: if the transport is stopped mid-sustain, the entire project still cuts off instead of letting the tails fade naturally. You have to wait until all voices finish ringing out before stopping. This is worth noting for live performance or recording, unless you’re employing an alternative DSP option to compensate.
Lastly, as an alternative workaround that retains use of all 16 patterns, you could modify the patterns in real time by changing their playback length values to something other than INF in order to close out the set. It feels a bit counterintuitive, but it’s another option. Just wanted to pass this along.
It’s not a dealbreaker for me—I can now address it with an analog pedal or by syncing another FX app—but I wonder if the absence of this feature has impacted the app’s ability to attract or retain users. I realize it may be too late to submit this as a feature request, but overall, this is still a great, unique app and a real joy to work with. Well done, James! I still get a lot out of this app.
One issue -which after 5+ years still hasn’t been addressed- is the lack of sustain/voice ring-out when the transport is stopped.
When playback is stopped—whether through the internal transport or an external hardware MIDI sequencer—the project’s voices do not sustain or ring out. I couldn’t find any updated preference settings to address this. Taking into consideration delay and reverb settings applied for each track, I would expect the voices from each of the eight tracks to sustain naturally when stopped or paused. To be candid, I had totally forgotten about this until I came back to the app.
A limited workaround is to switch to an empty pattern, which lets the active patterns ring out. However, this is restrictive since one of the 16 pattern slots must be allocated for this purpose. Even then, it doesn’t fully solve the issue: if the transport is stopped mid-sustain, the entire project still cuts off instead of letting the tails fade naturally. You have to wait until all voices finish ringing out before stopping. This is worth noting for live performance or recording, unless you’re employing an alternative DSP option to compensate.
Lastly, as an alternative workaround that retains use of all 16 patterns, you could modify the patterns in real time by changing their playback length values to something other than INF in order to close out the set. It feels a bit counterintuitive, but it’s another option. Just wanted to pass this along.
It’s not a dealbreaker for me—I can now address it with an analog pedal or by syncing another FX app—but I wonder if the absence of this feature has impacted the app’s ability to attract or retain users. I realize it may be too late to submit this as a feature request, but overall, this is still a great, unique app and a real joy to work with. Well done, James! I still get a lot out of this app.
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Wonderful Workflow
This is a great app. I never do reviews, but this is a lovely gem of software art. It opens up a completely novel and creative way of making music. Beautiful.
Lovely app
Enjoyed so many hours on this app, brilliant user interface that invites experimentation and exploration. My only gripe would be the sample importing tool could be better, feeling clunky compared to other apps. The ability to preview samples before importing them would help a lot when dealing with large sample packs on iPad. Doesn’t affect anything once you have the right samples loaded so I can only give this 5 stars.
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wow!
one of my fav music making apps. i really love it!
This is the BEST application ever created
I just installed Poly 2 last night, forgot about it immediately, and then opened it a couple of hours ago after stumbling upon a YouTube video of Oscilloscope Music (did not know that existed, although I use an Oscilloscope App). Anyway, this is EXACTLY the kind of application I was looking for and hoping existed. As a percussion ensemble composer and arranger with 20 years of drumline and pit behind me, I’m ready to bow out gracefully and start something new.
That being said, I’m still familiarizing myself with navigating the interface, (quite a bit going on, haha), but I’m sure rereading the help tab as I go will…help. lol.
I’d like to make a YouTube demonstration/explanation instructional video for the creator with their permission. (Monetize my video, you keep the revenue to pay you for creating the app)
That being said, I’m still familiarizing myself with navigating the interface, (quite a bit going on, haha), but I’m sure rereading the help tab as I go will…help. lol.
I’d like to make a YouTube demonstration/explanation instructional video for the creator with their permission. (Monetize my video, you keep the revenue to pay you for creating the app)
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Fc.
Fcj
Encore
C’est bon la musique
Beautiful
A work of art, so unique and surprisingly powerful once you get to grips with it. You can really build up some great progressions.
Innovate, inspirational, amazing
A unique touch interface encourages live performance, a nice internal synth with FX and midi in/out for even greater versatility. I use it to drive my hardware synths and a midi keyboard to trigger the built-in ARP.
Buy it, learn it, use it!
Buy it, learn it, use it!
Another disappearing dev
No Logic functionality , another in a series of disappearing devs and orphaned apps. Just like BeatMaker 3 and Atom 2. Buy a computer and Ableton instead of disappearing devs and their obsolete iOS apps.
Great app!!!
Brilliant!!!…..can be very deep….just what you want for ambient soundscapes.
Cooking with gas
Great idea with good quality samples
Please let me play it looks so good
This crashes upon opening plz fix
Not compatible w/ Logic, no update in 10 months
Anybody home?
Easily one of the best music production tools
I love this app and am using it to create several soundtracks - this is a beautiful software that allows you to create some dreamy samples and loops and some great ambience. A must buy for iPad musicians.
Great app request M1 compatibility
Please open this up, so we can use it on the Mac M1
Innovative but
Original sequencer instrument sampler
But ui to small for an efficient using
What a pitty
The app i so nice
But ui to small for an efficient using
What a pitty
The app i so nice
Very clever but too many icons
Very clever but too many icons that have mysterious meanings. Too hard to figure out - becomes annoying - deleted.
i like it so much😊👍
the app has quite a lot of potential. a granulizer would be cool and the possibility to create a whole song. note repeat and vinyl effects would be good. generally more effects. Anyway, this app is totally awesome
