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  • How I turned my DAW into an improv partner while producing my jazz albumThe jazz scene in my hometown of Manchester is open-minded and always evolving, but I discovered the genre while making hip-hop instrumentals and passing them to friends. I was listening to J Dilla, Madlib and Pete Rock, tracing those samples back to Ahmad Jamal, Herbie Hancock and Bill Evans. Jazz crept in that way – through the sampler. Eventually, I stopped digging for other people’s records and thought, ‘What if I could just record the thing I wanted to sample?’

    READ MORE: Pianist Matt Wilde’s Prophet Rev2 provided the “secret sauce” for his debut album

    That idea became the heart of my new album Find a Way. I wasn’t chasing a “jazz record” or an “electronic record”; instead, I took elements from those genres and discovered that there’s a lot more crossover in improvisation and music production than I first thought.

    Capturing raw material
    Most tracks started the same way: I’d sit at the Rhodes Mk1 that I restored, or my Yamaha U1, hit record in Ableton Live and play whatever came to mind for a long stretch. Afterwards, I’d pull out the phrases that felt good and build around them.
    My Prophet Rev2, meanwhile, sparked the title track. I set up a repeating sequence with slow modulation so it never felt static, then wrote harmony against that pattern. Ableton’s Session View makes that approach natural, so I could launch ideas, record everything into Arrangement, and improvise first, edit later.
    Image courtesy of Matt Wilde
    Why drums took over
    I recorded live drums for the album (the drummer, Oscar Ogden, was incredible), but once I began shaping tracks, I found myself programming the drum parts. Not to replace the human element, but to explore a more intricate, loop-based language with its own nuance. I still used bits of the live takes, resampled and chopped, yet programming became the focus
    My main engine was XLN Audio’s Addictive Drums. The Vintage Dead and Dry kits sit perfectly with the Rhodes, piano and Prophet parts, giving that tight, pitched, present tone. I’d choose something like the Ludwig Blue Oyster kick, tweak EQ just a touch, and leave character shaping to Live – Goodhertz Tupe for harmonic weight, Soundtoys Decapitator for bite, and a UAD Pultec for overall tone. Keeping the same chain across tracks made it feel like one drummer moving between rooms.
    For me, hi-hats are where so much feel and groove live. I’ll alternate articulations or vary velocity and timing manually so no two hits are identical. In my How I Actually Create Good Drums video, I demonstrate that process of going hit-by-hit until it grooves. Ableton’s MIDI editor gives you control over velocity and timing, and if you want a faster starting point, the Groove Pool or Velocity Device can add subtle micro-variations before you refine things by hand
    Image courtesy of Matt Wilde
    Drums that follow the music
    Rather than forcing the music to fit the drums, I let the drums follow the phrasing. If a piano stab lands early, I nudge the snare. If a trumpet phrase needs space, I mute the kick. It’s not an imitation of a live drummer but a composition shaped by performance.
    During a session with trumpeter Aaron Wood in Huddersfield, we kept it simple: trumpet, piano, Rhodes, laptop. The takes had that “could-fall-apart” excitement. In Live, I’d stretch or chop just enough to keep that energy – following his phrases with a snare-snare-snare, or thinning the kit so his tone could breathe. Because everything was in Session View, I could record those edits in real time and keep the interplay intact.
    Image courtesy of Matt Wilde
    Ableton has several features that genuinely suit an improviser’s mindset, and most of them shaped how I made Find a Way. Capture MIDI has become essential when I’m working with software instruments – it rescues ideas I’ve played but forgotten to record and turns those spontaneous moments into material I can actually use. When I’m playing hardware like the Nord Piano 5 or Prophet, those ideas usually come in as audio, but the same “capture first” mentality still applies: I record long passes, then pull out phrases that feel alive and build from there. Recording from Session View into Arrangement keeps that performance-led approach going. Instead of programming parts bar by bar, I can “play” the arrangement in real time and let the feel dictate the structure. And when I move into editing, Live’s Groove Pool is a quick way to introduce subtle timing and velocity variations before I refine everything by hand. Push 3, especially with MPE and standalone mode, has become part of that workflow too; I can sketch expressive ideas away from the laptop, then drop them straight back into Live when I’m ready to shape the track. All of these tools support a process where improvisation leads and production follows, which is exactly how this record came together.
    Add my regular front-end – Soyuz 013 pair for upright piano, Genelec 8040s for monitoring, and AIAIAI TMA-2 wireless headphones for cable-free tracking – and it’s a setup built for spontaneity.
    Image: Press
    Imperfection as feel
    The temptation in-the-box is to try and polish everything, but I try not to. I like the “accidents” that can transform the feel of a song, like a clap that lands slightly late, a tambourine tucked behind the snare, a one-off foot-close hat. Sometimes I’ll delay a layered clap by a few milliseconds so it “answers” the snare rather than lands on it.
    One thing that’s helped me bring more life into programmed music is starting with a long, unbroken take before I even think about drums. I sit at the piano or Rhodes, record a long take, and let the harmonic phrasing lead. That performance becomes the structure the drums follow.
    I keep my drum chain consistent across tracks and focus on small timing and velocity shifts rather than heavy edits. Those little movements are usually where the human feel sits.
    And instead of programming an arrangement, I’ll perform it. Recording a pass from Session View into Arrangement feels like directing a band responding in real time and shaping the track as it unfolds.
    This workflow helps me keep programmed music connected to the instinctive, improvisational side of playing.
    Image courtesy of Matt Wilde
    Closing thought
    Working this way made it easier to enter a flow state. I found myself sitting at the piano or Rhodes most days, pressing record and letting those long improvised passes become raw material. Over time they felt almost like daily sketches — loose ideas I could return to, shape, and eventually build full tracks from.
    Ableton began to feel less like a DAW and more like another instrument in that process, giving me space to follow the phrasing wherever it wanted to go. Keeping consistent chains on each instrument meant the mix developed as I played, which freed up headspace and let the music unfold without second-guessing.
    Listening back to Find a Way, it feels honest. I can hear those early sketches in the final tracks — the spontaneity in the keys, the interplay with the drums, the moments we captured with the live players we did bring in. I’m proud of how we arrived here, and it’s a workflow I’ll carry forward.
    If you want to hear how that approach sounds, I’ve broken down the Find a Way sessions and workflow on my YouTube channel.
    The post How I turned my DAW into an improv partner while producing my jazz album appeared first on MusicTech.

    Here’s how Ableton, programmed drums, and a restored Rhodes shaped Matt Wilde’s Find a Way – read on to find out more

  • Late To the Party - Albums You Wish You'd Discovered EarlierSometimes an album can sneak up on you and become a part of the soundtrack of your life, even years later. We at AllMusic embrace these late discoveries and proudly (and in some cases abashedly) present some of our personal "late to the party" albums. Don't let them pass you by.

    Kicking yourself. That's usually the feeling. When you finally sit down with an album that changes your life, you think "Why wasn't I listening to this the whole time?" So many…

  • Pro Tools templates: How to set them up to streamline your workflow
    Learn how to streamline your music production process in Pro Tools with templates, whether you're recording, mixing, or mastering.

    Learn how to streamline your music production process with Pro Tools templates, whether you're recording, mixing, or creating vocal chains.

  • AudioThing B00GAB00GA is a studio and live instrument made in collaboration with Hainbach, designed to create experimental rhythms and tonal textures. Inspired by a rare piece of lab equipment, the Hewlett-Packard Word Generator 8006A, it offers a different way to sequence clicks, pulses, and noise. Use it to create tight grooves, off-kilter beats, and forever shifting micro-sound patterns. YouTube Video Read More

  • ETH falls to 4-month low under $3K: Is the bull market over?ETH price fell below $3,000 for the first time since July. Cointelegraph explains what is required for a trend reversal.

    A crumbling crypto market and concerning global macroeconomic scenarios are factors in ETH’s decline below $3,000. Is the bull market over?

  • Building A Smart Speaker Outside The Corporate CloudIf you’re not worried about corporate surveillance bots scraping your shopping list and manipulating you through marketing, you can buy any number of off-the-shelf smart speakers for your home. Alternatively, you can roll your own like [arpy8] did, and keep your life a little more private.
    The build is based around an ESP32 microcontroller. It connects to the ‘net via its inbuilt Wi-Fi connection, and listens out for your voice with an INMP441 omnidirectional microphone module. The audio data is trucked off to a backend server running a Whisper speech-to-text model. The text is then passed to Google’s Gemini 2.5 Flash large language model. The response generated is passed to the Piper Neural Voice text-to-speech engine, sent back to the ESP32, and spat out via the device’s DAC output and a speaker attached to an LM386 amplifier. Basically, anything you could ask Gemini, you can do with this device.
    By virtue of using a commercial large language model, it’s not perfectly private by any means. Still, it’s at least a little farther removed than using a smart speaker that’s directly logged in to your Amazon/Google/Hulu/Beanstikk account. Files are on Github for those eager to dive into the code. We’ve seen some other fun builds along these lines before, too. Video after the break.

    If you’re not worried about corporate surveillance bots scraping your shopping list and manipulating you through marketing, you can buy any number of off-the-shelf smart speakers for your hom…

  • Meta releases a new tool to protect reels creators from having their work stolenOn Monday, Meta introduced Facebook content protection, a mobile tool designed to detect when a creator's original reels posted to Facebook are being used without their permission. The new tool extends to Instagram too.

    On Monday, Meta introduced Facebook content protection, a mobile tool designed to detect when a creator's original reels posted to Facebook are being used without their permission. The new tool extends to Instagram too.

  • Serato DJ: Host of new Crate management options lead its 4.0 updateFollowing a public beta period, Serato DJ’s latest update is good to go. With the company labelling Serato DJ 4.0 as “the biggest update yet to the software’s library interface”, the improvements to both the Pro and Lite editions include a slew of Crate management features and powerful new tools to streamline your workflow.
    Inspired by its user base, the new update welcomes onboard feedback from customer support tickets, Reddit threads and other ideas directly from the Serato community. Most significantly, the DJ software has improved its Crate management, allowing far more flexibility when sorting, searching and organising your Crates.

    READ MORE: Is Neural DSP Mantra just another channel strip plugin? Not exactly

    In terms of organisation, you can now sort your Crates alphabetically, by date or even lay out your own customised order. There’s also the option to colour-code your Crates to make it even easier to navigate through your tracks.
    Better yet, a new shortcut option also allows you to jump straight into your favourite Crates and tracks, which can be accessed via a handy right click menu. Even if a track isn’t worthy of being in your ‘favourites’, there’s another way of ranking your tracks by preference. You can give each track its own emoji-rating, making it easier than ever to scan through your Crates to curate a killer set.
    The update also adds the ability to see the total playtime and number of tracks within a Crate within the Crate’s footer. This should be a total game changer if you’re in a rush, as you can just scan through your Crate info without having to actually open each individual Crate. Alongside that, you can even right click on a track to see any other Crates it features in, without having to hunt around.

    Speaking of hopping in and out of Crates, there’s also a new option to add certain streaming tracks to your Serato DJ Crates. That means you don’t have to stress about hopping between Crates and Spotify playlists in the middle of a set, allowing you to fully keep your head in the game.
    There’s also a new ability to ‘analyse’ your tracks. This means Serato can automatically detect the BPM, key and more about a track when you import a track into your library.
    As well as the new organisational perks, Serato has introduced a new Slip Release feature to customise your release times in Slip mode. It should allow for some even more creative scratching potential – but this is one of the few features only available with the Pro version of Serato DJ.
    The only other Pro-exclusive update is the expansive Crate Search. All other Crate organisational features, however, are included on Serato DJ Lite 4.0.
    For more information, head to Serato.
    The post Serato DJ: Host of new Crate management options lead its 4.0 update appeared first on MusicTech.

    While Crate searching and the new Slip Release are Pro-exclusive features, the entire update is full of new tools to streamline your DJ sets.

  • Genelec, Dolby Atmos, and Composer Niles Luther Bring Venice to Life at the Brooklyn MuseumThe Brooklyn Museum’s Monet and Venice, the largest exhibition of Monet’s work in New York in over 25 years, is offering visitors more than a visual experience. The exhibition culminates in an immersive 4.1.4 Dolby Atmos® sound installation designed by composer-in-residence Niles Luther and powered by Genelec monitors, blending sight and sound to create a multisensory encounter with Monet’s Venetian masterpieces.

    Co-curated by Lisa Small, the Brooklyn Museum’s Senior Curator of European Art, the exhibition presents Monet’s 1908 Venetian paintings alongside centuries of depictions of the city, from Canaletto to the early 20th century. “This is the largest museum presentation of Monet’s work in 25 years in New York City,” Small said. “We wanted to create something that felt both emotional and innovative, something you can feel as much as see. The Genelec system and Niles’s score made that possible.”

    In the final gallery, visitors are enveloped by Luther’s original composition, rendered in a 4.1.4 Dolby Atmos format. The system includes four Genelec 8330 two-way studio monitors at ear level (front-left, front-right, rear-left, rear-right), four Genelec 8320 overhead monitors, and a Genelec 7350 subwoofer, all calibrated via Genelec Loudspeaker Manager (GLM) software. The configuration allows the music to flow naturally throughout the space, overcoming the challenges of a large, reverberant gallery.

    As Luther explained, “I wrote a symphonic multi-channel, 4.1.4, down-rendered Dolby Atmos installation in the final room where Monet's Venice paintings reside... When you use sufficiently advanced technology and it’s deployed in a very careful, meticulous and thoughtful way, you get to this point where it almost becomes an illusion. … When you walk into that space, does it stop your heart? Does it make you catch your breath? We have achieved that in the final gallery room.”

    The composer described the creative challenge of translating the paintings into music. “From the creative side, as a composer, part of the challenge was how do I take what’s contained in these paintings, and then translate them into the language of music. … All of this was possible because we were able to calibrate it within GLM, and I was able to take my master file and just come into the museum and it just plays back beautifully on the calibrated system.”

    The use of Genelec’s Smart Active Monitoring system was critical in creating a natural and transparent listening environment, allowing Luther and the museum’s technical team to refine frequency balance and control reverberation. Paul Stewart, Senior Technical Sales Manager at Genelec Inc., highlighted the importance of precision monitoring. “This installation beautifully demonstrates how precision monitoring can elevate the emotional impact of art. Genelec systems are designed to disappear sonically, and what remains is the artist’s intent,” he said.

    Small emphasized the uniqueness of the installation within the museum setting: “It sounds incredible. I mean, the symphony is beautiful. The paintings are beautiful. The design in the gallery and the speakers just makes the experience what it is... You won’t get too many other Monet exhibitions where a full-scale symphony is part of the experience.”

    Monet and Venice runs through February 1, 2026, at the Brooklyn Museum. The exhibition offers visitors a rare opportunity to experience one of Monet’s most iconic series not only visually but through an enveloping, symphonic soundscape.

    Read the Monet and Venice Genelec case study HERE.

    The post Genelec, Dolby Atmos, and Composer Niles Luther Bring Venice to Life at the Brooklyn Museum first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

  • Musixmatch owner seized on rival’s Russia connection in Spotify talks, alleges court filingDispute may relate to LyricFind's historical provision of lyric services to Russian service, VKontakte
    Source

    Dispute may relate to LyricFind’s historical provision of lyric services to Russian service…

  • Gospel Musicians launch Black Friday Sale (up to 70% OFF)
    Gospel Musicians is running its annual Black Friday Sale, offering 50% off a wide range of plugins, expansion packs, and production tools for macOS and Windows. Gospel Musicians are known for their keyboardist- and musician-focused virtual instruments, so their Black Friday sale is always worth a look. This year includes discounts on some of their [...]
    View post: Gospel Musicians launch Black Friday Sale (up to 70% OFF)

    Gospel Musicians is running its annual Black Friday Sale, offering 50% off a wide range of plugins, expansion packs, and production tools for macOS and Windows. Gospel Musicians are known for their keyboardist- and musician-focused virtual instruments, so their Black Friday sale is always worth a look. This year includes discounts on some of their

  • TIDAL Introduces “Upload,” “Spotlight,” and a $100k Contest for Indie ArtistsTIDAL's new feature gives creators direct access to the platform, bypassing traditional distributor gatekeepers, and incentivizes artists with contests and editorial coverage.
    The post TIDAL Introduces “Upload,” “Spotlight,” and a $100k Contest for Indie Artists appeared first on Hypebot.

    Discover the exciting features of TIDAL Upload. Artists can now upload their tracks, engage with listeners directly, and enter to win $100k!

  • SOS Awards: Cast your vote! Voting for the SOS Awards closes on 30 November 2025 — please do take a look and have your say on the best kit of 2025! 

    Voting for the SOS Awards closes on 30 November 2025 — please do take a look and have your say on the best kit of 2025! 

  • “Making professional-grade monitoring more approachable”: Berlin’s EVE Audio launches EXO Series of studio monitorsBerlin-based studio monitor purveyor EVE Audio has unveiled the EXO Series, a line of monitors which sets out to “make professional-grade monitoring more approachable”, with modern music creators in mind.
    Comprising four models – the EXO 24, EXO 25, EXO 27 and EXO 28 – the series is designed to combine “advanced acoustic engineering with hands-on usability”, with a newly developed Precision Air Motion Transformer (AMT) tweeter at the heart of each unit.
    This – paired with a Guided Directivity Control (GDC) waveguide – essentially offers a wider sweet spot, meaning it’s no problem if you aren’t sitting perfectly centred between your stereo setup.

    READ MORE: BandLab’s Membership drops to its lowest price ever for Black Friday

    In addition, each monitor can be adjusted for room tuning and calibration, with settings including EQ, filters and volume easily tweakable via a rear OLED display and SMART-knob. There’s also Ethernet connectivity for “future software control”.
    Credit: EVE Audio
    Complementing the Precision AMT tweeter in each unit is a custom-designed coated aluminium woofer and high-headroom amplification, resulting in “detailed, punchy lows and clean, precise highs”, says EVE Audio.
    Each monitor also sports EVE’s Low Diffraction Enclosure (LDE) design – featuring rounded edges to reduce reflections.
    Credit: EVE Audio
    The EXO Series is designed to integrate seamlessly with modern studio setups, with balanced XLR, unbalanced RCA, and S/PDIF digital I/O compatibility. Each unit also has wake-on-signal and wake-on-LAN functions, so it’ll power up automatically when you start your session.
    “With EXO, we set out to make professional-grade monitoring more approachable: monitors that sound honest, translate well, and fit naturally into any workflow,” says Roland Stenz, CEO at EVE Audio. “Now that they’re shipping, we can’t wait to hear how creators make them part of their studios.”
    If you’ve read this far you’ll probably be interested in reading some technical specifics, huh? Here we go…
    EXO 24
    Woofer: 4”
    Frequency range: 54 Hz – 24 kHz
    Max SPL: 102 dB
    Ideal for: Compact studios, mobile setups
    EXO 25
    Woofer: 5”
    Frequency range: 44 Hz – 24 kHz
    Max SPL: 110 dB
    Ideal for: Small to mid-size rooms
    EXO 27 
    Woofer: 6.5”
    Frequency range: 41 Hz – 24 kHz
    Max SPL: 116 dB
    Ideal for: All-round production work
    EXO 28
    Woofer: 8”
    Frequency range: 37 Hz – 24 kHz
    Max SPL: 120 dB
    Ideal for: Large control rooms, bass-heavy projects
    Pricing and availability
    The EVE Audio EXO Series is available now via authorised dealers and distributors, with MSRPs (Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price) starting at around €479 (approx. £422) for the EXO 24.
    For more information, head to EVE Audio.

    The post “Making professional-grade monitoring more approachable”: Berlin’s EVE Audio launches EXO Series of studio monitors appeared first on MusicTech.

    Comprising four monitors ranging size and power, the EXO Series combines “advanced acoustic engineering with hands-on usability”.

  • Polyend’s MESS gives you wildly creative effects sequencing£549 / $599 / €599, polyend.com
    Polyend has never been one to follow the herd. From the world’s first standalone hardware tracker to its own novel synth architectures, this Polish company has a knack for reimagining what electronic music tools can do.
    Its latest release, MESS (standing for Multi-Effect Step Sequencer), is no exception. More than just an effects box, the MESS is a cradle for experimentation through sequencing, modulating, and straight-up mangling audio in real time.
    At first glance, MESS promises a tantalising blend of high-end multi-effects and step-based control that aims to offer something truly different. The real question is whether all this sequencing power actually translates into creative payoff — or if it just makes a mess of your workflow.
    Image: James Langey
    Getting started with MESS
    Unboxing MESS, I’m pleasantly greeted by a weighty yet compact unit. The build quality feels premium: a beautiful brushed steel faceplate and a sharp, vibrant screen.
    Two smooth, range-limited pots handle input gain and mix, while four infinite encoders handle effects parameters. Polyend has opted for clicky encoders rather than smooth for these, which I like — it makes it easier to precisely dial in effects, while sweeping the knob more aggressively results in a bigger step change for quicker edits. I was expecting a frustrating battle with the touch buttons throughout use, but they’re surprisingly responsive, requiring a light touch to activate.
    There’s no power supply included, which feels odd at this price point. Those with dedicated pedalboard PSUs won’t mind, but synth- or keys-focused users might. Another minor stumble: the input is a single stereo jack rather than two mono jacks — presumably to save space for the EXP input — so you might need to think twice about cabling, depending on your setup.
    MESS has four effects ‘lanes’, which can be routed in series, parallel, or dual parallel. You can leave effects static or hit the ‘play’ footswitch to run the sequencer.
    I begin my MESS testing with guitar, flicking through factory presets to mixed reception. Some sounds are too weird, while others I’m not sure are doing anything much at all. On six strings, I’m not convinced. But this is when my mind begins to open — I wonder what this would sound like on drums? Synth? Even the mix bus?
    I hook up a Korg Monologue and a Teenage Engineering PO-32 and continue down the rabbit hole, and MESS quickly reveals its aptitude for mangling drum loops.

    What effects does Polyend MESS have?
    MESS boasts over 120 effects, bucketed into various categories. Parameters for each are fairly simple, with two or three at most.
    While there’s standard fare like choruses, reverbs, delays, and filters, I’m instantly drawn to the more unusual effects. Under the ‘Shaper’ category, ‘Rectifier’ and ‘Redux’ grab my attention, the latter adding a prominent downsampled texture:

    That said, a little can go a long way. With the panning effect, I add depth and complexity to arpeggiated guitar chords:

    Likewise, a humble low-pass filter does a lot of heavy lifting on a simple bassline:

    Moving to MESS’ more unique tricks, the two Pitch effects add wonderful glitchy character, although there’s a touch of latency that’s worth keeping in mind for live performance:

    The two ‘Spectralizer’ effects, Expander and Screamer, are the most unusual of the bunch. They don’t seem to do much until I follow the manual’s advice to try them on drums, creating warped, digital timbres that enhance an otherwise simple loop.

    The various saturation types will likely leave guitarists wanting, and there’s a slight digital sheen to the reverbs — but on the whole, MESS’ arsenal of effects impresses even without any sequencing.

    Sequencing effect parameters with MESS
    Speaking of sequencing, this is MESS’ distinguishing feature. The sequencer is programmed using 16 touch buttons on the front, and it doesn’t take me long to get to grips with the process.
    I love the step length feature. With each effects lane independent, MESS presents intriguing polyrhythmic opportunities. I have a lot of fun with this on various sources:

    It’s easy to imagine MESS as a mainstay within my percussion workflow, and I could spend hours listening to its evolving, rhythmic modulation. You can also set probability for each step, injecting randomness into your sequence. On the whole, the process feels effortless, each tweak instantly rewarding you with shifting grooves and textures.
    Melodic material is trickier — results are either too subtle or too chaotic, and it’s hard to find the sweet spot with many of the effects. I try Particle Sample and Tape Delay on ambient pads, adding pleasant movement and complexity, though things get a little unwieldy once I start sequencing delay time:

    Despite the relatively streamlined sequencing workflow, sequencing pitched material often feels awkward. In this context, many effects resist truly musical modulation, and sequencing parameters from scratch quickly becomes a barrier to experimentation — though with future updates, the process could become far more fluid.
    A few quirks cause further frustrations. Changing the lane’s effect deletes existing sequence data, which makes it impossible to quickly audition sounds. There’s no mute function for individual tracks either, instead requiring a manual workaround by riding the effect lane’s gain control. However, this function is being implemented soon in firmware Version 1.1.
    Minor drawbacks aside, the welcome news is MESS’ firmware is still at Version 1.0, so there’s an opportunity for improvement. I’d love to see Polyend add some kind of ‘randomise steps’ feature in a later update to double down on its role as an ideas box in your setup, as well as a way to ramp/glide between sequenced parameters instead of hard step changes.
    Image: James Langley
    Alternatives to Polyend MESS
    Ultimately, MESS’ price is probably the clincher for most buying decisions. At £549, it’s certainly not cheap. Given the myriad multi-effects on the market today, does Polyend deserve your hard-earned cash? Well, it comes down to use case:
    Countless options from Zoom, Boss, and Mooer cost a fraction of the price and cover live performance or guitar-focused needs. You could even pick up a used Line 6 Helix LT for around £600, with deep preset/snapshot functionality and solid amp simulation. For instant audio transformation that forgoes MESS’ sequencing capabilities, boutique pedals like Hologram’s Microcosm or Chroma Console, and Chase Bliss’ Lost + Found deliver experimental sound design with more immediacy than MESS — and at a lower cost too.
    If it’s mainly motion you’re after, the 8 Step Program from Electro-Harmonix brings step sequencing to any pedalboard for about £130, controlling other hardware via EXP or CV inputs. Tinkerers might prefer Empress’ modular Zoia. Its patch-building environment offers near-infinite possibilities, and with a built-in sequencer module, it can rival much of what MESS does — though you’ll need to build that functionality yourself.
    Don’t overlook plugins. Cableguys ShaperBox 3, Sugar Bytes Effectrix, and Devious Machines Infiltrator 2 all cost around £100. They’re quicker and easier to use, though they lack the tactile immediacy of a hardware box.
    With all that said, MESS remains a compelling purchase for many, especially given Polyend’s solid record of updating and improving its devices’ firmware.
    Workflow quirks and the high price remain sticking points, but it’s an incredibly powerful box. The payoff for rhythmic content is often extraordinary. And with careful tweaking, it can reshape melodic input into rich, evolving soundscapes, too — though the path there is less straightforward.
    Undoubtedly, MESS delivers moments of brilliance, but only if you’re willing to wrestle with it. It already feels indispensable for percussion-driven experimentation. For everything else, it’s a tougher sell — but with the right refinements, it could one day shine just as brightly on melodic material.

    Key Features

    120+ effects including modulation, delay, reverb, shaping, and more
    150 factory presets and space for 1,000 in total
    4 effect lanes per patch
    Apply effects with or without sequencing
    Tap tempo, bypass, and sequencer play footswitch controls
    Assignable macro knob per preset
    Sequence length and step probability for random variation
    Single mono/stereo in, dual mono out
    Expression pedal input
    MIDI in/out via TRS Type B
    USB-C port for USB MIDI to a computer
    MicroSD card reader for storing presets and data
    Dimensions: 18 cm x 12 cm x 5.7 cm
    Weight: 0.93 kg

    The post Polyend’s MESS gives you wildly creative effects sequencing appeared first on MusicTech.

    On drums it’s a revelation, but elsewhere the results of the Polyend MESS are less certain – read the review here