Polyend Step Drum Machine Pedal : First Impressions and Full Parameters Overview

Your first likely stop-off - is the 20 pre-programmed Song Presets - where there should really be more, but where New Car, and Loser in particular are suitable for most Pop/Rock applications. There are some other more idiosyncratic Beats in play, and I would have preferred to have a wider selection of available presets!

• New Car
• Steppa
• Fidelity
• Function
• Da House
• Primaries
• Tribal Break
• * Loser - My current favourite all-rounder
• Andre 2000
• Crystal
• Halftet
• Noise
• Chip 'n' Roll
• Jackin'
• Industry
• Softstep
• Shchewpeed
• The Game
• Cosmos
• Jumperz
• 21-1000 Empty Slots

• SONG - 1>1000
• INPUT - Mode, Channel, Expression Pedal
• MIDI - Clock In, Transport In, PC In, CC In, Clock Out, Transport Out
• SETTINGS - Less Brightness, Knob Preview
• MASTER FX - Reverb, Delay, Limiter, Limiter Threshold, Saturation, Custom
• FIRMWARE - Update Firmware, Versino 1.0.0, Build 225

The Range and Style of Punch-in Effects here is quite incredible - across 8 distinct Effect Categories. I'm not fully up to speed with all those varieties - but there are some super smart effects here - including your typical fills, intros, and outros. 

TUNE - Fifth up, Oct up, Fifth down, Oct down

FILTER - LP40, HP80

REARRANGER - Trigger, Hattrick, Averidger, Reorganize, Mashup, Clublab, Clubdub

REPEAT - Repeater, The End, Tripler, Breaker, Stomper, Tetris, Recognizer, Varibeat, Bloomer, The Void, Panorama

DELAY - One2One, Hafltime, Falling, Stereo Trip, Dim Delay, Piper, Robot, Twoism, Warblism, Rabbithole, Stringston, Metalhead, Shock, Pipestone

REVERB - Big Hall, Late Verb, Bright, Dark Matter, Ultracrisp, Later Guys, Freezer, Peas, Dissolver, Dark Star, Garage, Tunnel Vision, Bouncing Radiator

LOOP - Loop 1-4, and St Loop 1-4

MULTI - Hell'o, Uphill, Bath, Far Fest, Agressiva

This is where this devices really excels - with its superb range of different rhythms and beats.

• 2-Step : 8
• Breakbeat : 8
• Breaks : 64
• Drum & Bass : 16
• Dub & Reggae : 21
• Electro : 8
• Garage Rock : 9
• Glitch : 16
• Hip Hop : 10
• House : 16
• Jazz : 16
• Kit A : 16
• Latin & Exotic : 13
• Pop Rock : 15
• Post Rock : 16
• Punk : 16
• Techno : 8
• Trap : 6
• Weird : 50

These are essentially all the Drum and Percussion samples, synth stabs etc. - which amount to well over 2000 individual sounds / samples. This is very much a sample-based technology, and you're able to fairly easily upload your own samples.

I really think this device should have been Bluetooth-enabled with a handy mobile app - that's what this device is really screaming out for. It has decent connectivity - but relies overly on Mini SD and wired connection. This pedal would be a far stronger proposition as a Bluetooth-enabled device - for me the absence of Bluetooth is fairly notable here. 

• 808 : 8
• 909 : 8
• Artificial : 15
• Big Beat : 7
• Chiptune : 10
• Classic : 7
• Drum & Bass : 10
• Dub & Reggae : 10
• Dubstep : 10
• Foley : 13
• Garage : 10
• Glitch : 15
• Hip Hop : 11
• House : 10
• Industrial : 10
• Jazz : 10
• LoFI : 10
• Melodic HiFi : 10
• Minimal : 10
• Noise : 10
• Pop Rock : 11
• Techno : 10
• Trap : 10

So you get all these 24 Parameters to impact and accentuate individual steps, as well as some global Track controls. This really helps you to develop highly syncopated swing rhythms - and really allows you to get your 'Prince' on here. That's going to be the acid test for me in the long-term review for this device - how easy it is to reproduce some of Prince's key signature Linn Drum rhythms - starting with the 'When Doves Cry' Beat! Would have been extra special if this device had some with one of Prince's Rhythms - he was so influential in what he did, and obviously influenced later Beat Masters like Timbaland!

• Note
• Volume
• Reverb
• Delay
• Detune
• Panning
• Filter Cutoff
• Filter Resonance
• Bit Depth
• Overdrive
• Sample Start
• Sample End
• Microtune
• Sample Fade In
• Sample Fade Out
• Repeat Type
• Repeat Grid
• Chance
• Action
• Micromove
• Track Length
• Track Speed
• Track Swing
• Track Volume

The Polyend Step is the Drum Machine I always wanted! I had several Looper Pedals with Drums - where the Drums were never quite good enough or sufficiently prominent in the mix! With the combination of Polyend Step and Wetter Box - I'm able to deploy this with such a high degree of granularity - this is the Drum Sound I was always looking for!

I still find the operation of the Step is somewhat idiosyncratic - and I still find myself regularly consulting the manual. This article will be my new references really, and I will annotate with further notes as I make more discoveries and grow more accustomed to the intricacies of the Step Device. 

Polyend are very good at innovating and improving their firmware - and I except that to be the same case with this device. I would love a similar system to the Quad Cortex - where I can very rapidly beam in presets - without the clunkiness of uploading and downloading from a repository - and transferring via Mini SD Disc or USB-C - which seem like such a 90's thing for me. Surely we're well into the Bluetooth / Wireless era by now - any device that doesn't really feature that is part obsolete already surely.

There's definitely room for improvements here, but as is - the devices is still a thing of wonder. There's nothing quite like it out there currently - and whatever the mechanics of production - this Step device can really put out some superior drum sounds.

I can imagine many a solo player making great use of this device - in conjunction with a looper. And I think it's fine to have those devices separate - where you can easily sync via an 1/8" MIDI connection.

Another pet peeve is that there is no simple (i) access button to see a snapshot of everything that's going on - i.e. which Beat and Which Kit is being used at any particular time on each of the 4 Tracks -it should be much easier to view. There doesn't seem to be any way to ascertain what you're playing with - unless you deep-dive into the various menus. If you hear something you really like - you should be more instantly able to ascertain with Beat and which Kit is being used - which information is not at all easy to get to currently ! Unless of course I'm doing something badly wrong!

Overall a fantastic device - with something of a learning curve, and it would have been even better with a Bluetooth-enabled App and more Song Presets! Overall for what you're getting - the $499 price tag seems very fair. Of course available direct from the Polyend Webstore. Thanks once again to Mitch and Borsuk for their excellent and speedy customer service. This is a company that's going places!