"Polyend launches the official Medusa v4.0 firmware update. It brings some serious features like a gritty 6-voice 3-operator digital FM synth engine!"
Playlist:
Medusa v4.0 Firmare Teaser
Medusa v4.0 Firmware MIDI Program Change
Medusa Synth Digital FM Presets
Polyend Medusa Digital FM Synthesis Tutorial
"Medusa Hybrid synthesizer v4.0 firmware update is now available.
Polyend is happy to announce a major Medusa v4.0 firmware update release which brings some serious feature updates among the general improvements:
– A new, fourth, play mode. A gritty 6-voice 3-operator digital FM synth engine with a 12-bit colored classic vibe. It supports five digital FM Algorithms and an extra analog voice. Comes with a new FM preset bank. Pairs incredibly well with Tracker!
– Improved Channel per Voice mode where each channel is now truly “per voice”, and not “per oscillator” as previously,
– Added MIDI Program Change for better control of the synth,
– Reworked pitch bend and glide for more musical output,
– Full LFO Synchronization with MIDI Clock with increased stability,
"Playing around with the Polyend Medusa and its unique approach to sound and performance. All live, just light compression and a touch of reverb added."
"Welcome to Bad Gear, the show about the world's most hated audio tools. Today we are going to talk about the Dreadbox/Polyend Medusa. Is this digital/analog hybrid synthesizer and collaboration between two of the hottest European synth manufacturers the ultimate sound design monster? How did it arouse so much controversy that even Benn Jordan felt the need to release a video defending it?
Chapters:
00:00 Intro tune
01:11 Overview Dreadbox & Polyend Medusa
01:20 Analog Oscillators & Filter
01:45 Digital Oscillators & Wavetables
02:38 Deep Synthesis Features & Oscillator FM
03:12 Modulation
03:37 Monophonic/Paraphonic Modes, 3 OP Frequency Modulation
04:00 Play/Grid Mode
05:01 What else???
05:37 Hate
05:59 Jam 1
07:03 Jam 2
07:57 Finale
08:27 Verdict"
"This is a Dreadbox-Polyend Medusa tutorial, looking only at the sequencer and GRID, and giving some step-by-step instructions how to use some of the sequencer/GRID functions.
The 5 Parts of the Tutorial:
1. Setting Up the Sequencer/GRID (02:44)
2. Adding Note Data (recording) (05:16)
3. Editing Note Data (06:26)
4. Working with Patch Modifying (PM) Data (07:52)
5. Misc. Examples and Screwing Around (15:02)
The GRID and the ability to create and save Patch Modifying Data in the GRID really gives the Medusa some interesting capabilities to shape the Medusa's sound. The more I played with it, the more I realized how creative you could get with this.
The reworked ProckGnosis theme is an expansion on the recording used for the Dreadbox Tour and Interview video, and contains only sounds from the Medusa.
This was filmed using a prototype Medusa as explained in the video, but everything I demo and convey in the video should work for ANY Medusa.
Polyend team is glad to announce its participation in Berlin’s Superbooth convention at FEZ between 9th and 11th of May 2019.
At this year’s edition we'll be showcasing three new Eurorack modules, a major firmware update for the Medusa synth and reveal some nice pricing changes.
Polyend Anywhere sets your Eurorack system free.
- Power up your setup from any power bank.
- An inexpensive 20 000 mAh battery will power up several modules for a couple of hours.
- Take a walk to the nearby forest for the inspiration and bring your case with you.
Polyend Poly 2 your ultimate MIDI to CV converter. Also available in the standalone version.
- Control your modular setup with any MIDI hardware or software device.
- Set, save and recall your parameter presets using simple menu displayed on an OLED screen.
- Trigger up to 8 voices with different settings: first/next/midi channel/midi notes.
- Twelve configurable outputs: Gate (5 or 10V), Pitch (V/Oct or Hz/V), Velocity, CC and Clock with tempo divisions. - Using Smart Thru you can daisy chain multiple units to get more voices.
- Musical scales filter onboard.
- MPE compatibility.
Polyend Preset allows you to create, recall and sequence multiple output parameters and much more.
- A single press of a button immediately recalls up to 9 different CV output values.
- Variable values per output: notes (1V/Oct), Gates, constant values (0-10V), recorded CV automation. - 32 banks of 32 presets (1024 presets in total).
- An instant preset recall will allow you to create a custom grid controller. - Sequence your preset banks with CV input (use Gates or 0-10V).
- Record and send out voltage changes up to 30 seconds per output.
- 32 musical scales onboard.
The Medusa firmware update v2.0 will bring interesting enhancements. Just to name a few:
- Refined Grid workflow allows you to randomise notes/chords per step and set the TIE note length. Record your sequences in the live mode and transpose them on the fly.
- The new modulation options with enhanced Drone mode for uncanny ambiences.
- Improved randomisation algorithm will generate synth presets and impressive sequences with a press of one button.
- Grid pads now work as long as you hold a modulator pad pressed which is excellent for performance.
- The new set of Wavetables and Presets.
Spotted the first video in the playlist above on discchord.com. The Playlist contains 21 videos. You can use the player controls to skip around. Descriptions for each are below. All videos feature various gear so you should be able to get an idea of some of the capabilities of each featured. You can check out Jay Hosking's music at https://jayhosking.bandcamp.com/.
Note, more will likely get added over time. The following playlist is as of this post:
1. Jam w/ Vermona PERfourMER MkII, Elektron Analog Rytm MkII, OTO Bam, Styrmon Big Sky, Fugue Machine
A live, semi-improvised performance, all on hardware, and inspired by some pretty tough news that has me sentimental.
I loved the Elektron Analog Four MkII so much that I picked up the Analog Rytm MkII. My feelings on the Rytm are mixed. On the one hand, it's missing that spontaneity and spark of units like the Arturia DrumBrute Impact and Teenage Engineering OP-Z, with no readymade performance effects, roller bar, or global randomization, and a slower workflow. On the other hand, I really like its analogue sound engines, any unused tracks can be converted into impressive analogue mono synths, it does beautiful things to samples, and like all Elektron boxes it integrates the effects into the sequencer really nicely.
As for the Vermona PERfourMER MkII, I'd been pining over it for ages, and it was fun to finally tinker with it. The Perfourmer definitely excels in the mid- and high- range, and I love how the independent voices making really interesting voices for chords.
Vermona PERfourMER MkII + OTO Bam — Three synths (left chord note, right chord note, melody)
Vermona PERfourMER MkII + Strymon Big Sky — Bass chord note synth
Elektron Analog Rytm MkII — Drums, samples, sample melody, punchy bass
Fugue Machine (iOS) — Sequencing
IK Multimedia iRig Pro Duo — MIDI out from iOS
Written and performed within a 24-hour period, and uploaded as is, with only a little sidechain compression on the Perfourmer (to emphasize the sound that the Rytm was already making), and compression/limiting on the master.
"While exploring the warmer/sweeter side of the Polyend Medusa and the play-ability of the grid, I ended up making this small cover of one of my favorite tracks by Vangelis from the Bladerunner soundtrack. Some more details:
The Grid for the lead sound is setup so that the X-Axis goes one semitone up so on the X-Target I have the value of 10. With this setup it may be quite difficult to play always on tune so if you look at the video I always tend to touch the pads from the left side. This way doing the slides is also easier. I treat them somewhat like guitar frets. For the Y target I just have some filter cutoff. And for z-target a tiny bit of FM.
The pad and the drone are double tracked and panned left-right.
For the bass in order to fatten it up a little I have used the filter resonance.
The bell sound is just self resonating filter. The tuning here was a bit tricky, so I ended up doing some extra tuning later.
Generally the sounds are left without any significant post editing except of course the addition of effects and some basic mixing/mastering at the end. I have used Softube Tsar mainly on the lead sound to make it sound "bigger" as this reverb blends nicely with the sources, and for the long reverbs I have used NI/Softube RC 24. For the "shimmer" effect that is audible mostly at the outro I have added the Pitch shifter from NI Replika XT before the RC 24. There is also a little bit of Clouds at the pluck sound from VCV rack.
For the cover itself, I was partly influenced by the version of this song from Vasilis Saleas, a famous clarinet player in Greece. His version of the song is included in his album called "Orama".
Update:
Sound Design with Polyend Dreadbox Medusa (Ep. 1) - A warm brassy lead (Vangelis style)
Published on Apr 5, 2020 Miltos Schimatariotis
"This is my first attempt for a tutorial / walk-through of creating a patch for the Medusa synth. In this video I explain how I made the lead sound of my 'Vangelis - Rachel's Song' cover. It's a relatively simple patch but if there is an interest in this type of videos I could make this a series where more sounds will be covered. Thanks for watching, and take care!"
"::| TO HEAR THE FULL RANGE OF FREQUENCIES, A GOOD PAIR OF HEADPHONES ARE HIGHLY RECOMMENDED |::
So this is a reworked version of the previous video. Specifically, I found that the Conductive Labs NDLR has a MIDI Polychain feature where I can spread the MIDI Channels of the PAD out to play Channels 4,5,6 - so that means I was able to turn the Dreadbox/Polyend Medusa's 6 Oscillators (using it's MIDI Channel per Oscillator feature) into a 3 Part Monophonic and 1 Part (three note) Polyphonic synth! Also, I added the Moog DFAM which is being Clocked Sync'd from the NDLR. A touch of Native Instruments Replika delay on the DFAM, and Valhalla Vintage Verb on the Medusa."
"The works on new Dreadbox & Polyend Medusa synth firmware are going on full time.
One of the new functions is the option to sustain the notes which turn the Medusa into a great drone generator. Our local music producer Alna took the newest beta firmware for a spin. Please, enjoy this moment of musical meditation.
Music by Alna. Recorded 03.12.2018.
There's a Strymon Big Sky on the Medusa's output."
Today I have my first movie with the synthesizer Medusa from Polyend.
Now Medusa is at a discounted price, so is also a great opportunity to get yours.!!!
It's a Hybrid Synthesizer with 3 analog oscillators, 3 digital oscillators, 5 loopable envelope and 5 assignable LFOs plus of course a great multi mode filter.
the advantage of course is grid as a sequencer and its touch control, under the pressure of X, Y, Z you can assign modhell or pitch ,lfo's and many other functions.
Here I showed the sound itself in quite ambient music, I set the sequencer to random which it scales on a chromatic scale.
Add effects Reverb from Black Hole DSP from Erica Synths and Euro DDL Delay from Eventide .
more info about medusa here :http://polyend.com
but now I invite you to check this movie.
have a nice day!
Live hardware jam with Elektron Analog Four & Polyend/Dreadbox Medusa.
Medusa is in FM mode with loads of modulation and audio into Analog Four as well as being MIDI master sending clock and transport to the A4.
A4 mkII - track 1 is synth kick, track 2, 3 & 4 are using Medusa input as Osc 1 input plus being fed direct into the ext in. Chorus, delay & reverb all A4.
"Another Dreadbox & Polyend Medusa Hybrid Synthesizer music demo. All sounds besides the drums are made and recorded straight from Medusa's master audio output and properly mixed.
The video, sound design and audio composition by Piotr Raczyński.
Recorded 11.07.2018 in Polyend Hq."
"The last one from the series of Dreadbox & Polyend Medusa Hybrid Synthesizer music demos. All sounds besides the drums are made and recorded straight from Medusa's master audio output. No wavetables were harmed during the shot of this video.
The video, sound design and audio composition by Piotr Raczyński.
Recorded 11.07.2018 in Polyend HQ."
"Dreadbox & Polyend Medusa Hybrid Synthesizer music demo. All sounds besides the drums are made and recorded straight from Medusa's master audio output.
Made exclusively for Synthtopia.com
The video, sound design and audio composition by Piotr Raczyński.
Recorded 11.07.2018 in Polyend Hq."
"One more Dreadbox & Polyend Medusa Hybrid Synthesizer music demo. All sounds besides the drums are made and recorded straight from Medusa's master audio output. No wavetables were harmed during the shot of this video.
The video, sound design and audio composition by Piotr Raczyński.
Recorded 11.07.2018 in Polyend HQ."
"Dreadbox & Polyend Medusa Hybrid Synthesizer music demo. All sounds besides the drums are made and recorded straight from Medusa's master audio output. No wavetables were harmed during the shot of this video.
The video, sound design and audio composition by Piotr Raczyński.
Recorded 11.07.2018 in Polyend HQ."
"Dreadbox & Polyend Medusa Hybrid Synthesizer music demo. All sounds besides the drums are made and recorded straight from Medusa's master audio output.
No wavetables were harmed during the shot of this video.
Made exclusively for Sonicstate.com (yo Gaz & Nick!).
The video, sound design and audio composition by Piotr Raczyński.
Recorded 11.07.2018 in Polyend HQ."
"Dreadbox & Polyend Medusa Hybrid Synthesizer music demo. All sounds besides the drums are made and recorded straight from Medusa's master audio output.
The video, sound design and audio composition by Piotr Raczyński.
Recorded 11.07.2018 in Polyend Hq."
