Sound Design with Polyend Dreadbox Medusa (Ep.3) - Deep Bass & the new Black Limited Edition!

Published on May 1, 2020 Miltos Schimatariotis

"In this episode we cover a deep/fat bass sound that is simple on its own but very useful in many situations. Also Polyend just sent me the new Limited Edition Medusa that is out from today (1st of May), so here I also have some first video shots with it!

This version comes with firmware 3.0 preinstalled and has some mainly aesthetic changes. What I personally like most is the anodized finish, the knobs that fill a bit "heavier" than my other Medusa (but this is maybe because it's brand new), the new button-encoder that now has steps and the new faders that protrude more and are easier to handle.

In future videos we are also going to take advantage of some new features of firmware 3.0, like the random LFO and some use cases with two Medusas, so stay tuned!

Thanks for watching, and take care."

Sound Design with Polyend Dreadbox Medusa (Ep. 2) - Mallets/Keys & how to setup the Grid for chords

Published on Apr 20, 2020 Miltos Schimatariotis

"Today we have a relatively simple sound to make and depending on how you tweak it sometimes it may sound like a mallets instrument and sometimes a keys or bell patch. Βut this is also a tutorial on how you can set up the grid to play chords in an interesting way that can help you find musical ideas and chord progressions easily."

Sound Design with Polyend Dreadbox Medusa posts

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!

Listen to my 'Vangelis - Rachel's Song' cover here" [posted here]

The Utterly Unique Feature of the Medusa Hybrid Synth

Published on Mar 3, 2020 Gaz Williams

"On the eve of the release of Polyend’s new Tracker, I thought it was high time to demonstrate what is one of the Medusa’s most original features!"

Medusa -Polyend with Stereo delay from Pico DSP-Erica Synths

Published on Feb 17, 2020 Dziam Bass

"Hi Guys.
Today another portion of fun with Medusa from Polyend.
in this Patch is 32 steps 3 analog oscillators, later added wavetable 1 oscillator with the addition of delay from Pico DSP Erica Synths effect.
Fun in the EG setting to filter modulation , slightly sustain and a bit of Attack as U see .
Medusa is a Hybrid Synthesizer based on a total of 6 oscillators 3x Analog , 3x Wavetable 5 LFO's EG with Loop and many more ,and sounds really amazing so it is best to see it if you are interested."

DREADBOX / POLYEND MEDUSA // PARAPHONIC AMBIENT JAM

Published on Nov 27, 2019 LESINDES

MEDUSAs on Amazon

"First time I am trying the six voice paraphonic (3 analog and 3 digital oscillators + noise) mode of DREADBOX POLYEND MEDUSA. Instead of the POLYEND section I use ARTURIA KEYSTEP for the live jam that I totally forgot to mention in the credits. Sorry!
The FX added to the session is EVENTIDE ECLIPSE No. 445: CUMULONIMBUS 2."

Medusa Hybrid Synth MPE Grid Controller

Published on Nov 8, 2019 Polyend

"Medusa's Grid pads are great for expressive controlling both the internal hybrid synthesis engine and any external MPE compatible source. Here's an example made with Expressive_e MPE collection instruments.

Recorded at Polyend HQ 07.11.2019"

Ambient with Medusa-Polyend /sequencer Random mode in chromatic scale

Published on Nov 6, 2019 Dziam Bass

"Hello guys.

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!

#polyend #medusasynthesizer #polyendmedusa #hybridsynthesizer #dreadboxpolyend"

MPE Collection - fresh sounds for all your MPE devices

Published on Oct 22, 2019 Expressive E

Playlist:
MPE Collection - fresh sounds for all your MPE devices
MPE Collection - Mercury
MPE Collection - Helium
MPE Collection - Patchwork MPE
MPE Collection, played with Polyend Medusa

"We are very happy to introduce MPE collection, a suite of three sound expansions optimized for any controller or instrument that supports MPE. 👉🏼 https://bit.ly/2IFOs2g

🚀Special introductory price until November 22nd!
MPE Collection: 99€/$ instead of 119€/$
Single titles (Mercury/Helium/Patchwork MPE): 39€/$ instead of 49€/$ each

Experience the whole spectrum of Expressive E’s expertise in expressive sound design in one versatile sound collection that takes advantage of the full potential of this new generation of expressive instruments.

All of our expansions are created with a unique approach to multidimensional sound layering, allowing you to intuitively shape your sonic textures. Each preset is carefully designed and perfectly adjusted to respond precisely to the slightest gestures to take advantage of the full potential of MIDI Polyphonic Expression. The presets work inside the free UVI Workstation and were built with UVI Falcon.

MPE collection combines three banks of top-notch expressive sounds in one versatile suite:

- MERCURY: Discover a world of powerful electronic sounds, from heavy basses to crazy taser leads, from soft plucks to aggressive stabs, bringing a unique intensity into your musical productions.

- HELIUM: Discover a wide array of acoustic and electronic sounds, a fusion of dreamy synths and smooth, organic textures.

- PATCHWORK MPE: carefully curated and sewn together tastefully to fit a wide range of musical genres."

Dreadbox & Polyend Medusa - Played by GATTOBUS

Published on Oct 16, 2019 gattobus

"This is my first composition on this unconventional and unique synthesizer. I still haven't got the hang of it but I love it!!!
This silver version (with coloured knobs) is just too beautiful 😍
Thank you Polyend!!!"

Medusa Hybrid Synth + Mutable Instruments Plaits Choir

Published on Oct 10, 2019 Polyend

"Another example of use with Polyend Poly 2 MIDI to CV converter coupled with the Medusa Hybrid Synth Grid sequencer talking with 3x Mutable instruments Plaits modules, and some slew modulations from the Polyend Preset module.

Recorded 03.10.2019 in Polyend HQ"

Polyend Poly 2 + Medusa Synth MPE capabilities

Published on Oct 4, 2019 Polyend

"Example of MPE use for the Polyend Poly 2 MIDI to CV converter working with the Medusa Hybrid Synth Grid controller in MPE mode. Feeding 3x Mutable instruments Plaits modules, and Polyend Preset module in action.

Recorded 03.10.2019 in Polyend HQ"

Medusa Hybrid Synth & Chase Bliss Audio Mood - Drones

Published on Aug 9, 2019 Polyend

"The Dreadbox and Polyend Medusa Hybrid Synth & Chase Bliss Audio Mood Drones."

Synth Jams by Jay Hosking

Published on Jul 26, 2019 Jay Hosking

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.

https://jayhosking.bandcamp.com/

CLICK FOR MORE »

Stranger Things (Eleven's theme & Main title) with Polyend Dreadbox Medusa synth

Published on Jul 24, 2019 Miltos Schimatariotis

"As a follow-up for my Medusa synth covers I decided to do something about the Stranger Things series. Here, instead of just recreating the 'Main title', I added as an intro one of my favorites in the soundtrack, 'Eleven's theme'. All sounds are made with the Medusa only, with the addition of effects and especially Byome which helps a lot in the background atmosphere.

A few words about the process I followed for creating this video:

At first, I decided what parts of the soundtrack I was going to cover and roughly planned the arrangement. Then I started designing the sounds on the Medusa. That was probably the most entertaining part but also the most challenging because for the creation of the original tracks the composers had a lot more gear in their disposal. But since I have decided to restrict myself to only one synth, the Medusa, I ended up just creating sounds that sounded good to me without necessarily replicating the originals. So I would say that this is a free cover and not a replication. (especially Eleven's theme is way different from the original). The other restriction I wanted to add in the process is that I wanted to have as few sounds as possible in order to not over-complicate things and to be able to visualize almost everything in the video.
So, after making a rough version I started the final recordings. I was recording the audio part and the video part simultaneously, the audio in Cubase and the video in my Pocophone F1 smartphone with Filmic Pro app. The difficult part here was that I had to name the takes every time for the video file and the audio clips in order to not lose track of what I was going to use in the final product (I used DaVinci Resolve). So the clips you see in the video are corresponding to the same audio recordings you hear. The only exception is the pad at the intro which was double tracked and panned left right, so there I used only one video clip.
I have mixed/mastered the track in Cubase and I had in mind to not over-process the sounds of Medusa, so I have mostly the necessary EQing and compression. The effects (reverbs-delays) are all routed in parallel. The main effect processor I used was Unfiltered Audio Byome and some patches make use of the beautiful Carmen collection from patchpool/Simon Stockhausen."

Medusa Synth Tutorial Videos

Published on Jul 23, 2019 Polyend

Playlist:

Polyend Medusa - Review & Audio Demo
Medusa Synth Quick Start - 1. Turning on/off LFO or Envelope
Medusa Synth Quick Start - 2. Per step parameter locks
Medusa Synth Quick Start - 3. TIE/Note length
Medusa Synth Quick Start - 4. Clearing parameter locks
Medusa Synth Quick Start - 5. Copying notes/steps
Medusa Synth Quick Start - 6. Randomizing synth voice
Medusa Synth Quick Start - 7. Randomizing sequence melody
Medusa Synth Quick Start - 8. Custom scales (incl. micro-scales)
Medusa Synth Quick Start - 9. Arpeggios / Sequence transposition
Medusa Synth Quick Start - 10. Drone mode
Medusa Synth Quick Start - 11. Applying live effects to the sequence
Medusa Synth Quick Start - 12. Medusa's Grid as a MIDI controller

Polyend Medusa, MS-101, Mono Station - Back to the 80's Pt3, Last Ninja 2

Published on Jul 12, 2019 Sounds From The Shed

"So first of all here is my piss take of the youtubers who follow the youtube guide, show your product, gaze in the distance and you'll get clicks! And they all do it, worst one is Andrew Haung, I hate his face popping up on my youtube feed!!!!! Seriously I could punch him 😂

Next is the real stuff about the song!

For this one I made use of my erica modular setup to distort and dirty up the sound. Last Ninja 2 Central Park loading theme. A classic! Did my best to dirty up the sound and detune the lead to give the authentic feel. I sort of looked at it like a school art project where you would stain the paper with teabags and burn the edges to give it an older appearance :)"

Vangelis - Rachel's song (cover) with Polyend Dreadbox Medusa synth

Published on Jun 23, 2019 Miltos Schimatariotis

"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!"

Polyend Seq & Medusa Multi Voices Multi Midi

Published on Jul 10, 2019 Sounds From The Shed

"In this video I make use of the Medusas ability to have each voice sequenced on a separate midi channel. :) There's one filter and env generator but I made use of the Lfo's, waveforms and octave range to vary the tone."

Polyend Medusa - Review & Audio Demo

Published on Jun 26, 2019 SamiRabia

"I asked polyend if I could borrow the Medusa for a while to explore it and make an audio demo! Here's my impressions, only to be taken as one persons perspective, it's not an exhaustive review by any means. I hope you get a sense of what it's about and what kind of things you can do with it."