What is it?
Polyend used Superbooth to unveil Drums, an eight-track hybrid drum machine. Four voices are analog, modern SSI chips with dual VCOs, a noise source and a digital oscillator each, through a multimode filter and VCA, alongside digital and sample-based tracks, 40+ instruments, eight LFOs and a sequencer loaded with probability, micro-timing, parameter locks and generative tools. Eight individual outs, 96kHz throughout. It's $2,699.
The TR-1000 duel
That price puts Drums in a straight fight with Roland's flagship TR-1000. On the spec sheet, Polyend brings more synthesis and deeper sequencing for the money. In the comments under the announcement, plenty of producers are unconvinced, citing Polyend's past wobbles on quality control and support, and betting on Roland's reliability. CEO Piotr Raczyński frames Drums as a no-compromise machine: "We wanted to build the drum machine we would want to use and own ourselves."
Should you care?
If you build tracks on hardware, this is the drum-machine decision of the year: Roland's heritage and dependability versus a feature-packed, better-value challenger from Poland.
