Start Here - Welcome to Polyend Tracker Community Edition (CE)

[sandroidmusic]

Welcome to the official GitHub Discussions space for Polyend Tracker Community Edition (CE)!

By opening up the codebase for the OG Tracker, Tracker+, and Tracker Mini, our goal is to give musicians, sound designers, and embedded developers the keys to explore, improve, and extend the Tracker platform together.

Whether you're here to grab the latest Community Edition release, share custom .ptfx Sample Editor plugins and themes, propose workflow improvements, or dive into C++ and DSP code, we're glad to have you here.

A quick overview

Here is how this repository and community are organized:

1. Releases (Ready-to-Flash Firmware & Plugins)

   • Grab the latest .ptf firmware files (PolyendTracker_CE_*.ptf, TrackerPlus_CE_*.ptf, TrackerMini_CE_*.ptf) and PolyendTracker_CE_Effects.zip directly from the Releases page.
   • Check CHANGELOG.md to see everything included in the latest releases.

2. Documentation & SDK Guides (docs/)

   • Musicians & Customizers: Guides for custom UI themes, custom fonts, wavetable envelopes, and new CE features.
   • Plugin & Synth Developers: Full documentation for the .ptfx Sample Editor Plugin SDK (editor-fx-sdk/, MIT-licensed) and the Open Synth Engine SDK (synth/include/PolySynth/sdk/) for Tracker+ and Mini.

3. Where to Post What

   • Ideas & Feature Proposals (Discussions): Have an idea for a workflow enhancement, a new .ptfx effect, or a synth engine? Start a discussion here first so we can bounce ideas around and align before writing code.
   • Show & Tell (Discussions): Share your custom .ptfx plugins, color schemes, custom fonts, synth engines, or music made with Tracker CE!
   • Q&A / Building & Dev Help (Discussions): Questions about setting up the ARM toolchain, understanding the codebase, memory budgets (MK66 vs IMX), or writing DSP code.
   • Bugs (GitHub Issues): Found a reproducible bug in Tracker CE? Please open an Issue with your device model (Original, Plus, or Mini), firmware version/build hash, and steps to reproduce.
   • Polyend Backstage: You can also connect with the broader community over on the Polyend Backstage Forum.

Guiding Philosophy

For the main polyend/tracker-ce repository, we want to prioritize workflow continuity and muscle memory. Add thoughtful features, DSP additions, optimizations, and bug fixes that feel right at home on the Tracker across all three devices.

• Before spending time coding a large UI or workflow change for a Pull Request, open a Discussion thread first so we can make sure it fits the direction of the main repo.
• Want to build something radical, experimental, or completely reimagine the interface? We actively encourage community forks!

Governance, Maintainers & Our Community Pledge

Right now at launch, I'm the only maintainer with permissions to review/merge Pull Requests and publish official releases. However, the goal of Tracker CE is never for this project to be controlled by a single person.

What makes its way into the Community Edition should be driven by the community, through open discussion, consensus, and real-world musical utility.

That is why GitHub Discussions is so important: it gives everyone a voice in shaping the roadmap and weighing in on proposed features.

As the community grows, I would love to bring additional maintainers on board based on active contributions, code quality, hardware testing, and alignment with the project's philosophy.

Quick Note on Hardware Safety

Experimenting with Tracker CE is very safe: the hardware bootloader on all three devices is isolated from the .ptf application firmware. Even if you flash a custom build that crashes immediately on boot, pressing the hardware pinhole recovery button lets you re-flash any working .ptf from your microSD card in seconds.

(Just one golden rule if you're experimenting with low-level code: never modify the flash origin addresses in the linker scripts or the MK66 .flashconfig bytes—see CONTRIBUTING.md for details.)

Say Hello!

Drop a reply below to introduce yourself! Let us know which Tracker model(s) you're using, what music you make, or what you're excited to build or tweak in Tracker CE!

Cheers and i hope to talk to y'all soon,
Sandro(id)

[Memetic-Media-Laboratories]

Shout out to the team! Been looking forward to this!!

[blindorange]

This is amazing, thank you Polyend! Already have some ideas

[bastilian]

This is very awesome! Thank you! Polyend rulez! <3