Polly

Getting started

Polly plays a style. A band of eight instruments follows the chords you play. Press Switch on above, and try these steps.

1. Turn KNOB 1 on the Home page to pick a style.
2. Press PLAY. Groove A starts.
3. Play a chord with three keys or more. The band follows it, and keeps it after you let go.
4. Hold HOME and press black key 3 for Groove B. On this page, Shift-click HOME to hold it. The screen shows what each key does while you hold HOME.
5. Hold HOME and press a white key. The band plays that key's progression over and over.
6. Press HOME again for the Song page. Each white key adds a section that plays that progression.
7. SAVE is lit when something isn't saved. When Polly is stopped, it also saves by itself after a few seconds.

The ten short lessons in School work here too.

For your QY70 styles, press Load QY70 ROM above. They come after Polly's own 16 on the Style knob. To put them on an FM-1 running Polly, run python3 tools/qy70_install.py qy70main.bin.

MIDI from your computer plays all 16 channels, like a General MIDI sound module.

The controls

  PLAY            start / stop (Song: from the Song page's section, else section 1)
  REC             on its release: what the keys play here (chords into the progression on Home / Progression, the
                  instrument on Band / Sound, the sections on Song); held for its card, nothing
  SEL tap         the screen as a list (SELECT moves, ALGORITHM changes, SEL does an action, HOME goes back);
                  a question: SEL yes, HOME no
  a button held alone 1 s: its help card (letting go does nothing)
  HOME held       the shortcuts on screen (after HOME_HOLD_MS):
    + white key 1..16   progression Pn goes round (from the next bar while playing); the one playing again: follow
    + black key 1..5    Intro, Groove A, Groove B, Fill (AB from Groove A, BA from Groove B), Ending, from the next bar
    + SELECT            the song's tempo
    + PRESETS           the song (while playing: after the stop)
    + REC / + PLAY      undo / redo (the journal: below)
  HOME: KNOB 1 the style, 2 the tempo, 3 TRANSPOSE (the song's), 4 PROG ("follow", P1..P16; "Song" in a song);
  HOME on Home: Song (HOME again: Home); SELECT there: Song's two pages (the sections, a section's transpose)
  (a page button: always its first page; SELECT, and only SELECT, turns the pages)
  ARP Progression (x2), SEQ Band (x2: the groove's notes; its length; SEQ again: Notes, the note editor, editor.c),
  EDIT Sound (x2), LFO Mixer (x2), FX Effects,
  ENV Style (x2), GLO Setup (x2); the tag's dots: which of a button's pages
  the keys        by the page (key_role): chords (Home, Progression), the selected instrument (Band, Sound), the
                  instrument (Mixer's black keys), nothing (Effects, Style, Setup)
  SAVE            saves (lit: something to save); held + white key n: copy here (Home, Progression: the progression
                  to Pn; Band: the groove to memory n)                OCT- / OCT+   the keys' octave (Progression: the cursor)
  SELECT          the button's next / previous page      ALGORITHM   the instrument (D1..C4, the melodies M1, M2)
  PRESETS         per page
MIDI in (USB, TRS) plays all 16 channels; its clock drives the arranger.