True Cuckoo Unleashes the Polyend Drums: No Menu Diving, Just Mayhem

True Cuckoo kicks things off at Superbooth 2026, catching up with Pjotr from Polyend to unveil the brand-new Polyend Drums. This isn’t just another drum machine—it’s a hybrid analog and digital monster, designed with a laser focus on intuitive playability. The goal? Master sound, build quality, and sequencing, all while keeping the workflow as slick as a greased rave bunker floor.

From the jump, it’s clear this box is built for those who want to bash out beats without reading a novel-length manual. Polyend’s mission is to keep the experience immediate and musical, not bogged down by endless menu screens. If you’re the type who’d rather twist knobs than scroll through options, you’re in for a treat.

The Polyend Drums doesn’t mess about when it comes to hands-on control. We’re talking 64 buttons for sequencing and a frankly ridiculous 87 knobs—yes, you read that right—so nothing is hidden, and everything is screaming to be tweaked. It’s a design philosophy that spits in the face of menu diving and rewards those who want to stay in the musical flow.

True Cuckoo highlights how the layout is built for live performance, with clever features like instant kit recall and a workflow that keeps you playing, not pausing. The build is robust, with a chunky aluminium chassis and mechanical butterfly keys that beg to be hammered. This thing feels more like a club weapon than a studio ornament.

Under the hood, the Polyend Drums is packing a wild range of synthesis options. You get four tracks, each with up to 64 steps, and a buffet of digital engines—fifty, to be precise—plus sub-engines called mutations for even more flavour. There’s a synth voice on tap, but Polyend is careful not to let this box turn into a full-on groovebox. It’s drums first, with just enough synth spice to keep things interesting.

Effects are equally immediate: global and send FX, a graphical eight-band EQ, compressor, and even microtiming tricks like ratchets. The XOY fader lets you morph between variations, and randomisation is just a button press away. If you want to see how deep this rabbit hole goes, you’ll need to watch the video—there’s only so much button-mashing mayhem I can describe before your eyes glaze over.

Here’s the kicker: while the analog side is still in the oven, the digital sounds are already punching well above their weight. The analog voices—VCOs, filters, noise sources—are running on separate boards and promise to bring even more grit once they’re integrated. But don’t sleep on the digital engines; they’re so good, Polyend’s team is actually trying to make the analog side sound less perfect, just to keep things vibey.

You can assign analog or digital engines to any track, and the whole lot is mixed in the digital domain with high-end converters and 32-bit float precision. There’s even an audio input for mangling external gear through the onboard FX. If you think this box looks too pretty to be serious, think again—it’s a heavyweight in disguise, and the sound quality is already turning heads.