Polyend/Dreadbox’s Medusa + Delusional Internet Criticism
Debunking the weird, clueless internet criticism of one of the most fun synths I’ve ever played with.
I don’t have a Patreon or advertising affiliates, although this channel does have a lot of expenses to keep going. In the meantime, if you want to show your support, my Bandcamp page has a “pay what you want” option: https://theflashbulb.bandcamp.com/
Timestamps:
0:00 – Monologue
2:15 – Sweetwater Reviews
9:25 – Demos
15:30 – Improvised droning
20:08 – Polyend/Outro
@JK-zx3go
February 9, 2026 at 7:43 am
"Matt, if you are still alive" 🙂
@gydur
February 9, 2026 at 7:43 am
Aaaahahahahaaaaa
@lifelies
February 9, 2026 at 7:43 am
Benn, as ALWAYS thx a lot – I totally agree with you and yes, I finally got Medusa – even in 2025 it’s still a beast of sounding miracles. No noise, easily understood the layout and when hooked to delay pedal – OMG this is synth from the future! I wanted it for a while and now happy to have it and will link it with Waldorf Kyra for another level of pure analogue-digital heaven.
@prasannanag6195
February 9, 2026 at 7:43 am
This thing sounds god awful to me, really cheap, gritty, thin sounding synth. This is the best demo I’ve heard of it though. You made it sound amazing. I think it’s something you’re unusually good at using, rather than it being a good product.
@bimaxim
February 9, 2026 at 7:43 am
thank you
@techlab7
February 9, 2026 at 7:43 am
Love this thing, I wish I could fine one now.
@SingularityMedia
February 9, 2026 at 7:43 am
I mean…. Dreadbox always make lovely sounding analog oscillators and filters. Always rich and deep.
This was never going to sound bad.
Unfortunately there are a lot of muppets out there who have access to the internet 🤷
@Ekstriplexeks
February 9, 2026 at 7:43 am
Sounds wicked cool
@iosifkalpaktsoglou2045
February 9, 2026 at 7:43 am
Can it be used as a standalone synth or does it need to be connected to a midi keyboard? Thank you.
@SlyHikari03
February 9, 2026 at 7:43 am
Say what you want about polyend, they were the only company that made me want to jump into the pool of Tracker music with the Tracker Plus.
and now I want a Medusa.. time to take out my second mortgage and order one from Perfect Circuit (which is infinitely better than Sweetwater when it comes to electronic music stuff).
@SoundDevour
February 9, 2026 at 7:43 am
Bought the last medusa Detroit modular had on the shelf (dec 2020) because of this review and wow, that thing was fucking terrible. Sounded good (thanks dreadbox) but it crashed frequently, in the middle of live performances or just turn it on and it hands out a dui crash into a family of four upside an old oak tree. The envelopes were terrible, chain an lfo to an lfo and opps crashed again, this time it killed little Bobby’s dog, bet I crashed every “working” one the planet just by mentioning chaining an lfo to an lfo. Sold it for products that actually work.
@bitterpearls
February 9, 2026 at 7:43 am
Do you still like this thing? I can't get over how cool the pad portion of things looks, v interested.
@kierenmoore3236
February 9, 2026 at 7:43 am
To be fair, my farts sound musical, through a decent+ reverb pedal …
Also, Sep 2023: Does the Medusa synth engine respond to MPE now … ?
I understand the grid/controller puts out MPE control … but does the synth engine respond to MPE … ?!
PS – I like the concept of the Medusa … but the sounds don’t do anything to excite me … 🤷🏻♂️
@GUSCRAWF0RD
February 9, 2026 at 7:43 am
13:10 Seinfeld and dr who had to agree on a theme song
@tristanw7408
February 9, 2026 at 7:43 am
For anyone wondering what song that bit around 11:20 became, it's Fbox on the album Our Simulacra.
@neonblack211
February 9, 2026 at 7:43 am
Love the sound of this thing
@vitaobassbr
February 9, 2026 at 7:43 am
People love to do bad reviews. I use to spend hours reading reviews in the internet back in the day before buying something.
A lot of the gear that a I used to have or still got and love have horrible ratings in those forums.
And for real, my best stuff come from those "bad" gears.
@ThePissso
February 9, 2026 at 7:43 am
is this this unit some way as that of the polyend tracker .. im attempting to buy the medusa at reverb this mont if not april respectfully uheard
@Foxesareforever
February 9, 2026 at 7:43 am
Matt was my guy too
@IsaiahGrande
February 9, 2026 at 7:43 am
I’m watching this review on Feb 2023 and am surprised I do not hear more about this synth. Great video and the sound/seq demoes are excellent as always
@brandonaikin5445
February 9, 2026 at 7:43 am
Applause. Thank you.
@annoyed-mkultra
February 9, 2026 at 7:43 am
Dreadbox… so… bad
@karol_p
February 9, 2026 at 7:43 am
Sounds like the Medusa got some paid infavorable reviews.
@nicjab
February 9, 2026 at 7:43 am
my god this sounds amazing
@telumatramenti7250
February 9, 2026 at 7:43 am
Man I dig you. TBH I rarely see a product so bad that I would give it a 1 or even two stars. Generally hardware synth makers are very careful not to screw up, because it's a niche market, the products are expensive, there's lots of competition and bad rap can go a long way and ruin the sales. I had my share of issues with Behringer, but only in one case did the issue revolve around not well thought through design rather than individual unit malfunctions, which they or affiliated sellers did correct for me. But nearly every product has got a crowd that wants to put it down, often without even learning much about it, never mind learning to use it properly. I was very surprised to read a lot of negativity about Kodamo EFM recently, and most of the people who were putting it down either knew little about its capabilities, or never learned to use it properly, despite the easiest learning curve for any hardware FM synth. And I do appreciate constructive criticisms, this is what reviews are for, the EFM for example – it lacks a number of things such as support for major brand name non-Legacy USB MIDI controllers, or a sequencer (although you can definitely cheat around this), but what I do dislike are erroneous claims about the product or vague BS like "sounds cheap". Please define "sounds expensive", particularly when you're talking about a very voluminous 16-part multi-timbral, 300-voice polyphonic FM synth with support for polyphonic aftertouch to boot LOL. Lately I just read the manual, and then go on and listen for "all music, no talking" video about the product I'm interested in, because I want to avoid subjective opinions "In The Eye of Beholder" as much as possible.
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