Arturia Minibrute

[cloak and dagger]

Anybody else interested in this thing? I'm seriously considering preordering one. Always wanted a hardware synth, more for workflow and experimentation than anything, but never saw a point over software plugins if I would be going through loads of menus to tweak it or using software to control it anyway...this thing looks really fun to use and pretty damn great for the price though.

Coming out in April for $550, but I've already noticed some online shops doing preorders for $400...thinking for that price I can probably get my money back if I don't end up using it (or probably even more, since I'd be selling it in Japan).

http://www.arturia.com/evolution/en/pro ... intro.html

[bassinine]

yeah, as much as i hate losing patches on hardware - which i do ALL the fucking time because i'm lazy and forget to save them, this still looks pretty nice.

got a virus ti, was thinking about getting a slim phatty as well to complete the synths collection. but this is intriguing, if the reviews and shit are good i might look into getting one of these when my w2's come in.


on that note, i wonder if i could use the midi-out of that brute, and control both the virus ti as well as the brute at the same time using the attached keyboard? i guess i could using the audio out for the brute, and midi to the virus and audio that out from the usb to ableton.

[cloak and dagger]

yeah a lot of people seem to be complaining about not being able to save patches, but it doesn't seem that big of a deal to me...every control is laid out for you, and there's not so many parameters overall, so I feel like as long as you understand basic subtractive synthesis, recreating a patch wouldn't be too difficult...and worst case scenario, just take a picture with your cell phone or something

That midi-out thing sounds like it should work, although to be honest, I don't have any hardware synths, so really I'm just assuming based on what seems to make sense in my head

[legend4ry]

I love Arturia's plugins so very interested in this; bit out of my budget at the moment but we'll see if I can stretch my money when it comes out/reviews start coming in.

[paradigm x]

100% analogue (minus arpeggio etc), filter in, interesting steiner filter rather than yet another moog/ms20 clone, one knob per parameter. Designed by a very well respected synth DIY guy, Yves/Yusynth.

WIN.

This should sell by the bucket load. Im going to wait for a bit for prices to hopefully drop but it does look very cool. SH101 for 2012.

[curmee]

it has brutal electro knob

[cloak and dagger]

100% analogue (minus arpeggio etc), filter in, interesting steiner filter rather than yet another moog/ms20 clone, one knob per parameter. Designed by a very well respected synth DIY guy, Yves/Yusynth.

WIN.

This should sell by the bucket load. Im going to wait for a bit for prices to hopefully drop but it does look very cool. SH101 for 2012.

Do prices on new hardware like this eventually go down? I was thinking $400 for a preorder is as good as it's gonna get, but I know very little about the market overall...

[nowaysj]

Am preordered on the first shipment that is supposed to hit the states, paid full retail at $499. Was supposed to arrive end of Feb. but as expected that date is being pushed back to April, it seems like. Which is actually making me sad, like the actual emotion of sadness.

Total sh for 2012, agree to the max.

As far as patch recall goes... that's not the point. I have 1.2k synths with patch recall. I need real time controls that control every sound shaping feature of the synth without resorting to a menu, and I need them not to jump when I move them.

I actively do not want patch recall.

Think this is like the first dedicated thread about the miniB on here, was wondering why it took so long, maybe I missed another.

[Electric_Head]

I hope these can be imported to SA for a good price.
I`m very intrigued.

[bassinine]

nowaysj, i definitely see what you're saying.

not having patch recall makes you look at it in a very different way, instead of a collage (different patches), you see it as a whole picture (one giant, completely modifiable patch).

definitely could get some very organic production with a tool like this.

[nowaysj]

I work iteratively, so that usually means creating sounds, sequencing sounds, resampling sounds and lines, resequencing, and so on and so forth, so something like the MiniBrute that is immediate, limited, and definite is a great help in every part of that process, for me at least.

I'm a hoarder by nature, hording patches, midi lines, automation, I hoard everything. My projects start to look like a major case of simultaneous vomiting and diarrhea, I start to lose the plot in a big way as projects develop. Major liability.

Anything that can help (FORCE) me to just turn and burn is a good thing.

[jaimelee]

I'm a hoarder by nature, hording patches, midi lines, automation, I hoard everything. My projects start to look like a major case of simultaneous vomiting and diarrhea

Share!

This looks like a bit of fun, might get one for a spell.

[bassinine]

I work iteratively, so that usually means creating sounds, sequencing sounds, resampling sounds and lines, resequencing, and so on and so forth, so something like the MiniBrute that is immediate, limited, and definite is a great help in every part of that process, for me at least.

I'm a hoarder by nature, hording patches, midi lines, automation, I hoard everything. My projects start to look like a major case of simultaneous vomiting and diarrhea, I start to lose the plot in a big way as projects develop. Major liability.

Anything that can help (FORCE) me to just turn and burn is a good thing.

damn, sounds EXACTLY like me.

reinstalling ableton without ANY vsts has actually been a tremendous help to my workflow. forces me to actually produce, to be creative, and think about what i'm doing, instead of just relying on my same old (bad) production habits.

[nowaysj]

So hard not to slouch man! Stay upright and focused.

[cloak and dagger]

I agree with the workflow part; I'm the same way.

The only thing that's keeping me from preordering one is the fact that it's only one oscillator. That's not really a liability, it's just that a lot of the stuff I've been making lately seems like it uses more that one (or polyphony) e.g. deep techno-style chords and stuff. Just don't want to get something and not find enough ways to use it. It seems really similar to the SH-101, which I'm not sure how much I love. There's definitely good sounds that come out of it, but I'm hoping the additional triangle wave, etc. will coax some smoother sounds out of the Minibrute.

[nowaysj]

Maybe? Seems from demos that it has a pretty rawkus sound. Maybe is you just filter it down... it does have a sine sub osc, can't get smoother than that?

People keep saying that Arturia are going to release a poly version. But to my knowledge that is like 99.9% wishful thinking. And if they do... shit, I'll probably snap that up too, if there are no problems with this mono, that is.

Also re poly, can make chords if you're resampling/layering, I know it's long, but imagine full control over each note in the chord, all layered up, I'm seeing possibilities there. It's not a Jupiter 8 though, you know? Whatcha gonna do? Return to analog seems to be a trend that is starting to gain traction with manu's right now, who knows, we might be seeing reworked Jupiter 8's in the $800 range in a few years...

[cloak and dagger]

A poly version would be sweet, but surely that would cost twice as much? I might be showing my n00bness here, but wouldn't a polyphonic analog synth have to use an extra set of circuitry for each voice? Surely that would cost twice as much (e.g. the mopho / tetra)?

Yeah I was thinking I could do chords that way , it just seems something taking that long and with that many steps would defeat the purpose. Just wish there were more demo videos out showing what variety of sounds are possible (as opposed to showing how resonant the filter is or how distorted the brute factor knob can make things).

[nowaysj]

Yeah, each note of polyphony requires a unique vco, but you don't need a filter for each osc (wouldn't hurt though, nudge nudge wink wink), you wouldn't need more lfo's or envelopes... and you'd only need one case, and assembly session. So you know it is more, it could even be double for tickles and grins, but it doesn't have to be...

Re the layering of individual sounds to make chords... well part of it is just the analog sound for me, so you know, I wouldn't mind layering up a few samples. Because you'd be layering, and each note would have its own voicing parameters, I can see that process producing very unique sounding chords, more than each note sharing exactly the same envelopes and what. NEWAYS, I'm hyped.

[paradigm x]

100% analogue (minus arpeggio etc), filter in, interesting steiner filter rather than yet another moog/ms20 clone, one knob per parameter. Designed by a very well respected synth DIY guy, Yves/Yusynth.

WIN.

This should sell by the bucket load. Im going to wait for a bit for prices to hopefully drop but it does look very cool. SH101 for 2012.

Do prices on new hardware like this eventually go down? I was thinking $400 for a preorder is as good as it's gonna get, but I know very little about the market overall...

Oh yeah, sorry, $400 is a steal IMO, seems to be US only tho.

Poly would need, as a minimum, mulitple VCOs; massively useful to have additional VCAs and then filters, LFOs, adsrs etc.

Lots of waveshaping on baord tho so you get a ton of mileage from one vco. Easy to make a tri into square, PW and sine, theres 4 for a kick off. All at the same octave is the only downside.

this looks fun, the demos are shit, but knowing some of the designers work, itll be great.

His steiner vcf demos are great, tonally;

http://yusynth.net/Modular/EN/STEINERVCF/index.html

Another huge advantage imo is that you can tunr it on sans pc and get on with some fun playing.

A beast i tell ya.

[Robmobius]

As OP said the demos are pretty shit. Which is a real shame, as it's somewhat put me off this machine. So I'll prolly be looking at the Moog Minotaur instead, which sounds tons better in the low end (from the demos anyway).