Arturia reveals the follow-up to edgy, distinctive little MiniBrute monosynth keyboard. This time, they’ve fit a tiny patch bay to make it semi-modular.
The Arturia synths are portable, affordable, and … weird. And this continues that tradition, with the nicer MatrixBrute keys and a “use every millimeter” patch bay wedged on the side. So now you can use more cables to make things, like, more weird.
The MicroBrute, the MiniBrute’s baby brother, actually had very basic patching capabilities – the “mod matrix” let you route the LFO and envelope (or external signal) to control timbre, pitch, and filter. That made it an easy favorite of the Brute line.
The MiniBrute 2 on the other hand bests both Mini- and MicroBrute with a full blown architecture for patching stuff into other stuff. And let’s be clear that that’s what this is about. Technically, yes “semi-modular architectures” give you more ability to create original sounds blah blah blah …
Translated into simple terms, “plugging wires into jacks for making noises” is what we mean. And of course that can be true if you have just the MiniBrute 2 or if you want to combine it with other analog and modular gear.
So, now you get that, plus full-sized keys with aftertouch (as on the flagship, and completely insane, MatrixBrute). The result could be a real winner: semi-modular architecture plus monosynth plus full-sized keyboard, but still with a low-ish price tag and the usual unique character. So you get patching atop the love-it-or-leave-it wild sound of the original, including the Steiner-Parker filter and that, uh, “Brute” quality – think aggressive, metallic timbres that change wildly as you twist knobs.
And there’s a step sequencer/arpeggiator, building on the existing line, with easy SH-101-like sequencing and lots of performance features. (Actually I know a lot of people who bought these instruments even especially for that sequencer – good stuff.)
London’s trip-hop act The Salvador Darlings do the demo.
Part of me actually loves that Arturia keeps putting out mental stuff that looks like something someone mocked up on a forum, only real. It’s a safe bet what this sounds like given the heritage, but it’ll be fun to test how that patch bay is to use in practice. Stay tuned (and if you’re at the NAMM show, Arturia will show it there).
And it’s also worth saying – in an era of remakes, this is original, 21st-century analog. Before its 2012 debut, there wasn’t anything quite like the MiniBrute. (That Steiner-Parker filter, meanwhile, was indeed first heard in the late 70s … but then not heard nearly as often as more popular filter designs. This one is definitely a distinctive beast, all round.)
Available end of February, 649$ / 649 Euro.
More:
https://www.arturia.com/minibrute-2-landing
Videos:
Ok Novation, when are you going to hit us with a Bass Station 3?
There’s one spot next to my desktop for a midi capable two-octave synth/controller. Over the years It’s been a novation bassstation, photon x25, minibrute, phatty, microbrute, prob forgetting some; and currently a korg monologue which is extra rad because I can automate everything via midi/cc unlike the old brutes. With the new minibrute mod matrix, I’m quite interested, but it also makes me think about software control of a small matrix like this. It would be extra rad if it had a companion app or a midi cc matrix that could override the otherwise patched connections; esp for performance purposes.
Very nice! Now i wonder what the new Korg poly will cost. I mean in a perfect world it will be affordable. But we are not living in this world. I estimate 1200+ for the new Polylogu(e) which will move it out of my dreams
So what are the Arturia Link ports for? š
Whatās an Arturia Link port? Didnāt find a reference on their site.
Donāt know their product line so my first hunch was that āLink Compatibleā could mean compatibility with Ableton Link. That could be pretty cool.
Ha! Now we knowā¦
http://cdm.link/2018/01/arturias-new-easy-affordable-modular-cases-also-mount-to-minibrute-2/
Arturia Link is just what they are calling the ability to add it into their rack cases as far as I can tell.
Nice, but i hate those big keys, minikeys is so munch better
As usual, really enjoy your tone. Brings life to the whole thing. And made me want to take a listen. Sounds neat enough to generate a bit of GAS, in me. But there are ways to avoid that.
Such a little beauty!
I love my Microbrute — yes it can be weird, but it’s also capable of a lot more subtlety than most give it credit for.
It was not the greatest citizen in a modular system — it could be enhanced by a Eurorack module or two but it didn’t do much to return the favor, so I generally used it as its own voice.
But the Minibrute 2’s patch points open it up enough to go a little beyond “semi-modular” into “nearly modular” territory. One could, for instance, crossfade between the outputs of VCO1 and run them through a Eurorack LPG, while feeding a different sound source through the Brute’s filter, and use its envelopes to modulate something entirely different.
It’d be pretty exciting just to have a second VCO, metalizer input, linear FM, sync, and aftertouch, but the significantly higher pricetag compared to the Microbrute would have slowed me down. With all those patch points though, it seems like a no-brainer.
That frame that is the standalone faceplate for the knobs and patchbay… let’s take bets now:
I reckon it’s open to either a desktop no-keys version OR, depending on the scale of it, of course, can’t tell from the videos, a eurorack module, right in there. Think mother32, and that aira abomination.