Arturia Minibrute
Analog Synthesizer (2012)

Compact analog synthesizer at affordable price from French company , most famous for digital plugin emulation of classic machines.

KEYBOARD compact 25 regular keys with aftertouch.
Main panel features 6 switches, 14 sliders, 30 knobs and 2 wheels for pitchbender and modulation.

Back panel terminal connectors:
- Midi interface
- gate source switch
- audio input
- main out
- headphones
- CV / gate interface.

Power supply external PSU 12 VC DC +) polarity.

SOUND a monophonic synthesizer based on subtractive synthesis.
A voice is composed by a single VCO with 5 summable waveforms elements each with individual mix:
- sawtooth wave
- pulse wave
- triangle wave
- noise generator
- sub oscillator (square or sinewave, 1 / 2 octaves below).

 

WAVESHAPER these special osclliator functions alters the harmonic contents of specific waveform:
- ultrasaw mixes the saw with different phases with rate and depth controls
- width changes the pulse shape from 50 to 90% duty cycle
- metalizer adds harmonics to triangle for a metal-like sound.

 

FILTER the VCF inspired from the famous Steiner Parker Synthacon classic synthesizer; this peculiar multimode model does not lower volumes at auto-oscillation like classic 4-poles.
- lowpass 2 poles
- highpass
- band / notch 1 pole.
Minbrute processes external audio signal by VCF at line impedance, in addition a keyboard tracking processor.

 

 

ENVELOPE there are 2 EGs:
- EG1 VCF: 4-segments ADSR
- EG2 VCA: 4-segments ADSR + 2 EG timemode:
Two EG modes: Fast for quick envelope response scale from 1ms to 1s while Slow from 10 ms to 10 s for long dronic effect. VCA feedback Brute Factor saturates the signal for a fuzzy distortion, maybe inspired by the Moog Minimoog D infamous feedback trick (aka plug audio out to audio input).

LFO 2 digital modulators :

 

	LFO2	LFO1
shapes	sqr+ / sqr - / sine	sin / tri / saw / sqr / s&H / rnd glide
destinations	pitch	pitch / cutoff / metalizer / PWM
sync retrig	-	yes
bipolar value	no	yes

 

PERFORMANCE some handy playmode functions:
- aftertouch is assignable to cutoff or LFO 2 amount
- modulation wheel is assignable to cutoff or LFO 2 amount
- pitchbender with adjustable range from 1 half-tone to whole octave
- octave selector ± 2 octaves
- although the keyboard is not sensitive, the synth can receive it
- velocity curve can be set by external software
- glide playmode from 0 to 2 seconds time (priority can be set only by software).
MIDI keyboard can be used also as a polyphonic Midi controller.

ARPEGGIATOR a 4 octave range with latch, 6 swing levels and 5 directions: up, down, up-down, random, sequencer (entered notes) e
SYNC LFO2 and arpeggiator can be synched to internal tempo (setting range from 30 to 260 BPM), tap tempo or slaved to external clock - there are 6 time dividers: 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, /1/8 triplet and 1/16 triplet.
NOTE: arpeggiator outputs both CV tensions and Midi notes.

 

CV the machine features various facilities with modular system at 1V / Oct scale:
- CV / gate input and output
- VCA CV input
- VCF CV input.
The synth acts also as a Midi to CV converter bridge for vintage synthesizers.

MAINTENANCE some users reported troubles with keys sticking out of the keyboard: It seems to be 2 unlucky batches of products. According to Arturia official announcement about 4% of machines suffer from this factory issues. This unpleasant surprise should be reported immediately to Arturia or you dealer for replacement.

Pic - The infamous key trouble in a production wave

 

 

MINIBRUTE VS ROLAND SH101 the Minibrute is considered as a new Roland Sh101. Same VCO structure + sub + summable waves is similar and the grey color is close, but that's it they do sound totally different: the Sh101 is so smooth, creamy and round while Minibrute is aggressive, more distorted harsh sound-oriented. You can find some sh101 and Minibrute in the demo section.

 

 

RELATED FAMILY

MiniBrute SE (2014) the arpeggiator has been replaced with a sequencer. Also a special red edition. MICROBRUTE (2013) even smaller version at fraction costs and a smart semimodular patch.   MAXIBRUTE (2016) coming up. Should be a stereoid minibrute keeping same structure with matrix programming.

FREE MINIBRUTE SAMPLEPACK! some links:

	name	price	link	demo
	audio animals	free		n/a
	waveformless	Free		n/a

 

AUDIO DEMO

Supermix Minibrute + drum machine MFB 522 JAMMING 909 with Roland TR-909 Lfo madness glide function true Sh-101 filtered by minibrute demo by Arturia part1 demo by Arturia part2

 

Soundcloud Arturia Minibrute

 

VIDEO CLIP SELECTION brute dream arpeggiator demo Vince Clark

Minibrute and Rsf Kobol a cool french synth

ARTURIA MINIBRUTE MANUAL

LINK Hack a brute website, resource to mod the machine.

minibrute red edition

custom wood

custom desktop