Arturia Forums
Hardware Instruments => MiniBrute => General discussion on MiniBrute => Topic started by: coldwar1977 on June 05, 2013, 03:16:43 pm
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I like my Minibrute MUCH better than any other synth I currently own/have owned in the past.
There, I said it. ;D
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Yeap totall agree. I love my Minibrute!
But that may all change when I get my Novation Bass Station 2! ;)
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I like my Minibrute MUCH better than any other synth I currently own/have owned in the past.
There, I said it. ;D
i'm curious, which other ones do or did you have?
i love mine too but sometimes i miss polyphony. if i had more money i would get an analog polysynth.
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i'm curious, which other ones do or did you have?
i love mine too but sometimes i miss polyphony. if i had more money i would get an analog polysynth.
JX-3P, Juno 60, JD-800, Alesis Micron and right now a brandnew MS-20 mini.
Great sounding synths, but none is as much fun as the Minibrute imho!
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thank you for the info.
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awesome! i'd love if you could do a little comparison between the ms-20 mini and the mini brute, such as the pros and cons of each, advantages and disadvantages, etc. the ms-20 mini looks fun but i love my minibrute a lot, and i think i'd have to sell one to fund / make room for the other. really don't want to give up my mb, as i love it
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Hi Steve, that’s a good idea!
Well let's see. Here’s my strictly personal opinion/comparison.
EASY OF USE
The Minibrute wins hands down. Super easy, intuitive and totally hands-on. An MS-20 requires quite a bit more know-how and experience, especially because of the modular styled patch system and some rather cryptically named knobs.
HARDWARE
The Minibrute has an excellent feeling keyboard, but it has only two octaves. The MS-20 mini has mid-size keys that don’t feel that great, but: there’s three octaves which might be more useful for lots of musicians.
The pots of the Minibrute seem much sturdier than those wobbly MS-20 mini knobbies.
SOUND & POSSIBILITIES
In general I personally think the Minibrute is a lot more "allround". It can coax out a vast variety of sounds and timbres. It can sound filthy and mean, BUT other times also really sweet and musical. The MS-20 too is capable of lots of different stuff, but it always has more of an edge. It's grittier. To put it a bit bold: an MS-20 always sounds like an MS-20, no matter what. Imho. Ymmv. But the Minibrute can sound totally unique, or like a late 70's Roland, or a Korg, or a John Foxx-styled MiniMg, etc...
Also: the Minibrute has separate envelopes for VCF and VCF, and two different envelope speeds.
It also has the arpeggiator of course, which is great fun for jamming.
On the other hand the MS-20 has one oscillator more, which opens the door for lots of other cool possibilities of course.
On a sidenote: the MS-20 mini has more (VCA) hiss than the Minibrute. It’s clearly noticeable at certain settings. You'll have to live with that. The Minibrute has no hiss, but sometimes a bit of “oscillator leakage” at higher pitches.
LOOKS
A matter of taste of course. For me, the MS-20 wins in this department because of its badass black industrial look!
Hope this helps you somehow!!
But don’t ever get rid of your Minibrute; it’s one of the greatest machines of the last 5-6 years :D
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coldwar points out some great points ... from which I can only reach one conclusion - the more the merrier :)
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I couldn't get rid of my MiniBrute.
Originally i had only intended to keep it for 2 weeks, record as many sounds, samples and riffs as possible, and then return it for a full refund at my local gear store. Not very nice i know, but the way i treat my things no1 would've been the wiser.
But at the end of the 2 weeks i had fallen so much in love, i could not live without this little beast in my studio.
It has become my allround go-to synth, the first and last i try to make a sound with. And eventhough sometimes it's a pfaff to record multiple takes to get chords, only to find it doesn't work anyways, and have to start over. I wouldn't have any other synth, or do it any other way. It just has character in spades, and make all the right noises.
Arturia has done something special and unexpected with the MiniBrute. They've made a synth by and for the 21st century, with all the character of the old greats.
In that respect i think Korg has failed, they've done exactly what people asked and expected. At no point did they try to expand on the premise, or do something special, or surprise any1 - and even so, with the roadmap being 35 years old, they couldn't even make it there first! Arturia beat them to it with the MiniBrute, and i think it's a better synth too (though a 2nd VCO is sometimes missed).
Fact is the old greats have had their time; they still hold value, they're still special, but you can't revive the past and expect it to have the same spirit, character and feeling. It's better to do what Arturia did and look forward, having learned from the past, but making it with the future in mind. So my MiniBrute isn't going anywhere without me!
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thanks for the excellent post coldwar! really enjoyed the comparison!
i am saving up bit by bit for an ms-20, so i guess i'll just have to wait :)
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Minibrute can sound totally unique, or like a late 70's Roland, or a Korg, or a John Foxx-styled MiniMg, etc...
Arturia has done something special and unexpected with the MiniBrute. They've made a synth by and for the 21st century, with all the character of the old greats.
Absolutly agreed 8)
Love :-* my little Brute
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I think the MB is a unique sounding synth and it's one of the main reasons I bought it. Everyone seems to want to sound like the Mg, and Dave Smith and Korg are trying to recapture their own vintage sounds.
What I like about what Arturia did with the Mini Brute is they create a very different sound; which given the crowded analogue space is exactly what I wanted. The metalizer and brute factor mean you can get sounds practically impossible from other analogue synths, barring some rare modular beasts.
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Honestly, I think the Minibrute will be one of the great synths. I absolutely love mine.
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I'm new to analog, unless you count my Monotron or noodling on the monosynth a friend wanted to trade to me in the late 70s. (Since it only played one note at a time I thought it was broken, so I declined.)
I made my first "album" in 1983 with a Casio MT-65. I loved it but no one else did so I abandoned synth music until 2011 when I purchased a Casio CZ-101 and a Microkorg. I soon added an Alesis Micron (which I never liked and recently traded for a Microsampler).
I like very boingy digital synth sounds and not so much the hollow, haunted sound of early Moogs. I wasn't sold on the idea that "analog is better" and was quite happy with my VA synths. But the Minibrute's forest of knobs, sliders and switches looked like a mad-synthesist's dream come true. I kept my eye on ebay ads hoping that the price of one would dip beneath my budget ceiling. Finally, one did.
I love this board like I love my wife and cats. I can't say that it's "better" than my Microkorg, but that's like comparing violins and pianos. They are two very different instruments. (Or should I say two different electronic orchestras with infinite instrument sounds? How cool is that!) Playing with all those controls is every bit as much fun as I expected and the sound is even better than I would have guessed from the online demos. I was a little put-off by all the "dirty" sounds and I'm very pleased that by keeping levels low you can make the 'brute sing as sweet as a bird.
I don't think I'll ever use the patch overlays. My sessions are very spontaneous and I love starting with clean sounds and then customizing to my mood at the moment. I've had the board two weeks now and only recorded one tune because I'm having too much fun just playing with it. That's not a problem. I'm not pro. I play for fun. And playing the Minibrute is like playing with my favorite new toy on Christmas morning. I get a kick just looking at it, like the kick I get looking at my Triumph Bonneville T100 motorcycle.
The only problem with the Minibrute isn't really a problem. If the line I'm playing seems a clumsy on 25 keys, I just MIDI to my 61 key Yamaha PSR-520 (I do the same with the Microkorg when the mini keys bug me).
You can hear all my music at aejotz.com. The top tune under "2013" entitled "bug" was done on the Minibrute (with percussion sounds from Microkorg and PSR-520 via Microsampler).
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I have a Minibrute, MS-20 Mini and, now, a Bass Station II.
IMHO, all three have relative strengths and weaknesses and have enough different sounds and inouts/outputs, making it worthwhile for me to obtain all three, as I had already cycled through a bunch of synths before settling on these three for analog goodness, tweakability, and relatively low price. I am out of space in which to store my gear, however, so I may have to part with my beloved Alesis Ion.
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I love my Brute, honestly but as for Arturia , how the hell do ya get help from them ? ???
I have computer connection issues with my minibrute but nobody seems to be able to advise.
Shame really when they still expect people to buy the new Microbrute.....SUPPORT ,Arturia...SUPPORT IS THE WORD !
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Blox, I sympathize.
However, consider this. Arturia releases a product into the wild.
There are probaby hundreds of different computer hardware models running various OS versions. Limitless setup differences. Someone might have a totally standard computer, but some weird MIDI routing plugin. Or a ton of USB devices on a bus. Or a USB port that does not supply the correct power. Or antivirus software interfering with scanning the device list. Plus users, from savvy to cluless.
For most people, the software runs fine. (Or the forum would have dozens of HELP posts a day.) For some people, there are unique one-off issues that are virtually impossible to diagnose over email. You're basically asking Arturia to help you out with a problem with your computer. A problem that affects your MiniBrute software, but not with the software - a problem on your end.
Your best bet is to focus on your system - upgrade the OS, experiement with configuration, until it works. Reinstall. Retry. Because MiniBrute Connection works fine for me, and I always have a problem with everything!
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It is a lot of fun. I have a mopho kb and a tetra that I like quite a lot. Also a Mg taurus III. Stay away for the hybrids.