Arturia minibrute User manual
Arturia MiniBrute – the new Roland SH-101?
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In many ways the Arturia MiniBrute is an exception to the rule. First, it’s French, a rarity on the analog synth
market. Second, it’s something really special. THE analog synth of the year 2012 (and probably also 2013). In the
lower price segment, in any case …
Most remarkable is the fact that a product of this high quality could be produced with such an exceptional price-
performance ratio without any great sacrifices.
Arturia, up to now primarily involved in the development of software synthesizers, seems to have managed the
impossible.
The MiniBrute is well-made, sounds great, is versatile and – at 500 Euros – very affordable. An analog synth with
MIDI, USB and CV/Gate. You might expect that you’d just be getting what’s absolutely necessary in basic sound
design, but the opposite is true. The MiniBrute is full of little extras that total up to enormous flexibility. We’ll
explain this in detail in the course of the following report.
Arturia MiniBrute – the new Roland SH-101?
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We have also taken the liberty to compare the MiniBrute with the similarly designed Roland SH-101. But let’s start
at the beginning …
On availability, the manual and other stuff …
The MiniBrute comes with a couple of suprises. First, concerning delivery times and availability: these can be sticky.
Arturia has too few MiniBrutes available around the world. So, you may have to be patient at the moment.
Arturia MiniBrute – the new Roland SH-101?
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The original user manual is written in English, French and Japanese
Second, the manual: well organized – good printing quality, very informative … everything’s great, except … you’re
limited to English, French and Japanese! For other languages (German, for example), please put on hold. They’ll get
there in the long run. In any case, this is a manual you can browse in, great bedside reading.
Arturia MiniBrute – the new Roland SH-101?
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The MiniBrute comes with a generous pile of sound sheets
Forget about the language. The instrument comes with a generous pile of sound sheets … nice, thick cardboard
templates which fit perfectly over the control panel to visually record favourite sound positions. Analog in the truest
sense! Arturia’s MiniBrute comes with 10 “presets” and 5 “blank sheets”.
The quality of the handiwork is very, very good. The MiniBrute doesn’t look impressive, that’s true. But just pick it
up. It’s a whopper. Absolutely solid, a thick chassis, high quality knobs and faders. Nothing wiggles. Fantastic!
Arturia didn’t stint on the hardware … and not on the sound, either, just to be clear on that.
And you see at a glance that the MiniBrute is another wonderful product from Axel Hartmann’s Design Box …
Elegant design … bearing the signature of Axel Hartmann
It goes to say that a whole arsenal of people were involved in its realization. The following list reflects an intensive
French-Japanese-German cooperation.
Product and Project Management
Frédéric Brun
Romain Dejoie
Electronics
Yves Usson
Bruno Pillet
Francois Best
Laurent Baret
Robert Bocquier
Antoine Back
Design
Arturia MiniBrute – the new Roland SH-101?
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Axel Hartmann (Design Box)
Daniel Vester
Morgan Perrier
Industialization
Nicolas Dubois
Suzy Zhu (Huaxin)
Manual
Yves Usson
Craig Anderton
Antoine Back
Yasu Tanaka
Noritaka Ubukata
Yves Usson, above all, deserves mention. He is a senior scientist responsible for creating some of the most amazing
analog modular systems. He started designing and building his first modular analog synthesizer back in 1977. Today,
he freely shares his acclaimed designs and indepth knowledge with the worldwide community of SDIY (synthesizer
do it yourself).
A wide playing range which you wouldn’t expect with a 2-octave keyboard
But let’s get back to the MiniBrute. That it has an external PSU is not suprising considering its small size
(recollections of the Roland SH-101). Signs of the times. The 2 octave keyboard may seem minimalistic at first
glance. But: the keys are normal sized (“big” – not kid-sized à la Micro-Korg) and, thanks to the octave range
switches, you really have access to a full six octaves. So – minimalistic, yes, but also well thought through.
Arturia MiniBrute – the new Roland SH-101?
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The keyboard may indeed have its week points
Something to watch out for on the keyboard: those metal plates under the keys may come loose. They were put there
to enhance the playing feeling through additional weight. But some of these plates have been known to go loose. In
that rare case there’s even a danger of them falling inside the instrument … in which event the MiniBrute shouldn’t
be turned on. The manufacterer is indeed aware of this problem, so we are expecting a permanent solution in the
very near future.
Specifications
The MiniBrute contains …
… a Voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCO) with sub-oscillator. The VCO is well designed. It offers
sawtooth, pulse, sine and noise, each individually mixable via fader (signal mixer), so, in fact, you end up with
an endless amount of waveform possibilities. The sub-oscillator can be pulse or sine, 1 or 2 octaves below the
original signal. The main waveforms (saw, pulse and sine) offer some extras: Ultrasaw, for example, builds two
phase-shifted copies of the basic sawtooth signal. What you get is a very thick sound, something you’d expect
from a 2-VCO synthesizer. It’s sort of a supersaw, similar to what we know from the (virtual) Roland JP-8000.
PWM is possible via LFO and envelope and the unique metalizer function turns the sine-wave into non-
harmonic waveforms, something very useful, as there’s no ring-modulator. The VCO is, strictly speaking, an
extremely versatile analog oscillator. Compliment!
Arturia MiniBrute – the new Roland SH-101?
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… a Steiner multimode filter. There’s lowpass, bandpass, highpass and notch. Not bad! The filter resonance
is very aggressive (maybe that’s the typical “Steiner” sound?), so the MiniBrute is perfectly usable for raw,
dominant, hard analog sounds. The VCF has its own ADSR and keyboard tracking is available from 0 to 200 (!)
%. Filter frequency modulation is also possible by LFO (of course …), by modulation wheel, aftertouch (via
MIDI or directly through the internal keyboard) and finally by an external CV-source. There’s an audio-input,
too, enabling filtering of any external audio signal. If the gate source switch on back of the instrument is set to
audio, you don’t even have to touch the MiniBrute keyboard … the external signal will trigger the synth.
Arturia MiniBrute – the new Roland SH-101?
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… a main LFO with lots of waveforms. Frequency ranges from 0.05 bis 100 Hz, so this LFO is perfect for
very slow as well as for ultra-fast (ok, let’s say: fast) modulation purposes. 6 waveforms (including sample &
hold) and multiple modulation destinations (VCO, VCF and VCA) turn the main LFO into a powerful sound
design module. Last but not least, it’s possible to synchronize LFO clock and arpeggiator clock … something
both useful and elegant.
Arturia MiniBrute – the new Roland SH-101?
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… a second LFO for vibrato. The special vibrato-LFO is controllable by modulation wheel or aftertouch. The
aftertouch factory setting is very strong, so the vibrato might be more “jumpy” than smooth. But no problem,
there’s the MiniBrute Connection software. It allows for personal aftertouch adjustment and for other
goodies (such as selection of the MIDI channel, …).
… two envelopes. Classic: two ADSR. Basic envelope time may be switched from fast to slow. That’s great,
since it allows you precise control over a sound’s shape. This feature would do credit to a lot of analog
synthesizers on the market.
… the Brute factor. The Brute factor is an extra knob that enhances the filter resonance. It makes the sound
more aggressive and wild … if that’s what you’re looking for.
Arturia MiniBrute – the new Roland SH-101?
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… a versatile arpeggiator. An arpeggiator is generally a useful tool. And this one is comprehensive as well.
The MiniBrute arpeggiator has various playing modes (including random!) and octave range settings. The
basic note length is selectable (quarter, eighth, sixteenth, …) and a swing factor gives you various groove
options. The arpeggiator has its own internal clock, but may also be synched to MIDI clock. You can even tap
in your own tempo … just hit the TAP button to adjust. Ah yes … arpeggio lines are transmitted via CV/gate to
any external synthesizer … to your Roland SH-101 or ARP Axxe, for example.
Other manuals for minibrute
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