French synth boffins Arturia are at the Winter NAMM show in LA in January to show off their brand-new instrument, the MiniBrute. What makes the MiniBrute most appealing is that it is a pure analogue synthesizer! It’s monophonic, and incorporates a two-octave keyboard, which hints at it being particularly useful for creating analogue bass lines.
The MiniBrute’s sound generation begins with a four-waveform oscillator mixer. Here, sawtooth, square, triangle and white-noise sounds can be introduced via sliders. A sub-oscillator is also available, as is a slider for controlling the level of external audio (the input for which is on the rear of the synth).
A multi-mode filter is available, as are ADSR envelopes for amplitude and pitch. There are also two LFOs, a Brute Factor knob (which adds distortion to the output), and an arpeggiator, with a tap-tempo button.
Being analogue, the MiniBrute has just one function per control, which will make real-time tweaking a doddle. It can be controlled externally too, via a MIDI socket, or the three CV inputs and gate input. It even has MIDI-over-USB functionality, so you can send MIDI data to and from a computer.
Surprisingly for an all-analogue synth, the MiniBrute will be selling for just €499 — we can see it becoming very popular indeed, and can’t wait to get our hands on one!
