I’ve had a few different synths over the years, big, small, expensive, cheap, pretty, ugly, you know, as one sometimes does. But one of my favorites, one that I go back to time and time again and marvel at it’s greatness, is the venerable Arturia MiniBrute 2S. Everyone seemed to stop talking about both MiniBrutes about 10 years ago, but here is why I think the 2S is still relevant in 2024:
The sound module, patch-bay, and sequencer compliment each other so well. The sequencer has 4 tracks: pitch, gate, velocity, and pressure. Pressure doubles as a way to modulate cut-off value on a per-step basis, and velocity doubles as a way to modulate wave folding of the triangle wave on a per-step basis. It does all the standard stuff as well: ratchets, slides, direction, randomness, scales including custom, any step length up to 64 steps.
The real excitement in the sequencer is that the velocity and pressure tracks can be disconnected and configured independently. This allows you to do so many cool things. The most obvious is that you can have another pitch track and set it to its own length and direction. The last 2 tracks have many other magical abilities, or as Arturia calls them, modes. In voltage mode, each step can be set to a different voltage and parameters can be routed to those voltages. Or in LFO mode each step can have a different rate assigned to it. Or in envelope mode, each step has its own AD envelope. Paring these modes with the patchbay gives you pretty much infinite creative possibilities!
Most people would say the downside of this synth is its Steiner-Parker filter. It’s true, you have to like this filter in order to love the synth. But I do think the S-P is often dismissed too quickly before really exploring it and learning how to work with it. It loves raw, MS-20 dirtiness, but it can be tamed. Not totally tamed, but somewhat. Its forte is heavy, driving basses. You can crank the Brute Factor (i.e., feedback) to keep the bass beefy when your resonance is high. It also does acid incredibly well. You can dial in that burbley growl that only the best 303 emulators can do. Most of all, making music is just fun with this synth. Arturia really created a little gem here.
What music-making tool under 500 dollars/euros do you have powerful feelings for?
