BOOcast - Synth of the Month: Arturia Polybrute
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 28 авг 2024
- This segment comes from BOOcast #22 (bit.ly/boocast22). BOOcast is a monthly livestream about being in a DIY synthpop band. We answer your questions, play songs, meet guests, talk synths and share stories.
If you enjoyed this then why not subscribe on Bandcamp for bonus content?
bit.ly/BOOsters
Synth of the Month title tee available here:
bit.ly/BOOswag
Buy music/merch on Bandcamp: booelectric.ba...
Join our mailing list at booelectric.com
Hands down the best demo of this synthesizer I've seen.
Wow! Massive thanks!
New channel unlocked ❤, loving this 😂 wibbly wobbly
@@bitbotrecords Cheers!
Totally agree! And best that it comes one of the members of a duo I love listening to..! Love the way they share stuff...
@@PaulBoos Bless you sir!!
My favourite synth. The more time I spend with it, the more I fall in love with it. Got to say you need to spend more time honing your skills and knowledge of patch making with this machine and it will yield far more interesting patches than the ones shown here.
Yep, you're probably right. A couple of days isn't enough time to become fully connected to any instrument.
@@BOOelectric
As they say in America, you only got as far as first base with this amazing machine
@@Kung_Fu_Jesus I didn't even take the sticker off!
Ah, good old PolyBrute! Despite some minor disadvantages, it is a modulation monster and certainly does have a strong, unique character.
You can adjust the OSC 1 tuning in the respective menu by pressing the Settings button and wiggle the tuning knob. Works on virtually every parameter.
Minor disadvantages? Not arguing, I agree - just wondering what you perceive them to be / comparing notes … ?
@@kierenmoore3236 a) Modulation sources should also be freely assignable. On the MatrixBrute I often use the VCA envelope as a source. Also I‘d like to use noise for modifying the Steiner-Parker filter.
b) One single knob for FX intensity and speed, e.g. chorus depth/dry-wet and speed is a shame. I suggested to use the Settings button for a shift function before the last update but wasn‘t heard.
Anyway, I love my PolyBrute to bits. :)
@@RayyMusik Thanks for that. 🙏🏼 The MB modulation routing is more flexible, then? I’m really leaning towards the MB.
@@kierenmoore3236 Wait a minute! The MB is not ‘better‘ in modulation, just different.
Matrix mod sources (fixed):
MB: 16
PB: 12
Matrix mod destinations:
MB: 12 fixed, 16 variable
PB: 32 variable.
As for the dedicated knobs, I slightly prefer the MB. And the MB has an even more powerful oscillator section.
However, it has considerable disadvantages:
1. The MB is a mono synth. In paraphonic mode, it has 3 voices compared to 6 on the PB.
The envelopes are not the greatest problem in paraphonic mode, but you have only 1 OSC per voice.
2. I don‘t like the analog FX on the MB; they sound dull to my ears. The digital ones on the PB are excellent.
3. The most annoying thing on the MB is the small, slow, and not back-lit ink display. Quite unusable on stage.
4. The PB has features like morphing and motion-recording, which the MB can only dream of.
Summary: The MB may have some advantages, but all in all the PB is a much better synth.
@@RayyMusik Thanks so much for sharing your impressions/insights! 🙏🏼 It may be the oscillator section - I’m really drawn more to the sound of the MB …
I usually prefer analog FX (but will compare them again, now), and I doubt how much I will use morph and motion-recording (I have other synths with these, too).
Thanks so much, again! 😎👍🏼
Citroen DS! You keep hitting the sweet spot. The DS is however not without its quirks. That’s why I drive a XM. 😎
Good to know!
It’s unique and exquisite. It is a shame it’s only 6 voices but damn it’s so good still
If Arturia morphs it with the Microfreak’s synthesis engine I’ll marry it. If it does poly AT / MIDI expression! 😎
Crikey... Now that could be incredible!
@@BOOelectric The only problem would be that I’d have to spend a lot of cash on it after already working on my own interpretation of such a concept for years (google my name with “Starship One synthesizer setup” if you are interested). But in some countries a promise of marriage is binding so I might have to buy it anyway. 😁
Fun "meow" patches. 😸
Love to see calling-out the use of a big synth like this as an amazingly versatile effects pedal. Even when I only had the microKORG, I loved using that as a weird guitar pedal. It's one of my favourite techniques, and I should really set-up for a synth-guitar session some time because it's been too long.
I must admit I normally hate the Steiner-Parker, but you got it to do some interesting things that I appreciated - mostly when combined with the classic, lovely, buttery ladder filter.
I'd always viewed the double filter thing as a bit of a gimmick, especially since standalone filter modules exist for the weirder options. But I do like the way you've modulated the balance (both volume and stereo) between filters in ways that relate to the rest of the patches, here.
Thank you very much!!
Yes, 6 voices is a bit meager in this price class but in my time, the so called “good old days”, one would have given a leg and an arm for 6 voices. I do also agree on the ribbon controller. I suppose these are always based on what the electronic component market supplies. The length looks about the same as the Doepfer R2M I have been owning for years. Lovely you mention the Ondes Martenot by the way. No, Robert Moog, bless his soul, did not invent the synthesizer. 😁
Honestly, I'm not complaining about the 6 voices across the splits etc... I'd be very happy if the OB6 could do splits for example... And like you, In the past I've been glad of 4, 2 and even one voice, provided there was a portastudio at hand. I seem to have been more grumpy than usual on this video! 😂
@@BOOelectric The Yamaha CS70M is a bit comparable in this respect. Drooled over it for years at my music shop of choice but it cost a fortune. Later bought one for what is now considered to be next to nothing, even for a CS70M, although it was missing one voice at the time. Ok, it’s not a CS80 but many of it’s features where quite advanced for the time. 😁
@@marcbrasse747 The CS70M is a lovely thing... Weel done for getting a reasonable price!
It is big. Supposedly, there’s a 12-voice incoming (perhaps with multi-timbral and Poly-AT). 🤷🏻♂️
I've heard this too, but also been told it's just a rumour... Superbooth, maybe?
It's not a rumor 😊Just be patient 😊 @@BOOelectric
@@BOOelectric There was a short video posted of what was clearly not the current PB. It looked very similar, but had different/extra buttons on the left hand side - wasn’t modded, it looked totally OEM, and it was someone from Arturia being interviewed. Since that video and various links being posted, they’ve been pulled from the forums (mostly) where they appeared … there is still remnants of the early discussion around … I don’t know anything for certain, but if I’d been thinking fo buying a PB, I’d beholding off for bit … … … Meanwhile, where is this darn Super Bowl Moog, already?!! 😊
Great demo f a synth that is truly interesting...
Glad you like it sir!
I’ve tried, very hard and for a long time, to like the Arturia hardware synths. I’ve heard one sound I really liked out of the PB … several more out of the MB; that, plus analog FX, would sway me heavily to the MB, if either …
I can empathise... We do have another Arturia synth for next months SOTM, and my final thoughts on that one are much less equivocal, that on this one... Stay tuned!
I have the MiniBrute 2 and the cv patch bay gives you all the gritty wrongness you could wish for
@@BOOelectric Sounds interesting! Thanks … I’ll be here anyway; appreciate your reviews/overviews … nice work on the Finish Line track, too 😎👍🏼
I’m one of those people who thinks it’s the best synth ever made, but it took me a few months to arrive at that opinion. It just take some time to fully realize what is possible with it. One of those things is grit. It’s there, you just have to find it. Brute factor sort of has a Spinal Tap goes to 11 mode. Very tame and then suddenly it goes bonkers. It’s also very interactive with other parameters, so it will behave differently depending on what else is going on.
Basically, the Polybrute you experience at two weeks is different than the Polybrute at 6 months or a year or nearly three years, which is how long I’ve had mine.
Yes, I've not had enough time with this synth. Incidentally, I never connected with our OB6 for the first year or so, as Brigitte reminded me in the BOOcast after we rolled this video, but now I couldn't live without it having given it the time to reveal itself. Thanks for reminding me that real instruments take time.
@@BOOelectric Glad to! When I make comments like this, I try to think back to my own experiences in the first few weeks, and how much different it was to my current experience. There are still things I haven’t spent much time with, like the bitimbral modes or the combined arp/sequencer. One last thing. Tell the friend who loaned it to you to update the firmware to the latest version. Arturia added a number of distortion options in version 3.0 for all the grit you want.
@@geephlips Cheers, I'll pass that on. I should add: when I review a synth I don't know, I have to aim for the experience I might have during half an hour's first contact in a music shop, and consequently it'll be a bit more "first impressions". As I say at the start of this one, when it's a synth I've had for 40 years, it's a different story, with much more personal experience to draw on and I'll throw in, often with anecdotes ad nauseam! I'll make that clearer in the video next time I have a firs experience vid. Thanks for the feedback.
@@BOOelectric I should add that it was an excellent review. One of the best I’ve seen. I was being a little nitpicky, but you picked up on things that a lot reviewers haven’t.
As synth nerd myself, I can’t not ask you what about the keybed? Does the action feels as good as it looks like?
Yes, it's very nice to play. Quite similar to Fatar keybeds, but I think a touch lighter...
My next synth
Nice One!!
They are coming out with a mark2 with double the voices.
Is this for def?
@@BOOelectric yes
@@jumpingman8160 Thanks for the confirmation... Lot's of speculation on the BOOcast, but no certainty...
@@jumpingman8160 source?
@@banyarling Can't remember if SonicState or another podcast...