Arturia Minibrute: The Dons of Digital now go Analogue.

Arturia are best known as a software firm, who’ve made a name for themselves emulating classic analogue synths with outstanding results. This year they release the Minibrute, which made its debut at NAMM 2012.

Not only have the software giants decided to go hardware, the entire synth is analogue; with a mixture of vintage and modern circuity for crystal clarity and vintage warmth. Arturia have released a 7-minute video tour of the key features, which is well worth a watch.

The standout features for me are the astonishing frequency range (bowel-shuddering bass to dogwhistle squeaks), triangle wave metalizer, “ultrasaw” 6-wave thickening, audio input to add that beautiful filter sound to ANY other instrument, and the unique “brutefactor” control, which feeds the Minibrute’s own audio signal back into the filter network for intense thickness.

At €499, the minibrute will make an excellent addition to any live or studio setup.

Arturia Minibrute main features

• 100% analog audio signal path
• Steiner-Parker multimode filter
• Voltage Controlled Oscillator
• Oscillator Mixer with sub-osc, sawtooth, square, white noise, triangle, audio in.
• LFO1 with 6 waveforms and bi-polar modulation destinations
• LFO2 with 3 vibrato modes
• Brute Factor™ delivering saturation and rich harmonics
• Ultrasaw generating shimmering sawtooth waveforms
• Metalizer bringing extreme triangle harmonics
• Two ADSR Envelope Generators
• 25-note keyboard with aftertouch
• Pitch-bend with 1 octave range, Modulation wheel
• External analog audio input
• CV In controls: Pitch, Filter, Amp
• CV Out controls: Pitch
• Gate In/Out, MIDI In/Out, USB MIDI In/Out
• 1/4″ audio output, 1/4″ headphone output

Full function arpeggiator:

• 4 modes of arpeggiation
• 4-octave range control
• 6 time divisions
• Swing control

Full spec, information, and media are available from Arturia’a website, and UK buyers can pick up one of these babies for a good price on Amazon: