Still happy with your Polybrute?

[Freaqpeak]

The vst connect plugin isnt really stable for me, crashes sometimes. Sync to bpm isnt 100% stable.
That said, the actual synth and interface on the hardware are amazing. You can do so much with it, nothing else come close in the analog poly realm.
Havent had any hw issues so far.

Arturia should update the vst software more often, thats my main issue.

What system and DAW are you using? It’s rock solid on Windows 10 in Bitwig.

I have both Cubase and Bitwig in Win10 but Im using mostly Cubase for the Polybrute.
Have you tried syncing the Polybrute to Bitwigs BPM tempo? In Cubase the clock isn't stable and varies. This is not a problem in any other hardware I've tried (Midi Sync). If I set the DAW to 120 BPM, Polybrute shows about 119-121 each second.. not stable 120. So all ARPs/Sequencer based patches isn't synced 100% to the project. A bit annoying. You can work around it by setting a static BPM by hand in Polybrute...

[RobGee]

The vst connect plugin isnt really stable for me, crashes sometimes. Sync to bpm isnt 100% stable.
That said, the actual synth and interface on the hardware are amazing. You can do so much with it, nothing else come close in the analog poly realm.
Havent had any hw issues so far.

Arturia should update the vst software more often, thats my main issue.

What system and DAW are you using? It’s rock solid on Windows 10 in Bitwig.

I have both Cubase and Bitwig in Win10 but Im using mostly Cubase for the Polybrute.
Have you tried syncing the Polybrute to Bitwigs BPM tempo? In Cubase the clock isn't stable and varies. This is not a problem in any other hardware I've tried (Midi Sync). If I set the DAW to 120 BPM, Polybrute shows about 119-121 each second.. not stable 120. So all ARPs/Sequencer based patches isn't synced 100% to the project. A bit annoying. You can work around it by setting a static BPM by hand in Polybrute...

All my hardware is like this in Cubase, Polybrute, Matrixbrute, Summit and E4 Platinum. It doesn’t drift that much but it’s not 100% stable.

[Milkman]

Probably dumb question, but... I just bought the microfreak, and was looking at both the minifreak and polybrute before the purchase. I read the specifications for the polybrute in like 5 places, including sweetwater, arturia's own site, etc, and it just says "aftertouch: yes". Is that POLY aftertouch on the polybrute??? lol or just channel AT?

[cryophonik]

Probably dumb question, but... I just bought the microfreak, and was looking at both the minifreak and polybrute before the purchase. I read the specifications for the polybrute in like 5 places, including sweetwater, arturia's own site, etc, and it just says "aftertouch: yes". Is that POLY aftertouch on the polybrute??? lol or just channel AT?

The PB does not have poly AF, but it does have "duophonic" AT. From the manual:

The PolyBrute can optionally produce duophonic aftertouch, restricting aftertouch to certain notes. This lets you (for example) play a chord and then solo over it with aftertouch only happening on the solo note. The settings are:
• Monophonic: Aftertouch affects all voices.
• Duophonic: Aftertouch only affects the last played note, or group of notes that was played simultaneously.
• Duo Upper Split: Same as Duophonic, but only applies to the Upper part in a split or layer.
• Duo Lower Split: Same as Duophonic, but only applies to the Lower part in a split or layer.

[Milkman]

Probably dumb question, but... I just bought the microfreak, and was looking at both the minifreak and polybrute before the purchase. I read the specifications for the polybrute in like 5 places, including sweetwater, arturia's own site, etc, and it just says "aftertouch: yes". Is that POLY aftertouch on the polybrute??? lol or just channel AT?

The PB does not have poly AF, but it does have "duophonic" AT. From the manual:

The PolyBrute can optionally produce duophonic aftertouch, restricting aftertouch to certain notes. This lets you (for example) play a chord and then solo over it with aftertouch only happening on the solo note. The settings are:
• Monophonic: Aftertouch affects all voices.
• Duophonic: Aftertouch only affects the last played note, or group of notes that was played simultaneously.
• Duo Upper Split: Same as Duophonic, but only applies to the Upper part in as plit or layer.
• Duo Lower Split: Same as Duophonic, but only applies to the Lower part in a split or layer.

Interesting @ the duophonic AT. Thanks for that info. Im fairly sure that Im going to be picking up a higher end MPE synth or controller at some point and Im already starting to think about what that will be. I really like the Osmose and lean heavily toward it, but am open to other devices in the category. This is exciting.

[cryophonik]

Interesting @ the duophonic AT. Thanks for that info. Im fairly sure that Im going to be picking up a higher end MPE synth or controller at some point...

That brings up an interesting question of whether or not the PolyBrute will receive duophonic AT via MIDI. I'm not sure, but maybe someone else here knows.

[zerocrossing]

Interesting @ the duophonic AT. Thanks for that info. Im fairly sure that Im going to be picking up a higher end MPE synth or controller at some point...

That brings up an interesting question of whether or not the PolyBrute will receive duophonic AT via MIDI. I'm not sure, but maybe someone else here knows.

It receives polyphonic aftertouch, so even better.

[zerocrossing]

Probably dumb question, but... I just bought the microfreak, and was looking at both the minifreak and polybrute before the purchase. I read the specifications for the polybrute in like 5 places, including sweetwater, arturia's own site, etc, and it just says "aftertouch: yes". Is that POLY aftertouch on the polybrute??? lol or just channel AT?

The PB does not have poly AF, but it does have "duophonic" AT. From the manual:

The PolyBrute can optionally produce duophonic aftertouch, restricting aftertouch to certain notes. This lets you (for example) play a chord and then solo over it with aftertouch only happening on the solo note. The settings are:
• Monophonic: Aftertouch affects all voices.
• Duophonic: Aftertouch only affects the last played note, or group of notes that was played simultaneously.
• Duo Upper Split: Same as Duophonic, but only applies to the Upper part in as plit or layer.
• Duo Lower Split: Same as Duophonic, but only applies to the Lower part in a split or layer.

Interesting @ the duophonic AT. Thanks for that info. Im fairly sure that Im going to be picking up a higher end MPE synth or controller at some point and Im already starting to think about what that will be. I really like the Osmose and lean heavily toward it, but am open to other devices in the category. This is exciting.

One thing to be aware of on the Osmose is that it does not do completely independent per note pitch sliding, like other MPE synths do because of the physical limitations of a key style interface. They have a work around where you use portamento in a similar way to how the PolyBrute does duophonic aftertouch.

[cryophonik]

Interesting @ the duophonic AT. Thanks for that info. Im fairly sure that Im going to be picking up a higher end MPE synth or controller at some point...

That brings up an interesting question of whether or not the PolyBrute will receive duophonic AT via MIDI. I'm not sure, but maybe someone else here knows.

It receives polyphonic aftertouch, so even better.

What happens if you have it set to one of the duophonic modes and send poly AT messages from an external controller? Is it always going to respond to poly AT regardless of the PB’s settings? I haven’t tried it with a poly AT controller, so I’m just curious how it works.

[zerocrossing]

Interesting @ the duophonic AT. Thanks for that info. Im fairly sure that Im going to be picking up a higher end MPE synth or controller at some point...

That brings up an interesting question of whether or not the PolyBrute will receive duophonic AT via MIDI. I'm not sure, but maybe someone else here knows.

It receives polyphonic aftertouch, so even better.

What happens if you have it set to one of the duophonic modes and send poly AT messages from an external controller? Is it always going to respond to poly AT regardless of the PB’s settings? I haven’t tried it with a poly AT controller, so I’m just curious how it works.

It totally ignores the duophonic mode when receiving polyphonic aftertouch from an external source. I think that’s just an internal trick that is between the synth engine and the PolyBrute keybed, but I may be wrong. I’ve never used it to control another synth.

[Milkman]

Probably dumb question, but... I just bought the microfreak, and was looking at both the minifreak and polybrute before the purchase. I read the specifications for the polybrute in like 5 places, including sweetwater, arturia's own site, etc, and it just says "aftertouch: yes". Is that POLY aftertouch on the polybrute??? lol or just channel AT?

The PB does not have poly AF, but it does have "duophonic" AT. From the manual:

The PolyBrute can optionally produce duophonic aftertouch, restricting aftertouch to certain notes. This lets you (for example) play a chord and then solo over it with aftertouch only happening on the solo note. The settings are:
• Monophonic: Aftertouch affects all voices.
• Duophonic: Aftertouch only affects the last played note, or group of notes that was played simultaneously.
• Duo Upper Split: Same as Duophonic, but only applies to the Upper part in as plit or layer.
• Duo Lower Split: Same as Duophonic, but only applies to the Lower part in a split or layer.

Interesting @ the duophonic AT. Thanks for that info. Im fairly sure that Im going to be picking up a higher end MPE synth or controller at some point and Im already starting to think about what that will be. I really like the Osmose and lean heavily toward it, but am open to other devices in the category. This is exciting.

One thing to be aware of on the Osmose is that it does not do completely independent per note pitch sliding, like other MPE synths do because of the physical limitations of a key style interface. They have a work around where you use portamento in a similar way to how the PolyBrute does duophonic aftertouch.

Thanks for that. I hope to be able to put my hands on one before buying, so if there are any quirks that represent barriers for me, I'll hopefully see those before spending the $$. No stores near me have it, so I may drive a bit to demo one.

[werp]

seriously contemplating moving my Polybrute on. I just haven't used it.
I think it's just too much for this tiny brain.
I'm primarily a guitarist and I find those six voices (strings) to be more than enough at times.
I'll keep the Matrix Brute though

[zerocrossing]

seriously contemplating moving my Polybrute on. I just haven't used it.
I think it's just too much for this tiny brain.
I'm primarily a guitarist and I find those six voices (strings) to be more than enough at times.
I'll keep the Matrix Brute though

If you can grok the MatrixBrute, you’ll have no trouble with the PolyBrute.

[Freaqpeak]

The Polybrute would benefit from a larger set of presets, made by professional sound designers. They should hire top designers and sell some extra sound banks. There are so many things you can do with the Polybrute that aren't really used in the presets, so many cool features are located in submenus, so it's not easy to find them if you're not using VST Connect.

I pretty much need the VST Connect to be able to have a decent workflow, at least so far. I need to spend more time with it without the computer......

[zerocrossing]

The Polybrute would benefit from a larger set of presets, made by professional sound designers. They should hire top designers and sell some extra sound banks. There are so many things you can do with the Polybrute that aren't really used in the presets, so many cool features are located in submenus, so it's not easy to find them if you're not using VST Connect.

I pretty much need the VST Connect to be able to have a decent workflow, at least so far. I need to spend more time with it without the computer......

I admit that I’m really ignorant of using the PolyBrute’s physical UI, except as a performance device. PolyBrute Connect is great, though, so I don’t see it as a problem. Maybe it’s just the way my brain works, but it makes everything seem more clear to me.