Still happy with your Polybrute?

[cryophonik]

Yeah, I agree that the PB seems to have a pretty limited range of presets and, come to think of it, I can't say that I've even seen very many third-party presets for it. There are additional ones on their website that I downloaded when I bought mine, but haven't checked to see if they've added more since then. That said, the PB's interface is just so inviting to me! I much prefer getting my hands dirty with it and I often get lost for hours just tweaking away at all those knobs, sliders, matrix, etc.

[lfm]

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......

One way to look at it if 3rd party did not dwelve into making preset banks could be that there isn't that much interesting stuff to find.

Four banks was filled with presets as I got mine, and almost all very slow emerging ambient ones. And tried one free as well. Really good at those slow evolving stuff, but who wants only that.

And sit with computer editor beside, what is the point of hardware synth then. Never even tried the editor, I felt PB was well designed and fun to explore just on the synth itself.

Even using all capabilities moving the triangle shape and mixing with the square shape, doing the metal thing after modifying in menues to work on final wave shape, the timbres were not anything that stood out enough compared to other synths. Metal were only on OSC 1 as well.

Then started using osc sync this was bad design, since you only had an oscillator doing half step pitches for the interesting part to dial in. You had to assign a modulator like mod wheel to dial in continuously where you felt sync sounded right. And first thing is to get one octave away from target when sync start to sound interesting, but you only have half step notes, unless extra separate modulator. Are you to sacrifice 3rd envelope for that purpose getting decent sync. And I did not find a DC voltage as source like REV2 has, that could have fixed that.

PB is in many respects an incredibly interesting synth design and bold too. But to me Prologue VCO's with shape knob or the REV2 shape knob created immediately new interesting sounds. And on Prologue you have the third digital multiengine too if want even more variaty.

I just got bored with PB and ditched it after 9 months(a year ago now).

And what did not impress was how Arturia neglected rather serious bugs that it could not handle both outgoing and incoming midi at the same time and did not fix within the 6 months I waited. You got hung notes all the time if using monitor through daw/sequencer and playing on the PB keyboard. It dropped midi in as playing keyboard were sending out midi. That's arrogant I must say to ignore that for so long. I just assume fixed by now.

If there really is interesting things to sell as presets there are some at Arturia site. There were quite some operations to authorize even the free ones though. But I guess good for those selling that not just copied over to anybody else. So look there for more presets.

But I find PB really is for those liking to explore and make own sounds.
- if using an editor and computer with PB you can just as well buy these huge NI KOMPLETE or KORE or whatever they are called and have thousands of presets to pick from. No need for hardware at all.

[cryophonik]

Even happier now that firmware v3 is out

https://www.arturia.com/products/hardwa ... ute/update

[simmo75]

I wish they’d make v2 with a decent keybed, they’re so bad.

[zerocrossing]

- if using an editor and computer with PB you can just as well buy these huge NI KOMPLETE or KORE or whatever they are called and have thousands of presets to pick from. No need for hardware at all.

There aren’t many polyphonic analog synthesizers that are as capable as the PolyBrute. I’m always striving to use as few hardware synthesizers as possible, so I check to see if there’s something that can hold up to the PolyBrute, but the truth is, nothing really can. Not and maintain a convincing analog character across the full range. Cypher 2 comes the closest, but the sound is not quite there and its patch morphing doesn’t really work in the fluid way that the PolyBrute’s does. You might not care about the kind of character that an analog synth can give, but if you do, and you really want to explore creative sounds that are beyond the usual analog poly style sounds, the PolyBrute’s the best until you get to the Moog One.

[CoolColJ]

The combo Matrix Arp Sequencer on the Polybrute is ace. Nothing else like it, like a polyphonic TB-303 arpeggiator

Made a new patch on the Polybrute, taking advantage of all the features it has for sound design, jammed with it.
Morphing, stereo spread, dual filters, Morphee pad snapshots and ribbon controller sweeps on filter on display

raw jam, recorded straight out from the synth, unprocessed.
Sweeping the ribbon controller down at around 4:30 made some unexpected vocal tones.
https://soundcloud.com/coolcolj/polybru ... y-arvo-jam

I made some cool vocal sounds on the Andromeda before, I think the Polybrute can do it just as good.
Need to give it a go soon

https://soundcloud.com/coolcolj/alesis-andromeda-baby

[CoolColJ]

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.

Polybrute being controlling over midi from the Hydrasynth explorer, using poly aftertouch, compared to duo aftertouch from it's own keyboard.

The aftertouch is controlling the master filter cutoff, reducing resonance of both filters, and bringing up the volume of oscillator 2

https://soundcloud.com/coolcolj/arturia ... aftertouch

[lfm]

You might not care about the kind of character that an analog synth can give, but if you do, and you really want to explore creative sounds that are beyond the usual analog poly style sounds, the PolyBrute’s the best until you get to the Moog One.

As I wrote, I had PB for 9 months but felt Prologue-8 and REV2-16 were keepers in this context. Turning shape knob on those created more interesting textures to build from, if to call it that. Prologue also have the third multi engine digital oscillator with user waveforms.

I tried Polybrute blending of waveforms but it was all things I heard before, kind of. All kinds of blending both filters but just found dead ends.

I also like the Nordlead 2X that I have as long as you use the unison feature, making phatter sound with one voice right and one left, bit out of phase. But as soon as you remove unison it sound rather plain. It has 20 voices so can use two with no problem.

The analogs, Plg and REV2, does sound really nice without any effects. Raw sound of analog is special from start, so I care about the analog sound.

Polybrute is a great synth in many respects, but my journey continues without it. Evaluating keepers Wavestate and DeepMind-6 was also sold.

I don't look for synths at all anymore. It's been guitar and floorboard effects that needed updates. My fingertips got all soft on me, so been playing the guitar much more recently.

Even as retired I found that there are only 24 hours a day, so go for quality not quantity.

[Freaqpeak]

The new v3.0 firmware adds another dimension for sure, I love the distortions and that you can switch the routing of the FX. Opens up a lot of sound design possibilities.

[zerocrossing]

You might not care about the kind of character that an analog synth can give, but if you do, and you really want to explore creative sounds that are beyond the usual analog poly style sounds, the PolyBrute’s the best until you get to the Moog One.

As I wrote, I had PB for 9 months but felt Prologue-8 and REV2-16 were keepers in this context. Turning shape knob on those created more interesting textures to build from, if to call it that. Prologue also have the third multi engine digital oscillator with user waveforms.

I tried Polybrute blending of waveforms but it was all things I heard before, kind of. All kinds of blending both filters but just found dead ends.

I also like the Nordlead 2X that I have as long as you use the unison feature, making phatter sound with one voice right and one left, bit out of phase. But as soon as you remove unison it sound rather plain. It has 20 voices so can use two with no problem.

The analogs, Plg and REV2, does sound really nice without any effects. Raw sound of analog is special from start, so I care about the analog sound.

Polybrute is a great synth in many respects, but my journey continues without it. Evaluating keepers Wavestate and DeepMind-6 was also sold.

I don't look for synths at all anymore. It's been guitar and floorboard effects that needed updates. My fingertips got all soft on me, so been playing the guitar much more recently.

Even as retired I found that there are only 24 hours a day, so go for quality not quantity.

Different strokes, as they say. I loved my REV2, but I fell in love with the Melbourne Instruments Nina and it was one of the easiest ones to mimic with software. Not exactly, but pretty close. The Prologue always sounded lovely to me, but too simple in terms of modulation options.

That’s just me, though. I’d easily recommend any of these instruments to anyone who has needs that fit them. I do a lot of abstract ambient and experimental music, so the morphing ability of the PolyBrute has become crucial to me. I can do similar things with software, but I haven’t really been able to capture the analog vibe at the same time. Not high quality? I’ve been able to duplicate the sound of my Studio Electronics ATC-X almost exactly (when using its Moog clone filter) and the ATC-X (and really all Studio Electronics synthesizers) are almost universally considered some of the best analog synthesizers available. My Melbourne Instruments Nina also does great morphing, but it’s a simpler instrument.

[zerocrossing]

The combo Matrix Arp Sequencer on the Polybrute is ace. Nothing else like it, like a polyphonic TB-303 arpeggiator

Made a new patch on the Polybrute, taking advantage of all the features it has for sound design, jammed with it.
Morphing, stereo spread, dual filters, Morphee pad snapshots and ribbon controller sweeps on filter on display

raw jam, recorded straight out from the synth, unprocessed.
Sweeping the ribbon controller down at around 4:30 made some unexpected vocal tones.
https://soundcloud.com/coolcolj/polybru ... y-arvo-jam

I made some cool vocal sounds on the Andromeda before, I think the Polybrute can do it just as good.
Need to give it a go soon

https://soundcloud.com/coolcolj/alesis-andromeda-baby

I’m not sure how anyone who enjoys the sound of an analog synthesizer could listen to that and say that it’s bad.

[Trancer]

Really very interesting feedback on Polybrute.

V3 really adds some interesting things.

Maybe soon a new Polybrute with more analog channels ?

Mr. Arturia, this time put a keyboard worthy of the name (not a third zone keyboard) since the price will certainly be very high the least we can do is to make a machine worthy of the name, of excellence and not sold off the quality of the keyboard which remains the centerpiece of a synthesizer.

Maybe a rack version?

[CoolColJ]

Really very interesting feedback on Polybrute.

V3 really adds some interesting things.

Maybe soon a new Polybrute with more analog channels ?

Mr. Arturia, this time put a keyboard worthy of the name (not a third zone keyboard) since the price will certainly be very high the least we can do is to make a machine worthy of the name, of excellence and not sold off the quality of the keyboard which remains the centerpiece of a synthesizer.

Maybe a rack version?

It's already big, heavy, and packed to the brim inside. So more voices means it will need to be much bigger or simpler

[CoolColJ]

contrast the OB-X8 and Nina which are much simpler synths

[cryophonik]

The extra storage space probably drove the price up by about a grand alone