Reader Keith Handy shared his experience experimenting with using an Arturia MiniBrute synthesizer as an audio effect on his Les Paul guitar:
I’ve had the MiniBrute since August 2012, but this is the first time I’ve plugged anything (other than itself) into the audio input. Setting the Gate Source to “Audio” to trigger the envelope every time I play a note is a little frustrating. It either mis-triggers, or doesn’t trigger every time I want it to. And keep in mind, it’s not a volume-dependent thing that opens the filter more when I play a louder note; it’s just a full-on or full-off thing. It seems like setting long decay & release times is the most forgiving way to do this.
On the other hand, setting the Gate Source to “Hold” and just enjoying the filter modulation was more consistently enjoyable. I’m open to suggestions and ideas if you’ve tried any of this yourself.
Have you tried using the MiniBrute as an effect processor?
I had the same experience trying to have a guitar as a gate source.. I think you’ll need to have a DI box as I suspect the Minibrute will not match the impedance of a guitar (Line level only).
Haven’t been able to confirm this as I don’t have a DI..
Sorry, I should have stated in the description that I am using a preamp for the guitar, and the MiniBrute audio out/audio in is connected to the “insert” jack on the back of the preamp. To trigger the gate with reasonable reliability, the levels on the preamp were pushed to the point of distorting… not like we’ve never heard a distorted guitar before… but I understand there’s a setting on the MiniBrute’s firmware to adjust the sensitivity of the gate.
I can’t get this to work.
Bass guitar into preamp, gain at 40 into audio in. Nothing at all.