Arturia’s New Synth ‘A Sonic Monster’ – But Can It Top The MiniBrute?

new-arturia-synthesizerArturia has put a page on their site, teasing a new hardware synthesizer.

Arturia doesn’t offer any details on the new synth, other than to say that it “Looks tiny, Sounds massive” and that it offers “Vintage sound, modern connectivity”.

Other than that, they they just have a collection of quotes, from a variety of synth players, like Hideki Matsutake, right.

Check them out, and let us know what you think Arturia’s ‘sonic monster’ is going to be!

  • “I really love the sound of the original , and IT’s got that character and can be even wilder. You can get all kinds of crazy and musical interactions going on with other analog gear and drum machines. Combine the two together and you’re rocking…” Adrian Utley (Portishead)
  • “IT takes me back to the joy I felt when I pushed that first key and a saw wave spoke back to me. IT allows for more than 100% values of such things as keyboard tracking. IT melds the best in a compact little powerhouse.” Terry Lawless (U2 and P!NK)
  • “Once again Arturia has given me the best of both worlds with IT. It’s blowing minds at both my recordings session and in concert. The perfect compliment to my already diverse rig.” Roger Joseph Manning Jr (The Moog CookBook, Jellyfish, Imperial Drag, Beck)
  • “So Just when you think Arturia can’t be any more practical than the Mini Brute. They bust you in the head with THIS.” Keith Shocklee (Public Enemy)
  • “For me, a Synthesizer that has no presets is an adventure every time. IT is a recipe for audio joy. IT soon becomes a real electronic instrument, that develops with your knowledge and expertise.”Chris Cross (Ultravox)
  • “The small form factor is disproportionate to the massive sound you can get out of IT. Having used many Arturia soft synths, this is a great piece to transition from a laptop. Turn the switch and go.” Sandra Vu (Dum Dum Girls, SISU)
  • “Big, ballsy sound! Arturia has another sonic monster on its hands!” André Bowman (Will.I.Am)
  • “It’s SMALL GIANT! I love it!!” Hideki Matsutake

via matrixsynth

64 thoughts on “Arturia’s New Synth ‘A Sonic Monster’ – But Can It Top The MiniBrute?”

  3. I’m completely sick of all these damn teasers the companies are doing.

    But…….this one worked on me. The Minibrute is a monster so I have no doubt that this is gonna be something interesting too. It looks like it’s going come out in six days, so I’ll be waiting to see what they come out with!

  4. an astute friend guessed it will be mini brute with an additional osc. i think that makes sense, so that the mini brute will stay competitive due to the addition of the bass station 2.

  5. Well, it won’t have presets. That much is clear from the one quote. In that sense, it doesn’t seem to try very hard in competing with the BassStation II.

    1. Of course it is.

      Just like Moog and Korg, Arturia will milk the minibrute design for a few more products.

      Well done Arturia. This might make me buy a minibrute, I always felt it could do with an expander like the System 100.

      I hope this new product has been considered with elegant integration in mind.

    1. Of course it is.

      Just like Moog and Korg, Arturia will milk the minibrute design for a few more products.

      Well done Arturia. This might make me buy a minibrute, I always felt it could do with an expander like the System 100.

      I hope this new product has been considered with elegant integration in mind.

  15. >”Looks tiny, Sounds massive” and that it offers ”Vintage sound, modern connectivity”.

    This would be the bare minimum for a modern product. Not a teaser.

    Maybe it’s a “Tiny Mini Brute”, to go head to head with the Volcas.

    1. Is there a problem with the current state of the MiniBrute firmware?

      I’m not an owner, but it seems like a lot of owners love their Minibrutes.

      1. there are still some small bugs, nothing too terrible. when lfo retrigger is set on, arp does not retrigger it only keyboard

    1. That is a good one. My thoughts are synth, not drums. Maybe the Cat, Kitten or Wasp. Something with unique circuitry that isn’t patented.

  18. Hmm. I hope it is something that plays well with/ehances the value of Minibrute. To be able to play well with other analogue and drum machines – would a sequencer be involved somehow?

  20. Moog saw the Minibrute and they’re answer to the saturation/feedback equation was the Sub Phatty, now Arturia strikes back!

  22. No complaints about my MiniBrute. But, damn you, Arturia, I only have so many more vital organs to sell!! What’s in the box??!!! WHAAAT’S IN THAA BOOOX???!!!

  24. Wow, this is fun! I will be watching the arturia site all this week.
    I am hoping for a polyphonic variation of the minibrute in a rack module with an added 3rd oscillator plus a built in sequencer? But can’t wait to see what they come up with? These are exciting times for new affordable analog synths.

  26. I know I’m going to get the thumbs down for this but I have to say it anyway.
    The minibrute was not a good product. Yes it sounded decent, but the build quality was poor at best. The faders and knobs were cheap and flimsy, and the keys are floppy and inconsistent too. For an extra 200 bucks you can get a Mopho, and imo DSI has some of the best keybeds available. You can control it externally but monophonic synth modules are easy to come by and you don’t have to pay 600 bucks for them.
    I am a fan of Arturia’s other products. Their laboratory and spark are some of the most robust controllers available, so I’m going to wait and see on this new synth.

    1. While I agree with on the build quality (mine died after a few weeks and it took more than two months to get a replacement :(, for us cv users there is still NO equivalent to the Minibrute as a module/cv keyboard.

      1. REPEAT AFTER ME: IF PIECES ARE COMING LOOSE UNDER NORMAL USE, ITS NOT A GOOD INSTRUMENT. Why in the triple HELL do manufacturers do this when a small bit of added care would yield a solid end product? Its deeply insulting to trumpet your crap, only to have it BE crap in the clench. A great sound loses a lot of ground in a lousy package. Everyone should start using decent Fatar actions and stop effing around. I’ve walked away from several instruments because of this, money still in pocket. A $500-1500 synth that feels like an old CZ-101 is a titanium turd. I use mostly softsynths now, in large part due to cheap-assed builds in hardware, year after year. Its become a battle cry and its well past time at least ONE manufacturer explained WHY.

    2. Yeah, the build quality was awful. Mine came with loose keyboard weights banging around inside the chassis (and, unsurprisingly, did not work). I ended up spending another $1K and getting a CV Little Phatty instead.

    1. If you guys are so keen on polyphony, why does it need to be analog? That approach has some meaningful limits and high prices. I’ve played a lot of synths, incl. the old PolyMoog and MemoryMoog. I think you’re looking for some magical spot that’s not really there. Its like lusting after an unattainable Syrinx when you’re already covered up with gear that leaves it in the dust. As a fellow synth packrat, believe me, 95% of what you want from a poly analog is already there in any capable poly VA, or in any one of dozens of sample libraries. The real answer is to build those sounds yourself. Tweak those into shape, put your analog monosynth on top and reap the best of both. Remember, with the glory of a real Mellotron also comes the maddening upkeep. Similar situation here. 😀

      1. Yeah, this obsession with analog polysynths is weird. There are good reasons there are very few analog VCO polys. And anyway, there are SO MANY great DCO analog polys that were made in the 80s that currently cost the same as any modern analog mono. A synth manufacturer isn’t going to beat that for less than $2K in modern money. Do some research and buy some old kit!

  28. This is clearly a mono module designed to also act as an expander to the minibrute. It’s ‘BIG’ sound is a reference to some additional modulation or distortion, but you can be damn sure it’s a cut down Brute.

  29. A Microbrute !
    arturia.com/k4Lv1n/gallery/Layer-1.jpg => 2 octaves keyboard, starting at wheels level
    arturia.com/k4Lv1n/gallery/Layer-3.jpg => panel area bigger than keyboard area
    arturia.com/k4Lv1n/gallery/Layer-4.jpg => small keyboard area vs hand size

    Try arturia.com/evolution/en/products/anythingyouwant => you’ve got an error
    Try arturia.com/evolution/en/products/microbrute/intro.html => no error but white page waiting …

  37. Oops, saw that loic beat me to it. The website you linked to (arturia.com/evolution/en/products/microbrute/intro.html) returns a 401 Authorization Required. Interesting.

  39. It may put me off if it is white with a giant blue cartoon spark on it. And that it has no presets is a negative. But we will see . . .

  40. The MiniBrute build was good. Metal chassis, decently stable knobs and faders. However: The keybed had some problems – lots of detached keyweights, missing key bumpers, and cheap plastic bumper assemblies that would crack (which meant the affected keys still triggered notes, but flopped upwards above the level.) Had to say what percent were faulty. Mine had 2 bumper holders snap off. (Thanks, superglue)

    The synth engine itself was genius for a single oscillator, but the filter was a strange choice. Low, Hi, Band, Notch – all good options. And it certainly sounded unique. But the thin 12db cutoff paired with the strange resonance behavior meant a lot of classic tones were out of reach. Arturia was going for character – I wish they had implemented 2 filters like the Bass Station II, it could have been more useful to people who can only afford one synth.

    Overall, the MiniBrute was awesome and clever (osc mixer!) and really analog. Looking forward to the mini sequel.

    1. Yeah, but the thing about that oscillator mixer section was the sawtooth wave was inverted by mistake, and causes phase cancellation with the square wave, oops!

  41. well, my trust in Arturia is gone at the moment. I have been waiting for months to get big announced midi controllers, first the Mini Lab (which disappointed me as of being too tiny and having more plastic than I thought, then with the KeyLab 25, that didnt come at all for 3 months despite other announcements and as I ordered the KeyLab 49 it came with a broken pitch wheel. Seems, I wait until Arturia convinces with available hardware that is stable and reliable again…

  47. A one-oscillator synth makes me yawn. Even with a good wavetable under it, that denies you all but the simplest sounds. Two seems minimum and three ideal, because three is where I always end up adding a low sine wave or tuning the inter-osc. ‘beating’ to suit the job. It makes several useful tricks possible. Synths are great for harmonically pure sounds, but they stand out best when you have the option of programming some grit into them from the very first stage. So is it possible that the tiny new monosynth has a patch bay so you can plug it into that OTHER Arturia you bought, gaining that second oscillator? Oh, do ya think?

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