39 thoughts on “Arturia MiniBrute 2 Review & Demo”

1. Does the 2 stand for two times the regret when it falls apart on you, like every other Arturia product?

   1. My Microbrute is solid. I love it.

      1. I had a MiniBrute and it was built like a tank. Super solid quality.

   2. The keyboard breaking thing happened on the early units that were made at their first factory. They stopped production of anything at that factory quickly and moved to a new factory about 6 months after shipping the product…so 5 years ago. After they went to the new keyboard, failures were almost nonexistent…..about the same rate as you would find at Moog, Dave Smith, etc.

      1. Curious as to how you know that (failure rates vs. the companies you mention).

   3. I’ve had a Microbrute for a couple years and its never been anything except solid and reliable. Great little synthesizer with a lot of functionality and excellent build quality.

   4. I’ve had my MiniBrute since it’s initial release. While I have never taken it out of my studio, but it has been rock solid.

      1. +1 Never had any problem with the MiniBrute. Will probably buy that MicroBrute and this one also. Arturia puts a lot of sound possibilities within their synths. Only thing is you have to tweak them for it. But is that not half the pleasure of using synths?

   5. My KeyStep is solid. I love it.

   6. Wouldn’t “patchable” be a better descriptor than “semi-modular?”

   7. Ehh … I’ve owned some decent arturia products but I’ve never managed to hold on to one for long. They always seem to be missing some single crucial feature that I can’t work without.

      I see this one still doesn’t have any way to automate glide, a deal breaker for me from the get-go. Shame – that FM sounds very nice, I’m sure they will shift plenty just on that.

   8. No idea what you are talking about. Mine was built solid.

2. All those patch points and no cv/gate out?

   1. I’ll bet CV out and Gate out are in that 48 point patch matrix.

      1. CV and Gate out are there, plus Velocity and Aftertouch CV out. Velocity is recorded in the sequencer, by the way.

      2. It is !

      3. They are.

         1. Yes yes yes, excellent!

3. My minibrute experience was pretty good. I asked for a replacement keybed and they send a nice one, right away. I know they’ve since dropped the supplier of the bad keybeds. I have that and the keystep and love and frequently use both. I don’t think I need the minibrute 2 but if they come down in price as much as the minibrute has in the used market, I’ll probably get one at some point.

4. Cv and gate out are probably on the back, like on the Mb1 and mb.

5. Nice Review by Bobeats,
   I assume that the knobs are not MIDI-Control-able. I like the design and the many options but for the sound I think Bobeats brings it to the point in the middle of his Video: Arturia sounds a bit thin, not as fat and creamy as a moog or dsi. So you have to tweak the knobs extensivly to get a good sound from it, where as its next to impossible to get a shitty sound out of a sub 37. So I will need to have some hands on by myself to get convinced …

   1. “impossible to get a shitty sound out of a sub 37” …….. i guess moog know their stuff when they design presets

   2. It’s certainly different, but “good” sounding depends on the application. If you’ve already got a synth that has that fat, creaminess that you want for leads or dominating bass lines, you may very well have a desire for something that fills the holes that Arturia’s synths do. I have made bright sounds on my Microbrute that I could not make sound as good on much more expensive synths.

   3. My friend before you compare a Sub 37 which cost`s more than twice as much , compare it with a Mother 32 and let us know how the value for money goes for the moog

   4. It’s also next to impossible to get an interesting sound out of a Sub 37… It’s a dull sounding normie synth par excellence.

   5. The MicroBrute to me has far less sonic capability than my Monologue. The strength (also a weakness) is the MicroBrute (probably applies to MiniBrute as well) sounds more bare bones and pure. The Monologue sounds great musicaly where the MicroBrute sounds more basoc, plain. In a way that the monologue cant. With effects the MicroBrute really comes alive though. I am just not a big fan of the Steiner Parker filter but I like having it for its own charm.

      1. The Monologue is really too small too play well. The Minilogue is better playable. The Minibrute (2) are in the same playability league as the Minilogue.

         You’re right about the effects. Put it after the sounds of the Brutes and they become very usable instruments.

         1. I’m about to buy a Minibrute 2, and since I got many analog guitar effect pedals, I’m interested in knowing which ones do you think make the Minibrute sound more interesting, and how/why 🙂

      2. Personally, I do not need all the bells and whistles. Of course, it depends on what type of music you are making. Some of us long for simpler days where the pure sounds were more inspiring. The thing that people comment on with analog is that it is much warmer. Warmer to me means deep rich sounds that may have mild modulation that I have to listen closely and appreciate. Having sounds that jump all over the place using LFOs or the sequencer can sometimes sound like the musical version of Michael Bay movie, i.e. Transformers. The action moves so fast and is hyper-real that there is no subtlety and I tend to block it out rather than pay attention. This seems to be the majority of presets and available library for the Monologue.

6. I wonder whether there will be a Microbrute 2 on the way…

7. Like all the Brutes, they produce great interesting sounds but a little thin. You need to run them through a decent res filter to fatten em up a bit. I have 3 separate Arturia keyboards (inc. the Microbrute) and the very solid build quality never disappoints.

   1. What? this sounds thin??? I have all the Brutes and DSI stuff and the brutes blow them away easily…

8. Many of the comments here are pretty silly. Arturia synths sound terrific, but you have to know what you’re doing, like with most feature-filled synths.

9. Seems like something I would like to acquire.

10. As much as I would like to love this, the problem with every brute from $3H to $2K is they use the same vco core & circuitry: I looked through the whole loopop video to confirm, and oscillators sound as static & lifeless as they always were. Plus harmonic content of waveforms makes them sound displeasing, as far as my preferences go.

    Notice this: when he holds a note for a couple seconds, it just sounds like annoying buzz, there is no subtle phase shift or drift, and together with overall thin & nasal quality to them, it just doesn’t sound like big fat cloud of enormous lovely drone some oscillators can produce without ANY modulation whatsoever (e.g compare something like AJH Synth VCO or Buchla 158/258 to this).

    I am not really trying to piss in Arturia’s — or anyone’s — cornflakes, I know many people use these synths & like them, but I just can’t get over myself: in my opinion raw tone of oscillators is absolutely the worst I’ve heard in analog world (maybe some super-budget 70s 1-osc synths aside), and stuff like ADSR curves or filter resonance calibration are bugging me just as much.

    For someone just starting with analog synths, it still is probably going to be a moment of their life: pressing a key and hearing all this raw analog sound is an experience like no other + the full modular architecture for this kind of money is great, education-wise even. But after having a row of eurorack, my impression of the brute was: the league it belongs to is, like, COMPLETELY different — take a counterpart for its every function (osc, vcf, lfo, adsr) in euro, and it’ll turn into something those will wipe the floor with — and no, it’s not the price consideration even, because the Matrixbrute has the same tone to it.

    Ultimately, I would pick the MOOG square over the brute square any day, waveforms on Arturia synths just aren’t very musical: they may be mathematically correct and contain the “right” ratio of odd harmonics or what have you, but there must be something else to them for me to find them likeable. With some things you fall in love instantly, some are love & hate kind of affair, and then there are Brutes for me, which I have never had a honeymoon period with. Hope you guys have a better luck and not regret your purchase.

    Cheers! 🙂

    1. Could not have said it better myself. After buying the MicroBrute it made me love my Korg Monologues even more.

       1. For each his own. I have never regretted buying anything in the past years except Monologue while I truly love Microbrute. Monologue is cold sounding lifeless object next to Microbrute. That’s what I think.

    2. Your wishes seem to be Arturia’s commands! Look at the Links at both sides. They very likely are for stands for a Eurorack from Arturia.

       About the oscillators etc, the ones by Arturia may be more precise, cold if you wish. But it’s up to you as user to make them sing. Add effects to the result and those cheap Arturia Brutes become very usable instruments.

11. I am very happy with my ms 20, nothing new.. sorry Arturia I won’t buy it.