Arturia MiniBrute 2 & 2S
The French brand unveil two new semi-modular versions of their analogue monosynth. Si Truss gets jacked up…
When Arturia’s original MiniBrute arrived in 2012, it was an unexpected first step into the realm of analogue synthesis for the French brand, who had previously dealt exclusively with analogue emulating software and digital controller hardware. On a wider level too, the MiniBrute was a welcome anomaly – a monosynth pitched at the affordable end of the market yet touting an all analogue design and CV control inputs.
Six years later, neither of those things seem so noteworthy. Arturia’s analogue Brute line has now swelled to encompass three synths – including the behemoth MatrixBrute – and a drum machine, while their Beat- and KeyStep devices are go-to controllers for many hardware synthesists. The affordable analogue market has grown remarkably rapidly too – a boom arguably kickstarted, at least in part, by the release of the MiniBrute.
Given this, it’s not surprising that Arturia have significantly stepped things up for the follow up. Where the original was a fairly straightforward monosynth with a few unique touches and some CV control, the MiniBrute 2 is now semimodular, boasting a beefed-up synth engine and a comprehensive mini-jack patchbay. The MiniBrute now comes in two varieties too: the standard keyboard version, now equipped with a Keystep-style sequencer, and the 2S, which swaps the keys for a pad-based step sequencer similar to the BeatStep.
Souped-up
Leaving the patchbay and sequencers to one side for a moment, the core synth engine is very similar to that of version 1, albeit with a few noteworthy adjustments. As before, the primary oscillator can generate saw, triangle and square waves simultaneously, the outputs of which are blended via the oscillator mixer, where they’re joined by a white noise source and external audio input. Each wave type also has a modifier control, for more detailed and unusual waveshaping. The saw is accompanied by