Understanding the patchbay

Once you get your head around the basic principles, it’s pretty easy to get experimenting

The most significant change from the original MiniBrute lies in the fact that the synth engine of version two is now semi-modular. As the name suggest, semi-modular synths bridge the gap between standard ‘hardrouted’ synthesizers and modular systems, which are are entirely reliant on the user patching the various elements together in order to created a working signal path. The MiniBrute still features a pre-routed sound engine, meaning you can play a note and create sound without the need to reach for any patch cables. However, the new patchbay allows the majority of these routing to be broken and redirected in order to achieve a much wider array of synth tones and effects.

For anybody unfamiliar with modular synthesis, this patchbay might seem a little daunting, but once you get your head around the basic principles and conventions, it’s pretty easy to dive in and get experimenting. Each patch port has a label to indicate which part of the synth is connects to. Labels written in white on a dark background indicate an input port, while labels cut-out of a white box background are outputs. In the most basic sense, if you experiment with patching an output into an input and tweaking the associated front panel controls, you can’t go too far wrong.

All outputs work at full scale, with sources such as oscillators and LFOs fixed to their maximum level, adjusting the level sliders in the oscillator mixer section will have no effect on the output of the jack. This is where the two attenuators come in, allowing you to control the level of a signal via the associated front panel rotary. For example, in order to control the level of modulation from LFO 1 to Osc 2’s pitch, instead of patching the LFO out directly into the oscillator’s pitch input, we can first patch the LFO into attenuator 1, then into Osc 2 Pitch. We can now use the attenuator’s control knob – labelled Att 1 > Cutoff – to control the amount of modulation between the LFO and Oscillator. Both attenuator controls are also hard routed to elements of the synth engine – Att 1 to the filter cutoff and Att 2 to the amp level. Unless these routings are broken via the patchbay, turning an attenuator’s rotary will still affect the hard-routed level.