Thanks for stopping by! I approached this review as a sound designer/producer and left out the technical details that you can get everywhere else. So it's opinions from my own experience over the past 9 months or so of real world use. One thing I left out was a discussion on the keyboard feel. It's okay, aftertouch is actually pretty great on it. The velocity jumps pretty fast but as I've used it more and more, I've gotten use to the subtleties. However, for over 2 grand, I feel like it should've had Fatar keys. I literally forget to mention it in the video because at this point, I'm use to it and don't mind.
Imo fatar keys have clunky aftertouch. I have a cobalt8x and it just makes me wish I had sprung for a hydrasynth. The aftertouch is on/off, you have to press hard enough that it basically already going to travel to the ends once you apply enough pressure to enable aftertouch
I think it's a manufacturer thing. I've got several Fatar keys in the studio and they all have different feeling aftertouch. For the Hydrasynth, I have a Deluxe in the studio as well and honestly the keys don't feel as good. They're very loud in comparison to everything else. They don't have any 'cushion' for when it reaches the end of the throw. The PolyTouch is obviously the stand out feature of those keys, but I was surprised at how 'cheap' the Deluxe keys felt (for the record, I like the Hydrasynth Explorer mini keys)
@@teftymusictech That's actually really helpful - I wanted the deluxe if possible but the mini keys were the ones I kept hearing about good feeling aftertouch on. I like a low activation threshold
Almost 3 years with my Polybrute. It's such a joy for sound creation. Not sure I'd want to gig with it as it did have a bunch of limitations, not to mention the weight. But for in-studio noodling and getting some amazing textures and unexpected morphing spots that I then use in songs, it's completely unique in the hardware world. Yes, I wish it had more voices and REALLY yes, I wish it had CV inputs/outputs; even at 6 voices I'd still take a CV suite as priority. Good vid!
Well they definitely have a working prototype of a 12 voice version. They brought it to NAMM, but only showed it off in private (a video leaked of it). It also has a new polyphonic-aftertouch keybed.. that also has initial pressure a bit like the Osmose. I'd be interested in buying that one if it makes it out to the public
Good to know. Makes we wanna get the Summit sooner over the Polybrute. There's so much cool about the brute, but the price for 6 voices is just too crazy. Especially considering it doesn't have the fancy FPGAs the summit does
I like the Pollybrute, it’s just the note, stealing I have trouble with😢 But so versatile and I love the expression controls Regarding the freezing issue Don’t use midi and USB I had this problem and was told to back up my patches and then reinstall the new patches for the 3.0 update Apparently, it’s to do with The update I haven’t had a freeze since As for the white noise issue …. No idea That sounds a bit scary 😮
Hmm interesting so I've only experienced this when programming my own patches. I've actually ignored the factory presets 99% of the time since I updated to 3.0 Could be a USB-Midi issue, because I typically have it hooked up to a MPC Live 2 via USB.
Love mine. Never had any bugs. Always worked faultlessly for me. Ref the voice stealing- I use the effects if i need to mask note-stealing. The effects in this beast are the best I've ever heard on a polysynth. So I make use of them! Simple!
I love the possibilities of the Polybrute, but the cons are (for me) a bridge too far. I'll definitely keep watching to see what improvements are made over time, because I would like to have one once those issues are resolved. Or at least reasonably handled. Thanks for the deep(ish) dive and honest talk!
Initially feels like juggling two synths at once when programming. The mod matrix is actually super simple to use once you've made your first patch. Kudos to Arturia for making such a complex synth that's fairly easy to approach.
No gushing praise over this synth is complete without mention of the Connect software to integrate with a DAW. I prefer the mod matrix on the Polybrute to that of the Hydrasynth and Peak. I admit it’s because it’s where I’m the most familiar, but it is highly intuitive and flexible. I haven’t experienced the white noise issue, and haven’t had a panel lock up, although prior to FW version 3 there was a documented and repeatable display freeze.
I was gonna mention it but I actually haven't used it that much, so I edited that section out. But yeah, it's nice to have! Can confirm PolyBrute mod matrix is waaaayyy better than Hydra and Peak. Peak is getting pretty dated at this point with it's menu diving to make connections. PolyBrute feels very modern. Also, I think the majority of my bugs came from doing edits in the Morph A/B mode of editing.
I find the polybrute very quirky in its user interface, mines not frozen nor have I had the switch not working or white noise issue. I will say though that for the price it’s a really amazing feature packed synth and the fx are really very good too. In many ways I compare it to my OB 6. Where as the OB has that beautiful creamy natural sound the polybrutes strength is in its myriad of cool well thought out features. Arturia are a very unique company and stand out from the crowd in my opinion.
The Polybrute certainly has a few quirks, but in my experience this is very hard to avoid when marrying analog and digital. This is true for my Moog Voyager, and it is more than true for the Alesis Andromeda. I have not experienced the white noise of death, neither any freezing. I have performed live with the Polybrute, and did not find a reason to be afraid. I think it is nonsensical to compare synths along the lines of specs and say, well, analog can only do so much and I have heard it all. In my experience, there is a magic about some synths, and the Polybrute touches you somehow with every sound it produces. The Prophet 5 or 6 also touch you, but in a different way. Are they less flexible than my Iridium? Certainly. But on a great analog synth like the Polybrute, you do not need to do much to create captivating, unique sounds.
Not only do you have the Polybrute edition I want (Noir), but we also own the same shirt?? xD Very much looking forward to getting my hands on one of these things. It looks ridiculously intuitive and feature-laden and extremely pretty.
I wouldn't let piano lessons get in the way of exploring. Just start slow, practice scales. Rely on the arp and seq tools from either the synth or workflow you're using so you can explore sound design. Honestly sound design and keyboard skills can be considered separate skills, so why not get better at both at the same time? Last tip: anything that looks complex from a playing perspective is just a bunch of easy things added up to seem more complex. That's it. It's just practicing easy stuff until the slightly harder stuff becomes easy etc etc.
As pointed out the shared mod source lanes really only would have been a nice to have most of the time. Would an extra pair of outs really have busted the build budget? Onboard effects are nothing to write home about. For me by far the biggest thing is that Steiner Parker which is great on a mono, but not nearly as desirable as a SEM paired with the Moog. My guess is the 12 voice is literally the voice assemblies of 2 of these so maybe we get that second pair of outs?
So I recorded this video and then realized I might be saying morphee wrong... looked up an officially Arturia video and sure enough 😆 ... I considered redoing the video but I've got music to produce!
We had a ton of projects come in end of last year so we had to put our personal projects on hold until the paid gigs were finished. Good news is we're finishing up new music right now. It'll be posted on Tefty & Meems channel. Thanks for checking in ❤️
So far I haven't seen anyone else mention the white noise issue. This could be purely a programming issue when in the Morph side A or B editing mode. I didn't mention that in the video, but I spent the majority of my time making patches in that mode. I typically don't get any bugs when I just fire it up and load up patches.
After hours and hours of sifting through demos I can only say, give me a synth that you can make really original sounds with. So far, this also, I have heared it all before. I know analogue is limited but that is why, to me, the question "is it worth so much money?" is even more important. I fell that I am paying just for the modulation? And, to me, it is also somehow a tell that there is no desktop version of this. Nearly every other Synth maker(for certain all the prominent ones with the longest history) ALWAYS release desktop versions of their flagships. Because that is wherer the power is. In the engine. But, maybe, this would bring the price down to much for them? No...this product seems a little sus to me.
Wellllll....if your goal is to find a synth that's going to produce sounds you've never heard before, good luck! It's all been done. If you're buying a synth, it should be for the experience of what your creating. Why do people buy guitars? They already have those sounds, after all. It's the experience of the art you desire to produce. Plain and simple. Also Arturia doesn't produce modules in addition to the keyboard synths. Is there a MicroFreak module? MiniFreak module? Matrixbrute module? MiniBrute?? Nope. It's not what they do. Either way, thanks for stopping by 🙏
The modulation is actually not that depth. But just look at the synth. It offers many things in a package that others don't offer. Morphe controller, touch strip, morphing, tons of effects, an awesome sequencer, recording of LFO/modulation, a modulation grid, a performance arpegator, constant updates, dual filters that can be panned… etc. - A synth doesn't need to offer new sounds.
