Arturia Polybrute

Yes somewhat like the DSI/sequential modules. I prefer gear that I can bring to the studio or a gig. Sure, a desktop version will be heavy too but it’ll still be far easier to carry. I’ll be fine using my Keystep to play it and sequence it from the DN. Been thinking for years about getting an analog synth again and I can hear there are a lot of sonic possibilities and exploring in the PB so that’s intriguing.

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So you’re still thinking something “luggable”.

Do you think you’d even keep the matrix at all then ?
A lot of what is in the matrix is more for sound design if you’re not using it as a sequencer.

Not entirely up to me :grin: but yes, sure. The module selection of the Hydrasynth is also there on the desktop version. However, if the module gets too big it will be counterintuitive I guess. But most importantly the Morphée is essential.

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I’ve just gone through the manual fairly thoroughly, but I still have a couple questions:

  1. When set to BPM-sync mode, can LFO rates be modulated?
  2. Is there a full list of sync divisions?
  3. Are envelope stages BPM-sync-able? (If so, the same question as #1 & #2 – If no, might that be a feasible future feature?)
  4. Are there talks of adding the ability to remotely load A or B, after a preset has been constructed? (Ie. scene selection on the Octatrack)Say mid-track, you’d like to morph from A to B, and then load a different sound onto A (via program change or the like) before morphing back, etc.
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But isnt he also working for Arturia? Just asking.

What does / did he do for them ? Must be you’ve read something.

Ah ok, he was introduced in a few of the Andertons YT Videos as the sales representative for the UK Arturia-distributor.

At around 1:05

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The date of the Anderton video is November 25, 2018. If he is no longer employed, as he was then, then all is OK in my book.

If he is still working for the distributor of Arturia, that would be too close for me, and should disqualify someone from being a unbiased observer / reporter. Did he represent any relationship up front in this most recent APD video ?

Perhaps if we can’t resolve this here, someone should ask mylarmelodies directly.

ADDED: I believe this has been resolved. See below.

Good work pulsn !!

BTW: Should there be a conflict in this case, and we don’t know yet, it doesn’t reflect on Arturia.

This might be different from region to region, but when i start the Mylarmelodies Polybrute video, i get a popup saying its a paid promotion. Norway has pretty strict rules on stuff like this so dont know if other countries does things the same way.

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“Paid Promotion” must mean something beyond the money everyone gets from YouTube/Google for attracting viewership. Paid by whom would seems a critical question at this point.

Yeah. It means they get money to showing the item in the video. The big youtubers get a substantial amount of money to produce videoes like this. There was someone who wrote what some people charge to make videoes like this.

As long as it is made clear i find it ok. But the problem is very few talk about that. Some might mention that they where sent the item to review, but havent seen anybody say they are recieving money to do it. So we can take for granted that the only reviews that are unpaid is the people saying that they dont get money to do it.

In the comment of the APB video mylarmelodies says:

PS. In part I work for Arturia in my day job, hence having access to this and making a demo!! I would very much like to keep it. Dear Arturia, please may I keep it?!

I think that wraps it up, unless the person with the link to this video above would like to add a comment to their post.

So where were we ?

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Thanks, GovernorSilver and CitizenJ.

The issue with MM makes sense re reviewing but doesn’t apply to me because I’m more interested in hearing the PB without effects than in whether the person demoing the instrument is paid or not.

He is open with it, and it´s ok for me, because he told it already few times, it´s just something one needs to keep in mind. Also keep in mind, that under his hands, everything sounds like gold. :loopy:

Regarding the PB…i haven´t watched Alex video yet, but from my experience with the MB2 and the MatrixBrute…they are great…but also kinda more neutral sounding, some might even find it boring or lacking of character.
I have the same impression about the PB. It sounds nice, but kinda neutral, as in not as colored as lets say a Prophet 6 or a Dreadbox synth. It´s something to check, before buying. That´s why i was so nagging about “What´s about the sound, rather than the looks” thing in the beginning. Arturia synths are special. I wish they would make the MB2 without the patch-field in a compact desktop format…
…on the other hand… i already own enough synths!

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I appreciate your discussion of dissimilarities in tone, color, signature, etc., and whether coloration’s absence is necesarily pedestrian. That involves not only whether coloration is desired but also what color does.

Sergio Martino made a film called “All the Colors of the Dark.” The coloration of Dreadbox, Mood and Sequential models apply to different user prefs – and perhaps use cases – and different kinds of (conditioned yet valid) satisfaction, but in practice, I wouldn’t invest heavily in all three unless I had the space and budget. I love tracing distinctions between colors in relative darkness, which is to say amid paradoxes of difference in a single subjective realm. And I have loved stacking sounds in ways that make use of those differences: Moog depth with Dreadbox grit, etc.

For my very subjective purposes and budget, Dreadbox and Moog seem esp. good for mono and paraphonic work; Dave Smith I associate with focused, practical studio poly work. It would be interesting to see how well the PB would fare there, as well as hypnotizing us with innovations like morphing, etc.

A lot of people are going to want the form feature of the Sequential modules and I can’t see Arturia ignoring that market. They’re definitely going to release a competitive poly desktop. Whether it will still be a PB is another question.

This is completely OT:

I’ve vacillated between the Argon8m and Hydrasynth module since they first appeared, and the aesthetic signature vs. inclusive sound design tradeoff was one reason for that. But your description of the diving required for close work on the Argon makes the choice easier. Pity that, since I really liked the sound of a vid on the latter’s pole morphing.

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You could always try contacting Marc Doty with your requests and hope you catch him before he finishes making his PB videos

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Nick Batt at SonicState has a review in the works, likely already shot and being completed. Nick often uses a light amount of effects for a good portion of these reviews but he usually starts with very basic sounds and basic filter settings dry.

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Its nicely implemented, but nothing really new.
NordLead 3, NordLead 4, Octatrack, Analog Four, Digitone have this in simpler form implemented as well. I am sure there are other synths who does that too.

I think we need to avoid a linguistic trap here. The word “morph” as applied to various synths have different meanings.

The APB does not have two separate sounds and cross fade between them. Instead it takes the parameters, for the oscillators, for the filters, for the LFOs, and more, that are used to create two different sounds, the A and the B sounds, and it finds a flowing range of intermediate values for each of these individual parameters, and then from those freshly calculated intermediate values creates a new sound from the ground up as it were, as you go.

Varying multiple parameters at once is a portion of what is happening here, but this is more than that too.

For example on the Hydrasynth, you could either through the Mod-Matrix, or a Macro, set up the changing of multiple parameters simultaneously. Some could go up, while others go down. Some change in small amounts while other parameters change in larger amounts. But you don’t get to set a source and a destination — you only have a source and an array of vectors to change the parameters you choose. You start somewhere and then head off into the void.

Of course the things you get to vary is different on different synths.

That shows in contrast on how that sort of operation works differently on the APB.

So it’s not a cross-fade between sounds, and it’s not multi parameter change vectors, it’s active multi parameter change interpolation between two parameter sets.

To the best of my understanding — corrections are encouraged.

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I also would’ve also preferred “patch interpolation” over “morph”.

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