My Arturia PolyBrute 12 shipped out Friday

[davlippo7]

I'm not sure who all has one coming or in hand currently but should be here next week.

I'll report back on personal thoughts but the color alone is finally something not black, brown, silver, white or blue. I used to have a MatrixBrute long ago but single voice wasn't worth keeping.

I skipped getting the PolyBrute 6 but almost did. I'm probably going to go crazy and MIDI the Deckard's Dream to the Brute12 making use of the PAT full touch with DD MPE compatibility.

I'd say that as I get older I find myself gravitating toward stage boards and analog synths more and more. Minimal menu diving and all hands on deck controls is more appealing over hours spent in programming and flipping through screens. Yamaha came to the touch screen game about 10 years too late but at least they showed up.

I might have been the opposite in my 20s I would have loved the Montage M and gladly programmed endlessly. Thankfully analog is becoming much more affordable in some brands. The M does make it easier but it might be the next generation before it's completely intuitive or mostly self-explanatory.

I still expect a YCx with synth module like SeqTrak built-in something similar to Nord stage 4 but much better and still much cheaper.

[Derek]

Will be interested to see what you think; it gets a good review in sound on sound.

I'd say that as I get older I find myself gravitating toward stage boards and analog synths more and more. Minimal menu diving and all hands on deck controls is more appealing over hours spent in programming and flipping through screens. Yamaha came to the touch screen game about 10 years too late but at least they showed up.

I might have been the opposite in my 20s I would have loved the Montage M and gladly programmed endlessly. Thankfully analog is becoming much more affordable in some brands. The M does make it easier but it might be the next generation before it's completely intuitive or mostly self-explanatory.

I like having the best of four worlds....

• Top of the line Workstation/Performance synths from Korg and Yamaha, which would cover all bases if that was all I took out
  
• Modern, hybrid analog synths for knob twiddling without too much menu diving
  
• The best of what Yamaha was producing in the late 80s/90s
• The best in what VSTs are available for emulating long gone/hard to find/expensive classics and new concepts

On the second best, I have the Novation Summit and Sequential Prophet X and they are an awesome combination that cover a lot of bases

[davlippo7]

It arrived in one piece and is a work of ART...turia. Amazing to behold not like I've ever had a CS80 but this is next worldly.

If you think it's expensive well at least it isn't $20,000. A real person can buy one.

It cuts like a knife, I just got it running so not much to say except and Full Touch is similar to my Osmose so that's some killer expression.

Packaged very well and heavy as a planet. I have it resting comfortably over the M8x.

Oddly I can't remove the protective Morhpee plastic cover. It's locked on underneath and I don't want to break the controller so I left it on. Still works

[Derek]

Congrats

I was watching Dr Mix on Youtiube last night playing a 12, and it sounded gorgeous

[davlippo7]

What's so obviously apparent at first touch with full touch and if you have experience with the Osmose, it's that your fingers are the envelops or the string plucking mechanism and it comes to life same as a guitar does.

Combine this with true analog voices the results are breathtaking and especially pads you can play endlessly for hours and get new sounds and experiences out of one single voice even if you don't take both hands off the keys.

Some were saying why buy the Moog 1 for $10,000 if you can get this or even Moog's $5,000 offering whatever is driving the Moog high price point but I've not played those. This could be all you'd ever need for the next 30 years and we know Arturia will release something better in a few years from now.

The venting is like a Lamborghini so if you like fast cars and cool colors this is it. Black, brown, silver, white even red has been done to death so finally we have a Bentley-Lamborghini styling on a synth complete with (5) symmetrical venting ports covered with black grills! Just badass really a collectors item if for no other reason than appearance. So if you can get the money you would NOT be disappointed.

The only upgrade is changing out the 54 knobs with real stainless usually $10ea for probably $600. I don't really like cheap plastic knobs on high end studio grade gear, it's fine for road equipment and all. High end knobs are extremely expensive in high quantities. These look better than normal because the background isn't also black/dark making it hard to distinguish a knob in darkness.

The LEDS have a very dim setting because they were blinding me in a dark room which was a necessity.

So is this a collector's item keepsake forever? Well, maybe "forever" only until they release the next generation because the gauntlet has been thrown down and this one might be the best currently for the price.

The ironic thing is the purpose or advantage of a digital Montage for example is less cost and a more advanced key action(only now on the M8x) and can be more versatile musically yet we have the more advanced key action on an analog synth with the PolyB12. That's sort of backwards and Yamaha will have to wait 5 to 7 years to catchup? What will be available by then who knows?

Saying that, there might not be such a thing anymore as a iconic 30 year keeper synth because technology and creativity in design is available today to the common man and is only going to get better.

There are two kinds of synth people, the video game race car people (software) and hands on hardware muscle car people (gear). Certainly you can race the world's most exotic cars in far away lands at ridiculous speeds using software or you can reach out and touch a clutch & stick and smell the burning rubber and pay a lot more money for it. Neither is wrong or better or you can do both so there are now no limits to what you can create.

[Derek]

I’d say there’s a 3rd type person who likes both, in the same way that I love dawn and dusk, spring and autumn, summer and winter….

I love my carefully curated hardware, but also my VSTs are equally as important, especially in terms of giving me vintage sounds that would cost an arm and a leg now if I were to try and trace down the hardware and keep it working.

[davlippo7]

Absolutely and I did say "both" at the end because I read your posted reply before and to cover all the bases well. You taught me the MIDI loop trick back many years ago and then I worked for the man and never had time for music. Now I am the man and I order myself around but at least I pay better for my troubles.

I added the photos to demonstrate the color contrast of a studio where every freak'n thing is dark and black. Funny Yamaha made the EX5 that blue color but it was still dark. I really think a light colored surface provides benefit and contrast whether in light or darkness and if you consider mood it's less depressing to look at. It's physiologically or subconsciously calling your name and inviting you to play and be happy. Like walking towards the light.

This is outside the box and I wonder if they surveyed or studied colors to determine what was most inviting. White is too boring and even too bright still might be better than dark but this color is very interesting. We'll see how well it wears on the mind over the next many years. I think my Bentley/Lamborghini description is pretty close with some unexpected elegance to a synth. Those clever bastards have taken our money again.

I've seen this slang expression overused but in this case this one really is "sick".

Yamaha's CP1 was elegant and the VL1 was different not sure it totally worked but was nice. I guess this color is a rosy tan

[davlippo7]

I did have one casualty in transportation of this monster as shown below. Our local temperatures are close to 100 but on a delivery truck it's probably 135. This stowaway didn't make it.

I tried licking it off eventually.

[sonic2000gr]

Pitty that European shops like Thomann and Musicstore won't put some candy in the parcels. I would definitely appreciate it

[davlippo7]

I played through the presets or at least I tried to get through it but it was so fascinating I was distracted constantly.

Tested some of the effects on voices and didn't really turn too many knobs yet.

It's really a vortex of which there is no escaping it.

I typically measure gear based on one basic fundamental principle which is whether or not I'm capable of getting off of it in some reasonable amount of time and this is one of those inescapable pleasures.

From what I've briefly experienced it will likely surpass all my other gear including the M8x at least for the honeymoon period if not sustained long term.

The Osmose I played endlessly similarly for a long time but that of course isn't easy to program (if not impossible) and you either play what's there or tweak it or move on to something else. This you can play and tweak without much or any programming but of course it's knob and button functionality.

All depends on your cup of tea but this probably is what it felt like in the 80s to buy a CS80 and take it home with you. If you already own the Polybrute 6 it's still a giant leap forward which I do not. Silly I was thinking I'd try it out and return it but this isn't going anywhere and thank goodness I don't want to box it back up again.

I was thinking what to compare it to thrill wise but probably like the M8x and Osmose combine into one synth. I can combine it with a lot of other gear but I was thinking my Seqtrak would add a touch of real instruments or vocals and make it perfect giving it that 4th dimension.

I definitely wanted a professional cover so I looked on Arturia & online but then found this company below. I'm sure there are others as well. Seems to be custom made I can just drop it over the unit.

Should you get the PB12 if it were $6,000? Yeah, in a heartbeat. You only live once unless you believe in reincarnation. I wonder what color it is in a parallel universe?

[sonic2000gr]

For Europe, I use viktoryshop:

viktory.png

The covers are ok but I'd say a bit overpriced for what they are (I guess DDC is the same).
I got two white ones, for the piano and montage 6. The fit is good but the material does not justify the price IMHO.
I had a black Yamaha cover for the piano and the black paint was coming off! Fortunately I caught it quite early and managed to clean it from the wooden panel.

[davlippo7]

I don't know could this be the best analog synth available to date?

Obviously it's not a workstation but for what it is it's the likely the best all-in-one package for the price.

I originally didn't have the sustain pedal hooked up but now with all 12 dual voices it's a powerhouse.

It could blow out my system at half volume. Dual Outlaw L/R amps and dual JBL 4309s with sub.

Might be more like a Formula 1 racer with Bentley styling and it puts out some heat.

I could be selling some other gear just because with this I won't need it anymore.

So I have a background in Deckard's Dream & Oberheim OB-X8m (which I sold) and dual L/R Behringer Pro800s, Neutron and the coolest Analog Rytm MKII etc. & Osmose so how does this compare to all of that? Sometimes units that serve different purposes are not apples to apples but analogs are pretty similar to a single market sector.

It's all that you can imagine like dreamy, classy, elegant, hypnotizing, surprising, simplistic, artistic, musical, fun, intriguing, magical maybe like Disney etc. I'm not sure you could get tired or bored with it ever. Probably one of the best even made.

I mean I had the Oberheim but I couldn't get it to do much and the true to past design wasn't the best corporate decision for $4,000 for the desktop. At least with the CS80's DD I could one-click the software interface for an instant patch. So price & feature wise this destroys Obserhem & Deckard's & Moog and so on.

I will keep my Deckard's for now but how did Arturia build this masterpiece for a reasonable price comparatively speaking? Will Behringer be able to come close with their CS80 replicant if that ever happens? We're all thankful for companies going out on a limb to risk an offering but who can compete with Arturia currently?

Think about the Montage M after 7 years and was that I large enough leap forward compared to what Arturia is doing? The Genos 2 sure wasn't IMO.

The M ESP was a good move but Arturia has been doing that forever too. At least Yamaha is trying and should rule with the M8X only for a short while.

[davlippo7]

I did in fact MIDI the SeqTrak to the PolyBrute 12 although I guess it will only play one channel at a time which is all I needed.

I set it to a synth channel 8 or 9 could also use 10 (FM channel) and added strings or a guitar, sax, violin, choir, horn etc. for some lush accents of real acoustic instruments to the analog magic.

Only glitch is when the PB12 is set to a Full Touch patch somehow it's sending a MIDI signal to sustain random notes. I assume by CC commands but whatever it's doing it's an undesired command.

PAT worked normally but the Full Touch was not as expected, I'll have to ask Arturia about that. I can only use channels 8 or 9 for the ST synth. I turned off the program changes and checked other settings.

Arturia should have added audio inputs for convenience I mean even the MiniFreak has that.

For $400 the STrak adds hundreds of AWM2 or FM sounds with effects to anything you want and they sound as good as anything that's Yamaha. Not like I can tell the quality is poor or diminished on many of them. That's probably the ideal paring adding a layer of FM or AWM2 to the Brute curtesy of STrak.