Arturia Polybrute: What is a $3000 analog synthesizer like?

David Hilowitz Music2023-09-30

arturia#poly brute#analog synthesizer

103K views|10 months ago

💫 Short Summary

The video is a demonstration and review of the Arturia PolyBrute, a polyphonic analog synthesizer that costs just over $3,000. The reviewer explores its various features, including oscillators, filters, envelopes, modulation matrix, effects, and the unique morph feature which allows for blending between two different sounds. The PolyBrute is praised for its impressive capabilities and the reviewer expresses a strong desire to make music with it.

✨ Highlights

📊 Transcript

✦

Introduction to Arturia Poly Brute Synthesizer

00:00

The Poly Brute is a polyphonic analog synth that costs just over $3,000.

Arturia has released new firmware for the Poly Brute, allowing it to add various distortion effects.

The Poly Brute is designed to be the main synth in a studio.

✦

Sound Design and Features

01:17

The Poly Brute has two filters and the ability to use both simultaneously.

It offers various wave shapes and parameters for customization.

The synth has an envelope for volume and another for filter control.

The modulation matrix allows routing of modulation sources to any synth knob.

The Poly Brute features a wide range of effects including reverb, delay, and new distortion effects.

It has a morph knob to switch between two programmed sounds and a morphe expressive controller to manipulate parameters.

The synth also includes a sequencer for creating and manipulating sequences.

✦

Impressive Features and Conclusion

06:04

The Poly Brute is a flagship synth with a massive sound and physical presence.

It offers a unique morphing feature for switching between two sounds.

The morphe expressive controller allows for playing parameter changes as an instrument.

The synth has a sequencer for creating and manipulating sequences.

The Poly Brute has a maximum of six voices, which may be a limitation for some.

The reviewer is highly impressed with the Poly Brute and finds it different from any other gear in their studio.

00:00[Applause]

00:01 this is the artua poly

00:03 brute it's a polyphonic analog synth

00:05 that costs just over 3,000

00:08 bucks artua was kind enough to send this

00:11 unit over and I'm super eager to check

00:13 out this synth and find out exactly what

00:15 $3,000 gets

00:17 you also artera has just released new

00:20 firmware for this thing which among

00:22 other things allows it to add various

00:23 Distortion effects so we'll be checking

00:25 that out as

00:26[Music]

00:27 well so first things first this synth is

00:31 massive both in sound and in physical

00:33 presence this is arturia's Flagship

00:35 synth and it's clearly designed to be

00:37 the main synth in a studio instead of

00:40 just listing features at you which never

00:42 makes for the most riveting video I

00:44 figured we would just dive in and start

00:46 making some music I've got the synth

00:48 hooked up to my computer and on my

00:49 computer I'm running poly brute connect

00:52 which is a plug-in that's supposed to

00:53 let me manage my presets and see all of

00:55 the synthesizer settings of course the

00:58 poly brute comes with hundreds of of

01:00 presets many of which are very beautiful

01:02 but for the purposes of this video Let's

01:04 Pretend it doesn't I find you don't

01:06 really know a synthesizer until you

01:08 really start making your own sounds with

01:09 it to that end I've loaded up the init

01:12 patch which is kind of like a blank

01:17 slate as you can hear it's just a

01:19 classic Sawtooth waveform on the poly

01:22 brute each voice consists of two wave

01:23 forms that are Blended together plus a

01:26 noise

01:28 source for each of these we can choose a

01:31 wave shape and then there are a few

01:33 parameters that allow us to further

01:34 customize the

01:38 sound now that we've got an oscillator

01:40 sound we like it's time to filter out

01:42 some of those unwanted frequencies the

01:44 poly brute actually has two different

01:45 filters and you can use these buttons

01:47 right here to determine which of the

01:49 filters gets used for a particular voice

01:51 you can also choose to use both

01:55 filters the ladder filter is kind of

01:57 like a classic Moog filter so that's

01:59 what we're going to use

02:00[Music]

02:03 now next we have the envelopes which

02:05 allow us to shape our sound this

02:07 envelope controls the volume of the

02:09 sound and this one controls the filter

02:11 we just chose I want this sound to ring

02:13 out kind of like a Bell so I'm going to

02:15 turn up the

02:17[Music]

02:20 release down here there's this third

02:23 envelope that can actually be used in

02:24 conjunction with the modulation Matrix

02:26 speaking of which this is the modulation

02:29 Matrix

02:30 it allows us to Route the output from

02:32 any of these modulation sources to any

02:34 of the knobs on the synth so let's do

02:36 that let's take our very static sound

02:38 and add some movement to it I'm going to

02:40 take the output of this lowf frequency

02:42 oscillator and use it to modify the

02:44 pitch very very slightly basically I

02:46 just want it to sound like a tape deck

02:48 that's slightly drifting In and Out Of

02:55 Tune okay that's perfect this is all I'm

02:58 going to use of the mod Matrix right now

02:59 now but it's worth mentioning that this

03:01 is actually one of the coolest things

03:03 about this synth because just about

03:04 anything on the synth can be modulated

03:06 including the modulators themselves you

03:08 can put together extremely complex

03:10 patches it's easy to spend hours just

03:12 trying out different ideas which is of

03:14 course a ton of fun but let's stay

03:16 focused and move on to effects over the

03:19 years artua has released a ton of

03:21 effects plugins so it's not surprising

03:23 that this synth would have a bunch of

03:24 great sounding effects let's try out the

03:26 Reverb

03:28 first

03:32 as you can see there are a bunch of

03:33 different Reverb models to choose

03:41 from okay let's try the

03:48 delay obviously there are all The Usual

03:51 Suspects like chorus and phaser but

03:54 since arteria has just released these

03:55 seven new Distortion effects let's try

03:57 those

03:58 out

04:05 cool I my favorite of these is the tape

04:08[Music]

04:12 saturation now it's time to explore the

04:15 most interesting feature of this

04:16 synthesizer you see this knob that says

04:18 morph and then on one side it says a on

04:20 the other side it says b well each

04:22 preset actually has two sounds thus far

04:25 we've only been building the a sound I'm

04:27 going to move this knob to B and now we

04:29 get to build an entirely new

04:32 sound so I'm just going to work my way

04:34 across and just sort of randomly change

04:36 knobs to produce a different

04:38[Music]

04:44 tamber now that I've got my two sounds

04:46 programmed in I'm going to switch back

04:48 to the a sound and now we can use this

04:50 expressive controller which is called

04:51 the morphe to morph between the two sets

04:54 of

04:54[Music]

04:58 parameters

05:01 it should be noted that this is very

05:03 different than fading between two sound

05:05 sources it's actually fading each

05:07 individual parameter that got changed a

05:09 good way to visualize this is to look at

05:11 Poly brute connect which is the software

05:13 that comes with a synth as I move the

05:15 controller from A to B you can see how

05:17 each individual knob is actually getting

05:22 moved using the morit controller we're

05:24 essentially playing those parameter

05:26 changes as an instrument in and of

05:28 themselves

05:31 so you may have noticed that as I'm

05:33 playing this I'm not just moving my

05:35 finger across it but sometimes I'm

05:37 actually pushing down on the sensor so

05:40 you can actually map just about any

05:41 control on the synth to that z-axis

05:44 right now I've got it set up so when I

05:46 push down it messes with the effect

05:47 parameters which sends things into a

05:49 wild

05:51[Music]

05:58 Frenzy

06:04 the poly brute also has a sequencer

06:06 built

06:07[Music]

06:10 in as I hit notes the sequence actually

06:13 shows up on the grid

06:14[Music]

06:16 here you can actually go back in add and

06:19 remove notes or record automation for

06:21 specific steps it's very sophisticated

06:24 once I like what I've got I can trigger

06:26 and transpose the sequence using the

06:27 left side of the keyboard

06:34 all in all this is a very impressive

06:36 instrument of course all subtractive

06:38 syns are sprung from the same blueprint

06:41 the one Bob MOG and Herb deuts

06:42 formulated in the

06:44 mid-60s and since they all have such

06:46 similar architectures people often

06:48 compare them based on their specs maybe

06:50 one has a few more oscillators or

06:52 slightly different waveforms or better

06:55 effects of course in terms of features

06:57 this synth scores really well the only

06:59 real limitation that's worth mentioning

07:01 is that it has a max of six voices

07:04 whether or not that's an issue for you

07:05 depends on the kind of music you make

07:07 for me it hasn't been a problem at all

07:10 in fact there's pretty much nothing

07:11 feature-wise that I would personally

07:13 want to add to this but of course the

07:16 most important quality in any instrument

07:18 isn't so much what features it has but

07:20 does it want to be

07:22 played when I see it in my studio do I

07:25 immediately walk towards it and start

07:26 making music here not only is the answer

07:29 a sounding yes the inclusion of the

07:31 Moray controller being able to actually

07:33 play the parameter changes has caused me

07:35 to interact with this synth in a way

07:37 that's different from any other piece of

07:39 gear in my studio anyway I've gushed

07:42 enough about this for the time being

07:44 it's time to go make some more music if

07:46 you enjoyed this video now is a great

07:48 time to subscribe to this channel I've

07:50 got a bunch of videos on the way I think

07:52 the next one's going to be about guitars

07:53 but we shall see by the way a great way

07:56 to support this channel is by joining

07:58 the patreon it costs just $5 a month and

08:02 at least once a month I upload an

08:04 exclusive decent sampler Library just

08:06 for patrons and you can download those

08:09 right from within decent sampler which I

08:10 think is pretty

08:12 cool okay I think that's it see you

08:16[Music]

08:24[Music]

08:28 soon

08:30[Music]

💫 FAQs about This YouTube Video

1. What is the Arturia PolyBrute synthesizer?

The Arturia PolyBrute is a polyphonic analog synthesizer that offers a wide range of features and a massive sound. It is considered Arturia's flagship synth, designed to be the main synth in a studio.

2. What are the key features of the Arturia PolyBrute synthesizer?

The key features of the Arturia PolyBrute synthesizer include two blended waveforms per voice, a noise source, dual filters, expressive morphing capabilities, built-in effects, and a sequencer. It also offers extensive modulation possibilities and a rich sound-shaping interface.

3. How does the expressive morphing feature of the Arturia PolyBrute synthesizer work?

The expressive morphing feature of the Arturia PolyBrute synthesizer allows users to morph between two sets of parameters or sounds using the Morphe expressive controller. This adds a new dimension to sound exploration and performance, allowing for dynamic and evolving textures.

4. What are the built-in effects of the Arturia PolyBrute synthesizer?

The Arturia PolyBrute synthesizer features a variety of built-in effects, including reverb, delay, and new distortion effects released through firmware updates. These effects contribute to the sonic richness and versatility of the synthesizer.

5. How does the sequencer of the Arturia PolyBrute synthesizer enhance its capabilities?

The sequencer of the Arturia PolyBrute synthesizer provides a versatile platform for creating and manipulating rhythmic and melodic patterns. It offers advanced features such as step-level automation and real-time performance control, expanding the creative potential of the synthesizer.

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