Arturia’s quirky, compact, unmistakable-sounding MiniBrute – and the patchable MicroBrute – are among some of the nicer desktop instruments to hit recently. But you can make them do more with hacking. And that’s especially relevant as the original MiniBrute goes on sale.
The MiniBrute is already a nice synth. Sure, it’s not as compact as the more recent MicroBrute and lacks that synth’s cute little modulation patching section, but you also get full-sized keys, and it’s still a lovely instrument. The trick is, you can hack it to add an SH-101-inspired step sequencer as found on the MicroBrute and the SE edition of the MiniBrute. Couple that with an offer than through the end of June prices the limited supply of MiniBrutes at just €399 / US$399 / £299 – that’s the sort of “oh, okay, maybe I will get one after all” price.
You can add a step sequencer with a free SysEx hack:
Converting a vanilla MiniBrute to a MiniBrute SE and vice versa…
Yves Usson’s Hack a brute site has a lot more, too, in both English and French. There are schematics and blueprints for the MicroBrute, and hacks for both the MicroBrute and MiniBrute. (There’s just one for the Micro, but it’s cool: “Add a CV input for controlling the VCA.”) There are even instructions for adding wooden endcaps to the MiniBrute, if you’re into that sort of thing:
Here’s what happens when the MiniBrute meets up with the soon-to-ship Arturia BeatStep Pro:
More on the hack site:
Hack a Brute
Thanks to Source Distribution in the UK for the heads-up.
Also, since I can’t keep the MiniBrute and MicroBrute straight (corrections above), here are both at once.
(Next time, Arturia, choose something like “NanoBrute,” please, to make this easier? 😉 )