Wow, just in time for xmas. I lucked out and won a bid on a mini brute. So affordable I could not pass it up. I used to own a modular, which I built around the Livewire’s(RIP) Frequensteiner (Steiner Parker Filter clone). I had a ton of Osc and envs and lfo for that system. It never stayed in tune or scaled and stayed musical long enough to really make music with it. For blips and beeps wow it was amazing. Still I need to spend my money on Musical Instruments not sound fx machines. I wanted to hate this thing because it lacks a true 2 osc setup. The metalizer had my hopes high that I would love it for SYNC type sounds it could provide. It fails at the “sync” sound. Instead offers up something new and pretty musical. I heard that Daniel Myer of Haujobb and Covenant, used this thing on the last covenant tour. So I wanted to see what was up with it. I also ran into a arturia rep who brought one into Guitar Center by where I live. He had it plugged into a roland synth amp so i did not care for how it sounded through that thing. YUCK. Still I learned a valuable thing, On the mixer section, keep all the osc under the middle line on the mixer to get more head room, over the middle line is over driving the mixer. Makes it sound more aggressive but also cuts headroom, and kind of destroys the bass. So keep osc below middle line to hear it correctly.

The osc: It is very musical. Can get big with all WAVS running. PWM is kind of ok, different plavor than roland for sure. The ultra saw is amazing for leads, makes it sounds like more than one osc. Metalizer is cool and interesting, kind of reminds me more of ring mod than a sync sound. Unique for sure. The sub osc fattens the sound big time and, i love the sine wave option too. It lacks octave control switch on the env, so you just have to use the keyboard xpose, or control with a bigger keyboard to go low and high. I have not tested the scaling and tuning on this yet, but it sounds good so far.

The filter: This is a great filter that does not sound moog, or roland. It is a tad korgy and old yahmaha sounding. This is a good thing too. Multimode with resonance is the bomb, if you want really lively leads with out taking up much room in the mix but you still want it to stand out and cut. THIS IS IT!!!! This filter sound much different and better than the fruequensteiner I had on my modular. GOOD JOB ARTURIA. The Brute Factor is ok on conservative settings. On extreme settings its more for sound FX and gets very un musical.

The Envs: Snappy, tight, musical, shaped well. 2 of them, plus you can make it super slow with a switch for longer evolving sounds and drones. LOVE IT.

Modulations: Pretty good, 2 lfos, one for the mod wheel that is limited to vibrato and other things. the other for pwm, metalizer, osc, filter and amp. What i hate is that the PWM and Metalizer LFO destination are the same path so on for both, off for both, so kind of limiting :( Wish there was a switch.After touch can do filter and vibrato but its all or nothing so i wont use it.

The arp: This is the bomb. Reminds me of the sh101 but way better. I think it can do step recording, but i have not figured it out.

Build Quality: Love the case, its metal and kinda has weight to it, I love the knobs, move great and sound great when you tweak it while you play it. The sliders feel decent but not as good as the knobs. Switches are good. Pitch bend and mod wheel are decent. For the money, this is the bomb though.

LOVE IT. For sound fx too LOVE IT. For ARPS LOVE IT. For bass, LIKE IT good enough. This is no bass king tho. This is a arp and lead synth, bass synth 2nd. It does do some good bass, still I would go for a Moog Phatty, or minitaur, or older roland sh 2 for bass duties. This thing sounds exotic, like the old yahmaha cs30, like the korg ms 20. It has that kind of weirdness to the sound. It is not a bread and butter synth. It is botique, for style and original sounding stuff. Forget this thing if you want a minimoog bass, roland bonky sounds. Grab this if you want a great lead synth that gives you a flavor that is unlike any software, VA, or standard analog synth. This is what I wanted out of my modular, and it is 1/4 the price.. AMAZING!!!!!!!

12 out of 10!!!!!!