MiniBrute for Guitar

[drbob1]

I'm always excited to see gear that can be abused to allow use in a guitar oriented studio. The MiniBrute fits the bill admirably! So far I've just used it as a glorified effects box, but I will be trying it as a sequencer in conjunction with other synths, gear with CV control and an Adrenalinn III. So, a couple of comments and a few questions:

1. I plugged a very high output into the MB with the sensitivity set for "Low" and had no trouble getting the instrument to trigger. And by turning the output of the MB down, no problem with NOT overloading the next device in the chain ( a Deluxe Reverb in this case). There may be timbre changes due to impedance mismatches but the basic functionality is fine. For guitar it helps to have the amp envelope set with release high so as not to cut off notes. Also, some of the functions produce tones even with only the external input turned up but they don't seem to track the volume or pitch of the incoming signal, so you can basically only have drones and filters when using the guitar to trigger the MB.

2. Using the sequencer (secret arp trick) I was able to lay down a simple bass line, with the keyboard/arp triggering the envelopes and LFOs, then use the guitar into the external input and the trigger set to keyboard to get some very fun rhythmic effects. Things like playing every second note so that the music bounced from the MB note to the guitar note and back. It works well in this setting.

None of the effects seem as dramatic as stand alone versions: for example the LPF is not as flexible or as dramatic as the Mger Fooger, but it's still useful. What I want to do now is interface the analog outs with the Mg CP251 control matrix so that I can trigger and sync my LPF and ring mod. To that end, does anyone know if the Arturia CV implementation is -5-+5 v or 0-10v? And does anyone know if the B+ voltage (source) is taken off the sleeve like Mg does? I can figure it out, but if someone already knows…

Also, what does the Midi port output? Note on/off? Pitch? Velocity? Aftertouch? Does the arpeggiator/sequencer output note and pitch? It'll make interfacing with my midi gear easier if it does…

[drbob1]

Had a chance to play with this and my EMX Electribe and Studio Electronics SEr… Unfortunately, while actually notes played on the keyboard transmit note on/off the arpeggiator doesn't, so it can't be used to sequence the filters on the SEr… It can drive the EMX first synth channel which gives interesting results using the EMX to sequence the SE's filters and amps, then when you play the MB, the EMX notes play but it doesn't pass the note on to the SE, so you get a drop out each time you play a note… Interesting. I'll not have a chance to use it as an in between from midi sequencer to analog or to try driving something on the MB with an analog LFO till next week…