Modular synth with Minibrute

[hatemagick]

I am dreaming of having a modular synth one day. My passion for synths has increased exponentially with the Minibrute.
Can the oscillator and/or the filter on the Minibrute be used to control the modular synth? Or do I need a separate envelope generator for the modular filter and volume?
What I do know is that I want the Borg II filter https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgC1X_WpgPY&list=PLcsELmYbe5DOfLSOwEpG87T8akxiC1tc_&index=2

[zedius]

I too hope to use the brute partially as a modular gateway. Here is my take given my limited understanding:

The Minibrute has CV and Gate out only. This means that you will be ably to use the brute keyboard (or midi input) to control the pitch and on/off status of an external oscillator. Additionally, because the brute has an external audio input, you could route the output of this external OSC into the audio in on the brute and adjust the presence of this new sound via the audio slider, and it would share the filter and envelope of your minibrute this way.

What you don't have is filter CV out or an LFO CV out. So you will not be able to adjust the external OSC' volume via anything but the full on/ full off signal of the Gate output.

So there is lots of benefit in having an external envelope generator! But it's not necessary. I myself am going to get an envelope generator as my first module so that I can trigger it with the keyboard gate, then route its output to the pitch input on the brute. The one thing the brute is really missing imo is a pitch env, and so this seems like a very inexpensive way to get a modular started and get some value out of it with only 1 module.

[hatemagick]

Thank you for sharing your understanding.

Could I buy a Borg filter, send the Minibrute oscillator to it and control the filter envelope with another envelope module?
I think I'd manage with only a filter envelope and not volume at first.

I too hope to use the brute partially as a modular gateway. Here is my take given my limited understanding:

The Minibrute has CV and Gate out only. This means that you will be ably to use the brute keyboard (or midi input) to control the pitch and on/off status of an external oscillator. Additionally, because the brute has an external audio input, you could route the output of this external OSC into the audio in on the brute and adjust the presence of this new sound via the audio slider, and it would share the filter and envelope of your minibrute this way.

What you don't have is filter CV out or an LFO CV out. So you will not be able to adjust the external OSC' volume via anything but the full on/ full off signal of the Gate output.

So there is lots of benefit in having an external envelope generator! But it's not necessary. I myself am going to get an envelope generator as my first module so that I can trigger it with the keyboard gate, then route its output to the pitch input on the brute. The one thing the brute is really missing imo is a pitch env, and so this seems like a very inexpensive way to get a modular started and get some value out of it with only 1 module.

[zedius]

I'm not sure about the Borg specifically, and I have had only pitch/gate CV experience, but I imagine as long as the Borg filter has a CV input for cutoff or whatever you want to control then you can use the gate output of the 'brute to trigger a separate envelope module to control the CV cutoff on the Borg.

If I were to buy a borg filter, an envelope, and a minibrute with hopes to connect them together, my first step would be to ensure that the output of the control ins/outs of each unit play nice together.

[hatemagick]

I'm not sure about the Borg specifically, and I have had only pitch/gate CV experience, but I imagine as long as the Borg filter has a CV input for cutoff or whatever you want to control then you can use the gate output of the 'brute to trigger a separate envelope module to control the CV cutoff on the Borg.

If I were to buy a borg filter, an envelope, and a minibrute with hopes to connect them together, my first step would be to ensure that the output of the control ins/outs of each unit play nice together.

Thanks for making me aware of that! I'll dig deeper into this.

[matias_thinKing]

fyi if cv signals outs and ins aren't adequate for each other, there are modules that will alleviate this issue.

[Charleshowes23]

When I ordered my Minibrute, one of the reasons I went with it was because of the CV outputs. I figured I would eventually get a modular. Which I did. Last week actually. I was so stoked to have it. I ordered a custom Portable 22 from synthesizers.com. I didn't get the midi interface or the slew limiter, because the Minibrute has CV out and a built in GLIDE function. I spent a few days without listening to the minibrute along with the modular. I then decided to have a drone fest and give them a try together. What happened? I discovered that the minibrute puts out on the lowest C, 1V. Which means that the modular is one octave higher than the minibrute. There is no way around this, unless of course you purchased a midi module, which I DID NOT! I filed a tech support ticket tto see what could be done, but no response as of yet. And another thing it doesn't do....it does't output glide over the pitch CV either. By itself the Minibrute is great, but using it with a modular is a nightmare. Due to the octave problem I decided to hook the minibrute up to a tuner. It gets more out of tune, the higher you go. Which isn't that great. another reason I got the minibrute was I thought it would output arpeggiated  notes over midi. NOPE! But it does put them out over CV.

I am kinda wanting to sell the minibrute and just get a dotcom controller. But for now I am hoping that the wonderful folks at dotcom will let me return a not so necessary module so I can get modules that I should have gotten in the first place.

[stevism]

damn dude you need to actually learn modular synthesis. transposing cv up 1 octave is not a big deal at all, that's like modular synthesis 101

classic case of USER ERROR.

[Charleshowes23]

It is not user error. The low C on the minibrute should be 0V not 1V! I know how to use a modular. If i have my VCO set to 32' then the note should match what is coming from the minibrute, not one octave higher. I am not trying to transpose one octave up on my modular. I am trying to make use of the lower bass range which cant be done.

[Mmarsh]

You can use a module that scales voltage such as the Blacet Mixer/Processor which can bias the input voltage by +/- 5 volts. I've used it effectively to use the arpeggiator on the Brute to control my Sub Phatty - they play in tune (or not, as I sometimes want  ) and sound GREAT together.

*NOTE* that Blacet is Frac format, neither 5U (like dotcom) nor Eurorack but will take power from the dotcom with an adapter.