Having been a long time fan of Arturia's softies, I decided to have a go at my very first TRUE analog synthesizer, which would be the MiniBrute.....
Here is my story:
It was around 10:30am here in Franklin, Massachusetts on a drizzly day when my decision to finally dish out some real money for "the real deal" began to exert itself. For years, I had been using soft-synths and VA hardware from the likes of Roland and recently, the XW-P1 from Casio, and while I still love my softies, I began to develop a disgust with my SH-201 and VA hardware in general. I'm the kind of fellow who makes frequent trips to my local music shops just to try out the new gear, and I must say friends, synths like the GAIA SH, and the MicroKorg just don't have the bite or the balls to really compete with my soft synths... the reality of my upcoming purchase was becoming clearer:
"I need an analog synth... not a digital keyboard that emulates analog, but ACTUAL analog!"
Of course, the matter here is one of price, bang-for-your-buck and reliability..... all of which are boldly met and surpassed by the MiniBrute!!!
So that was it
I'm going to drive to the Guitar Center a few towns over, and I'm going to offload this Casio and Roland, and trade them in for a real instrument!-I did just that.
Upon entering the keyboards (pro-audio) section of Guitar Center, I was surprised to see a MiniBrute on display, all lit up running. I walked over, and somewhat nervously pressed a low E flat. To my disappointment, it didn't make a sound.
What a facepalmable anti-climax! thought I as I tried to figure out the problem. It took me all ove 5 seconds to see that the instrument was not plugged in to any form of amplification.
HA! Gotta love it! Despite being surrounded by them, nobody had thought to plug it in! Of course, there wasn't even a cable around to do so myself.... I decided to take a chance and just buy the MiniBrute, not even having heard it in person. Quite unusual for someone such as myself, but risk it I did for it just so happened that they had only one MiniBrute left new in the box (I sure as hell ain't buying a display!!!). With the trade in from the SH-201 and the XW-P1, I practically got the Brute for free! So, off I went, walking to my car wielding a briefcase-sized orange box of joy where I would stuff it in the trunk, and violate many speed limits on my way home!
Grab the orange box.
Rush into my home.
Grab a Vanilla Coke and a 1/4 cable.
Run upstairs.
Computer: ON.
Kenwood PAs: ON.
MiniBrute: ....... ON.
Let's shake some walls.
I played my first note ever on a real analog synth (after letting the MiniBrute warm up for 5 minutes) and suddenly I got it. It all made sense and I said "OoooooOOOOOOooohhhh!"
So... that's what all the fuss is about There was something special here.... something clear and biting, but warm and fuzzy......
TO BE CONTINUED....
