MiniBrute & Roland MC-4 issues

[washburn]

Hi there

Got my unit today and I'm absolutely in awe of the quality of this instrument, its just amazingly good, thank you so much Arturia for creating this!

I ran into some small issues though:

1.  You can use the MiniBrute to program MC-4 CV note data it works fine but you can't go lower than something like value 13 for lower bass sounds.

2.  You can't have both CV/Gate In & CV/Gate Out connected at the same time (to use it as a keyboard entry and synth instrument, SH-101 works fine like this) basically the synth just locks up with constant sound , and note values showing up when you press keys.

3.  When you just have it plugged into CV/Gate In to receive note data it works fine, but if you press a key while the sequence is playing, all the note data starts playing into the pitch that was pressed.  (when an SH-101 is plugged in like this, its keyboard turns off)

If you need any more info let me know.

Cheers

[Bruno@arturia]

Hi washburn,
thanks for your positive feedback

1/ indeed lowest note of the keyboard when in octave -2, is number 12 in midi, and its equivalent in CV. We set Middle C (C4) on the middle of the keyboard, so lowest note possible with a 25 keys keyboard  and 2 octaves transpose is C1.
By the way C1 is 32Hz, so probably low enough for most applications... But I checked MC4 manual, it looks like middle C is note number 24 by default, that very low compared to common synthesizers. I didn't dug into it, but it seems to be possible to change it. MiniBrute, and most modern synths are using 60 as Middle C. You could try to change it...

2/ If your gate selector is in KBD position, Gate In is forwarded to Gate Out, so if you use both, connected to an other machine you are creating some kind of feedback loop, and at the end Gate is always On. By the way why do you use Gate IN if you play build in keyboard? Don't plug gate in, and your MiniBrute will respond to the keyboard, without feedback loop.

3/ The pitch applied to the VCO is the sum of keyboard tracking and PitchCV (plus LFO, Vibrato, and PitchBend), so indeed if you press a key on the keyboard, it will transpose PitchCV. If you want to be in tune, you need to press a C key. As stated in question 1/ C0 is not possible with built-in keyboard, but there is a workaround: at startup MiniBrute defaut pitch is C0, so if you don't press any note, incoming pitch CV will not be transposed.

So no real solutions to your problems but at least, you know what is going on inside....
Bruno

[washburn]

2/ If your gate selector is in KBD position, Gate In is forwarded to Gate Out, so if you use both, connected to an other machine you are creating some kind of feedback loop, and at the end Gate is always On. By the way why do you use Gate IN if you play build in keyboard? Don't plug gate in, and your MiniBrute will respond to the keyboard, without feedback loop.

I want to use the MiniBrute keyboard CV/Gate Out to program my sequences in MC-4 and at the same time use CV/Gate In to play Minibrute sequences from MC-4, I can do this fine with a SH-101.

3/ The pitch applied to the VCO is the sum of keyboard tracking and PitchCV (plus LFO, Vibrato, and PitchBend), so indeed if you press a key on the keyboard, it will transpose PitchCV. If you want to be in tune, you need to press a C key. As stated in question 1/ C0 is not possible with built-in keyboard, but there is a workaround: at startup MiniBrute defaut pitch is C0, so if you don't press any note, incoming pitch CV will not be transposed.

I guess I can still use it but I have to be careful not to touch the keys while its playing..

Btw I dont have SH-101 atm but I will test how low I can trigger the MiniBrute with SH-101 keyboard when I get it again...

also would a firmware update be possible so when you use just CV/Gate In they keyboard shuts off?

Thanks

[Bruno@arturia]

I want to use the MiniBrute keyboard CV/Gate Out to program my sequences in MC-4 and at the same time use CV/Gate In to play Minibrute sequences from MC-4, I can do this fine with a SH-101.

I don't think it will be possible with the current hardware...

also would a firmware update be possible so when you use just CV/Gate In they keyboard shuts off?

That's LocalOff, as it's looks to be a well requested feature, I think it will be implemented in a firmware update.

[washburn]

That's LocalOff, as it's looks to be a well requested feature, I think it will be implemented in a firmware update.

thanks for your help just one more question..

when LocalOff is applied, do all the knobs still work so you can alter the sound live while a sequence is playing and only keys are off?

[Bruno@arturia]

When in LocalOff, keyboard, aftertouch and wheels will not be sent to the sound engine(and CV/gate. Beside that, the machine react exactly the same as LocalOn. So every knobs and sliders are functional.

[washburn]

ok

after more testing it seems that the MiniBrute is not reading CV correctly from external input..

basically when I try to send CV data to MiniBrute it plays them much higher, so if I send 12 its more like 36..now if I press 12 on the MiniBrute while the sequence is playing it starts to play the correct 12

update:
also to play correct 12 I have to set MiniBrute to Octave -2 before I switch on MC-4, and then press 12 on MiniBrute keyboard

[Bruno@arturia]

Yes it's what I was saying:

3/ The pitch applied to the VCO is the sum of keyboard tracking and PitchCV (plus LFO, Vibrato, and PitchBend), so indeed if you press a key on the keyboard, it will transpose PitchCV. If you want to be in tune, you need to press a C key. As stated in question 1/ C0 is not possible with built-in keyboard, but there is a workaround: at startup MiniBrute default pitch is C0, so if you don't press any note, incoming pitch CV will not be transposed.

if you don't want to have PitchCV input transposed, you need to hit lowest key of the keyboard, in Octave -2 mode.
I could depend on the machine that outputs CV, so if Octave -2 is still to high, don't press any key after startup, by default it' starts at C0 (same if lowest C key in some kind of octave -3 mode)