The Limitations of the Matrixbrute (but it's worth the wait)
It almost feels like sacrilege to talk about the limitations of the Matrixbrute. It’s a bit like marrying a beautiful woman and then after two weeks drawing up a list of her faults. Don’t get me wrong I love the Matrixbrute, but somehow we tinkerers always push a new synth to its limits and want to know what those limits are.
So in random order;
The Panel<> Preset gap
When you save a sound you’ve been working on, the Matrixbrute registers the position of all the knobs. Wonderful…it's a big step up from the old days. But when you then select a new preset, the position of the knobs is still that of the previous sound you worked on. It does not give you a clue about the real positions of the knobs that make up this new preset. The « Panel » switch allows you change between the two different states: the sound of the stored and recalled settings of the preset and the actual sound resulting from the position of the knobs. This makes understanding how the sound of a loaded preset « works » not easy because the knobs tell a story that does not relate to the sound you are hearing. You’ll have to do a lot a knob tweaking to get all the knobs to reflect the actual sound you’re hearing. In the process of all this knob tweaking you will mosts probably alter the original preset. As with all bad things in life you can also see this as opportunity to learn about the soul of the MatrixBrute (;-). Still it remains confusing that at anytime you have to deal with these two ‘states’. Maybe experimenting with the three Potmodes (jump/hook/scaled) in the Midi control center will help somewhat to alleviate this confusion.
External control:
External control of the MatrixBrute is possible but rather limited. To take the effects section as an example, you can control the five basic properties of the effect; Delay time, Regeneration, time/rate, Width/Depth and Dry/wet.
But there is no way you can switch the effects unit from Reverb to Delay external using CC# values. You need to push a button on the the MB to achieve that.
This applies to the Effect unit, the filters, the LFOs and the Sequencer. Anything that uses switches to define a « state » You can change the state of those units externally so you’re stuck with what’s currently active on the Matrixbrute.
Modulation:
My biggest initial disappointment was that there is no way to make circular modulation routes like on the EMS synthi. On the synthi you could feed an oscillator into a filter and then the output of the filter would be available to modulate other things. On the Matrixbrute there are a number of fixed modulation destinations and once you’ve modulated those it’s the end of the line. You can’t make those modulated destinations reenter the Matrix. I hope it’s clear what i’m saying. It is very hard maybe to understand this concept without having had hands on experience with the EMS synthi.
On the positive side, there is a fantastic modulation option that you only discover after reading the manual very, very carefully; it is possible to modulate the matrixpoints themselves!! That is mind blowing, to such extend that at first I did not want it believe it being possible. As if you’ve suddenly landed in a 3d chess game!
What’s it do? Suppose you are using LFO 1 in single trigger mode to add a little upward pitch push every time you trigger it. You can set the intensity of this modulation on Matrixpoint E1. But now! you can define point E1 as an object of modulation in the extra/ configurable rows of the Matrix!!!! Once you done that you can assign any modulation source to modulate your upward pitch push. Another LFO or…. more interesting….. the modulation row of the sequencer!
The Sequencer
The Sequencer of the MB is a great piece of work, but with a bit of extra work it can be made brilliant:
It would be great if it were possible to split the sequencer in two parts that be used to modulate/play the oscillators or or modulate other parts of the Matrixbrute.
There is no way to control the length of individual steps in the the sequencer, It makes the sequencer sound rather mechanical, some people might see that as a bonus, i miss a way to step step length. Yes you can link steps and insert muted steps to create a rhythmic feel but it uses up your steps very quickly…..
Most importantly; there is no simple way to modulate the speed of the sequencer. It would make so much difference if the Sequences speed could be modulated using an LFO or envelope. It should be available as a modulation destination on the Matrix. It is also not possible to control it externally using CC#s (although a CC# value seems to defined) The same is true for the the gate time of the steps. (I don’t care much for the swing option)
Another weakness of the sequencer is that it is very hard to change properties of a step while the sequencer is running. It seems the software running the sequencer is so busy advancing the thing to the next step that it does not spend enough time looking whether the user is pressing buttons. You can press buttons all you want but the sequencer does not respond. So if you want to make alterations you better stop the sequencer first, with takes away much of the creative flow.
There’s no way to set the start point of the sequencer….which is a real pity as it would create an enormous amount of extra creative options. We’re all so used to being able to set the start and endpoint of samples and have learned about how to use them. When applied to a sequencer the results will be even more rewarding musically. Especially is start and end points can be flexible, modulated from the matrix. Imagine being able to shift->right a short 4 step sequence within a 16 step sequence.
The Effects
The effects are of rather limited use, somehow they sound dull and uninteresting. I think we been spoiled by the clarity of modern digital effects. Not everything in the 80th era was perfect. Effects where an afterthought, were now we begin to see effects as an essential part of the sound. There’s only one effect at the time available. I would have gladly payed an extra for the luxury of having four effect available with a routing construction similar to the filter setup. I find myself using the effects less and less, i reverted to using the Eventide H9 external effect instead. It maintains the stereo output of the Matrixbrute.
There might be a way to give the effects unit an interesting twist by taking the output of the effects send/return (at the back of the MB) and feed that into the external input. You could then use the output of the effect as an additional sound source. I haven’t been able to try this; you need a special cable to pull this of. I would have preferred stereo send/returns for the left and right channel.
Polyphony
Do I miss polyphony? No..... I bought this machine in the full understanding that it is not. I said « yes" at the altar and there’s no going back. It inspires me having to focus on creating a single voice, that in itself is complex enough.
In an another posting I suggested a « simple » way to expand the polyphony of the Matrixbrute by creating a continuously thread/process in the MatrixBrute OS that samples the current sound every few seconds. This sampled sound could then be assigned to one or more of the six to eight extra voices. You could then create a unique polyphonic hybrid machine that plays back 6 or 8 variations of the basic sound you’re developing. Create sound-> assign to voice 2….tweak…assign to voice 3….tweak….assign to voice four.. etc.
It’s a difficult decision to make for the management team as in the coming months the Matrixbrute will face tough competition from a number of new analogue polyphonic synths. (dave smith rev) I hope the team manages to restore from all the setbacks in the previous year that lead to this very long period between announcing the synth and its availability. It must have caused a lot of stress in the Matrixbrute production team.
They should remember that despite all this they managed to create a fantastic synthesizer that’s already a classic. It’s a masterpiece of creativity and an unparalleled example of technological courage.The build quality of the MB is excellent. In short is the best thing France has to offer at the moment. (forgetting about the wine and the cheese)
