I think it's time that someone broke the stalemate here and realised that "illegally" disclosing the contents of the beta is not really a capital offence and thunderous jackboots are not going to be coming down anyone's corridor any time soon. So as a beta tester of the new software, I've decided to dish the dirt....
The new update for the matrixbrute is quite an astonishing upgrade, as it should always have been. Here is an incomplete list of some of the new functions.
1. The small paper white style information window has been enlarged and expanded and is now in full colour. Watching it just metamorphose before your very eyes when the firmware is updated is astonishing to behold. It's now at the resolution of 1080p with an option for 4k and it comes with a three month free subscription to Netflix.
2. The keyboard is now 88 notes long so please make sure when installing the upgrade that the Matrixbrute is correctly positioned with enough space to grow. I nearly succeeded in knocking over a 19 inch rack mount cabinet during the firmware upgrade.
3. Fully weighted keys are now standard with waterfall drop.
4. A coffee mug heater has now been added to the right of the keyboard
5. The instrument is now fully polyphonic and has the option to have reverse colour keys on the press of thirteen Matrix buttons in the right order.
6. The Matrix area has now been replaced by several gigantic wooden cabinets and rather than the old way of making connections using switches and coloured lights, an innovative way involving the use of many many patch cables has been brought into effect. This has the advantage of making your instrument look a lot more scientific and exclusive, this making you appear even more clever than you previously did.
7. Saving sounds has been abolished in an attempt to stop people from using presets, which have all been accordingly deleted.
8. Toast can now be made in a compartment under the keyboard, though on early versions of the Beta the cooking time was better than on the recent versions. Hopefully in the final version this will be remedied. I'd personally like to see the machine (which is French after all) add a Raclette feature so that tasty cooked cheeses can be consumed during otherwise dull sound design sessions.
9. All the cooking functions will be controllable via the matrix, giving a really nice functionability to the player, adding aftertouch can add Marmalade to the toast (or in my proposal more bubbles to the melting cheese)
10. Finally (don't forget there are many other features not mentioned in my list) the physical Matrixbrute after its upgrade only remains with you for 48 hours. After that it becomes available ONLY in the cloud and can be accessed through some software called "Analog Laboratory"
In the meantime, during the past several years, I have enjoyed using the "old" matrixbrute so much. As a synth player since the 70s I consider it to be the best instrument of any type I have ever owned. hen the real upgrade finally becomes available i will read every word said about it to see if anything will improve the wonderful experience I have had with this magnificent and exceedingly well priced machine. Yes, it has flaws. And like my Minimoogs of the past I have come to love them too.
