Arturia PolyBrute SOS Review - it lives!

[Arpangel]

The main selling point on the PB for me is that matrix board, but complex things are.....er....complex, and it’s way too complex for me, also, looking at it in the cold light of day, the architecture of osc > filter > envelopes it’s a well known thing and it works, but it sort of takes the edge of of the PB for me as new synth, it’s OK, but there is so much competition in the same area, and the differences aren’t that great, let’s be honest. In a blind test I’m sure a lot of people would be stumped. And are the differences so big that it makes only one choice viable?
I think we all know that synthesisers reached a peak ages ago, and it’s just slightly different flavours now, which is cool, but I don’t think I’ll be buying one of these.
My Matriarch does one thing extremely well, it sounds like a Moog, it’s warm cozy and comforting, anything else really does sound digital, no matter how you program it, I never thought I would sway this way and reject digital so much, but I’ve been using "mainly" analogue synths and tape for awhile now, and I really notice it when I go back to digits.

[Eddy Deegan]

My Matriarch does one thing extremely well, it sounds like a Moog, it’s warm cozy and comforting, anything else really does sound digital, no matter how you program it

I think you might be actually saying "nothing else sounds like a Matriarch, no matter how you program it", as there are plenty of things that don't sound digital out there and some of them are, in fact, digital

[Berylito]

there are plenty of things that don't sound digital out there and some of them are, in fact, digital

I love that quote. But what makes me LOL is when people send MP3s to each other or use YouTube videos to prove how analog this bit of gear is compared to how digital that one is. Digital vs analog belongs in the last century.

Bx

[Hugh Robjohns]

Quite so!

[Dave B]

Digital vs analog belongs in the last century.

Blimey! Next you'll be saying we shouldn't have the whole "Mac vs PC" argument again ......

[Arpangel]

Digital vs analog belongs in the last century.

Blimey! Next you'll be saying we shouldn't have the whole "Mac vs PC" argument again ......

There is no argument, never has been, just get both, it works every time.

[BJG145]

And who got Eddy in the sweepstake for the 1st to crack and make a purchase?

All of us.

Eddy, you are chronic. Chronic!

There's no hope for you.

[Eddy Deegan]

And who got Eddy in the sweepstake for the 1st to crack and make a purchase?

All of us.

Eddy, you are chronic. Chronic!

There's no hope for you.

Au contraire! There is a lot of hope it'll be delivered very early in December

[RichardT]

. I have a patch on the Hydrasynth that you press a single key, release it and it then generates an *endless* evolving analogue-sounding soundscape of random-but-sensible rhythm and pitch via multiple levels and feedback loops of cross-modulation that drips into the ears like warm honey and won't repeat in any recognisable way forever. I left it running for 6 or so hours in the background once just to hear where it went ... it's a complete ambient soundtrack that never stops and never repeats. I reckon Don Buchla would have loved it.

Sounds fantastic Eddy. Any chance you could post a short extract?

[Eddy Deegan]

Certainly. I'm currently scrobbling around under the desk and around the floor of the studio trying to track down and eliminate an electrical gremlin that trips the house breaker when I power the equipment on but once I've resolved that issue I'll fire up the kit and record a section. May be tomorrow, but I rather hope it doesn't take that long!

[Folderol]

If it wasn't for this virus thingy I'd offer to come down and give you a hand.
Mind you, I'd also need to know where you are

[Hugh Robjohns]

I'm currently scrobbling around under the desk and around the floor of the studio trying to track down and eliminate an electrical gremlin that trips the house breaker when I power the equipment on

If you're powering everything up at once, its probably a brief surge of leakage currents through all the (paralleled) mains filters of your class 1 gear -- the surge being enough to trip the rcd. The class 2 gear shouldn't be a problem because it doesn't have an earth connection to dump into.

Consequently, you may find you need to switch the class 1 gear on in smaller batches.

The other possibility is something like I had, where the garden pond pump wiring had developed damp causing a standing earth current, reducing the headroom for surges! Took my tame electrician a little while to track that down!

[Eddy Deegan]

Thanks Hugh - I did find (and fix) the problem this afternoon, finally, although I don't have a full explanation for it.

My studio is powered from a single wall socket which feeds a series of seven or eight extension leads ranging from four to six sockets each, some of which are invidually switched. There is one extension (the fourth or so) which has a couple more hanging off it in a star formation.

After some painstaking logisitical things (small room + lots of densely packed stuff = hard to get to some areas) I narrowed the problem down to a specific extension lead.

In my setup is everything is powered down by default, so activating the power to the first plug in the chain shouldn't draw much current (unless I'm wrong and it does) - I manually turn things on as I need them.

After replacing the extension in question everything is fine again. It was a 6-socket unit from a reputable source with switches per socket. I disassembled it (before discarding it) to see if I could learn anything but there is no visible sign of any charring or other damage, other than a very mild discolouration on one of the contacts in one of the switches so at this point I'm not sure what the problem was but things seem stable again now and I'm happy that the house breaker is working as it should!

[Arpangel]

My studio is powered from a single wall socket which feeds a series of seven or eight extension leads ranging from four to six sockets each, some of which are invidually switched. There is one extension (the fourth or so) which has a couple more hanging off it in a star formation.

I’ve always wondered about this, exactly what’s the limit as to how many we can daisy chain, it’s easy to work out the loading, but what about 15 6 socket extensions? or how about 30?
Large commercial studios don’t work like this, they have stuff plugged into all sorts of sockets, all over the place, so what’s the difference?

[Eddy Deegan]

I have a patch on the Hydrasynth that you press a single key, release it and it then generates an *endless* evolving analogue-sounding soundscape ...

Sounds fantastic Eddy. Any chance you could post a short extract?

Certainly ... may be tomorrow, but I rather hope it doesn't take that long!

Just heading to bed and realised I'd forgotten all about this. I've got everything fixed and working in the studio again. I'll post an extract during the day!

[resistorman]

I have a patch on the Hydrasynth that you press a single key, release it and it then generates an *endless* evolving analogue-sounding soundscape ...

Sounds fantastic Eddy. Any chance you could post a short extract?

Certainly ... may be tomorrow, but I rather hope it doesn't take that long!

Just heading to bed and realised I'd forgotten all about this. I've got everything fixed and working in the studio again. I'll post an extract during the day!

You never know where a post in this forum is going to wind up! I look forward to this.

[tomas]

I have a patch on the Hydrasynth that you press a single key, release it and it then generates an *endless* evolving analogue-sounding soundscape ...

Sounds fantastic Eddy. Any chance you could post a short extract?

Certainly ... may be tomorrow, but I rather hope it doesn't take that long!

Just heading to bed and realised I'd forgotten all about this. I've got everything fixed and working in the studio again. I'll post an extract during the day!

You never know where a post in this forum is going to wind up! I look forward to this.

I hope Eddy will also give some info on *how* he built his endless patch.

[Eddy Deegan]

A bit embarassing that a day has turned into two and is now going to turn into three...

It's coming soon (sometime Friday). I've had a few things going on - I spent 5 hours today under the tattooists needle, unerestimated the impact it would have on my ability to do much afterwards and I'm feeling a little delicate

As for the breakdown of how I made it, that's a valid request and I will give some details but I've got a packed schedule Friday, I'm going to be on the road all weekend and there are SOS forum album things a-plenty for me to do so don't expect a detailed writeup for a few days. That said, I will do one, and please remind me if I've not done it by late next week

[Dave B]

Oooh I had a wobble the other night. I blame Eddy for taunting me on the Zoom call. So I went to Andertons to look up the shipping date. Thankfully, it won't be arriving until the very end of November, so I'm guessing more like 2021 for full availability. So my wallet is safe for another few months.

(which just means that I spend more on home refurbishment .. ah well .. )

[BJG145]

I spent 5 hours today under the tattooists needle

Which synth did you go for in the end??

[BillB]

I spent 5 hours today under the tattooists needle

Which synth did you go for in the end??

It’s difficult because you don’t want to make the mistake of a permanent tribute when the relationship may not last forever. You know, newer sexier models will probably come along and...

[Hugh Robjohns]

I spent 5 hours today under the tattooists needle

Which synth did you go for in the end??

It’s difficult because you don’t want to make the mistake of a permanent tribute when the relationship may not last forever.

I've heard it's an inked image of The Great Myth, our own Martin Walker, so no risk of the relationship not lasting...

[zenguitar]

I spent 5 hours today under the tattooists needle

Which synth did you go for in the end??

It’s difficult because you don’t want to make the mistake of a permanent tribute when the relationship may not last forever.

I've heard it's an inked image of The Great Myth, our own Martin Walker, so no risk of the relationship not lasting...

Eddy was stuck in traffic on the way to visit me today. He's sat here now getting reacquainted with his guitars, and in the morning will be heading off to the wilds of Cornwall to visit Martin.

He has done the track and will upload it on his return.

Andy

[Stratman57]

OK, probably going way off topic here, but why would anyone want to get tattooed? My son has some and, I think a lot of them were rebelling against my ex wife having become a Jehovah's witness (that was a factor in her becoming my ex), in that they were of a demonic nature. But as I said to him, because I read a lot of crime fiction, why would you want any identifiable marks if you were to commit a crime?

Regards, Simon.

[Martin Walker]

Hi Simon!

I'm not sure that having identifiable marks in the event of committing a crime is the first thing that comes to mind when choosing to have/not have a tattoo

Martin