Arturia - PolyBrute 12

Arturia's PolyBrute 12 is the updated version of their expressive flagship instrument. You now get 12 voices — that’s a hefty amount for any analog synth! That means you're no longer limited to three-finger chords in each paw. Its interface is almost identical to the original, with a few updates to improve workflow and usability. You have the “playable” mod matrix front and center. You will also find the familiar Morphée and Ribbon controller.

The PolyBrute 12 retains the sound engine and effects, but now comes in a slightly more spacious design and a new keybed, which brings us to the star in the “new feature lineup.” It is called “Full Touch” keybed, and we like to take this literally: You can touch the sound.

Arturia’s idea here is to use the layout of a “normal” keyboard and adapt it to the possibilities of the MPE standard. Touch, Position, and Pressure are continuously tracked and passed on to the sound engine – dependent on the play mode of which there are five. There is a switch for Mono or Poly AT or ALT. The latter activates the Full Touch Mode and is sub-divided in three modes: Full Touch, Full Touch –Z and Envelope Full Touch. These have in common that the full vertical range of the key is used to generate control data. In Z and Envelope, the “classic” polyphonic AT sensors are used to generate more information. Imagine it as a third dimension or Z-Axis.

This is all gray theory. In real life, you will get it immediately. Full Touch means: Touch, Strike, Punch, or Tickle the analog sound engine of the PolyBrute 12.

Features:

• Keyboard with 61 velocity-sensitive keys and FullTouch + MPE
• Two analog oscillators: sawtooth, triangle + metallizer, square + pulse width, sub-osc, FM, and sync
• Noise generator with constant colour
• Oscillator and noise mixer with filter routing
• Dual filter design: 12 dB multimode Steiner-Parker and 24 dB low-pass ladder with filter drive
• FM filter with oscillator or noise FM modulation
• Three envelope generators (ADSR with looping function)
• Three LFOs: two multi-waveform LFOs with phase, fade-in, and sync options; LFO3 with variable waveform and extended retrig function
• Three digital stereo effect slots: Modulation, Reverb, and Delay
• 12x32 Matrix interface for modulation (up to 32 destinations and 64 links)
• 64 Matrix points for modular-style patching
• Polyphonic 64-step sequencer with motion recorder and automation
• OLED display
• 480 factory presets and 768 preset memory locations
• Assignable ribbon controller
• Morphée: Three-axis morphing controller (morphing control, sequencer randomization, or matrix modes)
• Pitch and modulation wheel
• Multimode Arpeggiator
• 2 x Unbalanced line outputs 6.3 mm jacks
• MIDI In / Out / Thru: 5-pin DIN
• USB MIDI
• Sync in- and output with 3.5 mm mini jack
• Sustain & Expression pedal input
• Includes PolyBrute Companion software (PC/Mac)