What synth with my 1000

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What synth with my 1000

By SmashedCrab Mon Jul 07, 2014 2:39 am
Hey,

Wondering if anyone would recommend either the microbrute or bass station 2 to use with my 1000. I really like the look of the microbrute and will probably swing that way, although thought it couldn't hurt to ask. I am suspect on the size of the keys but that isn't a huge problem. Presents are not an issue also. This will be my first synth purchase. I am fussy on build quality. Any ideas appreciated.

Cheers.
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Re: What synth with my 1000

By Headphones Mon Jul 07, 2014 5:42 am
Kind of depends on what you're really after. The mini/Microbrute are a great introduction to mono analogue synths, much like the early synths of the late 70's/early 80's, where synths were mono and no presets were available. That's right. NO PRESETS. If you manage to create a synth patch you enjoy, you'll want to grab a pen and paper, and write everything you did in the Mbrute's settings to re-create that synth sound. Because if you reset it, and didn't keep track of how you created it, you may never recover it. (And this is where sampling it on your MPC will be a godsend). The MBrutes are a great investment if you should ever wish to expand your pallette of sounds with a modular synth. You could later decide to include sequencers, Voltage controlled Amps, Filters, effects, and all sorts of ways to create your own sounds. That is, if you've got the budger (and patience to buy all the things you'd need to build such a dream synth. And if you can figure out how to route the modules to the MBrutes. You're only going to get mono from your modular beast, unless you've got deep pockets to buy multiple modules of the same unit, and then perhaps you'll be able to play 2 or more notes. If it sounds like more of a hassle than it's really worth, or you need to be able to play chords, or save your synth sounds, then you'd maybe want the Novation BassStation2 instead.

The Novation isn't real analogue, so you will be able to play chords, and save your sounds into memory. But it's not really doing what the MBrutes do being CV monosynth. That's because it's virtual analogue, so even though it sounds like a analogue synth, it's all done on digital microchips that "behave" like a CV synth. (Wave synth, filters, and amp)

No matter which you invest in, you'll have a great time figuring out how to shape the sounds you want out of either one. The limitations of the MBrutes can at least be expanded upon if you want to. But the ease of use of the Novation isn't a bad choice either, if you don't see the need to build your sounds from scratch every time you turn it on.
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Re: What synth with my 1000

By Coz Mon Jul 07, 2014 7:38 am
Bass Station 2 all day every day. :nod:


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Re: What synth with my 1000

By Coz Mon Jul 07, 2014 7:41 am
Headphones wrote:The Novation isn't real analogue, so you will be able to play chords, and save your sounds into memory. But it's not really doing what the MBrutes do being CV monosynth. That's because it's virtual analogue, so even though it sounds like a analogue synth, it's all done on digital microchips that "behave" like a CV synth. (Wave synth, filters, and amp)



I think you're getting mixed up mate. Watch the vid. 8)
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Re: What synth with my 1000

By peeping tom Mon Jul 07, 2014 8:31 am
i grabbed a cheaper rack synth as i couldnt afford keys when i was looking for a synth, some nice ones to be had for very little $

Also, ever thought about just using a good VST?

Re: What synth with my 1000

By SmashedCrab Mon Jul 07, 2014 9:30 am
Cheers for the vid Coz, the bass station 2 seems pretty sweet although to me it looks cheap compared to the microbrute.

@peepingtom I don't have a computer in my setup, so vst is no good unfortunately.

God damn decisions.
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Re: What synth with my 1000

By sciguy Mon Jul 07, 2014 11:34 am
I'd be in favor of the brute. My minibrute is my favorite synth (well, other than my OP-1 at the moment, but you can't really compare the two).

Reasons I'd put it above the bassstation:
No presets (yes, I call it an advantage). You're not saving any patches digitally. Every sound you want, you have to dial it in manually. But this means you're forced to get familiar with the synth engine. You get to the point where you don't need presets, you can imagine a sound and immediately know how you can dial it in.
The lack of the digital side of things also means that each knob is directly connected to the synthesis circuits. No multi-function knobs or sliders. What you see on the panel is exactly what you get. I find it much more appealing actually having dedicated controls to all the synth parameters.

And me personally, I don't prefer the sound of the bassstation. At least from the demos I've heard, it seems more limited in its soundset, despite its apparently greater number of features. just my impression, I don't have one or anything.



Reasons against ___brute:
Quality issues? If you take a look at the Arturia forums, you'll see there are quite a few records of people having build quality issues with the Minibrute. Take that with a grain of salt, it's hard to draw conclusions from that. Of course, one doesn't post on a forums to say that everything's a-OK. A lot of the people on that forums probably made an account just because they had a problem. The percentage of posts claiming issues will not represent the percent of Minibrutes that have problems. But again, no conclusion can really be made either way.
Myself, I've had my minibrute for like 2 years, and it's still working perfectly.

Another, honestly nitpicky thing: I bet the BS (can't abbreviate it as nicely as MB or µB... :lol: ), with all its extra digital circuitry, has better oscillator stability at startup. The Minibrute takes 5-10 minutes before it's stable and in tune, and you do have to manually fine-tune it every time (because many factors, mainly temperature affect the tuning). But that detail really shouldn't affect the choice at all.
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Re: What synth with my 1000

By Coz Mon Jul 07, 2014 2:51 pm
SmashedCrab wrote:Cheers for the vid Coz, the bass station 2 seems pretty sweet although to me it looks cheap compared to the microbrute.



The original Bass Station was my first synth back in the mid 90s and the build quality was questionable to say the least! The new one looks to be a lot better.

I can only go on the experience of my brother, where it took two replacements before he finally got a Minibrute without lifted keys. The keyboard quality on Arturia stuff is as cheap as it gets IMO. The keys on the Microbrute will probably be worse.

I like the sound of both of them but with dual oscillators, dual LFO, dual envelopes, dual filter, patch storage, proper keyboard with velocity and after touch and knobs that transmit CC messages, the Bass Station 2 completely destroys the Microbrute as a partner to your MPC.

There's probably a 1000 page thread on Gearslutz comparing the two, so it might be worth floating over there and ploughing through it. :)
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Re: What synth with my 1000

By medearis Mon Jul 07, 2014 7:13 pm
I've used the:
Mini & MicroBrutes
Volca Keys & Bass
EMU Proteus 2K
OP-1
MonoMachine
Analog Four
Yamaha S80
MicroKorg
Blofeld

plus a few more all without any issues. Check the thread Lamp linked for some general chit-chat from other MPC d00dz. Plenty more synths talked about there.
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Re: What synth with my 1000

By SimonInAustralia Mon Jul 07, 2014 10:59 pm
Headphones wrote:If it sounds like more of a hassle than it's really worth, or you need to be able to play chords, or save your synth sounds, then you'd maybe want the Novation BassStation2 instead.

You can not play chords on the BassStation2, it is a monosynth.

Headphones wrote:The Novation isn't real analogue, so you will be able to play chords, and save your sounds into memory.

The Novation IS analogue, and is an analogue monosynth, so you can not play chords on it.

Headphones wrote:But it's not really doing what the MBrutes do being CV monosynth. That's because it's virtual analogue, so even though it sounds like a analogue synth, it's all done on digital microchips that "behave" like a CV synth. (Wave synth, filters, and amp)

No, the BassStation is real analogue, not virtual analogue.

Headphones wrote:But the ease of use of the Novation isn't a bad choice either, if you don't see the need to build your sounds from scratch every time you turn it on.

The patch memories in the BassStation2 would be a massive advantage over the brutes.

You probably don't want to be manually recreating a patch everytime you want to change synth sounds, I would go with patch memory.


sciguy wrote:Reasons I'd put it above the bassstation:
No presets (yes, I call it an advantage). You're not saving any patches digitally. Every sound you want, you have to dial it in manually. But this means you're forced to get familiar with the synth engine. You get to the point where you don't need presets, you can imagine a sound and immediately know how you can dial it in.

Some might see no patch memories as an advantage, I really don't see it that way.

If you want the synth to play a different sound half way through a song, recreating the patch manually isn't a good way to go. Even if you want to change sounds inbetween songs, patch memory is the way to do it, not changing it manually.

Manually patching sounds might be OK if you are using the synth to create MPC samples, not really efficient if you want to have the synth sounds playing along side your MPC compositions in real time.

sciguy wrote:The lack of the digital side of things also means that each knob is directly connected to the synthesis circuits. No multi-function knobs or sliders. What you see on the panel is exactly what you get. I find it much more appealing actually having dedicated controls to all the synth parameters.

I don't think there are any multi-function knobs or sliders on the BassStation2, just additional functions on the keyboard keys.

sciguy wrote:And me personally, I don't prefer the sound of the bassstation. At least from the demos I've heard, it seems more limited in its soundset, despite its apparently greater number of features. just my impression, I don't have one or anything.

I think you really need to compare them side by side, rather than by listening to demos, to know what limitations there are, not really sure how you can know what any limitations are from a demo.



I would think about whether a monophonic/mono-timbral analogue synth is really what you want.

It may well be.

But maybe a polyphonic/multi-timbral synth might be better suited as a first synth to go alongside an MPC, rather than a monophonic/mono-timbral analogue synth with no patch memories?
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Re: What synth with my 1000

By TYPO Mon Jul 07, 2014 11:16 pm
SimonInAustralia wrote:But maybe a polyphonic/multi-timbral synth might be better suited as a first synth to go alongside an MPC, rather than a monophonic/mono-timbral analogue synth with no patch memories?
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