Firmware improvement wishlist

Brute PolyBrute
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#1

Hi there!
Let me start off by saying that the PolyBrute feels like a very mature and robust synthesizer as is. It’s the sole synthesizer I actively use.
After roughly a year of use, I feel as though I’ve still only scratched the surface of what it can do! It’s a real powerhouse.

That said, I have a small set of suggestions for a potential future firmware update, primarily concerning usability. Here goes:

  • Display appropriate values for durations. The inability to see the rate of an LFO from the PolyBrute’s panel, even if imperfect, feels like a real omission. The same goes for attack/decay/release values. When moving faders, I’d really like to be able to see whether I’m dealing with roughly 30ms of attack, 3 seconds, or some value in between.
  • Display decimal points for percentile values when tweaking a parameter. It’d be a major usability improvement if the panel displayed, for example, ‘36.32%’ instead of just ‘36%’ when tweaking a parameter on the unit. This kind of fine-grain control already appears to be supported by the instrument, but this information isn’t clearly exposed to the user.
  • Extended sequencing capabilities. Arturia has some of the finest sequencing technology on the market, though it feels like the PolyBrute has missed out on some of this spice. It could open up a large creative spectrum if the PolyBrute supported different sequence lengths for e.g. sequencer automation lanes, or matrix arpeggiator note lanes, compared to the current ‘1 sequence length for every aspect of a sequence’ paradigm.
  • Stereo panning for monophonic patches. The PolyBrute’s stereo capabilities are nothing short of excellent, which makes it all the more strange that the stereo panning enabled by the ‘Stereo’ knob is entirely ignored when ‘Polyphony’ is set to ‘Mono’. It could be a great feature to have the PolyBrute implement stereo panning when in monophonic mode as well.
  • Osmose-style MPE portamento. While I think this feature is unlikely to be added, it would be incredible if the PolyBrute 12 could somehow support portamento playing between 2 notes, akin to the what Expresive E’s Osmose offers. Manual control over glides offers such rich expressivity - it’d be crazy to have it on the PolyBrute 12.

I’d say the first and second suggestions are by far the most important ones. It would make it so much easier to reliably dial in specific parameter values, which I believe would give users significantly greater control over the incredible power this amazing synthesizer already offers.

I’m hoping Arturia will take these into consideration.
And do any fellow PB users resonate with these suggestions?

3 Likes
#2

Definitely some scope for improvement.
Some Spice would be great. Mutate etc.

Better handling of the morphee via midi etc
Arturia la balle est dans ton camp… :slight_smile:

#3

Personally, I’d love to be able to apply “Local Control” independently to the Lower and Upper parts. That would make it possible, for example, to play chords on the Polybrute’s Lower section (or use the arpeggiator, or play bass lines) while controlling another synth with the Upper section—or vice versa. That would be really great. Right now, it’s just an all-or-nothing (ON/OFF) setting, so if you control another synth, the Polybrute’s own sound plays along with it. So, for me, this is the top priority: separate Local Control for the Upper and Lower parts. Come on, Arturia—let’s make it happen.

2 Likes
#4

I think the PB 12 is a really great synth. It’s been over two years since the last firmware—version 3—was released, and I’d love to know if Arturia is cooking up a version 4… or not??? There are surely some small, or even significant, improvements that could be made—for instance, as I mentioned above, the option to “disconnect” MIDI for either the upper or lower section when in Split mode, which would make it easy to control another synth, for example. Come on, Arturia—make a little effort! Thanks. :v:

#5

And there are still some bugs in the current firmware that I would like to see fixed.

#6

What types of bugs have you spotted? Personally, I haven’t really found any. Thanks.

#7

I definitely don’t remember the complete list :wink: but to mention a few:

  • Polyphonic aftertouch does not work correctly in split mode.
  • The value info does not work for the reverb damping (it’s showing the reverb send level instead, which is not even available as a knob).
  • The panel function does not work initially correctly for the Steiner Parker filter mode. If the knob is set to LP, the panel function reads HP instead.

I have found a few more that I don’t remember currently, but all have been reported and confirmed by Arturia Support.

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