I was trying to find the best synth for me and my use case — mostly playing and learning songs, but I don’t like presets. I love spending 5 minutes setting up a sound and then practicing. So, I decided to try 20-minute demos of VSTs like Juno, Moog, Prophet, and so on to find the best workflow for me before buying actual hardware. And this is f***ing genius:
And the same for the oscillator and unison. The UI of Minibrute V is so, so cool.
Yes, it’s limiting, but how quick it is — you twist the knob to create modulation, and that’s it, just a single action. Currently, no one has suggested anything like that. The closest things I found:
- PolyBrute: Despite it’s the best modulation routing workflow available: hold assign + turn destination knob + click source button + turn amount knob = 4 actions. (but maybe I can save destination as a preset, so it’s 2 actions)
- Roland Juno: Older models had similar things, but the current generation (Juno X) only has depth for LFO and destination buttons. It doesn’t allow them to be set independently. The same goes for the Prophet.
My 2 cents
5 octaves, one oscillator only, six voices of polyphony, three effects: chorus, delay, reverb, and the same approach to assign routing for the mod envelope sounds like a dream synth. Ah, and a mod-wheel/expression pedal to morph between parts A/B as in the PolyBrute. Digital, simple, light, small and portable.
