Arturia Minibrute : Early Impressions

This isn't a review per se, I don't own the instrument. Just my thoughts after monopolizing it for an extended period of time at the shop.

The Minibrute is Arturia's first analog synth, quite an interesting move for a company formally specialised in software. It's small and it's cheap, but is it good? And does having yet another monophonic analog synth on the market matters anyway?

Well, it does matter, because there aren't that many companies invested in producing affordable analog synths, apart from Dave Smith Instruments. And the Minibrute is a wonderful instrument. To begin with, it might be somewhat inexpensive (as analog goes), but it feels pretty solid. It's surprisingly heavy for an instrument of that size. The knobs have a reassuring sturdiness, although the slidebars are a bit light. All in all, it's a synth that you won't be afraid to carry around.

The Minibrute only features one oscillator, but multiply the waveshaping tricks to make the best out of it.You also get a beefy sub-oscillator that's bound to shatter some glass. Soundwise, the synth certainly delivers. Some have questioned the use of the obscure Steiner-Parker filter design, but I totally support it. If you want a Moog ladder design or a CEM-style filter, well, go buy a Moog or a DSI. We don't need yet another Moog-like analog synth. It's a bold move from Arturia, but it absolutely makes sense, because it sets the Minibrute apart from the competition. Whether you like its sound or not is a matter of personal taste. When it comes to modern monophonic analogues, the Moog Little Phatty has a round, warm tone, and Dave Smith's synths sport that sophisticated, well-educated analogue sound. By contrast, the Minibrute, is punchy and gritty, and it has range, from analog ground-shaking basses to experimentally harsh screaming leads and other-worldly textures. It's an aggressive synth, that you can make to sound warm and soft or screeching digital.

The level of control is understandably great : one knob per function. You don't have any preset memory, everything is on the synth and the possibilities are numerous from an instrument in that price range. The arpeggiator works like a charm, and even features a swing mode.

 

Now the problem will be to actually buy one. The Minibrute I've played in the shop is the ONLY unit they've got at this point. They manage to get a couple units from time to time which are of course pre-ordered. Production levels are ridiculous. I know that Arturia isn't Roland, Yamaha or Korg, but it's still a bit jarring to see how they managed to mess the release that badly, after so many delays. Anyway, if you can find one and fancy adding a mean sounding, portable and programmer-friendly analog synth to your setup, go for it. I'll probably do when they actually build them in decent quantities.

Majorca

Me and the Devil

Man was singing out loud Robert Johnson's blues "Me and the Devil".

Cover du Jour : "Creators of Rain"

One of my favorite late 60's pop songs, most famously covered by Claudine Longet.

Gforce M-Tron Pro w/Chamberlin for most of the sounds.

Black&White Days

Demo du Jour : "Snowfall"

To be recorded later on by Miss Roxanne.

"The angel came
To nurse this heart
Beating too slow
I grieve for the day
Yet the wounds do not show

Rain turns to snow
Fall the starry roads
The tears shed in vain
The ghost of yesterday
Lying on the plain

The world is gray
The pale moon rests
The stars fade away
But in the distance
I think I saw your face

We hurt again
But the wounds do not show
The pain will go
Fall the starry roads
The tears shed in vain
Grieve for the heart
The ghost of yesterday"

Cover du Jour : "Man with the Gun"

A favorite song of mine from my favorite singer.

Gforce M-Tron Pro for the strings.

"I'm out of my senses
I'll only smile
The night I meet the man with the gun

Not that I'd be defenceless
But I don't think I'll fight
The night I meet the man with the gun

Maybe I'll say what kept you?
I knew you would come
I somehow didn't expect to
Be spared for so long

Was it a whim of fortune
Or was I hard to find
What's the routine of a man with a gun

Was it a kind of torture
Have you been out of town
What is like to a man with a gun

Maybe I'm glad to see you
It's hard to believe
But standing here beside you
Is such a relief

This is gonna hurt me
I do know why you've come
But I got this feeling
That it's already been done"

Underneath

"She came to the river
To quench her thirst
To leave this all behind
And drown desire

We glance upon
The times we’ve known
Deep in her thoughts
She’s sinking down
We chance upon
The things we’ve done
Buried in sleep
And sinking down

We stare upon
The joy we’ve known
The forgotten scene
From a long lost film
We sigh upon
The things we’ve lost
Drowning the tears
And sinking down
We glance upon
The times we’ve known
Deep in her dreams
She’s sinking down"

Drums&Bass : DSI Tempest
Gforce M-Tron Pro, VSM

Fujifilm Showdown : X10 vs X100 vs X-Pro1

This is no in-depth review of the three cameras, just a quick image quality comparison. The pics speak for themselves, actually. What it basically shows is the X10 is a great entry-level compact camera, which provides nice results if you don't crop too much. The X100 actually holds up pretty well against the X-Pro1.

All shots were done with the same settings, in JPEG mode, no filters, no post-processing. Please note that I had a hard time getting as bright a shot from the X10 than with its bigger brothers, I can't say that I understand why.

Fujifilm X-Pro1 Firmware 2.0

The new firmware is out.

If you're new to the X series, please note that you can't copy&paste the .DAT firmware file directly to your camera's SD card. You either have to use an internal or external card reader or to use the FPVUpdater software to transfer the file to the SD card (you can find this program via Google). The first solution is the better one, because the updater software will only be able to transfer the body firmware, not the lens firmware, and you have to update BOTH of them in order to benefit from the improvements.

When you've installed both body and lens 2.0 firmwares, the X-Pro1 performances will improve on three counts.

1 - Better AF

Fujifilm X cameras aren't quick shooters. It took a big firmware upgrade to get the X100 up and running properly. Now it's the X-Pro1's turn, and not a second too late, because the AF was really lacking precision and speed, more so than the X100 in my opinion.

The 2.0 improves the speed of auto-focusing. Granted, you still won't be able to cover Indy 500 with your X-Pro1, but it's not that type of camera anyway. In bright sun light, you can now expect almost instantaneous focusing, and improved speed in the shade or indoors.

The precision has also been substantially improved. Like the X100 in its infancy, the early-firmware X-Pro1 was prone to focus on the wrong element of the frame, even when you used the center point. My first impressions of the 2.0 firmware is that the AF was dead on 95% of the time.

Obviously, these changes are immediately apparent in the electronic viewfinder, but they're also important when using the hybrid optical viewfinder, because you can hear and feel that the focusing is quicker, and you know that it's more precise. Hence, because you don't have to worry that much anymore that the AF will spoil the shot, taking pictures with the optical viewfinder is a more intuitive and fun experience, moving one step closer to shooting with a film rangefinder.

2 - Better MF

Manual focusing on the X100 and X-Pro1 was a big let down. Actually, when you properly update, set up and know how to operate the X100, the only serious issue that remains is the frustrating manual focusing. Why is that so? Because it takes endless turns of the focusing wheel to get from distant to near focusing, making it far too tedious.

The 2.0 firmware has greatly shorten the number of turns necessary. At last, manual focusing the 35mm lens feels like manual focusing any other DSLR lens. Hurray for that.

Also, the 2.0 firmware adds another level of digital zooming to help with the focusing. That's neat, if like me, you're a bit obsessed with clinical focusing.

3 - Better write-to-card times

The write times were ok if you shoot JPEG, but when you shoot RAW, and especially when you're stupid enough to shoot RAW in continuous burst mode like I did for my carnival pics, the buffering delays were bound to be frustrating.

It's quicker now, but if you shoot RAW, I would still advise to get a Sandisk Extreme Pro card, in order to get the best from the X-Pro1.

Conclusion

All in all, a beefy upgrade and a vast improvement of an already excellent camera. Like for the X100, don't judge the X-Pro1 on the experience you or other people might have had using the early-straight-from-factory firmwares. Just like the X100 is now a totally different camera from the one that's featured in the early reviews, the X-Pro1 almost feels like a new product, and an amazing one at that.