Arturia MatrixBrute

ManualsBrandsArturia ManualsKeysMatrixBrute

FM VERDICT

9.6

It oozes personality and

can go from a warm/twisted

monosynth to dirty/ambient

chord machine and powerful

sequencer – mind blown!

ARPEGGIATOR No modern day synth

is complete without an arpeggiator!

The MatrixBrute’s has four modes: up,

down, up/down and random and you

can add as many steps as you like via

the keyboard. It sends/receives MIDI

and CV/Gate too.

EXTERNAL INPUT Plug in any

external sound source and process it

through the signal path/FX. There’s

also an envelope/gate follower that

triggers the envelopes/ﬁ lters in time

with your playing. Try plugging in a

guitar/drum machine for endless fun!

INTERFACING There are 12 CV

inputs and outputs for interfacing

with other CV equipped gear which

is nicely comprehensive. There’s also

Gate in/out and Sync in/out, MIDI In/

Out/Thru, two expression pedal inputs

and a sustain pedal input.

ANALOGUE EFFECTS The effects are

all analogue and beautifully enhance

(or destroy) the MatrixBrute’s sounds.

The effects can be matrix-modulated,

sync’d to the sequencer/int/ext clock

and you can control parameters in real

time or over MIDI.

onboard drive or ‘Brute’ factor. I love

the fact you can add character/drive

at so many points in the signal path!

The MB has also retained the

other Brute’s versatile waveshaping

for each of the waves, so Ultrasaw for

the sawtooth, PWM for the square

and Metalizer for the triangle, all of

which can of course be modulated via

the matrix. There’s a lot of power

available when combining the waves/

waveshaping together and then

modulating things and it’s an

absolute pleasure to get lost in the

possibilities. Some folks have been

worried that the MB can only do more

edgy sounds but rest assured it can

do smooth, warm and woody too; just

be sure not to add any drive or Brute

Factor (though driving the mixer

levels adds some lovely thickening/

saturation without getting too gritty).

Getting back to the mixer, the

design is very ﬂ exible and you can

add more character by pushing the

oscillator levels. You can level

volumes then route all three VCOs

(plus noise and external sources)

through the Steiner or ladder ﬁ lter (or

both together) in series or parallel (for

wildly different sonics) by simply

hitting each oscillator’s Filter button.

Filter 1 is a diode-base Steiner ﬁ lter

which has LP/HP/BP and notch

modes and 2/4-pole slopes; it has a

more edgy/less linear/wilder sound

compared to Filter 2 and has a more

vocal-like/human quality. In 24dB

Steiner mode, the MB reminds me a

lot of my Korg MS-20 (but fatter!)

and has a similar throaty distortion/

overdrive when pushed.

Filter 2 is a modiﬁ ed Moog-style

ladder ﬁ lter that retains low-end at

high resonance settings. It also has

LP/HP/BP modes and 2/4-pole slopes

but to my ears (and when comparing

to my Moog Source and Voyager) it’s

deﬁ nitely rawer and more textured. It

has some Moogy character but it’s its

own thing (an asset, not a downside).

I also love the big bi-polar global ﬁ lter

cutoff dial so you can sweep both

ﬁ lters simultaneously relative to their

individual cutoff settings, plus each

ﬁ lter has a drive control for thickening

or gently saturating the sound and the

infamous Brute control for bolstering

or destroying. As you can see, there’s

a lot of versatility here and what

seems like an almost inﬁ nite palette

of combinations/colours/sweet-spots

(and that’s without using any

modulation)! Despite all this

awesome power, the MB remains

surprisingly intuitive, (though it would

be nice if the display showed the

value of every pot when turned and

displayed a dot to show the stored

value like the Prophet-6).

There’s also a lot on offer

performance control-wise besides the

matrix. Legato, Glide, Legato-Glide,

Mono, Duo/Split and 3-note

Paraphonic modes are also available.

Yes – you can play standard leads but

also 3-note chords with envelope

articulation (and the MB sounds great

in this mode). Plus in Duo/Split mode

you can run the arpeggiator to the left

of the user-deﬁ nable split-point and a

lead to the right. Add in the four

Macro knobs that can be assigned to

multiple destinations simultaneously

in the matrix and you get the picture

– uber ﬂ exible!

Talking of modulation, the MB is a

powerhouse! For more ‘out there’

sounds, VCO1 can be modulated by

VCO2, VCO3 can modulate 1 or 2,

VCO3 can modulate VCF1 or 2 and

noise can modulate VCO1 or VCF1

(all bi-polar too); there are also three

envelopes (they’re snappy enough,

although not as punchy as a

Minimoog/Voyager). Env1 goes to the

ﬁ lter(s), 2 to the VCA and 3 is freely

assignable via the matrix. The

aforementioned three LFOs go nicely

fast into audio range/overdrive and are

all MIDI-syncable too. Once you’ve

designed your sound and basic

modulation, hop over to the brilliantly

designed matrix (see left) to go in

deep with mod routings, then design

a simple or complex sequence and/or

arpeggiation and send the info out

over MIDI or CV/Gate. To top things

off, you have ﬁ ve unique modulatable

bucket-brigade delay-based analogue

effects which sound wonderful

blended with the VCOs (mono/stereo

delays, chorus, ﬂ anger and reverb).

If there’s any synth that deserves

the title of most well-featured

analogue monosynth then this is it!

It’s rock-solid, capable of a genuinely

mind-blowing array of sounds and it’s

so versatile you could spend years

with it and not exhaust the

possibilities. At an RRP of £1,879

(£1,659 street currently) it’s a

signiﬁ cant outlay but still seems like

a bargain considering the features

and its competition. Arturia have

really made something special here.

Future classic? Absolutely!

ARPEGGIATOR

No modern day synth

is complete without an arpeggiator!

EXTERNAL INPUT

Plug in any

external sound source and process it

INTERFACING

There are 12 CV