Playing Guitar through a Minibrute 2

Bobsher

Hi

I have a single coil guitar coming next week and thinking of running through my Minibrute 2.

Would I need a di box to boost the signal and if so would I need to buy either a passive or active box

Or as the Minibrute has no built in effects, if I were to play through a reverb pedal etc would I achieve the same result with the bonus of added effects

Cheers

Funkfingers

Looking at images of the MB2, I see an External Input within the patchbay but no obvious trim control or routing selector switch. Perhaps, it is accessed via the Shift button?

You can probably get away with a compressor/limiter to govern the guitar signal level and an adapter to go between ¼" jack and whatever size the patch cables plugs are.

This done, you are still up against the synthesis architecture of the MB2. The AD Envelope would suit the amplitude needs of a guitar or bass. That leaves the single ADSR Envelope to handle the filtering. (Proper guitar synthesis requires six filter envelopes.)

Between the filter, modulation and Brute Factor controls, it should be possible to add some interesting texture to guitar sounds but these may prove less interesting than you imagine.

Much of the time, it might be more useful to employ the MB2 as a treatment to an existing recorded guitar part. Have the treated signal be 100% wet. Record it to a separate audio track. Blend to taste with the original.

ICBM

The Minibrute was designed as a guitar amp and is (or at least was, thirty years ago - I don't really keep up with this style of music) very popular with jazz guitarists, even though in modern terms it looks more like a bass amp.

goldtop

ICBM said:

The Minibrute was designed as a guitar amp and is (or at least was, thirty years ago - I don't really keep up with this style of music) very popular with jazz guitarists, even though in modern terms it looks more like a bass amp.

Different Minibrute, old boy!

https://www.arturia.com/products/hardware-synths/minibrute-2/overview

personalnadir

I can run my guitar through my Polyend Dreadbox Medusa. The only quirk on that was that the audio only came through while a note was triggered on the synth, being primarily designed with the intention of adding something extra to accompany the synth 

ICBM

goldtop said:

Different Minibrute, old boy!

https://www.arturia.com/products/hardware-synths/minibrute-2/overview

lol

I feel old now .

Funkfingers

personalnadir said:

the audio only came through while a note was triggered on the synth 

This is entirely normal behaviour for analogue subtractive synthesis architecture. 

Each key stroke generates control voltage and gate information to control pitch and the envelope generators. (No trigger signal, amplifier output level = zero.) The patchbay of the MB2 should allow a gate trigger signal to be sent to the VCA.

davedave

Hi Bob. 

One way of doing it would be to get a Rackbrute and a preamp like the Doepfer A-119 (£50ish). One of the fun things you can do with that is use the gate signal derived from your guitar to drive a sequencer. It’s even more fun when you throw a switch into the mix.