Marc-Henri aka RADIOKLOW, who has been featured on this site numerous times, sent in this image of Yves Usson's recent demonstration of the Arturia MiniBrute in Lyon, France. Yves is well respected in the synth community for his DIY work at http://yusynth.net, and most recently his work on the new MiniBrute.I asked Marc-Henri if I could post the image and his words. Not only did he agree, but he sent some words from Yves Usson as well. Don't miss Marc-Henri's note on how design began in the modular realm.
Yves Usson on the birth of the MiniBrute: "I was contacted by Arturia in june 2010 to conceive and draw the whole chain of analogic sound production for the Mini Brute. I made a first model of the components. Then the engineers of Arturia created the transposition of the circuits into surface components, and their integration in product. Arturia developed the whole numeric control of the keyboard, of the Midi/Usb interface and of the arpeggiator. I took part in the integration process and creation of the successive prototypes until the final production was achieved. I also wrote several chapters in the user's guide, especially the didactic part about subtractive synthesis and the description of the Mini Brutes various functions."
Marc-Henri on the image, Yves Usson & the MiniBrute: "Here is a portrait of Yves Usson, the creator of the Mini Brute. He lives in Grenoble (one hour far from my city, Lyon) and is mainly a creator of modular synths (the one behind him is one of his unique pieces after various modules). Grenoble is also the home city of Arturia and this explains also why Yves Usson was asked to collaborate with this famous and beautiful label. I took this picture in my music store whose synths manager, a very good friend called Pascal, had organized the first french presentation of the Mini Brute last saturday. It was something great to face one of the six already built Mini Brutes ! Yves Usson explained us he started building the future Mini Brute in modular form before imagining its shape with the Arturia's engineers, because he is so familiar with this kind of system, it was for him the best way to conceive an analogue.
Yves Usson, as every great creator, is a very simple and passionate man, generous and open minded, and I think his instrument has the taste of genius. By pure chance, I discovered he is member of a small association of electronic music I belong to. This created a friendly connection between us. I will certainly have other opportunities to meet him in his studio and maybe try one of his fabulous self made modulars ! I love this kind of persons, highly creative with simplicity and generosity."
Note the MiniBrute filter is the Nyle Steiner filter, and I believe the physical controls and case was designed by Axel Hartmann also responsible for the designs by Access, Waldorf, Moog, and more - you can find the list on his designbox site here. Use the on-page scroll bar on the right to scroll through the list.
Big thanks to Marc-Henry and Yves Usson for this post!
Update: turns out the modular in the background is actually a custom MOS-LAB System 16.
