Arturia's Minibrute version 2? How did I miss this?

how did I miss this one? Back when I revamped my musical instruments, the Microbrute won over the Minibrute principally because of it's step sequencer function as opposed to an arpegiator on the mini one. However as much as I move being able to play a fully analogue keyboard and having great control over all parameter, the MIDI function has always been very unrelyable and to this day I haven't been able to change channel assignment or even to get it to sync with other MIDI devices. Essentially, it is now as impressive as originally anticipated due to having technical issues with the connectivity to a computer. Everything points to updating the firmware within the synth, but the supplied USB cable seems to not recognize the synth to the computer (and yes, I have tried other wires, and the laptop has issues trying to recognize the Microbrute, so changing settings and updating the firmware is still not happening).


I was looking online to figure out what the new Minibrute had in terms of an update/upgrade to it's predecessor, and found some info online, just in case anyone wants to know:


"... But a second look revealed that the MiniBrute 2 is not an upgrade to the original, but a different synthesizer. It has lost its predecessor’s sub-oscillator and gained a second oscillator, its filter and amplifier sections are different, and the original’s dual ADSR contour generators have been replaced by a single ADSR and what Arturia mistakenly call an AD but is actually an AR/ASR contour generator. Furthermore, there are no dedicated vibrato and control sections, and the arpeggiator is implemented differently. Then there’s its sequencer and the small matter of its physical patchbay. Oh yes... and the pitch-bend and modulation wheels are now correctly positioned to the left of the keyboard instead of behind it."


"The MiniBrute 2’s arpeggiator offers eight modes (including random and repeating modes), eight time divisions, five gate length settings, 11 swing settings, and hold, and experimentation shows that the maximum number of notes that can be arpeggiated is 16. However, there are no multi-octave modes. You can create multi-octave arpeggios by holding an existing pattern, selecting a new octave, and then adding notes, but it’s clunky and, compared with the original MiniBrute’s one-, two-, three- and four-octave options, it’s a significant backward step.


Its sequencer allows you to create and store up to eight monophonic sequences of up to 64 steps. It offers tap tempo, record, stop, and play/pause buttons together with knobs for the tempo, the time division applied to the selected clock source and, of course, which of the eight sequences you wish to select. For connectivity with the outside world, the Sequencer panel in the patchbay offers Clock and Reset inputs and Sync and Run outputs, with a range of clock options. "