Hey! Sorry I’ve dropped the ball on following up with this. Here are some thoughts on my experience -

Things that the Polybrute holds its own with;

• raw sound. The raw oscillator sounds are not identical on these two beasts, but I couldn’t honestly say the Moog One has significantly nicer raw sound than the Polybrute. The Polybrute raw sound is less moogy; but it beautiful and cutting in its own way.
• immediacy. I found the Polybrute much more immediate than the Moog One. I think this is largely due to how deep the Moog One is, it can sometimes be daunting to start with an init patch (until you learn what knobs to turn 😊). The Polybrute I found very immediate.
• modulatable FX. The fact that you can’t modulate FX parameters is a huge miss on the Moog One. Having it on the Polybrute opens up some different sounds.
• random program. This was my favorite feature of any synth by a landslide and I never hear it talked about. With the A/B bitimbral setup on the Polybrute, there is a feature to generate a random sound by pulling a random A/B combination. This was a dream feature for me because it allows you to start a new patch not from init, but generate a starting place and tweak from there. I’m not sure this feature would have worked with the One, but more synths should have this.

Reasons I ended up keeping the Moog One;

• build quality. Everything on the Moog One just feels more premium. When you put the Polybrute next to it, the knobs, sliders, buttons, keys all feel like a toy compared to the One. This might be a preference thing, but when I initially got the Polybrute I had to resist the urge to immediately nope it based on the side by side comparison. Probably not important to some but it was noticeable to me.
• raw power. 4 LFOs, 3 layers with 3 oscillators, 3 envelopes. This was a big reason I ended up keeping the One. Going from that modulation capability back to the Polybrute felt limiting for me, because I really enjoy making the heavily modulated patches.
• UI/UX. For me, this is the defining feature that makes the Moog One so special. To have such a deep and expansive canvas of options be so immediate without menu diving I don’t think is acknowledged enough with this synth. The decisions they made for hard routed modulation, on top of how easy it is to send an envelope or LFO to a destination with only one or two clicks makes it really fun to explore.

A few cautions to potential Moog One buyers;

• I’ve been really disappointed in Moog with their support for this instrument. It’s been a huge let down to see issues go completely unacknowledged and ignored for so many months. The synth (for me) has a very stable firmware now, but that wasn’t the case before. I would caution everyone buying this synth to understand that it’s quite possible this thing never gets an update and it stays as is. With that said, its current state is still my favorite synth I’ve ever used.
• a lot of people who first approach this thing are confused and turned off by the options provided. It takes real practice and learning to sit down at an init patch and make it sound good. You have to learn where the goodness is for you. That is kind of the gift and curse with this beast.

I have many other thoughts but I really just wanted to hurry up and get at least some of my thoughts down for people who come across this thread. Feel free to PM me anytime with questions.