ARTURIA MICROBRUTE

God that demo is so nasally. I can literally feel the synth in my nose.

lol

i am excited for this as I only use software currently. It's compact but has lots of controls. I like that it doesn't save patches, it encourages the user to really know it, and will likely encourage me to not be so picky and just record the audio without so much fuss. I had wanted the Volcas, and still might get the Beats someday. But this Microbrute will sort of take care of the bass and keys for me.

The thing for me is that the Minibrute looks awesome after seeing the guy from Portishead playing it in the youtube video. And it's only $437 from amazon.

  On 10/27/2013 at 4:03 PM, Hanratty said:

But this Microbrute will sort of take care of the bass and keys for me.

You know this thing is monophonic, right?

Not to keep knocking this synth...I do like it and I would definitely use it if I owned it.

It just needs a 3db cut at 450hz and maybe a bit of presence. That's my only qualm with this thing. Otherwise, the functionality and the sound of the oscillator are pretty rad.

  On 10/27/2013 at 4:11 PM, LimpyLoo said:

 

  On 10/27/2013 at 4:03 PM, Hanratty said:

But this Microbrute will sort of take care of the bass and keys for me.

 

You know this thing is monophonic, right?

 

I just meant that it will give me enough knobs to twiddle. If I want a polyphonic synth I can always use one of my VSTs.

  On 10/27/2013 at 4:11 PM, LimpyLoo said:

 

It just needs a 3db cut at 450hz and maybe a bit of presence. That's my only qualm with this thing. Otherwise, the functionality and the sound of the oscillator are pretty rad.

 

lol

Its £259. Fuckin' tempted to do a week and a bit's overtime just to pay for one of these!

I almost want to sell my minibrute and get this.

I am *still* considering getting one of these. The Volca Keys was good to tide me over, but damn I want that sequencer. Then again, I could save extra for the ms20 mini but that doesn't have PWM, or the cool sequencer. AARGH

Anyone got one of these? I think I'm just gonna grab one with my december pay.. after spending some time with one in store, of course.

I got to use one of these extensively in a few recent tunes. Highly recommended.

Nice. Might just have to bite the bullet and get it. I'll go into the store tomorrow and have a play first though!

don't rate these sorry, agree with what other people have said about sounding rough as fuck. you'd be better off with a volca keys imo or for a bit more money a bass station 2...i reckon if you're into harsh noise and industrial sounds then these synths are probably perfect, not for me though.

Got volca keys already!

Actually yeah part of the appeal of it for me is that it sounds pretty rough; it doesn't sound like it'll need much (or any) distortion or dirtying up for use in the synthpunk duo I play in.

I've got one. It can definitely sound rough but I don't think it needs to; you can use it in a restrained way. I'm glad I got one but I don't use it for everything like I thought I might. Also it's my first analog and it makes me feel like analog isn't that big of a deal. Still it is very fun to play around with.

A couple of weird things that almost certainly aren't deal breakers. I've come to realize that most of the controls are actually digital. This makes sense for the sequencer and LFO, which can be tempo-synced. But it appears that the envelope is as well. For example, if you set the decay to minimum, keep hitting a note, and nudge it as little as you possibly can upward until it has an effect, you'll notice a jump from a click to a noticeably longer blip, rather than a smooth transition. Also when I use the out/thru of my Shruthi-1, sometimes it will go silent and I believe this is because the Shruthi sends CCs or NRPNs that it responds. This can't be turned off, at least from the front panel. So if you're using it in a similar setup, you'll probably want to find a way to filter out CCs. Finally, the patching isn't as fun as I expected. It's not really hassle, or even much of an annoyance, it's just something you have to do.

The triangle's harmonics also have a bit more presence than I expected so I tend to tune the LPF cutoff a little lower than I would on other LPFs. Also the resonance doesn't really have much of a sweet spot. I think this has more to do with it sharing its envelope between the filter and amp - it's hard to hit the harmonics just right before it gets really quiet.

I still really like the form factor of the thing and the price can't be beat (well, depending how you feel about the volca). But all other things being equal, I'd probably go for the Minibrute instead.

Good points. I keep forgetting I spent a few hours with the minibrute at a friend's place and fucking loved it..

You're right, analog isn't a big deal, but what I love about it is the unpredictability—even the volca keys can produce some out of control sounds when pushed hard enough.

I thought the envelope was analog too? Unless it is on the mini and not on the micro.. but like you said, hardly a dealbreaker. Bit of a shame that there is only one envelope generator, but then again I could always just add modules to it to expand its features, which is what I predict it'll inspire me to do. The patching is actually a main reason why I want to buy it, since I want to feed noise and other synth sounds into the pitch input to get some kind of rough FM going. Not sure if that's how it works but I can't see why not?

Also, I'm currently in possession of a friend's CS01 and MS10; so I have plenty of time to play with them. The MS10 is pretty beaten up, and even though I've got some pretty amazing sounds out of it (PWM leads/basses, mostly ) I reckon I could do more with the microbrute (or, an MS20 if I have the patience to save that much money)..

So, still considering. Maybe if they have an MS20 mini in the store I'll have a play on that as well. That said, the volca keys is satisfying me for the 'classic' sound—I want something (potentially) harsh and ridiculous!

  On 11/19/2014 at 1:20 PM, BCM said:

i reckon if you're into harsh noise and industrial sounds then these synths are probably perfect

yea that's what we used it for and it was fantastic for this purpose.

  On 11/20/2014 at 1:44 AM, autopilot said:

 

  On 11/19/2014 at 1:20 PM, BCM said:

i reckon if you're into harsh noise and industrial sounds then these synths are probably perfect

 

yea that's what we used it for and it was fantastic for this purpose.

 

nice, got any recordings you can share?

It was interesting going through the minibrute thread—this quote stood out:

  On 12/22/2012 at 3:26 AM, LimpyLoo said:

But then it came to my attention that 90% of the demos were geared towards Brostep connoisseurs who like aggressive distorted bass.

 

It turns out if you break off that shitty "brute factor" knob and mind the gain-staging, you can get some amazing sounds.

Yeah so I just tried one out in the store A/B with MS20.. Ended up putting a deposit down on the microbrute :D

Awesome. It sounds like you've done your homework and I'm sure you'll have a good time :)

very good little synth ! it can sound distorded thanks to the brute factor but you can achieve some smooth sounds with it.

Yves Usson did a great job on this synth !

Oh yeah, also, that little sequencer onboard is good fun. As I said I'm an analog noob so I don't have any hardware to compare it to, but it's so simple and easy. A couple times when I couldn't work out the timing of a melody, I'd write it on graph paper and then punch it in and that was a fun exercise too. You can also import and export the patterns using the software editor, and they're in the simplest possible text format so you can use Max or whatever you like to work with them.

Yeah, the sequencer is great. I couldn't figure out how to get it into the mode where hitting the tap/rest button advanced the sequence though (rather than it being just an automated sequence). I could have sworn I saw that in a youtube video!

def fun synth. don't know what's wrong with me but i always end up just using square waves and playing with pulse width. just this week i was surprised at a pretty convincing sid arp style patch i made. personally i rarely use the sequencer though since i have everything hooked up to the pc via a motu midi box. i'm just terrible about ever recording anything.

its all really fun

it was only my 2nd analog so im not an expert or anything

but it seems that outside of modulars a function where for an osc you can mix various waveforms together and blend them how you see fit, and with each of those having a control that somehow manipulates that waveform, seems pretty rare with synths. probably not even common (or at least not standard) in hardware VAs or even software ones that i've seen, really. so to me that's pretty cool. the modular side (and fact that you can use it with other stuff) is also cool

i agree with limpy about the cut around 450hz

  On 11/20/2014 at 2:08 AM, modey said:

nice, got any recordings you can share?

Unfortunately that stuff's already been signed so I'm not at liberty to post clips until we get closer to the release date next year. You'll just have to take my word that it's awesome. Though I see you tried it out and put down a deposit so I guess you like what you heard!