Arturia MicroBrute

Electronic Music Production // Dark Arts
tdmusic
Informer
Posts: 950
Joined: Sun Nov 04, 2012 6:41 pm
Re: Arturia MicroBrute

Post by tdmusic »

Demoed a MicroBrute the other day and couldn't resist buying one... It's got a real aggressive kind of character to it, keeps surprising me with the different sounds I get from relatively small changes despite the fairly small number of parameters, and I love the way that certain parameters interact in surprising ways - the only soft synth I've used that felt like that is Monark (although I've not tried DIVA etc. which are probably similar). The sound is surprisingly full/rich for only a single oscillator, the overtone wave with the fifth option and the "brute factor" definitely help fatten it up.

It's my first hardware synth so I'm loving the hands-on control aspect too, of course MIDI controllers and things like Push make hands on control with soft synths pretty easy, but it's not quite the same as having one control that does one thing all the time... I find you end up playing around without really thinking about what you are doing a lot more, kind of "feeling" the sound instinctively instead. The sequencer is so fun too, just switch to record, play in a few notes, then switch back to play and that sequence is ready to play, transposed to whatever key you press. I prefer it to an arp, more immediate and creative.

Was late for work this morning because I got it hooked up to a guitar effects simulator on my iPad (Jam Up Pro XT) and was having too much fun :D Not recorded anything proper from it yet but did record me playing around with the filter with quite a decent droney-techno-ish sound I found if anyone is interested in hearing an example of the sort of stuff you can get from it which might be more relevant to techno than some examples you hear, gets a bit wild at times, still learning to tame the beast ;):



I've only had it two days so might be a bit of honeymoon period talk ;) but if you're thinking about it, I'd say definitely go for it, especially if it's your first analogue synth. It's soooo fun and the price is right!

User avatar
Lag
athlete
Posts: 576
Joined: Mon Jan 14, 2013 10:28 pm
Re: Arturia MicroBrute

Post by Lag »

I have to get my hands on one. Mouth-watering material. Thanks for the demo.
You have to systematically create confusion, it sets creativity free. Everything that is contradictory creates life.

EliasR
tense
Posts: 10
Joined: Mon May 21, 2012 6:39 pm
Re: Arturia MicroBrute

Post by EliasR »

A friend got one two days ago. Jammed for a while with my tr 707 which rim-triggered it. Man the stuff you can do with it! It's really amazin. The modulation matrix let's you do some crazy things. Highly recommend it, and at that price...

User avatar
Lost to the Void
subsekt
subsekt
Posts: 13518
Joined: Sat Feb 18, 2012 1:31 pm
Re: Arturia MicroBrute

Post by Lost to the Void »

You had a mate over and you rim triggered his synth?

Dirty.

Are you in the right forum?
Subsukt is where you want i think.
Mastering Engineer @ Black Monolith Studio
New Shit
Techno is dead. Long live Techno.

User avatar
UN!T
Lifer
Posts: 741
Joined: Thu May 16, 2013 4:40 am
Location: Send cash or fuck off
Re: Arturia MicroBrute

Post by UN!T »

Lag wrote:There is a huge difference between a good mono synth, and a shitty stereo synth. Arturia packs a punch in it's fatness, while stereo synths in the same price range just sound eh, at least from my experience.
And you can use chorus and unison effects for stereo spreading. Dunno. I know I'd love to push a Minibrute through a Sherman Filterbank.
Really?!? Care to explain to us the differences between a mono synth and a shitty stereo synth? You can start by explaining what a stereo synth is to start. I will be hella impressed if you can do that. :lol: :lol: :lol:
C0REZ wrote:techno 2014 = fascism
:lol:

User avatar
arc
^^ Has a Drumcode Tattoo
Posts: 850
Joined: Tue Oct 16, 2012 8:02 pm
Re: Arturia MicroBrute

Post by arc »

Lost to the Void wrote:You had a mate over and you rim triggered his synth?

Dirty.

Are you in the right forum?
Subsukt is where you want i think.
ROFL

tdmusic
Informer
Posts: 950
Joined: Sun Nov 04, 2012 6:41 pm
Re: Arturia MicroBrute

Post by tdmusic »

Lag wrote:I have to get my hands on one. Mouth-watering material. Thanks for the demo.
You definitely do. I think anyone interested in electronic music should be required to have one by law ;)

Here's another demo, was just playing around and found a sound that reminded me of the James Holden remix of Blackstrobe's (charmingly titled) "Nazi Trance Fuck Off" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccf1-UgdbbM) so recreated a bit of it:


User avatar
willemb
Mild
Posts: 1572
Joined: Wed Apr 11, 2012 7:06 pm
Location: Amsterdam
Contact:
Re: Arturia MicroBrute

Post by willemb »

just ordered a microbrute... you can get them for £199 now if you look around

User avatar
Lost to the Void
subsekt
subsekt
Posts: 13518
Joined: Sat Feb 18, 2012 1:31 pm
Re: Arturia MicroBrute

Post by Lost to the Void »

Sold my minibrute, just didn't get any use out of it.
Mastering Engineer @ Black Monolith Studio
New Shit
Techno is dead. Long live Techno.

User avatar
Críoch
subsekt
subsekt
Posts: 11025
Joined: Tue Jan 03, 2012 11:22 pm
Location: Lego City
Re: Arturia MicroBrute

Post by Críoch »

I played around with one in a music shop a while back.. Would have loved a few fx on the go when I was, but I thought it sounded great. Really pure.. Immediate. A real instrument. Have 2 mono synths as it is & doing sweet fuck all with them so I sharply walked right the fuck away! :)

If I only had one I would have bought it.
KennethExack wrote:My kids and I are completely shocked by the specialized secrets that everyone has on this forum
>> Click here for NEW POSTS on subsekt <<

Dialog I The Hole I subsekt Blog I The Bench I IG I SC I Mixes I FB

User avatar
Lost to the Void
subsekt
subsekt
Posts: 13518
Joined: Sat Feb 18, 2012 1:31 pm
Re: Arturia MicroBrute

Post by Lost to the Void »

I think that was my problem with it really.

I thought I wanted a monosynth, and it had an interesting filter.
Got it, played around with it for a month, realised it`s only good for 90`s retro techno and that a mono is definitely not what I wanted and flogged it off.
I find it very difficult to get excited about synths these days.
Mastering Engineer @ Black Monolith Studio
New Shit
Techno is dead. Long live Techno.

Ploy
skaghead
Posts: 151
Joined: Tue Apr 14, 2015 12:00 am
Re: Arturia MicroBrute

Post by Ploy »

A synth of any kind is good for any type of music one cares to play. To say it's only good for retro 90's techno is very narrow minded. What's stopping anybody from using the Arturo's synths for pop music or heavy metal or classic compositions? Nothing the limits the synth, it's all induced by the end user.

User avatar
Críoch
subsekt
subsekt
Posts: 11025
Joined: Tue Jan 03, 2012 11:22 pm
Location: Lego City
Re: Arturia MicroBrute

Post by Críoch »

I think what Steve probably means is that soft synths & other non-traditional forms of synthesis / sound mangling offer him greater scope for the creation of 'new' soundz.

I think he prefers to be free of the traditional saw, square, arp-y riff etc.. That's the retro aspect. As for pads, there's only so complex you can get in-house with that synth in fairness.

If I was like that I'd prefer to spend my money on something else too :D
KennethExack wrote:My kids and I are completely shocked by the specialized secrets that everyone has on this forum
>> Click here for NEW POSTS on subsekt <<

Dialog I The Hole I subsekt Blog I The Bench I IG I SC I Mixes I FB

User avatar
Lost to the Void
subsekt
subsekt
Posts: 13518
Joined: Sat Feb 18, 2012 1:31 pm
Re: Arturia MicroBrute

Post by Lost to the Void »

ICN wrote:I think what Steve probably means is that soft synths & other non-traditional forms of synthesis / sound mangling offer him greater scope for the creation of 'new' soundz.

I think he prefers to be free of the traditional saw, square, arp-y riff etc.. That's the retro aspect. As for pads, there's only so complex you can get in-house with that synth in fairness.

If I was like that I'd prefer to spend my money on something else too :D
That's it really, lots of controls for a synth of that price, lovely filter, but essentially a standard synth, it made me realise I'm just done with conventional synthesis now, I've spent a long time with the old ways of synthesis.
It's a good synth for the money, but inherently "more of the same", only the filter and the feedback feature makes it unique.

I did put the money I got back from selling it towards my thermionic culture vulture mse, so it's all good.

No more synths for me now, I figure I have all I need to make music, my gear lust for that side of my life is quelled, unless I decide to start playing live techno again.

Buying a house now and then building a decent size mastering studio from scratch on the back of it is the next task.
Then I got to sell my 802D's and make the impossible task of choosing between
A Barefoot sound master stack or jbl m2 reference for the main monitoring.
Scarey, monitors for the same price as a decent car :shock:

I think the arturia serves a purpose for sure.
I think the minibrute is the better synth having fully independent envelopes, but if you already have a mono then it won't add much to your arsenal,many though the filter is fairly unique, it's not worth buyin just for that.

I would say it's a great first time analog for someone who has only lived in vst land, but some newbies might be surprised, expecting something really phat, and then finding it lacking in comparison to what they already have access to.
The brute is actually quite pure sounding, and though you have phattening tricks such as wave folding, it's not a huge sounding mono. It's strength is in the purity of the sound really, though the brute factor (feedback loop) does add a nice touch, it also flattens out the dynamics considerably.

All in all its kinda hmmmmm
Good build quality, some nice features, great knob-per-function, looks nice, but essentially a limited tool in the long run, not a work horse by any standard.

If you don't have a mono, then at the price it favours well against the competition (when buying new), unless you buy something limited run and boutiquey.
Mastering Engineer @ Black Monolith Studio
New Shit
Techno is dead. Long live Techno.

A.M.Smith
Face Hugger
Posts: 40
Joined: Wed Jul 01, 2015 4:37 am
Location: AK Rowdy Rowdy
Contact:
Re: Arturia MicroBrute

Post by A.M.Smith »

fwiw after this discussion...I spent about 18 months with a microbrute and I just found it really bland or distorted in a way I didn't care for. I found I usually ended up replacing it with a soft synth sound or another hardware synth. It was just a really uninteresting analog....the metalizer on the triangle wave was kinda cool, but I could only take so much of it. For someone starting out in hardware it's a great deal, but I think there are way deeper analog mono synths out there for not much more money.

User avatar
willemb
Mild
Posts: 1572
Joined: Wed Apr 11, 2012 7:06 pm
Location: Amsterdam
Contact:
Re: Arturia MicroBrute

Post by willemb »

This IS my first hw synth (discounting the toy that is volca keys). I've got tons of effect pedals, but not much to run through them hw wise. I've got the korg er1 and a mfb 522 drum computers, but looking to add some synth to this so i can have jams and routing fun.

I am looking at computers all day long at work which is one of the main reasons I am going more into hardware recently rather than software. I just have more fun with sound design/noodling/tweaking out of the box than ITB at the moment. I am building some more hw sound design (recording single shot samples) and also jamming capability, and I see it being as quite future proof with CVs, mini sequencer and connectivity.

Most online clips and demoes focus on the "dirty deep bass" aspects of the microbrute, and yes i can imagine this getting boring quite quickly and it is limited in some ways (for monophonic analog basslines I'd imagine some of the other monophonic synth being better). However, I think the higher octaves should not be neglected... Clips such as the below really sold it to me:

youtu.be/RMGnB5yXVPk

youtu.be/luOvXbPF4Hc

User avatar
Lost to the Void
subsekt
subsekt
Posts: 13518
Joined: Sat Feb 18, 2012 1:31 pm
Re: Arturia MicroBrute

Post by Lost to the Void »

I think the most fun I got out of it was pushing some of the features to the edge and getting the sound to break apart.
Extreme note bends, self oscillation of the filters, extreme waveshape changes.

It`s a great "my first analog" I just think a lot of first timers might be surprised at it`s purity. The guy who designed it is a well known home build/custom synth nerd, and what he achieved is a level of cleanliness and purity you wouldn`t expect at that price. It`s very easy to slip in to a mix.

I would go with the mini over the micro as the dedicated envelopes are lost on the micro over what is essentially a very limited (I would say almost pointless) routing capability which doesn`t add that much to the game.
I`d rather have the separate envelopes, to me they were an essential feature.
Mastering Engineer @ Black Monolith Studio
New Shit
Techno is dead. Long live Techno.

A.M.Smith
Face Hugger
Posts: 40
Joined: Wed Jul 01, 2015 4:37 am
Location: AK Rowdy Rowdy
Contact:
Re: Arturia MicroBrute

Post by A.M.Smith »

Lost to the Void wrote:I think the most fun I got out of it was pushing some of the features to the edge and getting the sound to break apart.
Extreme note bends, self oscillation of the filters, extreme waveshape changes.

It`s a great "my first analog" I just think a lot of first timers might be surprised at it`s purity. The guy who designed it is a well known home build/custom synth nerd, and what he achieved is a level of cleanliness and purity you wouldn`t expect at that price. It`s very easy to slip in to a mix.

I would go with the mini over the micro as the dedicated envelopes are lost on the micro over what is essentially a very limited (I would say almost pointless) routing capability which doesn`t add that much to the game.
I`d rather have the separate envelopes, to me they were an essential feature.
Most accurate review of the Micro I've seen. I agree with this all 100%. The Mini SE also has the sequencer and can be had for the same money used last I looked. The addition of the noise osc on the Mini was big was well because it lets you synthesize percussion.

Nothing wrong with the Micro really, but for my money it wasn't doing it for me.

User avatar
Críoch
subsekt
subsekt
Posts: 11025
Joined: Tue Jan 03, 2012 11:22 pm
Location: Lego City
Re: Arturia MicroBrute

Post by Críoch »

Only quickly looked at something briefly.. So may be completely wrong. But is the SE functionality available on the regular synths with a driver / version update?

I read it in some comments somewhere else.. May have got wrong end of stick altogether!
KennethExack wrote:My kids and I are completely shocked by the specialized secrets that everyone has on this forum
>> Click here for NEW POSTS on subsekt <<

Dialog I The Hole I subsekt Blog I The Bench I IG I SC I Mixes I FB

User avatar
Lost to the Void
subsekt
subsekt
Posts: 13518
Joined: Sat Feb 18, 2012 1:31 pm
Re: Arturia MicroBrute

Post by Lost to the Void »

Yes , apparently you can change the minibrutes arpeggiator in to the Se step sequencer (the only difference between the two) by sending certain sysex commands.
Mastering Engineer @ Black Monolith Studio
New Shit
Techno is dead. Long live Techno.


Post Reply