Arturia MicroBrute

[Wiu]

Yeah you can update the standard Mini to have the sequencer now. I bookmarked the page when it was linked here or wherever I read it, but haven't got round to doing the update. Not sure if I'll bother though. I'd rather spend my time counting how many tracks have the term 'Acid' in their titles each week....

[Lost to the Void]

Is acid in again?

Like a gap advert

"Everyone in acid"

[arkos]

"Everyone in acid"

How about "Everyone on acid" ?

[Lost to the Void]

That would be very messy, quite possibly a shit load of fun, and also probably slightly dangerous.

[willemb]

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.

I am indeed surprised at its purity, I mean people can talk about it, but working with it something else... I had no previous experience in a pure sound like this and still a bit baffled. Running it through reverb or delay pedals, the wet/dry mix has to be set extremely high towards the wet end for you to hear the effect. Its almost like the purity pushes through the effect.

Just from a learning and exploration aspect I am loving the microbrute for this.

What is it that creates this purity (Is it that super low boost which you can apply to digi type synths to make em sound more analog?) How could I counter affect it? Cut out subs or distort the cunt out of it before running it into a delay? And the opposite, is there a way to emulate this purity on say a sound that comes out of the Electribe ER1 to make it more cutting?

I am asking all this because I now end up with a strange situation where I've got 1 pure cutting sound source, and the rest of the mix all seems dull or flat in comparison.

[Lost to the Void]

What is it that creates this purity (Is it that super low boost which you can apply to digi type synths to make em sound more analog?) How could I counter affect it? Cut out subs or distort the cunt out of it before running it into a delay? And the opposite, is there a way to emulate this purity on say a sound that comes out of the Electribe ER1 to make it more cutting

Good quality components, very well designed signal path, quality oscillator, unusual filter. They all add up to give the sound a very pure and clean analog sheen. It's harmonic spread is extremely musical and "pleasing" because of these factors. There is no way in a million years you can emulate all that with an er1

The brute factor dirties it up nicely, and seems to add more odd harmonics.
A decent quality fuzz on a mild setting will also give it more gunk for fx to bite on too without ruining the harmonics.

[willemb]

What is it that creates this purity (Is it that super low boost which you can apply to digi type synths to make em sound more analog?) How could I counter affect it? Cut out subs or distort the cunt out of it before running it into a delay? And the opposite, is there a way to emulate this purity on say a sound that comes out of the Electribe ER1 to make it more cutting

Good quality components, very well designed signal path, quality oscillator, unusual filter. They all add up to give the sound a very pure and clean analog sheen. It's harmonic spread is extremely musical and "pleasing" because of these factors. There is no way in a million years you can emulate all that with an er1

The brute factor dirties it up nicely, and seems to add more odd harmonics.
A decent quality fuzz on a mild setting will also give it more gunk for fx to bite on too without ruining the harmonics.

This almost sounds like you're saying to me: buy n build an all analog modular system so everything sounds good ... hahaha

I didnt mean, what settings do i need on er1 to emulate good quality gear, i meant more, is there anything i can do so that the microbrute doesnt stick out so much in my mixes?
(I.E. hipass n distort the microbrute so its on a similar playing field, or run er1 etc through analog compressors and do very careful EQing to make them stand up more against the pure microbrute sound)

EDIT:

Already put the fuzz in front of the verb n delay, definitely helping a bit.

[Lost to the Void]

I didn't find my minibrute sticking out at all, it
fit into mixes very easily as the sound was so clean it took any kind of EQ smoothly. If anything the problem I had was making it stick out, it fit in too easily and didn't really have the character I was looking for.

So I'm not sure I can help you.

[Victor]

Is this machine still relevant? Opting to buy one maybe to test it out

[Lost to the Void]

No, when it came out it was groundbreaking as it got decent analogue at a great price.

But feature wise, sound wise, it's in a crowded market and in bang for buck terms I think it's the bottom of the list for that price bracket.

You can get a better, phatter more versatile mono for your money now.

[Ben Kohonays]

I tried one a couple of years ago and just found the sound kind of lacking, like a little one dimensional.

Oh, and it has THE worst keybed ever. Even some kids keyboard from toys r us would feel more professional.

[Root]

Oh, and it has THE worst keybed ever. Even some kids keyboard from toys r us would feel more professional.

This. Still got one and missed selling it. Now it's not worth selling it anymore, because of it's massive price drop. Also i won't put it in my setup for it's big keyboard that i won't use and a lack of space. Otherwise i would like to use it from time to time, it's a dilemma xD

[terryfalafel]

Is this machine still relevant? Opting to buy one maybe to test it out

Behringer Neutron is worth a look. Much more synth for a similar amount of money. I am very happy with mine.

[Victor]

I'll stay away from the brute. Cool stuff that neutron. Ordered some other stuff (volca's for the fun).

[willemb]

Looking back at my posts from before, I think it was due to gain staging issues.

I still like the microbrute, its good at what it does, and sounds good when doing so. There arent any real surprises, you can watch the videos and read about it, and you will understand what it is.

[Lost to the Void]

Yeah it's not a bad synth by any means.
It has a useful sound that really slots in to a mix and it takes FX well nice envelopes etc, good selection of controls.
But that single oscillator is really limiting, no detuning, no osc sync, no cross mod, no waveforms bouncing against one another.
It does lows nice, really clean and deep, but it never gets phat.

Haven't they finally added another osc to the brute 2?

When I was shopping for a mono, for my live PA, I wanted versatility and phatness.

I went with the Erebus, which has the most beautiful sounding osc's of any of the mono's in the sub £650 region, but I ended up selling it as it had no patch storage and ya need that for live.
So I ended up opting for the monologue. But at that price point the basstation 2 is also a great option.
I ended up going with the Korg as the sound mangling options gave it more versatility in the end.
The LFO is keraaazzzyy

[Ben Kohonays]

So I ended up opting for the monologue. But at that price point the basstation 2 is also a great option.
I ended up going with the Korg as the sound mangling options gave it more versatility in the end.
The LFO is keraaazzzyy

I've been thinking about a Monologue, but already have a Minilogue (which I haven't got deep into as yet) would you say there's a case for having both? Or is there a lot of crossover?
I like the tuning options on the Monologue, and it's sooooo cheap....

[Lost to the Void]

Monologue and minilogue have different osc structure and different filter (I have both).
So they sound different.
They have different features too.
As I mentioned the LFO on the monologue is crazy. It's another osc.
Minilogue is very much a modern classic, a modern sounding analogue.
The monologue has a more vintage sound, is dirtier, squelchier, more percussive and phatter in the lows.
You can make some surprisingly complex sounds with it that change in interesting ways, using the LFO to modulate shape when the osc 2 is set on ring mod can really create some interesting textures.

I have to be very efficient with my synths live.
And in my current pa the monologue is being used for a variety of stuff. Stabby chords, shifting drones, metallic clangs, freaky modulating fx sounds, big phat gnarly baselines, obscurum-like grungy rhythm synths.

It's a lot of fun, stupidly powerful for the money it costs.

[Ben Kohonays]

Thanks for that. I have like what I've heard from the odd bits online but hadn't done any in depth research yet, you might have saved me some time there.