arturia minibrute

[skotosa]

Yea via USB and to save settings I just take a picture of where everything is at.

[Guest Hanratty]

...patiently waiting for my minibrute to arrive...

[Guest A/D]

I just ordered one from Perfect Circuit for 369 and free shipping! Had to plug it bc the price seems insane. I'm so excited, I just can't hide it. Wanted one of these badass little dudes for a minute now...

[Guest French]

I've had a Minibrute and a Microbrute for a while now. They work well in tandem, with the Mini doing arpeggios while I solo or handle sequences on the Micro. Instant Tangerine Dream.

 

I also use my Mini with my stoner rock band. I run it through an EHX Tone Tattoo as a bizarro-bass.

 

[tokn]

Uhh... is the micro way less fun than the mini? If I get one of the two machines, which should it be?

[Guest A/D]

There are some good threads on Gearslutz about that. Basically there's a lot of overlap but the Micro has a more modular approach, has a sequencer instead of an arpeggiator, missing a noise osc and a third LFO. I think that's it. I really like noise and LFOs so that sealed the deal for me.

[Guest French]

For me, it's more fun to play with the Micro, besides, it's a perfect point of entry to the modular world.

[Guest Diao]

I'm not sure what all the Mini offers over the Micro, but the new Mini has a sequencer similar to that of the Micro, so if that is what is swaying you towards the Micro then maybe wait and save for the Minibrute SE. I can't remember exactly, but I think it is only $100 more than the regular Minibrute.

[tokn]

Thanks guys, I always thought the Micro was more micro

[Guest A/D]

Mine arrived while my wife was going into labor..suffice to say an even more analog minibrute will come first for a while (= some killer sounds from this one, tho!

[Guest skibby]

Mine arrived while my wife was going into labor..suffice to say an even more analog minibrute will come first for a while (= some killer sounds from this one, tho!

 

congrats!

[Guest A/D]

lol thanks. going for most idm birth announcement 2014

[tokn]

heh pretty idm birth

 

i have a microbrute now! amazing feel and quality and so freaking many possibilities. though i have to get used to using a monophone synth i love playing chords and am pretty bad at finding sweet leads or bass lines.

 

hardware is so amazing. its so refreshing after all these years of producing to really perform the weirdest electronic music, hands on, like a one man band... not lonesome nights in front of the laptop screen. anyway. its late.

[Lucas]

I think I'll get a Microbrute as well soonish. I still want to try it at a local store though, it's hard to figure out how it does sound with shitty demos. Can't wait!... Plz people post things with Micro or Minibrute in it if you have!

[Lucas]

the Microbrute seems really nice but I don't understand how it handles the pitch difference between the different oscillators? Is it fixed to a certain setting? From the videos I saw it does look like it can do some fat bassy sounds but there's no spread control or control over individual oscillator pitch as far as I understood. Does someone know?

[tokn]

no the oscillators are one pitch its monophonic you cant detune them individually i think. but each one has one special feature which has impact on the sound. you can only like detune the sub-osc which can go up to a perfect fifth

 

any idea how to sync a volca and microbrute to a master-clock? do i need a midi through box or could i use the volca gate signal to clock the microbrute? probably not but thats a way to use them as one synth, right?

 

so many freaking possibilities i think im gonna wet my pants

 

and by the way: how do cv or gate signals sound if you listen to them with headphones? is that dangerous or something?

[sweepstakes]

no the oscillators are one pitch its monophonic you cant detune them individually i think. but each one has one special feature which has impact on the sound. you can only like detune the sub-osc which can go up to a perfect fifth

 

any idea how to sync a volca and microbrute to a master-clock? do i need a midi through box or could i use the volca gate signal to clock the microbrute? probably not but thats a way to use them as one synth, right?

 

so many freaking possibilities i think im gonna wet my pants

 

and by the way: how do cv or gate signals sound if you listen to them with headphones? is that dangerous or something?

Yeah, you can't detune them individually. In fact the square and saw waveforms are intentionally out of phase with each other so you can dial in an extra waveform with a bass cut. In general, it seems limited but it also seems like it plays the limits as strengths as much as possible. That sub osc is pretty sexy.

 

You can clock a volca from its gate outputs but all the videos I've seen go the other way around, clocking the Microbrute from a volca. I believe the volca transmits a clock every other step (1/8 note) where the Microbrute transmits every step, so this is something to think about when using this method.

 

There is a desktop app that lets you adjust certain settings on the Microbrute not available from the front panel, such as note priority, sequencer behavior, and LFO reset. When using the app, these are saved in its internal memory. These settings can also be changed via MIDI CC but they won't persist after powering down.

 

The CV signals are much louder than line/headphone signals. To give you an idea of the difference in magnitude, the CV signals are standard +/- 5V where the iOS Brute LFO app provides a +/- 1V signal via the headphone output. Therefore I wouldn't recommend trying to listen directly to the signal. If you don't destroy your monitoring equipment, you'd probably just hear clicky fart sounds anyway. However going the other way around (audio signal into Microbrute) could be very interesting. I'm especially interested in trying this with the volca beats bass drum if I ever modify mine for individual outputs.

 

My Microbrute is supposed to come in the mail today. I'm looking forward to having a lap-sized synth I can use with my eyes closed. If I remember to, I'll give an update. I've got a week off soon and I'm planning to spend as much time with the Microbrute and Octatrack as possible, finding the MB's sweet spots and figuring out how it can best work with the OT.

[sweepstakes]

Also, I have an idea to create 2 note "chords" without the subosc using the square LFO, turning the rate up pretty high (but not quite audio rate) and finely tuning the LFO amount. This way the difference between the LFO's high and low creates a musical interval, much like a tracker arpeggio command, but with 2 notes instead of 3.

You could probably use the sequencer to do something similar, especially if you set the clock and note interval to the highest settings. However the gate would be triggered every step so you would lose dynamics, and depending on sequencer settings you'd be left with either a chord that keeps ringing out after you let go of the note, or the last note of the sequence ringing out. The latter could be an interesting effect, though.

[Lucas]

thanks for your answers, I'll go check this out at a local store tomorrow before I take my definitive decision. I want to buy a good bass synth and I could even put a little bit more money in it but the features of the Microbrute are the closest to what I'm looking for it seems. Even for twice the price I'm not sure what else I'd like to buy.

[sweepstakes]

OK it just came tonight but I lost an hour playing with it pretty easily. There isn't a whole lot to explore as far as I can tell, as far as features, but I did find some unexpected pockets of pleasant weirdness. And it sounds great. Raw and fat. It's just a hair noisier than I expected but it doesn't bother me at all. If anything it's kind of cool because the way the noise sneaks in it's like another texture to play with.

 

There are nice little touches all over. Overall it feels very bouncy and sculptable. Simple but fun like one of those <$10 lego sets. This is my first analog so I don't know if that's just an analog kind of thing but I really dig it.

I was just coming up for air, I'm going to go back to it. I might run it into my miniKP at some point tonight too.

[Lucas]

OK it just came tonight but I lost an hour playing with it pretty easily. There isn't a whole lot to explore as far as I can tell, as far as features, but I did find some unexpected pockets of pleasant weirdness. And it sounds great. Raw and fat. It's just a hair noisier than I expected but it doesn't bother me at all. If anything it's kind of cool because the way the noise sneaks in it's like another texture to play with.

 

There are nice little touches all over. Overall it feels very bouncy and sculptable. Simple but fun like one of those <$10 lego sets. This is my first analog so I don't know if that's just an analog kind of thing but I really dig it.

 

I was just coming up for air, I'm going to go back to it. I might run it into my miniKP at some point tonight too.

 

sounds like you're having fun. I guess I was feeling the same when I first got my Monotribe. But doesn't the modular capabilities of the Microbrute allow to explore a little bit more into "pocket of pleasant weirdness" (or such)?

[tokn]

it's pretty basic and mostly aggressive sounds but with a (super slow to super fast) lfo and a adsr envelope routeable to a lot of inputs and a lp/hp/bp filter you have many possibilities. its a monophonic synth tough, you dont need many more options imo. get the volca keys if you want a "nice" poly sound for little money. but the keys is so limited in terms of creating a specific, basic sound of the patch in comparison to the micro imo (tough there are ring mods and stuff, but these affect the sound kind of uncontrollable in comparison to tweaking everything the way you like).

 

@sweep: thanks, ill look into that. that thing with the gate seems right. and yeah, i need to update my microbrute anyway to get this hold feature...

[Lucas]

it's pretty basic and mostly aggressive sounds but with a (super slow to super fast) lfo and a adsr envelope routeable to a lot of inputs and a lp/hp/bp filter you have many possibilities. its a monophonic synth tough, you dont need many more options imo. get the volca keys if you want a "nice" poly sound for little money. but the keys is so limited in terms of creating a specific, basic sound of the patch in comparison to the micro imo (tough there are ring mods and stuff, but these affect the sound kind of uncontrollable in comparison to tweaking everything the way you like).

 

that sounds like what I'm looking for, can't wait to try that today! Do you guys think it's suitable for a live set where it would play like the "feature" role, doing basses and acid all the time?

[sweepstakes]

Just did a half hour arpeggiator jam with this thing and the Octatrack.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/kq1lkyv5ysh9z1b/140926%20morning%20mb%20ot%20jam.mp3?dl=0

 

Octatrack is sequencing and adding some simple delay and reverb.

[Guest Hanratty]

One thing I really like about my Minibrute is that it does not save patches and it's one knob per function. Besides my Korg Er-1, it's the only piece of hardware I have, and the software that I use, while amazing, encourages a kind of precision because everything is savable/editable, and then nothing seems final. The Minibrute encourages a more spontaneous way of working for me. It's kind of organic because there is only one sound and you shape it as you go. I can be all precise with the audio files afterwards, sample them, cut them up, effects, etc. I don't even use midi, just put the metronome on and jam away.

 

One thing that makes it better than the Microbrute for me is the sliders for the envelopes. It helps me see the sound shape visually. Also, the noise on the oscillator is nice to have. I dig it.