Arturia has announced plans to raise pricing on its MatrixBrute analog synthesizer, effective July 1st.
They have posted a notice of the price change on their site:
Customer notice
Due to increasing component and manufacturing costs, the retail price of MatrixBrute will rise on July 1st, 2018.
In the Eurozone, the price will increase from 1999€ to 2299€
In the USA, the price will increase from $2199 to $2499
“The decision to raise this price hasn’t come easily,” says Arturia president Frédéric Brun in a statement. “We waited to make the change for as long as we could. Due to increasing component costs, and to aid our distributors and retailers in a context where several Euro/US$/£ have fluctuated since the introduction, we considered that now was the right time.”
Unfortunately, just the beginning with our newly imposed tariffs. There’s a trade war a comin’, and consumers get the short end of the stick.
Okay now we are hitting ridiculous levels of trump bashing. „TrUMp mAdE OuT SyNThS ExpeNsiVE!!!! mimimi“
THIS has absolutely nothing to do with that guy! Seriously, keep it real.
Rallo, well said. I’m actually composing a whole album on my Matrixbrute singing the praises of The Trump. Right on, The MatrixBrute is what made Arturia great again.
@ Rallo
Trump is a joke. Are you a follower? That would explain your post… but…
It’s to early to impact prices of music tech yet. If anyone is holding of buying new music tech gear, now is the time to buy…
MAGA
Keeping it real, Trump just announced $60bn tariffs on imports from China. It’s not unreasonable to expect the cost of Chinese made components to increase as a result.
Arturia is a French company and the price is increasing in Europe and North America. This has nothing to do with American trade tariffs.
yes @frodo, but their products are manufactured and assembled in China, like Behringer and Apple products.
Admin: Personal attack deleted.
Keep comments on topic and constructive.
Exactly. Trump tariffs are NOT connected to European price? Arturia just decided to make it more expensive to sell more.
Wow, the increase is the price of a Behringer Model D or one of the boutique synths. That is not a trivial increase.
buy a jupiter-80 instead. most underrated synth imo. it has 256 polyphonic voices. madness.
Got mine when Sweetwater was selling them for $1800. My only real complaint is lack of a keypad entry and those performance buttons on the front, but this thing is so deep and fun to tweak and program. Been layering it with my Triton rack and the layering I am getting is awesome. Record them both into soundforge and create all kinds of sonic strangeness. Not sure why it gets hammered on here because if you spend some real time exploring its depth you can really create some beautiful and strange sounds. JM biased O of course lol.
Lucky you! Now we can only dream for a NEW Jupiter-80 for $1800…
If you call Sweetwater ask for Ken Davis, tell him you want a Jupiter 80 .. and offer him 1800.00. The retail of it is now 2499.00, and dealer cost is 60% of that. I use to be a Roland dealer. The synths are not flying off the shelves and I bet they’d be glad to move it out of inventory. I have one myself .. its cool .. but its just a digital synth with alot of layering, modeling, and tweakability . I specifically bought mine for its 76 key semi-weighted action .. to replace my aging D-70.
As far as know from today’s european news outlets, the EU is still exempt from the metal tariffs.
I truly want to believe that the MB price is rising due to the reasons stated by Arturia. Other companies had similar problems in the past. Doepler had to reconfigure the Dark Energy synth to keep the price about the same.
Still, this a very risky move from Arturia. Wishing them well.
Why would metal prices affect this? There is about $30 worth of steel in this entire keyboard.
The price increase is likely their encoders and matrix button panel.
Arturia MatrixBrute becoming more expensive, pushes prospective buyers toward Moog (made in USA) or DSI, giving American companies more of a competitive edge in those price points, leading to more demand hence more jobs for the american worker, better US economy, resulting in MAGA!
this will force Arturia to rethink doing business in China and they may find it would be more economicaly viable for them to bring the manufactoring to France or Eastern Europe, resulting in Europe becoming great again! at least the “Made in France” label can justify a price hike.
Do you honestly believe that any of the electronic components within a Moog or DSI synth are made in the U.S.? The soldering and assembly is done in the U.S., but I challenge you to find a single chip manufactured there. Your synths (and all of your consumer electronics) could become more expensive if a trade war escalates. Congratulations on your great new America.
@James, my point was NOT about whether the 100% of components are being made in the US or not. agree with you on that, BUT from the JOBS and economy perspective, those “soldering and assembly” jobs are just that, JOBS, allowing people to put food on the table doing honest work they can be proud of, raising a family, etc. the point is MORE JOBS for the US workers.
when Arturia synths reaching Moog/DSI price territory, more people will be inclined to buy those; to cope with the increased demand, they will increase production which means hiring more US workers for those soldering and assembly jobs or increasing the wages of their current employees, not to mention jobs in the support/service.
I am not American by the way, but was pointing out from JOBS perspective (not synth enthusiast perspective) how these trade negotiations/tarrifs may help US synth companies and american worker, which is the whole point of AmericaFirst policy.
I like Arturia, for their courage to design something bold, unique, refreshing and not confined by the constraints of the past, not releasing the same old, same old, milking the brand name, all at an affordable price point, getting more people interested in synths.
it may be bad for the synth enthusiasts world wide, but that’s not the job of a US president, it is to protect their workers/businesses.
” I challenge you to find a single chip manufactured there.” Money where your mouth is… How much you wanna bet?
MatrixBrute was too expensive even for USD 2000. $2500 is really overpriced. They will surely loose buyers after such a move. The same for MiniBrute 2 – $650 is not what people wait for this kind of monosynth… Should we wait the same step from Uncle Dave???
The Matrixbrute is actually very good value for money not anything quite like it on the market close to what Arturia is asking for it!
ok, $2500… This is closely the price of a Prophet~6, btw… Or the price of used Minimoog Voyager…
Prophet 6 is good synth but not really close to the matrixbrute. Voyager is a ittle closer but thats way more expensive new.
People will see this kind of shit everywhere…in your local supermarkt…in the computerbranch…and always the common guy will suffer most from this artificial pricing.
What artificial pricing?
Wow – that’s a wallet-spanking increase! Just glad I got mine when they first came out. Would I buy a MatrixBrute at the new price? Hell, yes – it’s such a fun instrument to own. I’m wondering how many MatrixBrutes Arturia will shift between now and the price increase….
Many owners have had quality issues with their Arturia synth and have mentioned Arturia’s abysmal customer service (as in ignore you and your problem after they have your money) when trying to get their synth issues rectified.
For $2500, this thing better have reliable, top notch build quality using only high end components. But I’m afraid that is not the case.
Wrong. The Matrixbrute in my studio is reliable, is built top-notch, with high-end components. Fake news, much?
Of course you’re going to tell yourself that after plunking down thousands for an Arturia synth.
The fact is that a number of people have had issues with their Arturia gear, and when they attempted to get these issues resolved via Arturia’s customer support, the “support” was dismal, as in don’t bother us. I’m sure some here can chime in and attest to this.
Let’s see if your expensive Arturia synth is problem free after a few years of use. I hope it is.
Although I agree that Arturia’s customer support is crap, I have been using my MB for hours on end, every single day for almost a year without one, single problem. It is probably built better than your car.
Hopefully the MatrixBrute will be reliable for years on end. Given the horror stories that I have repeatedly read about regarding quality issues with Arturia products and their less than desirable customer service, I would be reluctant to purchase one of their products.
That’s how they were with the Origin. Almost bought one until I read how poorly Arturia treated people who did so. Then they just dropped support. I love their software but the Origin debacle has made me wary of investing in their hardware, as good as it appears to be.
Whahahaha Course you all nag about Trump this Trump that. Lol
Hardly anyone bought this synth though, because even with all the bells and whisles, it still sounds like a brute which most people feel is just an aggressive synth with hardly any nice character.
And now its gonna be more expensive so even less people will buy it. LMFAO. 😛
I’ve noticed a number of these for sale on eBay recently – might be time to grab a bargain if the Maxi Brute is your cup of tea!
how exactly are they helping their distributors by rising the price???
Does this mean that virtual instrument prices will increase also if they are using component modelling 😉
Since the prices don’t rise on every product and the price of the MB rises in the EU as well, it’s obvious it has nothing to do with tariffs in the US. So, what’s different about the MB compared to other Arturia products? The MB makes less profit on the MB so they are pushing the price to the point it’s worth their labour.
PS The “The Trump argument clearly shows how media manipulation works, since the blame on Trump came rather like a Pavlovian reflex than as a result of rational reasoning.
The tariffs have zero effect on the price of synths in the US and elsewhere. The tariffs are on raw aluminum and steel imports to the US. Even for a US manufacturer importing metal parts from China this does not even include metal enclosures anyways, only raw/stock; and of course there is no tariff importing a synth (finished good) from anywhere.
From a build/cost perspective I always thought the Matrixbrute was selling too cheap. A viable product from a company like Arturia will have a 5x ratio of BOM cost vs retail. So a $2000 Matrixbrute would be made for ~$400. The cost of the Matrixbrute boxed and ready to ship is more than $400 considering the parts it’s made from, I think much closer to $500. I’m not surprised at the cost increase.
Trump is bad because he wants to help American workers. Apple is good because it helps Chinese workers. Coming soon: “Are you buying this Subsequent 37/DSI REV2 because of “Made in Trump USA?”.
I get the Trump bashing: it’s easy and require zero brain cell activities. Aren’t we better than this though? It would require some brain cell activities to understand the question for some. Sad!
Maybe, just maybe the Matrixbrute was always selling at a lost to push their cheaper hardware? Then the demand was bigger than expected and it was becoming too much for Arturia?
I take it everyone forgot that Dave smith did exactly the same about 2 years ago due to the cost of components rising. My prophet 6 has made money even at second hand prices.
It’s nothing new and to be honest it’s refreshing that Arturia have been open about it rather than a silent hike in the price.
This is has pretty much little to do with geopolitical issues and more to do with rising living standards and the cost that is passed on to the consumer when workers need paid a fair wage.
Had a long session playing MB in store today. Was on the fence, but the looming price hike forced my hand a little. Ordered mine. People can complain all they want about the price, but the fact is there is really nothing else (all analog) with such a user interface, sound and connectivity. It is a synth tweaker/player’s dream
There is nothing like the MB. It is well worth the money. If you can’t appreciate that then you shouldn’t get one. Once you have one in your hands for a few days you will understand just how completely amazing this synth is. And obviously its a “good investment”. How many synths that you own have gone UP in value?
Hey knucklefuts! I come to this sight to get away from the political banter of other social media and just groove on the good vibes and drool (I mean cool) gear. Save the political rants for elsewhere please.
The Matrixbrute currently sells for $2699 in Canada and this increase will push it over $3000. I guess I will never own one.
glad to see all the armchair economic, trade, and customs “experts” have come out in force.
anybody who has had to fill out a 7501 knows this is not a joke.
It’s a great synth. 15% increase in price and the price isn’t cheap anyway. Should I care? I don’t. It’s a great synth and I’d buy it even if the increase isn’t that big actually.