Arturia MicroBrute Synthesizer First Look

Here’s a video introduction to the new Arturia MicroBrute analog synthesizer.

The official introduction isn’t until tomorrow, but you can check the MicroBrute out here and now.

Here are the highlights of what we know about the Arturia MicroBrute:

  • All-analog audio path
  • Unique ‘Brute’ Oscillators
  • Steiner Parker Filter
  • ADSR envelope
  • Patch matrix
  • Analogue & digital connectivity
  • Built-in sequencer
  • Mini keyboard, pitch and mod wheels

All the synth sounds in the video was made on the Arturia MicroBrute. The band featured in the video is Rike and the RocKandys.

Pricing is rumored to be around $300 street, but official specifications, pricing and availability are still to be announced.

Check out the video and let us know what you think of the MicroBrute!

87 thoughts on “Arturia MicroBrute Synthesizer First Look”

  5. I should have known it:
    When there is a counter, the product is not good enough to generate hype without a counter.

    I am super disappointed!!!

  6. How on earth has a synthesizer been advertised on this site. Apple will be very angry that their website has been hijacked.
    Shame on Synthtopia.

    1. Apparently you only stop by to troll, not to look at any of the articles. This is the 3rd post about the Minibrute, and the other two got dozens of comments.

  7. I’m totes psyched for this little popper, I WILL own it…as far as that vid, not raw enough. Of course it sounds great produced, lol cant wait till that sonic faction guy gets up on it, they do great reviews/demos.

    1. That snare was the only thing I can remember from the video and I just finished watching it. It was so bad that it totally distracted me from anything else.

      Hopefully the next video is just the synth playing so we can actually hear it.

  9. “All the synth sounds in the video was made on the Arturia MicroBrute” Then what KORG is doing on stage in the video?)

  10. “All the synth sounds in the video was made on the Arturia MicroBrute.”

    That’s a surprisingly accurate out of tune snare.. 😉

  13. also has “hook up with random dudes feature” apparently.
    seriously though – bit ridiculous to hype a repackaging of a product with all those big name testimonials.

  14. The Microbrute looks very cool, but am I alone in thinking that has to be the worst promo video for anything since the Juicer infomercials?

    1. It’s cool to see traditionally male-dominated marketing materials being updated to include the other half of the world’s population. Show some respect for women, please.

      1. There’s nothing cool about this promo. The inclusion of a woman is a cynical attempt to make it seem ‘hip’. Fact is, it’s a lame concept done to death in synth promos. How many times have we seen electronic composer at home before a gig writing, then on the train on the way to the gig (to emphasise portability), then playing said gig with great success? Remember the original Korg Nano promos?

        There’s a woman in this to make the synth less nerdy male, and more ‘all round’ fun toy for everyone. Don’t be fooled, it’s cynical (or naive) marketing. Fact is 95% of purchasers will be male, so in reality this promo isn’t representative of the target market, even if it is pleasing to some.

        1. The fact that you think women can’t genuinely be users of synths shows just how much work still needs to be done. I know plenty of women who use synths.

          I agree that the overall concept is one we’ve seen before, but I applaud them for including a woman.

          1. Why would you say that? I never said women cant genuinely be users of synths. I was responding to your post where you said “show respect for women please” by pointing out that 95% of the buyers of this synth will be male. Maybe more.

            This ad featuring a woman is hip and all inclusive, but its also nonsense. If you’re happy with fantasy promos suggesting the average female musician sports a synth, then enjoy your fantasy. Fact is synths are lusted after my men. Very few women like them. There are definitely some female fans, but very very few.

            Gender equality is about balance, not imbalance. 50/50 male/female no matter what? Thats total nonsense.

      1. So your telling me it would NOT be cool if it had no keys? Sorry but mini keys suck and that’s something I’ll never get over.

  20. *Since every sound was from the synth but the flat snare hit, 😛 I have to hand it to Arturia for sonic quality. That’s pretty stout and the sub oscillator really works as expected. I still want to hear a 2-osc. model, but its a rich voice as is. The demo told the tale of its range quite well.

    *I wonder if the build is at all tolerable or if you need to buy three because they’re treacherous? Some goodies just plain need spares.

    *I thought the band was pretty lively, with a light but fun sound, like a matured form of new wave. That’s a prime target use for the ‘brutes. She had a Korg for polyphonic parts, because the Arturia is a mono lead.

    *Holy shiite, now you can build a poor man’s T.O.N.T.O. from a bunch of synths that cost $500 and below. If this synth was built like a tank and $150 more as a result, I’d buy one. That’s high praise, ’cause I’m a crusty crank when it comes to synth flame wars. Its a good design, period.

  22. This amused me, great synth though.
    How on earth has a synthesizer been advertised on this site. Apple will be very angry that their website has been hijacked.
    Shame on Synthtopia.

  23. if you watch in hd on youtube you can see gate in gate out and pitch out on the back,with the matrix on top that makes this nice to add to a eurorack,cant see no audio in but its blurred

  24. Cute. But do I really need it if I have a minibrute (which BTW I still haven’t mastered). What a great time to be a synth fan. Long may it continue. We´re spoilt for choice!!!!

  27. i love micro synths keep them coming . this one looks great,
    would love to buy a polyphonic one though. its up to korg and or these guys.

  30. Damn, didn’t realise it’s for girls. Perhaps real men are supposed to go out and buy a Minibrute now.

    Seriously though, I’d like one and would like to know how many £s it’s going to cost. It’s going to have to be seriously cheap to overtake the bass station 2 on my synth lust list. BS2 is just so much richer in features, but we’ll have to see.

  31. I also wish they had dropped the keyboard, but it’s still small enough to be cross patched as a second oscillator for the minibrute (or the other way round)

  32. I am wondering if they implemented some kind of “local off” in this one, I would like to run the keyboard from the midi out , into my midipal and then back into the microbrute midi in, this is possible with all modern Korg keyboards (microkorg , microsampler, microstation etc) so it would be good to see it here as I know the Minibrute missed this.

  33. I´d love a little polyphonic analog synth at the same price range. I´m done with little monosynths….there´s a huge market niche covered with them.
    There´s something I cannot understand: NO sinewave osc on LOTS of them. why?
    Even a little thing like my c&g pocketpiano include a sine waveform!!

  35. Available May 2015.
    They will send it to you and if you touch a knob it will do nothing at all.
    Cheap garbage.
    Arturia is destroying planet earth wit cheap garbage.
    I wonder what toxic material they have used to produce this crap.
    I suggest to wash your hands after touching this garbage.
    After a while you will get cancer from the material they used for it.

  36. Some of you guys slag things too damned hard, too often. I get annoyed and puffy over a few clunky or pointless things as I see ’em, but its generally a realm of easily-had magic. If we’re going to holler about anything, it should be in a huge group demand for decent builds at a slightly higher price. The sounds are great, but they have a short life ahead if they come in a wet shoebox with rubber screws.

    1. I have a MiniBrute and it is seriously solid. Could the knobs and sliders be a bit more tight, probably but it doesn’t get in the way at all. I especially like the rubber like sides which helps it stick to a stand. I’m very happy with the value for the $$.

      1. Thanks for pointing out that your MiniBrute has been solid. If so, the market should hear that as well as the barbs. A few users have had pieces come loose and clatter around internally, which is scary-bad. Arturia apparently needs to tighten up their quality-control, no pun intended.

        1. Indeed, my first MB had a few issues and it was annoying trying to get it all sorted out. It seems like they’ve also stopped updating the firmware. I’m a little wary of Arturia now.

  37. Jesus, all you guys can do is bitch about a snare sound that I didn’t even hear because I was, ya know, looking at the synth and trying to see what features it had. Then of course we have those guys who will always bitch and moan because they want an all analog polysynth and they expect it to be under $100. Seriously, some of you people need to get real. This is probably the best time there has even been in terms of synths. Enjoy it and stop moaning about it. Or go back to your cracked VSTs.

  39. the cracked VST have a memory .
    A monkey have a memory.
    Me,an idiot have a memory.
    The micro brute…..
    This thing is an expensive toy.
    For that price you can have a mopho.

  42. I think the patch bay is great if you have a modular synth or any other modular gear. You can send the envelope, lfo, cv, gate, and sequencer out. more synths should have these types of outputs.

  43. My two Minibrutes were solid as hell to….will be getting two of these micrbrutes to Also go along with the English tear modules and the ms-20 minii’s I’ll be in heaven…

  46. Great. Its cool but.. its yet Another mono synth. Can someone please make a compact poly synth for once!?? Chords are pretty cool.

  47. First off, kudos to Arturia for NOT having an EDM or dubstep demo for this (as another person commented). This demo was surprisingly refreshing, and I listened to the whole thing, since it wasn’t “the usual”.

    Second, kudos again to Arturia for having a female keyboard player. You don’t see that often–certainly not often enough.

    Third, yes the snares all suck in the demo. Hardly the synth’s fault.

    Fourth, I wish Arturia would put this much R&D into their VSTs to make them more CPU-friendly!

    I’m not a fan of monosynths–let alone tiny monosynths–but I think the sound was pretty good. I wouldn’t buy a monosynth at that price, but I guess some people will. As others have suggested, the world really didn’t need yet another monosynth.

    All in all, not a bad little gizmo, but for that kind of money, I can save up a bit longer and get a decent hardware synth that will play TWO notes at once.

  49. I was king of hoping Arturia would have bought out a “megabrute” 61 key poly. This looks like a cool piece of kit although I don’t think i’d have any use for it.

  50. I just received the microbrute and it is an awesome little synth. I am a guitar player but wanted to better understand synth components, but the sound in this thing is so raw and aggressive, I was impressed. It is much more than a learning tool. It does look a bit fragile compared to my moogerfooger pedals,but ithat is not surprising given the price is under $300. I would like a “slim microbrute” that I could poly chain,. That would be awesome, or a poly version of this. You could be a mad synth scientist in a very small space!

  51. I own too many synths, like many around here- Vintage analogs galllore (Juno 60, Pro One, VS), a P12, etc etc etc etc…..

    Despite gear overload and a desire for expensive, fancy boutique monos, I decided it was too good of a value too pass up. It can be be so many things as well as a fat sounding mono at the same time- a MIDI to CV converter, a analog signal path to filter iOS apps with to possibly bring all those cool toys into new sonic territory and get them on recordings finally, a gate and clock source for a vintage, a companion to the Elektron Analog 4 + other modern mono like the Dominion X SED, a gated compressor effect and LFO for analog drum machines with individual outs and a controller that is simultaneously a mono patched into a modular synth- rare indeed.

    Non of that ever touched on the sound, which, without audio running to it, is a VERY interesting mono- more unique than any other (execpt possily that new Ekdahl one..). The LFO oscillates so fast and hits very interesting timbres in the audio range, while the envelope (which can be slowed down with the Microbrute software) is similarly lightning fast. Put them both together, you can crank the LFO speed high into the audio range, drop your cutoff and crank that resonance and fine tune up some fresh bass sounds. Or throw on the HPF and get some 303-esque stuff. The wave mixing is much, much deeper than you could imagine until you play it, while the mod matrix basically gives whatever patch you’re working with unlimited variation as you fine tune your LFO rate and tweak your VCA.

    I sure just wasted a lot of words gushing about the smallest, cheapest synth in my collection, huh? No one who appreciates its full range of capabilites would EVER regret this purcahse. Unlike another new mono I returned to the store this year. Just didn’t grab me the way this little Brute did.

  52. I agree 100% with MicroBooty… I have had MANY mono synths on my table over the last 6 months.. mopho, volca, rocket… maybe only the rocket is as much fun as the Micro, but the benefit of having keys pushes it ahead in my books. It’s a KILLER synth… I can’;t believe how good it can sound and how nasty…. a real deal. Hell it’s a USB to CV converter for crying out loud.. I had heard the keys feel cheap, I gotta say I was very pleased with how they felt from the first press….. immediacy is what you get with this guy, get one.

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