Arturia MicroBrute video demos: mini monosynth officially announced

Leaked images of Arturia's MicroBrute late last week rather spoiled Arturia's plans to tease the synth in advance of an official announcement today, but the company should at least be happy that reaction appears to have been positive and that, now that we can see and hear it in action, the MicroBrute look like it might deliver on its promise.

We've posted Arturia's MicroBrute introduction above and specs are below, but if you want a thorough walkthrough of the synth's capabilities, check out Source Distribution's (Arturia's UK distributor) walkthrough of the synth's features (also below), which is pretty comprehensive.

Elsewhere on YouTube you can find MicroBrute hands-ons from Matsutake, Ujiie and Glen Darcey and Yves Usson.

The MicroBrute will be available in November priced at £269/$349/€299. First impressions are that you get plenty of synth for not a great deal of money.

Full details on the Arturia website.

Arturia MicroBrute specs

  • Monophonic synthesizer
  • 100% Analog Audio Signal Path
  • Steiner-Parker Multimode Filter (LP, BP, HP)
  • Voltage Controlled Oscillator with new Overtone Sub-Osc
  • Oscillator Mixer (Sub, Sawtooth, Square, Triangle)
  • LFO with 3 waveforms and destination attenuator
  • Brute Factor™ delivering saturation and rich harmonics
  • Ultrasaw generating shimmering sawtooth waveforms
  • Metalizer bringing extreme triangle harmonics
  • Fast Envelope Generator
  • 25 note mini Keyboard
  • External Analog Audio Input (level pot on rear)
  • CV Inputs: Pitch, Filter, Sub-mod, Pulse, Saw animator, metalizer, gate in.
  • CV outputs: Pitch, Gate, Env, LFO
  • MIDI Inwith 5-Pin DIN connector
  • USB MIDI In/Out
  • 1/4" Audio Output and 1/8" Headphone Output
  • Free Editor Software

Step Sequencer

  • 8 sequences stored on power down
  • Rate control
  • Sync to MIDI clock
  • Multiple modes (via software editor)
  • Tap tempo/rest insert
Ben Rogerson

I’m the Deputy Editor of MusicRadar, having worked on the site since its launch in 2007. I previously spent eight years working on our sister magazine, Computer Music. I’ve been playing the piano, gigging in bands and failing to finish tracks at home for more than 30 years, 24 of which I’ve also spent writing about music and the ever-changing technology used to make it.