Arturia's Microbrute Analog Synth: A Little Box Of Inspiration!

The Microbrute from Aturia,

Howdy, rock brethren.  Do you occasionally find yourself bored by the staid and done-to-death guitar/bass/drums dynamic, but are not so desperate as to actually add a keyboard player?

Looking for inspiration beyond your usual fallback riffs and chord progressions?

My heartfelt suggestion to you would be to get your hands on the Arturia Microbrute analog synthesizer.  At first glance, the younger brother of the acclaimed Minbrute synth may not look all that intimidating, but that's only because it ISN'T.

That's right, this compact, but powerful synth is completely hands-on.  No presets, no clicking of a mouse, no staring at a computer screen for endless hours trying to create an organic performance, just completely amazing analog synth sounds that you, yourself, are making by hand.

The best part is that you don't have to be a keyboard player to get some truly inspiring sounds out of this tasty synth.  For starters, with the dead-simple on-board step sequencer, you can create tasty loops that can be the basis for all sorts of musical inspiration, or can add some sonic sparkle to a tune that you're not quite happy with, but don't wanna give up on.

What's so amazing about the Microbrute is that it's a one oscillator synth, which might normally be a deal-breaker for some, but the fine folks at Arturia have really pulled out all the stops to make it sound like two oscillators.

And, thanks to YouTube, there is a plethora of tutorial videos out there to help you get from square one to musical bliss in the shortest time possible, helping you get the absolute most out of your Microbrute.

Our favorite is Marc Doty, whose boundless enthusiasm for the 'Brute is quite contagious and helps make understanding the concept of envelopes and sound waves simple enough even a drummer can understand it. We should know, we're a drummer and didn't fall asleep even once.

While we would suggest you start with Part 1 (The Oscillator) and follow Marc through all five parts of this series of insightful videos, Part 3 (LFO and patches) really shows the versatility of the Microbrute and the seemingly endless array of sounds that can be coaxed from this great little synth.