Arturia MiniBrute - analog monosynth

[Jabberwalky]

Excellent. I placed my order about 2 days after it was released for Preorder sometime in January, and my failure to contact Musicians Friend for a 2nd TIME, has forced my order into cancellation. I'll get one when they are actually available. Oh well.

[GuyaGuy]

If the first world would stop whining about human rights and child labor in China, them shits would be on the shelves already!

[Sir Ruff]

1st world problems!

http://qkme.me/3pn6l7

[Bitexion]

God damn 1st world problems

http://qkme.me/3pn9du

[Stab Frenzy]

You realise as soon as they start shipping all the delays will be forgotten?

[Bitexion]

Of course! I'll be all over it like Justin Bieber on Selena Gomez.

[pricklyrobot]

Guess this falls under "acceptance of facts"?

[th0mas]

It's analog so the delay is warmer though

[Sir Ruff]

You realise as soon as they start shipping all the delays will be forgotten?

Who's delaying what now?

[Sir Nose]

I'd love to see a smaller manufacture advertise "free delay with preorder" and then be late on delivery.

[sensorium]

A.G.,

After viewing your videos, I became curious: Are you a paid spokesperson for Arturia and the Minibrute? I apologize if this was covered, but I didn't see a mention of it. I think it's always good to have transparency on the topic if that does happen to be the case. Thanks.

Its called a 'review'.

I would consider a 2 paragraph viewpoint posted on the Internet "a review". I think we can all agree that 4 part YouTube video, complete with graphics is an above average review. That's why I asked.

A.G.,

After viewing your videos, I became curious: Are you a paid spokesperson for Arturia and the Minibrute? I apologize if this was covered, but I didn't see a mention of it. I think it's always good to have transparency on the topic if that does happen to be the case. Thanks.

Oh... um... well, yeah... uhhh transparency is always a good thing.
I mean... of course! Yes. I don't... umm know... why this wasn't... mentioned. I swear I wasn't trying to be deceptive! It just... slipped my mind.
Of course I was paid to say those things! The MiniBrute couldn't possibly do all the things I demonstrate that it does, and I couldn't possibly enjoy it enough to be enthusiastic.
Yes, these days I am paid to endorse corporate products, and because people are sheep, I just wander around the internet lying about products I'm paid to lie about. Corporations value my opinion so much that they'll pay me for that. That's how cool I am.
But... I mean... I hope that doesn't damage my credibility at all.


Listen: first and foremost, I'm a musician. Second and foremost, I'm an analog synthesist. Third and foremost, I'm an electronic music historian. No one buys my loyalty, and no one buys a positive critique from me. You get what I think, and what I think is based upon a variety of criteria that has nothing to do with money or gifts.
If you know me... and you probably should, having had to tolerate so many of my rants, I have my own view of things. In fact, many of you might be able to dig up times where I have openly criticized Arturia for trying to emulate analog. If you've watched any of my demos, you know what things appeal to me... it's not a mystery.
Many have questioned my enthusiasm regarding the MiniBrute, and to be honest, I think it's due to their own lack of focus. If someone's going to put out a modern analog synthesizer which is meant to embrace the spirit of the analog synthesizers of yore, there's going to be a few ways it's going to have to be done to appeal to old-school analog synth lovers like me. These are not subjective ways, either- they're quite concrete. And, Arturia did it right. I'm enthusiastic in those videos because I am literally enthusiastic. It was hard for me to even shoot those videos because I SO wanted to just stop shooting and start making MUSIC with the damned thing... but I didn't have enough time.

Anyway: I have received absolutely NO compensation for demoing the MiniBrute, nor for anything I've said about it online or elsewhere. I do not work for Arturia. Likewise, I don't work for Moog Music. I don't lie about this s**t, and I am not a puppet for companies. To even suggest such a thing, you must think that there is some falsehood in my statements or claims... and if that's the case, you're welcome to point any of these perceived instances out. I'll be glad to address them.

As for how the MiniBrute demo came about: I played it at NAMM. I loved it. I wanted to demo it. I called them on my own- not related to the BMF, and said: "hey, I love the MiniBrute. If you sent me one, even for a short time, I'd love to demo it on my YouTube channel." As a guy who does demos for Moog and has a YouTube channel approaching 5 million views which is specifically aimed at that precise demographic, they happened to know who I was and what I do. They said yes. Sent me the synth. I played it. Sent it back (and even paid for it, because the Kinkos I went to couldn't do account billing). There was no need for any shmoozing or networking or dealing. Synth guy loves synths and wants to advertise a product for free. Elementary. Transparent enough?
Shame on you jaded and cynical types.

You can bet the next company that tries to put out an analog synth that appeals to me will get a call from me, too.

Wow. A simple yes or no would have sufficed. There is really no need for defensiveness, or labeling me cynical for asking. I work as a rep for an X-ray manufacturer. In the medical industry, anyone who gets on a podium to express their opinion on a new product prefaces the speech with a full disclosure as to what benefits (if any) they are receiving from the manufacturer. I was just curious, as your review obviously took a lot of time and commitment. Obviously you took my curiosity as me trying to knock you off the precious little pedestal you apparently sit upon. My apologies, it won't happen again.

[Bitexion]

See this is what happens when Arturia makes us wait and wait. We start bickering amongst eachother.

Sort of like the old story where the humans want to be removed from all the terrible creatures on earth because we're so much smarter than them, and lock ourselves inside some huge-a*s city with mile high walls. But when we have nothing else to worry about, we start fighting eachother and everyone ends up dead in the end, as a lion stands against the sunset in silhouette as the credits roll to H.V. Karajan's Requiem.

[philip]

See this is what happens when Arturia makes us wait and wait. We start bickering amongst eachother.

Sort of like the old story where the humans want to be removed from all the terrible creatures on earth because we're so much smarter than them, and lock ourselves inside some huge-a*s city with mile high walls. But when we have nothing else to worry about, we start fighting eachother and everyone ends up dead in the end, as a lion stands against the sunset in silhouette as the credits roll to H.V. Karajan's Requiem.

fuuuk,that was huge

[Ned Bouhalassa]

Lord of the Flies.

And AG's pedestal is not 'little'. It's effen HUGE, and offers MIDI In, Out and Out-There, has a multimode bullshit filter, 3 jealousy modulators, allows one to route any Source insult to a variety of 'Meh...' Destinations. This pedestal, however, cannot be purchased or leased - it can only be earned through repeated years of experience using rare and wonderful synthesizers. And instead of electricity, it runs on USB 1 (Us Be One), powered by positive online-community actions.

[Bitexion]

It was sort of the storyline in Bioshock too. How the "smartest scientists of the world" made an underwater utopia in the 1950's for themselves only, but the discovery of a "magical" ability-altering drug on the seabed destroyed the entire community from within.