Sup Fams,
so, the microbrute... how is it treating you? Are you satisfied with it?
When I bought mine, I was talked into to buying it...I wanted a microkorg.
I have a considerable amount of buyers remorse of this purchase. I really struggle to get a thumpin heavy bass out of it, then again, my analog synthesis knowledge is half felt out half technical understanding.
I've looked up patches online and gotten close to what I'm looking for, but definitely not on the nose...
Has anyone had firsthand experience with both the microbrute and the microkorg and found one much more on point than the other?
either way, as of late, this track has the kind of bass sound I desire...
https://soundcloud.com/natural_selectio ... sta-forgot
Something tells me that this is easier to find than I think.
I do like rocking the subsonic mfx and is probably all I need to add the sound I want to the sound I'm getting from the brute...
I may have just talked myself through to a solution, but I still want to know what you all think...
Yo! Have good one and thanks for your time, fambls!
B'EZ
Microbrute:opinions and satisfaction
Moderator: TGN
Re: Microbrute:opinions and satisfaction
Sounds just like a sub bass. Turn the triangle wave all the up, turn down the saw and square. Put your patch cable LFO to PWN. Attack, delay and release all down. Sustain all up. LFO should be down and fuck with the filter.
Re: Microbrute:opinions and satisfaction
• Turn up the triangle wave, about 75%
• Add a bit of saw wave
• turn down the filter, add a bit of resonance
• a touch of brute
• Add a bit of saw wave
• turn down the filter, add a bit of resonance
• a touch of brute
Re: Microbrute:opinions and satisfaction
[rant=small case to save space]The lesson here's not with the brute but shitty salespeople out to get that commish cash. Blame them, not the synth.
If you want that Microkorg you ended up with something REALLY different. 4 (stackable) voices vs 1 voice (with FIVE oscillators? Yup, weird), memory vs no memory, FX vs no FX, vocoder vs audio-thru, stereo vs mono, programmable arpeggiator vs fixed arpeggiator, both do midi out, spongey tiny toy keys vs nice regular keys. Look at it like that & the Microkorg's the better option every day of the week: 7 of 8 biased points to 2 of 8 biased points.
If you aren't getting what you want out of the brute there's no shame in selling it on. Also no shame telling the manager of the shop you bought the brute from that their staff are dicks and you won't get suckered twice. Remember: reputation & word of mouth's better than advertising alone in business.
No worries about half-knowledge, half-guts synth use. Good balance there.
Also bought my Minibrute on a whim, like yours it hasn't seen a huge amount of action. It's def the most limited 'real' synth I own (compared to the SH-32, DX-200, OP-1 & DS-10, not counting the Monotron Duo). Gonna keep it 'cause it pairs real nice with the ESX & Europa sequencers. With the right FX it sounds good enough, without FX... Nothing special. The filter's overrated too. But for dialling in random sounds the brute's great.
Messed with the Microkorg in shops but for some reason I wasn't feeling the keys & interface. Sounds were nice but can't remember if it's better for bass than the brute. Maybe it just wasn't what I wanted at the time. In hindsight I think I got that wrong. If money's no issue and bass is a must, I'd go the Moog Minitaur over both Minibrute & Microkorg. Briefly messed with one & it sounded beautiful, worth every cent. Or if a 2nd hand Novation pops up, try it. Their Bass Station's nice. A mate had the rackmount version, it sounded sweet but he struggled with the interface so go the keyboard version if you don't have a spare midi controller with assignable dials & sliders.
I find the best brute sounds show up with one oscillator volume slider about 3/4 up & maybe one other no high than 1/2 up to add character. Go easy on the ultrasaw, pulse-rate +/- & metalizer too. Subtle is better on the brute. Avoid that brute factor dial like your life depends on it, unless you want to ruin everything (it SUCKS, it works by carving out the soul of the oscillators and shitting in your ears).
The less I use the brute as a regular synth the better I feel about it. A few nights back I ran it slaved to keyboard part 1 of the ESX. Brute headphone out through an ME-20B & MX-300 for FX. Also had the ESX keyboard 1 running as a wavetable synth with ESX FX & mixed under the brute. That set up sounded MASSIVE. Made some immense sci-fi noises then B-grade acid techno, felt satisfied & fell asleep. Time before that the brute made some nice layered pads in the 606 by layering & resampling 2 octave scales.
Not sure what you've tried already to get a bass tone like that Spellwrks tune. Got a 3rd method of immitating that bass before adding subsonic, but it's all about the square & pulse waves to get that buzz & still hit hard + aiming for the right filter envelope (ADSR is your friend). But I don't want to confuse the issue by contradicting Pleb & Vastique. Try sampling or recording the bass too loud, it's either clipping or hard limited to somewhere around 0dB. That'll help getting some distortion/grit.
Wait... Just realised that you said MICRObrute, not MINIbrute. Yeah, you got jipped, that thing's missing too much to compare to the Microkorg.
One last thing: fuck analog vs digital. Might as well argue about pizza vs hamburgers.[/rant]
If you want that Microkorg you ended up with something REALLY different. 4 (stackable) voices vs 1 voice (with FIVE oscillators? Yup, weird), memory vs no memory, FX vs no FX, vocoder vs audio-thru, stereo vs mono, programmable arpeggiator vs fixed arpeggiator, both do midi out, spongey tiny toy keys vs nice regular keys. Look at it like that & the Microkorg's the better option every day of the week: 7 of 8 biased points to 2 of 8 biased points.
If you aren't getting what you want out of the brute there's no shame in selling it on. Also no shame telling the manager of the shop you bought the brute from that their staff are dicks and you won't get suckered twice. Remember: reputation & word of mouth's better than advertising alone in business.
No worries about half-knowledge, half-guts synth use. Good balance there.
Also bought my Minibrute on a whim, like yours it hasn't seen a huge amount of action. It's def the most limited 'real' synth I own (compared to the SH-32, DX-200, OP-1 & DS-10, not counting the Monotron Duo). Gonna keep it 'cause it pairs real nice with the ESX & Europa sequencers. With the right FX it sounds good enough, without FX... Nothing special. The filter's overrated too. But for dialling in random sounds the brute's great.
Messed with the Microkorg in shops but for some reason I wasn't feeling the keys & interface. Sounds were nice but can't remember if it's better for bass than the brute. Maybe it just wasn't what I wanted at the time. In hindsight I think I got that wrong. If money's no issue and bass is a must, I'd go the Moog Minitaur over both Minibrute & Microkorg. Briefly messed with one & it sounded beautiful, worth every cent. Or if a 2nd hand Novation pops up, try it. Their Bass Station's nice. A mate had the rackmount version, it sounded sweet but he struggled with the interface so go the keyboard version if you don't have a spare midi controller with assignable dials & sliders.
I find the best brute sounds show up with one oscillator volume slider about 3/4 up & maybe one other no high than 1/2 up to add character. Go easy on the ultrasaw, pulse-rate +/- & metalizer too. Subtle is better on the brute. Avoid that brute factor dial like your life depends on it, unless you want to ruin everything (it SUCKS, it works by carving out the soul of the oscillators and shitting in your ears).
The less I use the brute as a regular synth the better I feel about it. A few nights back I ran it slaved to keyboard part 1 of the ESX. Brute headphone out through an ME-20B & MX-300 for FX. Also had the ESX keyboard 1 running as a wavetable synth with ESX FX & mixed under the brute. That set up sounded MASSIVE. Made some immense sci-fi noises then B-grade acid techno, felt satisfied & fell asleep. Time before that the brute made some nice layered pads in the 606 by layering & resampling 2 octave scales.
Not sure what you've tried already to get a bass tone like that Spellwrks tune. Got a 3rd method of immitating that bass before adding subsonic, but it's all about the square & pulse waves to get that buzz & still hit hard + aiming for the right filter envelope (ADSR is your friend). But I don't want to confuse the issue by contradicting Pleb & Vastique. Try sampling or recording the bass too loud, it's either clipping or hard limited to somewhere around 0dB. That'll help getting some distortion/grit.
Wait... Just realised that you said MICRObrute, not MINIbrute. Yeah, you got jipped, that thing's missing too much to compare to the Microkorg.
One last thing: fuck analog vs digital. Might as well argue about pizza vs hamburgers.[/rant]
-
janglesoul
- Member
- Posts: 193
- Joined: Fri Apr 25, 2014 4:17 pm
- Location: Gothenburg, Sweden
- Contact:
Re: Microbrute:opinions and satisfaction
Hi,
I'm really happy with my Microbrute but haven't had time to spend much time with it yet. To me it seems to be the perfect synth if you really want to learn synthesis from the ground up. If what you wanted was a quick way to add basslines and pads/chords to your beats maybe the microkorg would be better with presets and memory slots etc.
Just like the SP there's a beauty to the limitations in a monosynth. With the microbrute sequencer running into delay I have really gotten some great sonic landscapes going.
With some extra stackable patchcables or a headphone splitter you can really experiment a lot with the mod matrix.
Maybe you've seen this, but there's a guy called Liquid Limbs that remakes classic sounds/songs on his Microbrute and shows the patches - really cool, I think.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cToL16O7Wc
I'm really happy with my Microbrute but haven't had time to spend much time with it yet. To me it seems to be the perfect synth if you really want to learn synthesis from the ground up. If what you wanted was a quick way to add basslines and pads/chords to your beats maybe the microkorg would be better with presets and memory slots etc.
Just like the SP there's a beauty to the limitations in a monosynth. With the microbrute sequencer running into delay I have really gotten some great sonic landscapes going.
With some extra stackable patchcables or a headphone splitter you can really experiment a lot with the mod matrix.
Maybe you've seen this, but there's a guy called Liquid Limbs that remakes classic sounds/songs on his Microbrute and shows the patches - really cool, I think.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cToL16O7Wc
-
beat around the bush
- Member
- Posts: 35
- Joined: Sun Jan 19, 2014 3:04 am
Re: Microbrute:opinions and satisfaction
to add bass emphasis, you can set the filter to high pass mode and turn up the resonance
Re: Microbrute:opinions and satisfaction
Unfold, I agree with your comment on the digital vs. analog bs.
I'm currently focusing on hardware and analog gear because I seem to learn certain things in reverse, like synthesis. I had a class in college where the studio contained a moog wall and my professor even made an "album" of bird sounds with it. I didn't understand step one then, but after messing with reason some time later and Ableton even later, I understood many things about synthesis much better and I can break the surface of an analog synth, either way, pizza and hamburger, yum!...at any rate, damn if I don't feel jipped, but I don't think the microbrute is worthless. Now, the Miniak drives me bananas! Why I went around the microkorg all these years..sheesh, iduno...
I'll check out what you guys have suggested and keep working with sp fx and experimenting etc.
As for the spellwrks track, that sound is an ideal sound and example of the kind of weight I want in my bass. It sounds perfect in ear buds and headphones, but crazy distorted through my monitors.
Thanks for the replies my droogs!
I'm currently focusing on hardware and analog gear because I seem to learn certain things in reverse, like synthesis. I had a class in college where the studio contained a moog wall and my professor even made an "album" of bird sounds with it. I didn't understand step one then, but after messing with reason some time later and Ableton even later, I understood many things about synthesis much better and I can break the surface of an analog synth, either way, pizza and hamburger, yum!...at any rate, damn if I don't feel jipped, but I don't think the microbrute is worthless. Now, the Miniak drives me bananas! Why I went around the microkorg all these years..sheesh, iduno...
I'll check out what you guys have suggested and keep working with sp fx and experimenting etc.
As for the spellwrks track, that sound is an ideal sound and example of the kind of weight I want in my bass. It sounds perfect in ear buds and headphones, but crazy distorted through my monitors.
Thanks for the replies my droogs!