Arturia microbrute connection User manual

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MICROBRUTE CONNECTION
USER'S MANUAL

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PRODUCT AND PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Glen T. DARCEY
Bruno PILLET
ELECTRONICS
Yves USSON
Bruno PILLET
Laurent BARET
Robert BOCQUIER
DESIGN
Axel ARTMANN (Design Box)
Morgan PERRIER
INDUSTRIALIZATION
Nicolas DUBOIS
MANUAL
Glen DARCEY
Morgan PERRIER
SPECIAL THANKS TO:
Frank Orlich, Jean-Michel Blanchet, Michael osker, Sébastian Rochard,
Boele Gerkes, Antonio Rodriquez, Katsunori Ujiie, oward Jones, Alex
Theakston, Jim Cowgill, Drew Anderson, Ray Barbee, Keith Shocklee, Kevin
Lamb, Jim Norman, Ryan Wood.
1
st
edition:
No ember 2013
Information contained in this manual is subject to change without notice and does not represent a
commitment on behalf of ARTURIA. The hardware unit and the software product described in this manual are
provided under the terms of a license agreement or non-disclosure agreement. The license agreement
specifies the terms and conditions for its lawful use. No part of this manual may be produced or transmitted in
any form or by any purpose other than purchaser’s personal use, without the explicit written permission of
ARTURIA S.A. All other products, logos or company names quoted in this manual are trademarks or registered
trademarks of their respective owners.
© ARTURIA S.A. 1999
-2013, all rights reserved.
ARTURIA S.A.
30, chemin du vieux
chêne 38240 Meylan
FRANCE
http://www.arturia.com

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
TABLE OF CONTENTS ....................................................................................................................................3
MicroBrute Connection software..............................................................................................................4
Configuration Page.........................................................................................................................................5
MI I Settings ................................................................................................................................................................5
Sequencer settings .....................................................................................................................................................5
Play ................................................................................................................................................................................................ 5
Seq Retrig.................................................................................................................................................................................... 5
Next Sequence........................................................................................................................................................................... 6
Sequence Step size .................................................................................................................................................................. 6
Step/Gate .................................................................................................................................................................................... 6
Module Settings...........................................................................................................................................................7
LF Retrig................................................................................................................................................................................... 7
Envelope Modes ....................................................................................................................................................................... 7
Pitch Bend Range..................................................................................................................................................................... 7
Gate Length ................................................................................................................................................................................ 7
Sync ............................................................................................................................................................................................... 7
Keyboard Parameters...............................................................................................................................................8
Note Priority .............................................................................................................................................................................. 8
Velocity Response.................................................................................................................................................................... 8
FIRMWARE UP ATE page............................................................................................................................8
Check Update............................................................................................................................................................................. 9
Update Firmware..................................................................................................................................................................... 9
SEQUENCES page.......................................................................................................................................... 10
Save sequences.......................................................................................................................................................................10
Load sequences ......................................................................................................................................................................10
.mbseq file ...................................................................................................................................................... 12
Changing parameters via MI I CC’s ...................................................................................................... 13

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MicroBrute Connection software
Even though the MicroBrute synthesizer is analog, it comes with a software editor
allowing various configuration tasks, such as:
MIDI channel selection, Pitch Bend range, LFO and Envelope-triggering, Sequencer
settings, and Firmware updates.

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Configuration Page
MIDI Settings
Recei e Channel – this sets the channel that the MicroBrute will receive MIDI data
on. You can choose individual channels or ALL channels.
Transmit Channel - this sets the MIDI channel that the MicroBrute will send MIDI data
on via USB. You can choose any of the 16 MIDI channels.
Sequencer settings
Play
The sequencer can play using two different playing methods;
Note On mode and HOLD mode.
•Note On mode will start the sequencer any time you play a note on the
keyboard.
•Hold mode will start playing the sequencer immediately when the PLAY mode
is set to PLAY with the switch on the front panel.
Seq Retrig
This parameter allows you to choose how the Sequencer will respond to keys being
played.
•Reset - Each new note that is played will restart the pattern from the
beginning.
•Legato – Notes that are played legato, will just transpose the pitch of the
currently playing pattern and not interrupt the playing position of the
sequence. If you play a note in a non-legato fashion, it will start the pattern
from the beginning again.
•None – this mode will not reset the sequence at all. The sequence will
continue playing from the place where it stopped.

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Next Sequence
The Next Sequence function will determine how sequences change from one to
another. The options are Instant and End of Seq.
•End– The sequencer will wait until the last note of the current sequence before
changing to the next sequence.
•Instant Reset – Instant Reset mode will force the sequence to change
immediately and also reset the sequence to the first note.
•Instant Continuous – Instant Continuous will jump to the start note of the next
sequence pattern chosen. If you have seq 1 playing and you switch the
Pattern knob to seq 2, the next note clock will start playing pattern 2 as seen
below.
Sequence Step size
This determines the note value of the steps in the patterns. The options are:
¼, 1/8,1/16, 1/32
1/16
th
is the default note value.
Step/Gate
You can choose to advance the sequencer via the normal internal clock or via
input to an external source via the Gate jack on the rear panel or the TAP button on
the top panel.
•Clk – this is the default setting where the sequencer is played in time via the
internal clock.
•Gate – this mode will not advance the sequencer except when a gate signal
is received on the Gate In or if you press the Tap button to manually advance
the sequence.

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Module Settings
LFO Retrig
The LFO can be set to Freerun or Retrig modes. Freerun is the default mode.
•Retrig off – In this mode the LFO will start on power up and the waveform will
run continuously. This means that when you key a note, the state of the LFO
can be at any point in its duty cycle.
•LFO Retrig – In Retrig mode, the LFO’s waveform will start from a 0 point each
time a key is pressed (or a sequence note is played).
En elope Modes
•Legato On - Legato mode will trigger the envelope one time when you play a
legato passage. If you release all keys and play a new note, then the
envelope will reset to the beginning.
•Single/Legato off - Legato allows you to trigger new notes in the envelope but
as you can see in Figure 32, the envelope picks up from the point where the
envelope currently is in its attack, decay sustain or release stage.
Pitch Bend Range
The default pitch-bend range is set to +/- two semi-tones but it can be set to range
from 1 semi-tone to 1octave +/-.
Gate Length
This allows you to set the note length of all steps in the sequencer patterns. The
default gate time is set to 50%. Typically a Note On and Note Off will be 50% of the
time of the sequence step size. An example would be if you have the step size set to
¼ notes, the actually note length would be 1/8
th
notes at 50%. The options here are
Short, Med and Long. Try playing a sequence with the VCA switch set to GATE by
changing this parameter you will hear the difference in note lengths.
Sync
You can sync the sequencer clock to either its own internal source, an external MIDI
clock source, a clock from the Gate Input or an audio trigger from the Audio Input.
•Auto – DEFAULT - auto will select between Internal clock or incoming MIDI

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clocking. If there is no MIDI clock present, the sequencer will play on the
internal clock. If MIDI clock starts, it will change sync to MIDI clock.
•Internal – Internal will select the internal Sequencer clock. In this mode,
external sync is ignored.
•MIDI – MIDI will select an external MIDI clock source. If there is no clock, the
sequencer will not play. When Clock is present, the sequencer will play in sync
with the clock.
Keyboard Parameters
Note Priority
•Last Note - DEFAULT - Last note priority means that the envelope will trigger
based on the last note played.
•Low Note - Low Note priority means if two notes are played at the same time,
the lower note on the keyboard is prioritized and played.
•High Note - igh Note priority means if two notes are played at the same time,
the high note on the keyboard is prioritized and played.
Velocity Response
The MicroBrute does not receive or respond to velocity but it does send it.
The velocity curve that is sent from the MicroBrute can be set to 3 different settings.
•Linear
•Exponential
•Logrythmic
FIRMWARE UPDATE page

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When you first power up the MicroBrute connection software, it will check the version of
firmware that you have in your machine. The software will display the current version that you
have.
Check Update
You can check the latest version that is available by clicking on the CHECK UP ATE button.
Update Firmware
The UP ATE FIRMWARE button will allow you to actually update the firmware. Just press the
button and follow the on-screen directions.

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SEQUENCES page
Reset sequences
This will reset all the sequences to the factory default sequences.
WARNING: THIS WILL RAS ALL YOUR INT RNAL S QU NC S! There is no way to get them back!
Sa e sequences
Once you have made some sequences, you might want to save them for later use
or to be able to send them to your computer as MIDI files that can be used in other
software apps.
Clicking on Save Sequences will open a dialog that allows you to choose the
location of the files you will save. Once you have named the file and chosen the
location you will see the following menu option:
ere you can choose to just create the .mbseq file, that can be loaded back into
the MicroBrute, or also create a separate .MID file for each sequence. These .MID
files are standard MIDI files that can be loaded into your favorite DAW application
for use with other devices or plug-ins.
Load sequences
Load sequences allows you to send sequence files from your computer back into