My Microbrute is dead :(

[wackelpeter]

Hi there,

just wanted to Play again on my microbrute so i switched it on and nothing happened.
just a constant klicking Sound in the Background... envelope LED is lighting constant.. octave and sequencer LED's are glowing slightly... tried to restart with Basic patch and checked power supply and exchanged with another... still same issue...
clicking is the lfo i recognized so far and filter also seem to oscillate with full resonance... i can hear the filter sweeps/oscillations then...

but i doesn't respond to sequencer, nor any key, twiggling some knobs did change the sound that came out (env.amt.,Sub osc. and the saw, pulse or triangle increase the volume a bit... turning lfo amount knob clockwise will slow down the clicking sounds...
also checked that the filter only respond when when set to gate... when VCA set to env.mode nothing occurs...

also cannot connect with my pc anymore to reset or install firmware again to solve the problem...

had upgraded Firmware some days ago and until a few hours it worked fine... but now it seems to be dead so iwould ask you if you have any suggestions? to me it Looks like a Major problem or at least the oscillator is dead...

[wackelpeter]

hello again,

just came back home and wanted to see if anyone reeplied to my previous posting... whilst starting my pc i switched my microbrute on and to my surprise it worked again...

is it possible that it is an problem with the internal power rail, bad caps or something in that vein???
i'm too tired to test everything but i can Play on it and everything seem to work fine...

it was about 6 hours Age when my problem with my microbrute unwilling to start first occured and now everything seems fine...
reads and sounds a bit mysterious... btw. i plugged it to 230V AC with the other power supply unit i had checked it before...
will check it with the original power supply again when i'm awake in a few hours...

[wackelpeter]

hi Folks,

the whole week everything looked fine, yesterday i was happily twiggling my microbrute and saved some sequences and today it wouldn't want to start again... same issue as described above... the lamps for octave Settings glow all except the green lamp for "0" therefore i would ask if the green light when starting is an indication that the oscillator started or is it controlled via power supply only?

Has this anything to do with the Connection to my PC? Well i was saving some sequences and then shut down first the Connection in the Programm, then turned the USB cable out and played for a while before going to bed...

okay here some further Information of what is happening, filter still oscillates with full resonance, when resonance is turned off the only left noises that seem to come from the oscillator but only in the very low range anywhere between 5-20 Hz i guess it's more like the clicking of an LFO in mid range...
...i'm pretty sure it's the oscillator causing that noises and not really starting, because when turning LFO amount knob there's audible Change in Sound, same goes when pulse out is selected  and i play with PWM knob, or in triangle mode when turning metalizer knob or overtone knob... the Env. seem to work correct as Lamp is on as soon as key is pressed and lamp will slowly come on when attack is raised and so on...

Any ideas where to look to solve that problem or should i simply return my microbrute??? as this is the second time i would prefer my second suggestion as there if it's not a simply logic malfunction it looks like a proper hardware malfunction...

Left me a bit saddened that this very cool little monster, which i think is for this decent price a very versatile synth and which can turn into everybodys neighbourghs nightmare seem to have so many problems...

P.S. and further proof that this sounds are only coming from the oscillator is that when turning all different modies of Osc to Zero the Sound disappears... obscure to me is that the LFO amount knob which sould normally when turned ClockWise should raise the pitch of the oscillator is slowing it down when turned ClockWise... the only way i can use my microbrute at the Moment is at pulse out with pwm as as ping-pong sound simulator with varying speed... but that's not what it was intended to do for...

P.P.S. a silly question at last: have i uploaded a firmware program no noises on saturday? if this is a weekly failure then please put that resting day on monday, as i'm mostly at mondays too lazy to do anything on my synths...

[wackelpeter]

btw... this time no mysterious healing over night and still not working... 

[Thereminator]

I have EXACTLY the same problem! After 5 months of frequent use, suddenly today I'm only getting clicks from the oscillator. The clicks correspond to the osc selection, i.e. very soft clicks on the triangle wave and half as many clicks on the sawtooth, and the filter still self resonates. Only, the oscillators don't track any pitch, they're stuck in the lowest pitch. No matter if I use the built in keyboard, midi in or pitch cv in.

I hope Arturia can sort this out because I absolutely RELY on this synth for my live set and now I'm fucked!!

[dclxvi_mvrz]

I'm currently having this issue, did anyone got any solution about it?

Thanks..

[wackelpeter]

yes... i'm sending mine back tomorrow hoping that the new one will not die so fast...

i'm a bit surprised as no one of the mods in this forum seem to be interested... i mean it's not a bug or a problem with syncing it to other hardware it's to me a serious problem when a 2 week old synth get's broken out of no reason...

i have a small guess it could have something to do with the modular Input section on top as someone described some problems with his lfo because of short circuits caused by inserted cables... maybe under the right circumstances a certain voltage fed to the wrong point may have caused that damage... who knows... don't want to watch inside my brute and check it because i'm afraid to lose warranty then...

[Melly]

strange to read, Mine has just died also , Its hardly been used as well , no gigs etc and just sat in the corner of my studio , back to thomann it goes !!!  are many people having this problem ? 

[jooga1972]

It appears that the great concept, design and sound of the MicroBrute are overshadowed by less than perfect quality control issues. We all know that bad quality has nothing to do with the 'made in China' thingy. It's quality control practised by the manufacturer (in this case Arturia) that matters. I don't think that the parts used to build these synths are of inferior quality (they are neither superior, obviously...) so I think all that happens is that they put enough effort into QC and final inspection/testing. Like I said elsewhere here on the board, I would have gladly paid 100-150 euros more for the MB if that'd have been the cost of having a more stable and reliable instrument. I'm gonna take my MB to a live performance in late May and I can't say I'm not concerned a little about stability issues. Mine 'only' has some power-on issues at this time and here's hoping this is not turning any worse. And finally: despite all the tech problems, the MB just sounds terrific and is compact enough for me to keep and use it for many years to come. I do hope that future firmware updates will bring us users a happier experience with way less trouble.

[Melly]

Good luck with that gig jooga, personally I don't think i could trust it for a gig anymore (once bitten)  I will keep mine though, well until my warranty is available then I think I'm going to say good by to the little fella..... do you guys think it could be something to do with their power supply , it does look very cheep and the wire is very feeble looking  , I've been afraid I will break it !!

[jooga1972]

Good luck with that gig jooga, personally I don't think i could trust it for a gig anymore (once bitten)  I will keep mine though, well until my warranty is available then I think I'm going to say good by to the little fella..... do you guys think it could be something to do with their power supply , it does look very cheep and the wire is very feeble looking  , I've been afraid I will break it !!

Thanks Melly! Well, at this time I heavily rely on the MBrute as I use it mainly for bass sequences with the clock synced from Reason and I have a Korg Volca Keys gate-synced to the Brute. So yes, if the MB fails, then the whole thing collapses. I have a Plan B up my sleeve (will record the sequences into Reason so that I have the bass tracks ready if needed..)  but would rather love if things were working as planned. I'm sure the PSU and/or anything power-related inside the MB do have stability issues. It's beyond me how such a simple yet crucial piece of gear as a PSU can be this vulnerable, but looks like it is, anyway. My unit is prone to powering up properly every now and then, but it works fine more often than not. Frequent unstability issues (new product or not...) certainly don't do Arturia any good as they will discourage users like me when it comes to buying new gear. I'm one of these less than completely satisfied users, no wonder the next analog synth I'm going to put my hands on is not made by Arturia.... 

Can we know the background of the 'once bitten' story?

Cheers, Gabor

[Melly]

as its new to you don't you have a warranty  left on it?, might be a good idea to send back like myself !

anyways there is not much of a story to tell I haven't used the brute a lot as I was having horrible latency problems with my pc set up and I waited a long time to get a drum machine to jam with it, so i received my drum machine the other day (machinedrum) w0000t    so i plugged in the microbrute , I had a good couple of days jamming  , great fun !!  then the other day i went for a wee jam only to find the brute wouldn't turn on , and to only get some bleeps out of it also none of the lights were lighting !  bit drunk right this second but you get the idea , just to note i never drank around the machines , I'm very cautious of this!  I wont even let my misses use my pc with a cup of tea these days lol 

[jooga1972]

as its new to you don't you have a warranty  left on it?, might be a good idea to send back like myself !

anyways there is not much of a story to tell I haven't used the brute a lot as I was having horrible latency problems with my pc set up and I waited a long time to get a drum machine to jam with it, so i received my drum machine the other day (machinedrum) w0000t    so i plugged in the microbrute , I had a good couple of days jamming  , great fun !!  then the other day i went for a wee jam only to find the brute wouldn't turn on , and to only get some bleeps out of it also none of the lights were lighting !  bit drunk right this second but you get the idea , just to note i never drank around the machines , I'm very cautious of this!  I wont even let my misses use my pc with a cup of tea these days lol

I hear ya Melly. Yes, my MB is still under warranty and I may decide to take it back to the dealer. However, I test the machine on a daily basis and it powers up nicely... I don't use the power switch (it's "on" all the time)  though but plug/unplug the psu chord instead. I have a reason to believe that it's the switch itself causing the unstable powering-on issues. 

[transparent]

I have EXACTLY the same problem!

Me too. Mine went "dead" two times so far after 3 months of use. Will send back to the store as soon as i notice any malfunctioning again and will avoid Arturia products forever.

[wackelpeter]

I hear ya Melly. Yes, my MB is still under warranty and I may decide to take it back to the dealer. However, I test the machine on a daily basis and it powers up nicely... I don't use the power switch (it's "on" all the time)  though but plug/unplug the psu chord instead. I have a reason to believe that it's the switch itself causing the unstable powering-on issues.

It hasn't anything to do with  the psu i suppose...
The filter and EG for example do still work... which they wouldn't as powered via the psu too... it's either anything that has to do with the OSC,LFO or SEQ...
and btw. hoping to get it more stable with a firmware update is just wishful thinking when these issues are caused by poor/cheap active components used inside the Microbrute...