basic midi and sequencer questions

[bartleby]

ah, so finally there is a microbrute forum. so i'll ask again the question which i already posted over at the minibrute forums (and which people have been asking at other places like muff's and sequencer.de ever since the microbrute has been announced), but which so far have remained unanswered:

first of all, congratulations! the micro looks really cute and there are a lot of things about it that seem to make it a very attractive product - the sequencer with 8 memory slots and the patch bay look really cool! i'm sure this is going to be a bestseller.

but still, there are also some strange things and open questions people are wondering about, among them:

- no midi out?!? what were you thinking? such a neat little kb with a relatively powerful sequencer, and we are not supposed to sequence other midi gear with it?

- is the micro's midi-usb port at least usb midi class compliant? i.e. will the microbrute connect to an ipad via usb as a midi device? (the minibrute doesn't, which can be annoying but isn't terrible, because unlike the micro, the mini has both midi in and out) given it's tiny form factor, the micro and an ipad could make ideal partners - if there can be a full, bi-directionial midi i/o connection between them.

- in the sequencer section of the manual, there is no mention of how to tie notes. how come? does the microbrute only support single notes and rests, not tied or legato notes? will this come with a fw update?

[bartleby]

ok, to answer my own question (no 2 of the 3 posted above):

both on sequencer.de and at muff's, users are reporting that their micribrute is working as a class-compliant midi device on their ipad.

so that's good news. i really don't understand, why arturia aren't answering these kind of questions themselves, though...

[Bruno@arturia]

- no midi out?!? what were you thinking? such a neat little kb with a relatively powerful sequencer, and we are not supposed to sequence other midi gear with it?

Due to the small form factor of the machine, the back panel has a finite amount of space for connector. We basically had space for 1 Midi plug only.
As machine has a minikey keybed, we though it would more useful to have a mini in rather a midi out.

- is the micro's midi-usb port at least usb midi class compliant? i.e. will the microbrute connect to an ipad via usb as a midi device? (the minibrute doesn't, which can be annoying but isn't terrible, because unlike the micro, the mini has both midi in and out) given it's tiny form factor, the micro and an ipad could make ideal partners - if there can be a full, bi-directionial midi i/o connection between them.

Yes it does. The only know issue is that the midi port is blank, instead of displaying "MicroBrute". It could append it some DAWs on Mac too.

in the sequencer section of the manual, there is no mention of how to tie notes. how come? does the microbrute only support single notes and rests, not tied or legato notes? will this come with a fw update?

For the moment they are no tied or legatos.

i really don't understand, why arturia aren't answering these kind of questions themselves, though...

It could be quiet difficult to answer within an hour when we are not on the same time line.... We are doing our best by the way

[bartleby]

well my original post (quoted above) was almost three weeks old...

but thanks for answering now! better now than never. 

as for the missing midi out and limited space on the back panel: personally, if i had to choose between a midi out and the arturia logo, i must confess that i'd pick the midi out.

[Bruno@arturia]

as for the missing midi out and limited space on the back panel: personally, if i had to choose between a midi out and the arturia logo, i must confess that i'd pick the midi out.

in fact thier is a big component on the board,  right behind the Logo

[tertior]

It would have been possible with a midi output is in and out with a special cable, but it added that the final cost for resale was the Microbrute in the 350 €.
€ 300 seems a better deal.
But in France we don't like to speak money,because we do not have, and Standard and Poor's us further degraded AA+  to AA .

[11011011]

Tied notes and legato would take the sequencer from cool to amazing. MAybe patch the firmware such that if you hold a note and tap the rest button it ties...? And legato, just hold a note and tap the note it "legatos" to...? This would make the sequencer a giant bag of amaze-a-zing. 

[i_like_it]

the microbrute is a beautiful synth!

please do not worry about midi out, midi in 100% more useful.  as well for me totally unnecessary for this particular device (cv & gate out is pretty sweet).  midi out is nice -- don't get me wrong -- but this ain't that kinda girl (is my take anyway). 

i too would really like tie and legato as 1101 1011 wrote.  that would be SO killer!

 i am really looking fwd to the sw for hold mode.  it would be cool if hold mode and seq division could be toggled too.

[i_like_it]

as for the missing midi out and limited space on the back panel: personally, if i had to choose between a midi out and the arturia logo, i must confess that i'd pick the midi out.

i guess i get that.  however, there's always cv/gate to midi convertors.  or, i think for around $50, you can find a usb -> midi convertor too (i am not posting link as i am not sure what arturia forum rules are, google 'midi expander' for details).  so  not really so out of luck 

[sabs]

midi in is much more useful these days - we can control the synth through our sound interfaces via midi also!

great synth, really looking forward to new sequencer update (please hold!!!!!)

[KrisM]

MIDI Thru at least (or a port that could function as Out and Thru) would have been grand. Only so many pieces of gear can be at the end of the chain  But MIDI splitters are cheap enough I suppose.

How can you call it a "full function step sequencer" without ties/legato, though >.>



That's the one thing missing from the sequencer that just makes me go "meh" about the MicroBrute, otherwise it's nearly perfect for me