Subsystem Search

This page is read from MIDI Instrument Definitions, a Python library used in the author's other projects, in which every number is traced to a document its maker published. Its source is on GitHub.

Arturia DrumBrute MIDI implementation

The MIDI implementation of the Arturia DrumBrute: what it answers to, on firmware 1.2.1.0.

At a glance

Firmware
This page describes firmware 1.2.1.0.
MIDI channel
Not recorded.
Voices
Not recorded.
Notes
Each note plays a drum of its own, assigned by the player; the factory notes are listed below.
Note range
Not recorded.
Velocity
Not recorded.
Aftertouch
Not recorded.
Pitch bend
Not recorded.
Program change
Received, with 64 presets.
MIDI clock
Sent and received.
Start and stop
Sent.
Control change
Assigned by the player, so there is no fixed chart.
NRPN
None.
System exclusive
Not recorded.

Drum notes

Each drum's note is assigned by the player, and these are the notes it has from the factory.

Drum Note
kick1 36, C2
kick2 37, C#2
snare 38, D2
clap 39, D#2
rim 40, E2
claves 41, F2
cl_hat 42, F#2
op_hat 43, G2
conga_h 44, G#2
tom_h 45, A2
conga_l 46, A#2
tom_l 47, B2
cymbal 48, C3
rev_cymb 49, C#3
maracas 50, D3
tamb 51, D#3
zap 52, E3

Where these facts come from

Source documents

How they were read

User Manual version 1.2 of 2017-03-03, 81 pages: the drum map at p. 73, which is a picture; the Device Settings chapter at pp. 69-73 for the channel, the pads, the sequencer, Local Control, the touch strip and the transport; the touch strip again at p. 23; All Notes Off at p. 24; the instruments at p. 14; the pattern memory at p. 19; synchronisation at pp. 51-52. Version 1.0.0, its own "15th of October 2016 edition" (first_manual p. 2), because what it lacks shows which firmware version 1.2 describes, and because it prints whole the editor window two of version 1.2's pictures come from. The release notes for all three firmware versions, which are the only documents that say this machine answers to program change. The MIDI Control Center manual, for what it says about this machine, and the downloads page.

THERE IS NO MIDI IMPLEMENTATION CHART AND NO CONTROLLER MAP. Arturia publishes neither, and the editor's own manual lists the DrumBrute under "No controller map: DrumBrute, MatrixBrute" (mcc_manual p. 20). So there is no controls block below, and its absence is the finding rather than an omission.

TWO THINGS SEND CONTROL CHANGE ON NUMBERS THE PLAYER CHOOSES, AND ONE OF THEM ALSO RECEIVES. The touch strip "will sends a Control Change each time you touch it (except when setting a step repeat value) and will be activated each time the corresponding Control Change is sent to the Drumbrute" (manual p. 72), and "MIDI CC allows you to change Control Change number." (manual p. 72). The three transport buttons send one each when they are set to send controllers at all: "You can define the MIDI channel and CC number for each of the three main Transport commands independently. All three must transmit the same type of MIDI information, though: MMC, MIDI CC or both." (manual p. 73). A number the player assigns is not a property of the model, so control_change: learned says so, as it does for the DrumBrute Impact. The controllers with fixed meanings that the release notes add are two paragraphs below.

THE TOUCH STRIP'S VALUES ARE FIXED, AND THE MANUAL CONTRADICTS ITSELF ABOUT THEM. Its list, given on two pages, is OFF 0-24 sending 0, 1/4 25-49 sending 25, 1/8 50-74 sending 50, 1/16 75-99 sending 75, and 1/32 = 100=127 (sends 100) (manual pp. 23 and 72). Page 23 then says "sending values between 25 and 49 (on the right Control Change) will activate 1/8" (manual p. 23) and "Touching the strip on 1/8 will send value 25." (manual p. 23), both of which the list gives to 1/4. Nothing here carries either, because the controller number itself is the player's.

THE MESSAGES WITH FIXED MEANINGS ARE NAMED WITHOUT NUMBERS, AND MOSTLY ONLY IN THE RELEASE NOTES. Firmware 1.1.0.0 added "Use Program Change to switch patterns, and Bank MSB to switch Bank" (release_notes), "Use Midi Song Select to switch Songs" (release_notes) and "MIDI Control Change implementation for Local control On/Off for pads, All Notes Off, All Sounds Off" (release_notes). They name Song Position Pointer twice - "Song Position Pointer now handles the Song length in Song mode." (release_notes) and, in 1.2.0.0, "Better handling of Song Position Pointer messages" (release_notes) - and do not say in which direction it travels. Neither edition of the manual names program change, bank select or song select on any page. Bank select's number is printed nowhere, so it is not carried; Local Control, All Notes Off and All Sounds Off are channel mode messages, whose numbers belong to the MIDI specification rather than to this instrument, and which this format refuses as controls. The manual adds two things: pressing Stop three times "will then send an All Notes Off command over MIDI" (manual p. 24), and "Incoming All Notes Off and All Sounds Off messages are echoed on MIDI port" (manual p. 24), a sentence that stops there. The same release also lists "MIDI loopback removal (Does not echo Midi In anymore)" (release_notes). The manual is the later document and does not say whether those two messages are the exception to that or not.

THE TRANSPORT NUMBERS AND THE CHANNEL IN THE PICTURES ARE ONE UNIT'S SETTINGS, NOT DEFAULTS. Version 1.2 shows Play, Stop and Rec on channel 2 with controllers 54, 51 and 0, and a global channel of 10, and calls none of it a default. Version 1.0.0 prints whole the window that the transport picture comes from, and its device panel reads firmware 0.9.8.0, older than any version Arturia lists; the channel picture is a separate crop, which version 1.0.0 also prints (first_manual p. 68). The window's title names a template, Analog forum*, and that says nothing about these values: "A Template does not contain the Device Settings." (manual p. 56). So they are the Device Settings of whichever unit was connected when the window was captured, on early firmware, and nothing here carries them. The DrumBrute Impact's manual of 2018 prints version 1.2's transport and channel pictures, byte for byte.

THE DRUM MAP IS ONE PICTURE, PRINTED IN BOTH EDITIONS. "The settings shown are the default MIDI note number values for each instrument, but you can set them to any note number between 0-127." (manual p. 73), and version 1.0.0 says the same in the same words (first_manual p. 70). By pixel comparison, version 1.2's picture is the same capture as version 1.0.0's window, re-encoded under a different colour profile, so the two editions do not corroborate each other: the numbers rest on one picture and the sentence beside it. That sentence is taken at its word. The picture's own check is arithmetic: seventeen fields read left to right and top to bottom run 36 to 52 with no gap and no repeat, and "there are actually 17 separate instruments available from the 12 pads" (manual p. 14). Version 1.0.0 counts "16 separate instruments available from the 12 pads" (first_manual p. 19) against the seventeen fields of its own picture, and version 1.2 corrects it.

THE MANUAL NEVER STATES THE MIDI CHANNEL RANGE. Its whole prose on the channel is "Use the pull-down menu to select the Global MIDI Channel for DrumBrute." (manual p. 69), and the pull-down is a picture showing 10 selected and three of its entries. So channels is left out rather than assumed. The touch strip's "Send/Receive channel is the Global MIDI Channel." (manual p. 72), each transport command has its own, and no sentence says which channel the drum notes use.

WHAT LEAVES THE INSTRUMENT CAN BE SWITCHED OFF, WHICH MATTERS BEFORE DIAGNOSING SILENCE. The pads' notes have four settings - "The available options are Off (no MIDI note data sent), USB&MIDI, USB and MIDI." (manual p. 70) - and the sequencer's the same: "You can choose whether the sequencer will send MIDI note data or not." (manual p. 71). With Local Control off, "Pressing a pad or playing a sequence will not produce a sound but will send messages on the MIDI Out port" (manual p. 72).

NO PAGE SAYS WHAT AN INCOMING NOTE'S VELOCITY DOES. "The 12 velocity-sensitive pads are used to input note data into a pattern." (manual p. 14), the editor sets each sequencer event "to a value between 1 and 127" (manual p. 65), and the Accent Velocity Threshold "sets the MIDI velocity value for the Accents you add when editing a pattern." (manual p. 70). The one hint at what velocity does to the sound treats it as two states, in a list of what randomness changes: "The velocity of note events (Accent on/off)" (manual p. 34). None of it says what a received velocity does. The DrumBrute Impact's manual adds a sentence about reception to the Accent Velocity Threshold; neither DrumBrute edition has it. So velocity is left out: the format records reception, and nothing establishes it here.

NOT MENTIONED ON ANY PAGE OF EITHER EDITION OR IN ANY RELEASE NOTE: system exclusive, NRPN, RPN, aftertouch, pressure, pitch bend, omni and MIDI thru. Something like system exclusive exists and is never named: "Each time you connect the Drumbrute, the device settings are automatically send from device to Midi Control Center." (manual p. 69), and the editor can "send a single pattern to DrumBrute" (manual p. 57). That is a protocol with no published message, so sysex is left unset. Nor does any page say how many instruments sound at once. "Some instrument channels are shared by two instruments." (manual p. 14), and "You can roll multiple instruments at the same time by pressing multiple pads." (manual p. 23), and neither is a count.