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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 MicroBrute MIDI implementation

The MIDI implementation of the Arturia MicroBrute: what it answers to, and the 13 controls it offers, on firmware 1.0.4.114.

At a glance

Firmware
This page describes firmware 1.0.4.114.
MIDI channel
Any one of 1 to 16.
Voices
One, so it plays one note at a time.
Note range
Not recorded.
Velocity
Sent, and ignored when received.
Aftertouch
Not recorded.
Pitch bend
2 semitones, and the range can be changed.
Program change
Not recorded.
MIDI clock
Received.
Start and stop
Not recorded.
Control change
13 controls, in the tables below.
NRPN
Not recorded.
System exclusive
Not recorded.

Controls

In the order the definition gives them, by group. Under each control is the name a program calls it by, once pymidiinstrumentdefs.load("arturia/microbrute") has loaded them.

MIDI settings

Control CC Values
Receive Channel
receive_channel		 102 1 channel_1, 2 channel_2, 3 channel_3, 4 channel_4, 5 channel_5, 6 channel_6, 7 channel_7, 8 channel_8, 9 channel_9, 10 channel_10, 11 channel_11, 12 channel_12, 13 channel_13, 14 channel_14, 15 channel_15, 16 channel_16, 17 all
Received, never sent
Send Channel
send_channel		 103 1 channel_1, 2 channel_2, 3 channel_3, 4 channel_4, 5 channel_5, 6 channel_6, 7 channel_7, 8 channel_8, 9 channel_9, 10 channel_10, 11 channel_11, 12 channel_12, 13 channel_13, 14 channel_14, 15 channel_15, 16 channel_16
Received, never sent

Sequencer settings

Control CC Values
Seq Retrig
seq_retrig		 104 0-41 reset, 42-83 legato, 84-127 none
Received, never sent
Seq Play Mode
seq_play_mode		 105 0-63 hold, 64-127 note_on
Received, never sent
Next Seq Mode
next_seq_mode		 106 0-41 end, 42-83 instant_reset, 84-127 instant_continuous
Received, never sent
Seq Step Size
seq_step_size		 107 0-29 quarter, 30-59 eighth, 60-89 sixteenth, 90-127 thirty_second
Received, never sent
Seq Step/Gate Mode
seq_step_gate_mode		 114 0-63 clk, 64-127 gate_tap
Received, never sent

Module settings

Control CC Values
Sync Source
sync_source		 108 0-41 auto, 42-83 int, 84-127 ext
Received, never sent
Env Legato Mode
env_legato_mode		 109 0-63 off, 64-127 on
Received, never sent
LFO Retrig Mode
lfo_retrig_mode		 110 0-63 off, 64-127 on
Received, never sent
Gate Length
gate_length		 113 0-41 short, 42-83 med, 84-127 long
Received, never sent

Keyboard parameters

Control CC Values
Note Priority
note_priority		 111 0-41 last, 42-83 low, 84-127 high
Received, never sent
Velocity Curve
velocity_curve		 112 0-41 lin, 42-83 log, 84-127 anti_log
Received, never sent

Where these facts come from

Source documents

How they were read

THE CONTROLLERS ARE IN A DOCUMENT THAT SHIPS INSIDE A SOFTWARE ARCHIVE. Thirteen numbers, 102 to 114, all on connection p. 13 under the heading Changing parameters via MIDI CCs - and that manual is not a download on Arturia's page for this instrument. It is a file in MicroBrute_1_0_3_2_win.zip, found because the user's manual names it (manual p. 48). The archive's other two files are the firmware and a release note; its executable was not run.

THE TABLE WAS READ BY COORDINATE AND ITS FIFTEEN ROWS ARE NOT FIFTEEN CONTROLS. Two of them are not controller numbers: the pitch bend range is reached by RPN 06 and is recorded under voice.pitch_bend, and Local ON/OFF is controller 122, inside the Channel Mode range this library's validator refuses - the ruling roland/fantom_6_7_8 set and every maker since has met. And Arturia's own value text for that row is missing a word: it prints 0 = or 127, where the two state names should be. That is the document's typo and not a bad read, which the extraction script asserts by checking the row still says neither On nor Off.

WHAT THE THIRTEEN ARE FOR, WHICH IS NOT WHAT A PANEL CONTROL IS FOR. Not one of them is a knob on the front of the instrument - no cutoff, no resonance, no envelope. They are the thirteen settings of the editor, reachable by controller so a sequencer can change them: "The MicroBrute allows you simple access to all the parameters found in the editor via easy to use MIDI CCs." (connection p. 13). The groups below are that editor's own four section headings. And they do not persist: "When parameters are changed using CCs, changes will be lost after a restart. To write changes to internal memory you have to use the editor." (connection p. 13) - so a consumer offering these should say they are for the session, not for the instrument.

ONE MIDI SOCKET, AND IT IS AN INPUT, SO NOTHING LEAVES BY DIN. The connector list gives "MIDI Input................................Standard MIDI DIN-5" (manual p. 12) and no output, and "The MIDI In jack lets your MicroBrute be controlled from other MIDI devices." (manual p. 46). In fifty sheets the words MIDI Out occur exactly once, describing the socket on somebody else's box - "your external MIDI device's MIDI Out connector" (manual p. 46). So every control here is direction: receives, and a consumer can stop waiting for this instrument to report anything over a cable. What it does send, it sends over USB: the keyboard's notes, "a fully polyphonic MIDI controller for other devices via the rear panel USB jack" (manual p. 42), and velocity.

VELOCITY GOES OUT AND NOT IN, AND THE FILE SAYS BOTH. "The MicroBrute does not receive or respond to velocity but it does send it." (connection p. 8), which the user's manual says twice in its own words: "The MicroBrute will send velocity as a USB controller. It does not have internal velocity routing and does not respond to velocity however." (manual p. 32). It transmits and does not recognise, so voice.velocity.note_on is ignored - send this instrument a velocity and nothing will happen - and voice.velocity.transmits is true. And controller 112 sets the curve of the velocity it sends - a parameter governing something it will never hear.

AND IT IS MONOPHONIC, THOUGH ONE SENTENCE READS LIKE THE OPPOSITE. That fully polyphonic MIDI controller is the keyboard sending chords out of the USB socket, not the synthesiser sounding them. What it sounds is settled elsewhere: "Low Note priority means if two notes are played at the same time, the lower note on the keyboard is prioritized and played." (connection p. 8). One of two notes is one note. The word for it appears in neither document, so polyphony: 1 rests on that behaviour rather than on a label - and controller 111 is the choice of which single note wins.

THE CHANNELS, WHICH FACE OPPOSITE WAYS. "Receive Channel - this sets the channel that the MicroBrute will receive MIDI data on. You can choose individual channels or ALL channels." (connection p. 5) and "Transmit Channel - this sets the MIDI channel that the MicroBrute will send MIDI data on via USB." (connection p. 5). So one setting governs the DIN input and the other governs what the keyboard sends out of the USB socket, and both are controller-addressable - 102 taking 17=All for omni and 103 taking only 1 to 16.

THE PITCH BEND, GIVEN THREE TIMES AND AGREEING EVERY TIME. "The Range of the Pitch bend defaults to 2 semitones." (manual p. 42); "The default pitch-bend range is set to +/- two semi-tones but it can be set to range from 1 semi-tone to 1octave +/-." (connection p. 7); and the RPN 06 row with 1 to 12 (connection p. 13). Two documents, three statements, one answer - which is rarer in this corpus than a contradiction.

NOT RECORDED, AND EACH ONE IS A CHECKED ABSENCE OVER A NAMED SET OF SHEETS - fifty of manual and fifteen of connection, squashed so a term broken across a line still matches. The words Program Change, aftertouch, System Exclusive, SysEx, Song Position and Omni appear nowhere in either. So this definition says nothing about preset changes, aftertouch or system exclusive: it is not that they are refused, it is that in sixty-five sheets the maker never raises them. The firmware arrives as a .mbf file over USB and no document says how, which is the one place system exclusive would be expected and is not found.

NOT RECORDED, THE TRANSPORT - AND IT IS THE ABSENCE A COUNTING SWEEP GETS WRONG. Start appears twenty-nine times across the two documents and Stop, Continue, Local and Bank between them twelve more, and not once as a MIDI message. Every one is ordinary English: "Now start playing notes on the keyboard." (manual p. 23); "the LFO will start on power up" (connection p. 7); "The sequence will continue playing from the place where it stopped." (connection p. 5); "Please consult a local electrician" (manual p. 9); and "a price that will not break the bank" (manual p. 8), which is the manual's only Bank. A sweep that counted hits instead of reading them would have reported transport and bank select as documented here. So what the sequencer does on receiving Start or Stop is unestablished: all that is published is that it follows a clock.

AND THE THIRTEEN ARE DOCUMENTED AGAINST A FIRMWARE FOUR VERSIONS OLD. The Connection manual describes 1.0.3.2, from November 2013; Arturia's current MicroBrute firmware is 1.0.4.114, from 2017, and publishes no release notes at all. The only release note this instrument has is the first one, which says "First Public Release" (release_note) and nothing about MIDI. So whether those four years changed any of these numbers is a thing nobody has said, and a consumer should treat them as the best published account rather than as a current one.

NOT RECORDED, the MIDI mode. No document names one, which is why midi.mode is absent - as it is from all six other Arturias here. The instrument is monophonic and can be set to receive on all channels, and the specification's word for that is Omni, which neither document uses.

NOT RECORDED, THE MODULATION WHEEL - AND THAT IS THE POINT. The manual names it fifteen times and the words CC 1 and CC#1 appear in neither document. Its switch routes it to the filter cutoff or the LFO depth inside the instrument: "It sets the overall amount of modulation signal sent to targets selected by the MOD Wheel switch." (manual p. 42). A wheel on a panel is not a controller number, and nothing published says this one sends or answers to one.