The Microbrute

You might not be surprised to hear that ever since I was first interested in electronic music, I've had a fascination with synthesisers. I would watch mesmerised as keyboard players tweaked and turned the dials on their Rolands, Moogs, and Oberheims, generating low rumbles, gliding bass sounds and wild electronic whoops. I once spend a couple of hours at a party in the host's bedroom, forsaking the fun downstairs, after he said I could play with his Juno 60.

By the time I was in a band myself, everyone was getting excited about digital technology and whilst these new beasts were undoubtedly more powerful than their antecedents, the joy of the dials and sliders was gone. There was something distinctly unromantic and workaday about scrolling through menus and incrementing up through integers.

I'm no musician and consequently I've never been able to justify spending money on an analogue synth but over the last few years, new machines have been coming out at budget prices, well within the range of the dividends that my recent sobriety is paying out. So, in addition to the semi-acoustic guitar and amp that I bought recently, I'm now the proud owner of Arturia Microbrute. 

As it was delivered whilst I was working from home, this morning, I was able to switch it on and have a bit of a play. One of the reasons I chose this machine was that it comes with a manual that explains how the synthesiser works, and how to generate and construct sounds, which I hope will be a bit of fun. 

Dan was over this evening and I took a strange delight in how much he liked it. He spends a lot of his spare time playing along with YouTube on the guitar (and sometimes bass or drums) but he loved the synthesiser, too. Not that I think Kraftwerk will be replacing Muse as his favourite band anytime soon.