#22

This feels like Arturia misleading people, to gain some street cred, and capitalize on the Mutable brand. Not illegal, but corporate and exploitative. I’ll continue to support makers contributing to the community, rather than looking to just cash in.

1 Like
#23

To be fair… it’s hard to know exactly what Arturia’s thinking is behind the language they’ve used, and it could be that they have good intentions and don’t realize how it comes across.

#24

And of course Emilie’s response over at Reddit just underscores what a legend she is: “I don’t want $, I want good taste!”.

10 Likes
#25

Even if you take away the misleading marketing language–you’re left with a decision to use the code for free, and not involve Emilie (and the superficial nod to inviting her to a focus group doesn’t count).

#26
7 Likes
#28

This maybe?

2 Likes
#29

I find Arturia to be one the most distasteful synth companies out there. Their embrace of military aesthetics for a previous promo campaign was ick too.

3 Likes
#30

oh dear.

The whole thing (design, video, name etc.) screams ‘design by committee’ to me.

2 Likes
#33

It’s made me done with Arturia. I was on the fence before (the Keystep is really innovative, and I applaud their work on the Beatstep Pro and V Collection) but their marketing and overall attitude and embracing of power plays and questionably toxic stereotypes, without balancing that with overt support for minority or alternative-to-toxicity artists or musical styles has finally collapsed into this act of marketing hubris. I think unless I see a genuine shift in their viewpoint and marketing style, I shall not give them another cent of my money.

#34

From the source. Its a very good read. Makes me love Mutable that much more.

30 Likes
#35

What’s funny is I didn’t even look at the video originally because when I started playing it and saw it was “scenarised”, and then with a guy acting all “yeah I’m crazy for that shit” and some weird stuff, I was so embarassed I couldn’t even bother to get the part where he was actually in a padded room and the “freak” of the synth name makes all its distasteful sense (yeah I watched 1 minute or so of it because you all made me do it!!!). It’s quite crazy how brainless marketting can go beyond toxicity because they feel the best way to talk to people is to wink at them and have a laugh at… well anything really so might as well be a persecuted and endangered group of people in our unfair society right? ahahhah so funny right ? Freaks ! Ahah, let’s make jokes, ahah, and let’s name the synth after it too ! So freak ! Damn, that’s so fucking depressing. Sorry for the rant.

2 Likes
#36

Okay, I’ll relax about this :slight_smile:

Maybe the problem here was entirely with the marketing side of things – they do seem tone-deaf and clueless overall.

The silver lining about this is it made me think maybe I can synthesize the range of sounds I especially enjoy on the Microbrute through some other means – and if so, possibly improve on it, and have room to try one of the other controllers I’ve been interested in. Now that thought is less “boycott” and more “opportunity.”

2 Likes
#37

I’m just consistently impressed with Émilie’s composure (not just about this, but over the years). What a rad person, all around.

22 Likes
#38

Émilie earned another gold star here with that very mature and timely response. Let’s hope everything settles down to the benefit of everyone involved and hopefully the tone-deaf marketing department at Arturia will get a clue and be either reined in or learn and grow up significantly from this.

7 Likes
#39

Well, that was quite a ride today.
Definitely the biggest NAMM story out of the products I am interested in. Great product with a bit of drama, and now the ball is in Arturia’s court.

The product itself has a lot of what I like from synths like the Monologue, the SH-101, and the Shruthi. I hope early firmware and the build quality are both solid. This is the first Arturia product I’ve ever considered purchasing.

Hehehe, I’m just gonna leave this here:

jesuspose

1 Like
#40

That is exactly the part that made me shudder the hardest.

2 Likes
#41

Dude looks a bit like Alchemist :joy::joy::joy::joy:

1 Like
#42

I really don’t think Arturia’s target market is people on lines. I think the ad is silly, and not for me, but it’s well made.

I was not a fan of the marketing for Rackbrute, but it’s a good product - I use two of the 6u’s.

It strikes me that Arturia has a really good engineering team and leadership that could definitely make their products more broadly appealing by changing their approach to marketing and product development. It must be making them money though.

:star: ¯\_(" 3)_/¯ :star:

6 Likes
#43

Wow people take marketing really seriously.

I have always found all forms of marketing pretty cringy especially when its obviously “marketing”.
Even the uber we r so cool and tasteful moog ones for example with the synth girls and lots of plants.

That this is the polar opposite is still meaningless to me if not more funny. I actually had no expression when i first saw it but now the more i watch it the funnier it gets and the fact that its called out for showcasing toxic masculinity makes it even funnier with that context. I think they were going for something inspired by prodigies smack my bish up.

About the synth i think its really really cool…finally more touch & pressure type keyboards and this is 4 voice paraphonic with polyphonic aftertouch for 299!! Also fun performance things integrated… sadly its really really UGLY. Maybe those graphics above the keyboard are a nod to the mutable collab?

2 Likes
#44

It’s not a collab.
But yeah, they might be interpreted that way.

1 Like