Engineers Frédéric Brun and Gilles Pommereuil established Arturia in Grenoble in 1999 with the purpose of developing affordable software synthesizers. Their first product was the Storm virtual instrument workstation, which gained popularity for its accurate emulations of classic analogue synths. In 2003 they collaborated with hardware synth legend Bob Moog to create the Modular V software synthesizer.
Arturia's software explorations have culminated in Analog Lab, a collection of 30 classic synthesizers with over 6500 presets that integrates seamlessly with the company's hardware controllers. The company entered the analogue synthesizer market in 2012 with the MiniBrute. The powerful little beast was an immediate success, and though the original has been phased out it is survived by the equivalent MicroBrute (2013), and the MiniBrute 2 (2018), an expanded, semi-modular version that punches far above its weight class.
The Brute line also contains the DrumBrute (2016), a fully-featured drum synthesizer and sequencer, and the MatrixBrute (2018), a flagship hardware synth that wouldn't look out-of-place on the International Space Station. It's a remarkable transformation for the software company, especially considering most traditional hardware manufacturers these days are going the other direction. Arturia have consistently made quality sounds affordable to the aspiring musician.