Arturia MicroFreak

It’s a shame to hear about the plasticy feel. :frowning:

Mine is now shipping, anyway!

Mine came in last night and I was able to sit with it for a few hours. Really getting into it. The amount of flexibility in the mod matrix coupled with the parameter locking makes for some crazy acid bass lines. You can route the arp/seq to any oscillator model type. Then set up a range for that. On top of that you can also route lfo to the osc type. So you get these bonkers sequences where you’re switching modes through va, fm, harmonic, speech etc. and it doesn’t lag at all. Totally insane shit coming out of this thing. You can also map modulators to glide so you can specify where you want glides to come in and they are rate or time based.

The sequencer itself is 101 style with step input rest and tie. 64 steps and you can switch from pattern a and b seamlessly. I was also able to switch from one running sequence in a patch to another and it keeps in time. So you could theoretically chain multiple patches together. It’s in the manual! Would love to see a midi spec on this. It’s NOT in the manual!

Paraphony is great so far. Vca on each voice. The filter is actually wonderful. I don’t know if it’s exactly a sem style filter but it sounds close. It does go into self oscillation from what I can hear.

Build wise I found it to be fine. Wallwort and ground with a heavy gauge cord because of touchpanel. Pots don’t seem to be bolted to the front panel but they are not really wobbly either. No mini volca style nubs here which is a good thing in my book. Overall it’s light, but doesn’t feel like it will break easily in any way. Time will tell.

Need to run it through the paces and track some things with it but so far so good.

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I still wonder about the midi-in sequencing capability of the device. Is it configurable via app or the MF itself?

There are some configurations in the synth for the basics. More options with Arturias app. Have not installed it yet.

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Thanks for taking the time to write this up. I’m (patiently) awaiting mine. Shipped today! :slight_smile:

I’d love to see a list of modulation sources and destinations in the manual, in addition to the MIDI implementation. The stuff you’re describing is one of the reasons I’m so excited about the little MF-fer - I think it’s a lot more capable and powerful than some people are thinking…

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I’m positive it’s a lot more capable than some people think. I can see a lot of (hate to use generalized terms like this) but West Coast synthesis in this box. Just having a nice sounding, playable, 2-op setup makes it extremely versatile. Being able to sequence pretty much every control is also going to be very nice. I’ve said it before, but it very much seems like a lower cost, digital/hybrid Music Easel. It doesn’t have the panache and build of the easel obviously, but it looks like it covers a lot of Buchla style territory (even into the 200e territory). Since I haven’t had time to put my new 4U system together like I had planned, this is going to fill exactly that role in my setup. I’m pretty excited to get it. It doesn’t show up until next week though. :disappointed_relieved:

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For me the specific boxes it ticks are:

  1. Different styles of synthesis, some of which I’ve never had access to in hardware (albeit algorithmic versions of those synthesis styles)

  2. Built in sequencer with four lanes of parameter automation that can be edited on a per step basis (the latter is key for me)

  3. A pressure sensitive keyboard/play surface - I loved my pressure points when I had a eurorack system and miss that playing interface dearly

These things alone have me super excited for the Microfreak, and the more that is revealed about it, the more excited I get.

Edit: in case anyone from Arturia is reading, obviously you should make a Microfreak sampler - same exact format, just replace oscillators with sampling and a few different types of sampling synthesis

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There’s an Arturia product manager on this board so I’m pretty sure this thread gets read :wink: So, what do you do?

@Diayse

Attention, s’il vous plaît(s)!

Thank you, @dtr (I couldn’t remember his name :slight_smile: )

Well…Looks like I’m having issues with encoders drifting. They keep flipping through values without being touched and popping up on the screen for cutoff, resonance and env filter amount.

I seem to remember some of this with the Digitakt when it first came out. It’s pretty annoying.

Check out this thread on Gearslutz: https://www.gearslutz.com/board/electronic-music-instruments-and-electronic-music-production/1247338-arturia-microfreak-experimental-hybrid-synthesizer-30.html

Might be the same issue?

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Interesting. Thanks for the link. Hopefully it is just a firmware bug. I have a ticket in with Arturia. We’ll see what they say.

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Thanks for reaching out to Arturia. I worry that sometimes people don’t reach out to the manufacturers.

Fingers crossed it’s a simple fix.

If you have problems sending MIDI via USB, try a different USB-C port.

Sheesh. :confused:

Just read pg. 33 of that thread and had a chuckle. Arturia rep posted there 10h ago, and got reamed by one person, who in turned got a new one torn out by the rest of the forum.

Anyway, the rep posted there to let peeps know a bunch of bug fixes are on the way.

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Yeah I’ve been tracking that thread and saw that. Pretty mind blowing how rude and ungrateful people are - and this about a synth that the person doesn’t even own.

So far I haven’t experienced any issues with my MF but I’ve had less than 5 hours with it, probably. Hoping that changes soon because it’s a very fun and weird little machine!

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I ended up returning mine because of the encoder jitter issues. Nothing in stock so not sure I’ll be diving back in again in the future. Fun little synth though while I had it.

well that’s a real bummer.
I wonder how widespread this issue is, or if just 1%-2% of units have this behavior.

This is one of the few new products that has had me excited.

Definitely. It’s a really flexible synth and the matrix makes it easy to dive in and get some decent things going quickly. Arturia couldn’t tell me if it was hardware or firmware related, just that they were looking into it. Unfortunately the things are sold out all over and I’d be waiting until June or July to get another one back.

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Sorry to hear it!