Arturia MicroFreak

The Lounge Other Gear
#994

I picked up a second-hand unit recently. Is the main output really weak? I’m running it into my octatrack inputs for sampling and with dir maxed, gain maxed, and freak volume maxed, I can barely hear the microfreak. That doesn’t seem right. Also, I’m surprised Arturia still haven’t ironed out the staining on their encoder knobs. Anything that’s white gets smudged and stained. Looks pretty nasty when you’re buying second-hand. Oh well, for the price paid, I can’t complain too much.

Update: it appears that the main out of the microfreak is balanced. So, using a TS cable into the balanced input of my OT mk2 might be resulting in some phase cancellation issues. I’ll try swapping the cable… To be continued.

Another (last?) update: Switching to a TRS cable did the trick. Now to see if I can clean up those knobs.

#995

The output is told to be quite low, I have to put a lot of gain on the preamp.

I still have tremendous fun with the Microfreak, I built 20 patches in the last two days and recorded a few ambient tracks with it. I really hope that Arturia will release a bigger version with more oscillators and polyphony. The paraphonic mode with the four individual Envelopes is a good starting point. I can´t recall a synth with that much possibilities on the market, the digital oscillator types are offering so many different timbres. I still miss the noise oscillator, maybe Arturia adds one in an update.

#996

Yep … this calls for the MatrixFreak … :wink:

#997

Praise : Eventually…
It’s been a while since it’s release which was ironically enough April fools day this 19.
The promo video from Arturia didn’t really do it any favours in my mind.
The look of the thing and the plastic were also something that put me off too.
BUT… I was recently researching a few things - watching videos - listening to demo’s - all very different gear upto / around 500 eu… I could have stretched it and thought I might push it to the Korg Mini XD but what I heard just sounded so predictable and stuffy. I’m sure it’s great but hey.

The Circuit looked like a cool unit to have with so many great updates and I thought it might be handy to have a grid based unit also as a controller (among many other uses of course).

The Modal Skulpt also seemed like a great reasonably priced option for synth stuff that I felt I was missing.

In the end I just bought the Microfreak and I am literally freaked out by how good this thing is.
Stimming did an excellent review and his enthusiasm definitely brought a smile to my face and swayed my shallow misinformed judgment.

I am so impressed by what Arturia have created - I love it. It sounds fantastic and it’s so much fun to use. I’m kind of in shock to be honest - the last time I felt like this about a piece of gear was when I fired up the Monomachine for the first time.

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#999
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#1000

Oh this is a really cool idea. I didn’t know the touchplate was that easily removable.

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#1001

Hmm… This has my attention. Can anyone confirm the following for me:

  1. Will the Freak respond to poly-aftertouch from an external controller?
  2. Is there a legato mode?
  3. What is the max pitchbend range?

If I can turn the Freak into a module, I might have a use for it in my live rig…

Cheers!

#1002

Never mind. I’m looking at the MIDI implementation chart here—it only specifies aftertouch, not poly-aftertouch, and there’s no mention of mod-wheel whatsoever… I’m out.

Cheers!

#1003

I don’t own one, but the unit does respond to poly aftertouch via it’s own keyboard, so one would think that it would respond via midi as well.

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#1004

4:45 is insane!

I gave in to this little beastie and bought one today, along with this pack. So cool!

#1005

I thought so too. Makes sense, right? But they don’t specify that in the MIDI chart. Regardless, the fact that it doesn’t seem to have any mod-wheel implementation either is no good for me. If anyone knows otherwise, let me know. Anyway, thanks, Donovan.

Cheers!

#1006

Wouldn’t the aftertouch data just be packaged with each individual note-on message? Does polyAT need special information to be sent? And as far as mod wheel goes, can’t you just assign your mod wheel in the controller to control whatever CC you want? I think mod wheel usually just sends on CC1, but you should be able to assign which CC it sends.

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#1007

As far as I know, the synth would have to be able to receive poly-aftertouch messages explicitly—hence the difference between poly versus channel aftertouch—and it has to be made accessible as an external mod source; which is not necessarily a given, despite the functionality of its own keyboard. I could be wrong about that. Regardless, Arturia should specify that, as to avoid any confusion. But if anyone can test this, or knows otherwise, I’d be curious know myself.

As for the mod-wheel issue, on the other hand, changing MIDI CC assignments on my controller from one sound to the next, though definitely possible, is just too inefficient in a live context; which is where I would need it. Unless I’m missing something about how CC assignments work in the matrix. Again, if anyone knows for sure, let me know.

Anyway, I should be holding out for a Hydrasynth, but I’m impatient and need some of the timbres the Freak can achieve for upcoming shows. I thought it might make for a cheap and cheerful solution in the meantime, but I don’t think it’s going to work for me.

Cheers!

#1008

It seems velocity is also missing as a separate mod source: i.e. that is to say, you have to make a choice between velocity and pressure. No good. It’s starting to look like this synth would be in over its head in my rig. Oh well, you get what you pay for, right? Too bad, it sounds pretty good for what it is. Anyway, moving on… Thanks, folks.

Cheers!

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#1009

Tough crowd :wink:

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#1010

I bet there’s a Retrokits cable coming soon for it that solves these issues (maybe…)

#1011
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#1012

sick! @jayhosking

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#1013

Hey thanks! Honestly, I think there aren’t enough sweet spots on the Microfreak, but it does some sounds really, really well (like this one).

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#1014

still a very nice track regardless of the gear you used :wink:

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