Yeah for sure. LKs are nice. The main advantage of that would be some of the features like the arp (which is excellent.) Sequencing seems on a par with Move from what I can tell (my LK is an mk3 so doesn’t have the sequencing.) The one thing Move doesn’t do yet is access more than 8 parameters per device, which LK does. Move has capacitive touch and a light when automation is happening, which LK doesn’t. This is a small detail but quite handy for seeing automation as you work with it. I’m considering getting an upgrade from LKmk3 to mk4 still, however I’m on the fence also because the Keystep/Move combo covers most of what an LK can do. The Minifreak though could be interesting because it would work both as part of a standalone setup and as a VST along with Move. Could be used as a MIDI controller in a pinch as well, but I imagine the Keystep could be more direct. In the same vein, I’m also wondering if overbridge somewhat puts the digitakt into this hybrid territory. You could use the 2 devices standalone with the computer off, but also as a pair plugged in and controlled via the DAW/overbridge/minifreak v. I’m a big fan of this idea of hybrid control and it looks like Arturia knocked it out of the park on this one.
My minifreak has been on a repair vacation for the last several weeks. And I was tempted to ditch it for the DNII. But finally it arrived with a working octave down button. It’s so great to have a decent keyed and less functions per button compared to the digis. This will work great as a sampling source for my digitakt
Overbridge is great, but won’t work without hardware. With Minifreak I could control plugin from hardware and vice versa, but project will load and play also without having it connected. For me this is biggest plus of Minifreak approach.
Actually that’s a really good distinction I hadn’t considered. I don’t own a digitakt or any Elektron actually, so that didn’t occur to me. But now you say it, in that case yeah, Move and Minifreak are a combo that can be used with or without the hardware.
Thats great, less GAS by realizing it doesn’t fit in your setup is a good thing. 
You’re right that it’s the hybrid workflow that makes the Minifreak such a great synth. It’s so seamless it feels like cheating.
Just picked one of these up, love it. Though I’m having an issue with audio in, was curious if anyone else had this same issue. The audio in level is very quiet. Even when using the Utility setting to boost the gain. When pushing the gain in the audio in setting beyond 6+ db, the signal becomes distorted (and still doesn’t sound very loud against the built in oscillators). Tried my S-1, my 0-coast, my BARP, same effect. The only way I was able to get a reasonable signal level (without applying “fold” to the input) was to use the modular output on the 0-coast. Did I get a bunk unit or can someone else confirm this behavior?
Same with mine. Two things I had to figure out to use it; the input oscillator is still gated by keypresses, so if you want the input to sound continuously and with a higher volume, you can use the hold function to keep like 10 keys “held down” at once.
The other is the fold parameter, as you mentioned already. At a low level, it doesn’t change the character of the sound in any deep way IMO, but when all else failed, it became a primary source for me to increase the volume of the input signal.
Hope this helps
Yes, thank you. I wanted to be sure something wasn’t broken, so I appreciate the reply.
Here’s the full track from the little idea I posted earlier above in the thread. Pretty happy about how this one turned out.
Crossing my fingers for a 3.0 FW before Christmas.
December 7 of last year was when 2.0 was released…
everything about this is great!
Kinda wish i had waiteda few months- bought my regular MF right before the stellar was released. oh well!
Hey hey, just a few jams for fun with the Minifreak:
It’s monotimbral, most synths are. Personally I prefer monotimbral synths.
6 voices is plenty for many applications too! Not that limited!
It’s weakness, for me, is the filter is fairly bland. Doesn’t add much. Plus I’d like a separate ADSR for the filter really.
Apart from those its a great synth!
Plus I wouldn’t say it can do analogue bass… it’s digital and sounds very digital.
I’d say it sounds digital in a pleasing way. This is of course a matter of taste but I feel it can definitely approach analog sounding sounds too (so can the Digitone 2 too, probably). The main strength of the Minifreak as I see it is the hybrid nature of it. Drop in some VSTs and you have all the multi-timbrality you need. Obviously only works in a setup with a computer.
v3 Video is up. No link to the new firmware yet though.
Whooahh… MiniFreak just turned into a baby Prophet X! Brilliant!
why is that? don’t know the prophet x, does it play samples?
This looks like a great update. Always happy when manufacturers add things via firmware rather than release new plastic hardware. Amused with the current trend of add samples to everything. Fender will start releasing guitars where you can skip the pickup and trigger a sample with each string instead which to be fair would be pretty amazing. Kinda bored of granular demos always sounding the same as you can no doubt do amazing things with it.