Arturia MicroFreak Reviews

A best of this scope, really, for this price?

First of all let me say I am dealing with synths for more than 30 years.

I am professional music producer and audio engineer, and bulk of my work was always directed towards music synthesis, be it music composing, sound design or just pure love for the machine.

This synth is many types of synthesis packed into one. With 2.0 firmware update, even more features are offered, such as additional oscillator and scale mode. This synth might be too much for a beginner but only because of so many features, but they would witness first hand all classic synthesis they have been reading or being thought about. So entry level can and will enjoy this synth.

Features I love - versatility, cycling envelope, matrix, arp and seq, and so many great things under a hub of this little beast.

Filter is extremely good piece of analog gear and its a shame external devices cannot be connected to use it.

Front panel misses arp gate, it is back in the utility menu, but that is just me asking for too much. Just like connectivity - this thing does everything it is supposed to do.

Great and fun feature, spice and dice is there.

Keyboard is pressure sensitive, and i love all additional settings you can assign.

Think about any, literally any synth with so many options that actually has analog filter!

And to top it all, this esoteric finish/design is making me happy to have this device purely just to look at it.

Great synth packed with creativity

If you're looking for something to have fun with, this is the synth you're looking for. The matrix is amazing. It only lacks some fx (reverb and delay) and a stereo output. Definitely recommend!

Pros:

- Great for spontaneous new sounds

- Matrix mod

- Analog filter

- Fun keyboard

Cons:

- Mono output

Experimental Synth

I'm still trying to getting use to it with everything.

not easy synthesizer for sound creation and sampling but that can work on different roles in your studio. first of all experiment with sound and signal path, very interesting modulation possibilities and of course sequencer to play with it.

sounds are not good that I expected maybe I expected more from this little beast. Pad sounds are great and very wavy nothing is stopping almost on this synth sounds are keep on moving every time some evolve happening. I need more time to use to this synth very small words to read and Arturia needs to create VST support like Moog did it to have more DAW syncronitize possibilities. Keys are strange and not too responsive as needed too, but maybe I should optimize sensitivities to more control over it.

Microfreak with Giantfilter

Must have!

Crazy touchable keyboard for crazy sound, but for be full needs a couple with classic keys.

The matrix and cycenv loop make my day, the number of matrix options is just huge.

The filter made up powerful sound, it is really fat analog add-on.

Needs external reverb for getting incredible feels.

I had a little shit with midi work and "local off" function but firmware update fixed it.

I don't like plastic stuff and that more arturia knobs, but that actualy not bad.

Highly recommended

Don't even think about it, just buy it!

I'm a guitar player but I love synths, I had an original plastic 'Wasp' back in the day along with a couple of Roland guitar synths.. More recently I just mess around with software synths in a DAW. I saw on-line videos of the Microfreak and decided to get one and I am super impressed, this thing is a super flexible and powerful beast. The keyboard isn't an issue for me at all but is probably not to everyone's taste - though of course you can play it over MIDI if you prefer. The sound sources are great and varied and the filter and modulation matrix are kinda the icing on the cake.

There isn't much point in me trying to describe the sounds and features here, there are loads of informative videos on youtube but I will say that I find it great fun and simple to use and is capable of making some great sounds. It has CV and gate outs too so now I'm in danger of getting some modular stuff, ha ha!

Out of the box the synth worked great but I did notice a few weird glitches, sometimes filter settings would jump around and the key hold would activate randomly. At first I thought it was just my fat fingers but seemed not. I checked the firmware version and sure enough it was out of date. I downloaded the Arturia MIDI control software and used that to update the firmware and to update the presets to the 1.1 version and all the problems just disappeared, very, very happy. Bear in mind that this is a 4 voice paraphonic synth not just a monosynth, really I don't see how you could do better for the price.

A lot of fun

this is my first hardware Synthesizer an I really enjoy it.

Instruction are easy to understand plus there are a lot of tips and tutorial around the web...and after using it a while, it gests easier to make it -kind of- doing what you want .

I love the keys touch functions!

The only downside for me (but probably becasue I am just getting started) is that there is no way to see what the sequencer is doing

A kilo of expressivity!

Arturia have managed to create a beast in the smallest possible package.

I have a home studio; right out of the box I could sense that the Freak is extremely powerful when it comes to creating sound effects. Since I generally strive for more "organic" sounds, it took me a while before I started utilizing this potential of the synth (but it has it in abundance!). That said, paired with my Zoom MS-50G (or any reverb/delay/multieffects pedal for that matter) it reincarnates into a new instrument. The Freak is extremely capable when it comes to bases, PADS, leads, PLUCKED sounds, percussion...

Pros:

- tons of options to play with

- the matrix is superb and easy to use

- keyboard feels good and offers expressiveness like very few synths out there (after a short period of getting used to playing it)

[the keyboard actually allows for new/unusual ways of playing and interacting with a synthesizer, which inspires and motivates]

- the Freak feels both logical and lovable as a whole

Cons:

- Sometimes the sound seems a bit dry (depending on the type of sounds you create)

It is magnificent. Treat your creativity.

My first hardware synth

I'm used only bunch of good VST before, i'm totally satisfied with them. But once i wanted to have a not virtual, a "real" instrument to have another workflow style, and, therefore, different paths thinking of creativity. Portability was a big criterion too.

After long researching of some variants, microfreak had becomes my choice. I had bunch of fears and skepticism about it, but price of the synth is a very tasty.

Also it's hard to estimate all possibilities with only dry sound. I was thinking, good additional effects will make the sound very awesome, but wasn't too sure. Sound demos, what i found in internet almost all was with dry sound or slightly slurred to me.

When i received and try it on my own- all good expectations were confirmed.

This little thing can a lot of things, but at first it's not so evident. It's really cool to play with it, i understood how to use it very quickly. In some ways It's not so easy, as using virtual instruments, but it's a lot more pleasant.

Microfreak has its own sound style, and this is awesome, because uniqueness is advantage. Some aspects, with comparison with some my VSTi's i have not so powerful, but microfreak has its own powers and possibilities, what i'm haven't before.

Microfreak does not have its own effects. Some patches obtaining good without it. But If use third party effects, sonic possibilities and power increasing a lot.

I'd advise to buy good effects with the synth, gear or plug-ins, at least one good reverb, this really worth it.

Sound of the synth is digital, and very quality. It's really sound better than some of my vsti's, sometimes even without additional effects.

Microfreak full of good sides of digital sound.

The synth have ability to create analog- style sounds, but i doubt, what they so cool, as true analog. Anyway the synth sounds a very cool in digital sonic style.

But filter here is analog. Some oscillator modes have features, what making filter not so important to use with them, but the filter is real cool, it's work smooth and sometimes making sound "warmer".

Modulation matrix is awesome. It's really easy, if get used to it, and give a lot of possibilities. You can even modulate amount of other modulations!

I love the keyboard. In some ways not so good as "traditional" keyboard, but i'm, as pianist, don't feel conservative negativity about this sensor decision, it's just different way to play.

For me it's comfortably and fun to use. And it's really expressive. I'm sure, this flat keys better, then cheap keys with bad velocity control or without it.

I don't very like a sequencer and arpeggiator, because i accustomed to DAW's with their surgical control of everything, but anyway seem's useful. But i really like a possibility of modulating something from sequencer/arpeggiator.

If you want affordable, little, fun and interesting digital synth- the Microfreak is a good decision, i think.

But if you want just only features, and you not obsessed about possession of real instrument, or about unwonted workflow; or you don't like digital sound- maybe it's can disappoint you.

A fresh take in affordable package

the microfreak brigns a fresh look on fm and digital synthesis, with a different approach in terms of keyboard.

The synth has a ton of modulation options, and allows for a huge aray of sounds, including vowels and vocals.

The device is built well and handles accordingly.

The touch keyboard might take some getting used to but is very much to my liking. It can be played very fast and is really responsive.

On a down note the Microfreak lacks some punch at times in the overall mix, and the filter cut off seems to also lower the main volume of your sound too much.

Still this is a great deal, and for any synth enthousiast it is worth the money to give this little fella a try.

buy it & experiment

Very good features in general, many options for external gear to be combined/connected.

Lacks build in effects but it's not that important sine you can buy a cheap(or not) reverb/delay pedal etc .

Generally it's open to more experimental players/producers,

It's not your average synth due to the specially designed keyboard.

All in all a very capable fresh synth!

Also you can do crazy things with the matrix.

Most inspiring and fun synth in the last 10+ years

While its basic structure is "just" a regular synthesis, this Freak has a very unusual approach to user interface and features. It's definitely not Micro, but Mega. The built-in presets are great, they give you a nice overview of the capabilities and functions.

The keyboard is strange and weird but in a good way. It's pretty easy to touch a (random) key by accident and it can cause some unexpected but good sounding result. This is also a bit of a weak point of it because it's hard to reproduce the randomly good sounding mistakes.

Don't expect this to be the next Juno or Oberheim, but it has its place in the palette of great and fun synthesizers. To me it was a no-brainer. Would buy it again.