Arturia MicroFreak 5-stars Reviews

Powerful, versatile and affordable

MicroFreak is my first hardware synth - before that I was using VST's but I don't feel like I want to go back.

What's great about it is that it let's you to choose what type of oscillation do you want to use and shape the general sound and then real fun begins with matrix mod, that simply put lets you define the relations between the components of the synth. You can create harsh or smooth basslines, drums, ambient pads, arpeggiated sequences - versatility is what makes it worth checking out.

Moreover it has built in sequencer, that lets you to use it either as a step sequencer or record in real time. There's also a possibility of randomising sequences via slice and dice function.

Keyboard might feel a little weird at first, but it has it's pros - it features aftertouch, you can assign it to control other parameters depending on how you use it, it has hold function that comes in handy while playing live or tweaking with sound texture. It's also super responsive.

The amount of functionalities might seem a bit overwhelming for a beginner, but there are a ton of instructional videos on Youtube that will help you to get through the learning process, Arturia is publishing resources as well and they are still supporting the synth - it had free firmware update in January 2021 that introduced new features. Upgrading process is quick and seamless via dedicated software that you can download from their website. Software also allows you to tweak certain functionalities but I didn't feel the need to make the adjustments yet.

Since I'm a fan of digital gear, I'm really fond of MIDI functionalities (works great when paired with a sampler - Elektron Digitakt in my case) and possibility of saving your own presets. If you create an interesting preset but you want to experiment a little bit, you can always save what you adjusted as a new preset, without overwriting the previous one. The OLED screen might seem a bit small at first but it does exactly what it needs to and helps to navigate through the menus without any issues.

The way the MicroFreak is designed is also very well thought out in my opinion - once you get a hold of it (I totally recommend checking instructional videos or reading a manual), the whole interface gives you a lot of information by just looking at it thanks to all the leds it features which comes in handy while playing live or jamming with friends.

I used it both for music production, jamming and on stage and I'm very happy with how it works and how quickly you can apply all the changes to shape the sound depending on circumstances (I love that it features responsive lowpass, bandpass and highpass filter, so you can quickly adjust it depending on your needs). Moreover even if you think that certain sound that you came up with is not satisfying, try pairing it with effect pedals for completely new flavors - I totally recommend using it that way!

Best poly synth for the price at the moment?

13 Oscillator modes and a cycling envelope with an extremely flexible matrix routing system?

The microfreak is my go to drone machine. My one gripe is that the filter is a quiet hard to tame , where I find myself raising the resonance just to achieve a certain sound..

Also, the gain staging seems very low on mine, to a point where im boosting the gain on my mixer by 6db after going thru a compressor just to match other synth levels....

The oscillator modes are so vast and varied in sound, that it makes up for the filter/volume issues.

Also, the I/O capabilities with external analog gear is very useful, to a point that I bought this synth knowing I'd be picking up a Buchla down the road.

So versatile

I bought the Micro Freak to make some ambiant music.

The MF is in fact good for a really large panel of music, and it's sounds is awesome.

It's keyboard is fun too.

For it's price, it's really a winner.

BUT as there are no effects section in it, you have to add some external ones to it. And for this, the MS-70CDR works nicely with it.

inspiration machine

i can not reccomend this synth enough. endless hours of fun. its hard to make a patch that sounds bad. brilliant for the price point as well. 10/10

Awesome synth

This synthesizer is perfect to enter the hardware synth world! It was what I did, and it was the best choice I did. I'm amazed, sounds awesome, easy to work with and very versatile!!! 5/5

A great package for the money

The sounds that can be coaxed out of this small synth are amazing.

Amazing Synth

This is my first synth, but it lets me love synth! I can use this stuff to create various sound, it's also easy to use. I recommend MicroFreak for anyone who wants to play the synth.

Simple but powerful

Simple but powerful synth. Its main power is in its modulation matrix, as well as in its sequencer and the capacitive keybed, which makes creation of evolving interesting sounds on this synth to be real fun.

It is made of plastic so its seems like it is fragile. Other than that I think it is a beautiful synth.

Attaching a reverb or delay effects pedals to it, or applying similar effect plugins in your DAW makes it even greater of course.

Fantastic synth and value.

Best in its Range

Such a powerful machine. Nothing in this price range is close.

The range of sounds is massive, the filter is gorgeous and I was very quickly won over by the keyboard.

A little complicated for newcomers but once you dig deep, there's a lot to do here.

A nice, slim, powerful synth.

This is a track started. Just play around with it and you will be flooded with creativity.

The filter sounds great, the mod matrix is simple but quite easy to navigate, the sound engine is very versatile, and there's a surprising amount of modulation.

The only things I wish this little thing had are a stereo out with a unison mode, maybe some simple onboard fx, and the killer one would've been an MPE-like keyboard (for continuos pitch at least).

Great synth for decent prize!

best synth ever

Absolutely amazing, no words to describe it

total fun, quality and inspiration

Wonderful tool for creating crazy sounds. Absolutely love it. Straight of of the box, headphones in and don't look up for a few hours.

Sequencer and arpeggio simple and effective.

Good pre-sets, but you'll not use them after 5mins as so easy to create great sound.

Amazing synth

Everything about it so far (2 weeks) is impressive.

Mapping is straight forward, Sound is really nice, Intuitive layout.

Very hands on & with the combinations between the OSC, Filter & Envelope controls you can achieve a detailed palette in no time.

Very cheap for what it can do.

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

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 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.