Arturia Microfreak Synthesizer and Vocoder Demo and First Use Review

Arturia is a French company, first bursting on to the scene gaining recognition for their software emulation of vintage synthesizers, and eventually creating the Minibrute, their first foray into analog synth hardware- ultimately a smashing success, hitting the budget price point with a big sound and features set.

The Minibrute would eventually have little and big brothers, the Microbrute and Matrixbrute, respectively, (and a couple others) but today we are talking about their cousin, the Microfreak.

The Microfreak is an analog\digital hybrid Synthesizer built on the Mutable Instruments Plaits module, an open source macro oscillator that features many different starting points for sound generation, including analog modeling oscillators, wavetables and even synthesized speech. The SEM-style analog filter and assignable modulation matrix compliment the filter and help offer a palette of tones that is distinct from a purely digital synth, but giving it the warmth of an analog filter. The Microfreak also has a unique filter compared to their other hardware synths, which helps it stick out.

Arturia has offered several firmware updates over the last few years, most notably the addition of a VOCODER! They released a special white edition, complete with tiny gooseneck microphone that plugs into the headphones jack...talk about giving your customers free updates!

While I have the original version with the blue, I did score one with the mic that clips very snuggly on the back and is very sleek and unintrusive.

I really haven't had too much time to play around with this thing, some of the video here was even recorded on my recent trip to Missouri and Arkansas...which kind of displays how portable this thing is. Did I mention that it can run on USB power and I was just using a battery Bank to power it?!

The touch keyboard is another unique option, offering a different way to play than a traditional keyboard. It still has some other desirable keyboard features, such as aftertouch, hundreds of presets, and a sequencer.

It really shines with the modulation matrix, offering many opportunities to shape your own sounds and giving you new sounds to help you fill up all those patches!

I have enjoyed this piece so far, and especially appreciate it's portability-it is very light with a small form factor.

thanks for reading, I hope you liked my post!