NAMM 2019 - Arturia MicroFreak

[voip]

NAMM 2019, the Arturia MicroFreak, with polyphonic aftertouch, available soon, $299. Looks, and sounds, very interesting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RT6GSgkdzf0

[megamarkd]

NAMM 2019, the Arturia MicroFreak, with polyphonic aftertouch, available soon, $299. Looks, and sounds, very interesting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RT6GSgkdzf0

Yes sir-ree! Very tasty indeed. Osc models out the wahzoo!

[Spheric El]

They are a good company aren't they.
I'm not in need of a new synth but this looks so tempting.
I wonder if it'll have midi connections?
It doesn't look battery powered.
Hi megamarkd, I was wondering if you could explain a bit about the wahzoo osc. I'm in the dark there.

[lidserter]

1/8inch midi connections.

[Spheric El]

Ok thanks lidserter,
Better than usb I suppose.

[megamarkd]

They are a good company aren't they.
I'm not in need of a new synth but this looks so tempting.
I wonder if it'll have midi connections?
It doesn't look battery powered.
Hi megamarkd, I was wondering if you could explain a bit about the wahzoo osc. I'm in the dark there.

Arturia a good company I believe. They have a long history of making vintage instrument emulation plug-in synths, but in the last 6-7yrs have started producing hardward also, ranging from analogue monosynths to step sequencers and MIDI controllers. I own two of their sequencers and a MiniBrute (their first hardware synth). There are a few people who have had issues with the MiniBrute, mainly switches failing after some time. Mine's 3yrs old and I have a friend who has owned his for 4yrs, neither are having the issue. I think they started using a different supplier when the problem started to occur (one with better QC I'd imagine).

I'm trusting that the Microfreak would be well built considering it's their 6th hardware instrument now. It doesn't have any throw switches on it so that rules out any of the MiniBrute problems.

"Out the wahzoo" is a phase meaning "it's overflowing". I will elaborate on what oscillators it's overflowing with though, since I confussed you with my idiom.
It has a digital osc block with 11 models. Four have been designed/developed by Arturia and the other seven are from Mutable instruments, a "boutique" synth company that have been making digital/analogue hybrid synths and eurorack modules for many years also. I have a very nice multifunction module from them, Peaks, which I tend to use for it's very flexible Kick and Snare synths and I also own a little diy hybrid wavetable monosynth called the Shruthi with is an incredible sounding instrument.

The oscillator they've used are not your standard analogue modelling cores. There is are a couple of analogue models, one is a VA traditional osc which sounds like your standard-fare VA. And there's a detuned multiwave similar to a supersaw but it uses all four of the 'classic analogue' waves for it. The rest are pretty much the additive synth models from one end of the spectrum to the other. Wavetable (a series of single-cycle wave samples that can be scanned as the osc is running so can create the sound of an instrument as it's played or anything else that might have been sampled and sliced up, think PPG/Waldorf), Waveshaping (the Buchla school of synthesis where you introduce sidebands to a sine wave thus increasing the harmonic content), Karplus-Strong (excellent for strings), FM (DX land!), Harmonic (multi-sinewave AM synthesis, I think casio did some of this stuff in the early digital days), Granular (similar to wavetable but way more destructive sample playback synthesis), Voice (that "I am a robot" stuff from what I've heard but they are touting it as the ay-ee-eye-oh-you formant thing) and two other forms of synthesis I'm not to sure the nature of (I've not used them personally) in the way of Chordal and Modal. Those last two are respectively described as an interval player (up to three intervals from the root) and a hollow body inharmonic resonator which is sounding like a bell/gong synth.

All in all it can do a bucket load of things which you'd had to have had a bucket load of synths to do in the past plus a modular. All running through a statevariable filter (h/b/lpf akin to the one used on the Wasp), twisted around with both the "east coast" rise/fall and the "west coast" ADSR envelopes, an LFO and finally triggered (if you like) by it's split-personality sequencer/arp thing that is made with the intention of not really playing the same way twice. Oh yeah it controller touch-keyboard is pressure sensitive, which I'm reading as velocity, as it also has aftertouch(!) and for controlling other polysynth, it transmits poly aftertouch and MPE.

Oh I almost forgot to mention it's little modulation matrix for user defined routings. Not a Waldorf 16x16 grid but still enough to warp things up nicely.

I can't help but say after all of that "WTF?". It's an insane mount of synth in a small box that is full of non-conformity. Absolutely what the synth world needs right now (well for the last 19yrs!). Not everyone can devote a chunk of pay every month to a eurorack synth module and not everyone is interested in maintaining a modular either, but that is the only way anyone will have what the Microfreak is offering otherwise. And it's under that magical $500aud price point!
[nb I didn't originally intend on gushing like that, but the more I look and listen to the machine the more I'm blown away!]

1/8inch midi connections.

Yeah, it's the only con I can pick with the design really. Why do they do that?!?!

[lidserter]

Actually mIDI break-out cables are included, that's a big point for Arcturia! I prefer indeed big solid din 5 connectors instead. The reason for it is cost reductions, i believe a smaller connector with less material is cheaper but then you realize a cable adapter is included so... Who understands?

JJ

[Spheric El]

Out the Wahzoo haha - it's an Australian term.
Hey thanks for your indepth comments about the switches (and lack of on the Freak- must be a reason) and explanation of osc etc.
I like the sound of the hollow body one and, well all of them really. It is a real gusher isn't it. If it was battery operated I'd definitely be in. Super micro synth. Possibly a dream.

[megamarkd]

Actually mIDI break-out cables are included, that's a big point for Arcturia! I prefer indeed big solid din 5 connectors instead. The reason for it is cost reductions, i believe a smaller connector with less material is cheaper but then you realize a cable adapter is included so... Who understands?

JJ

I'm getting used to them slowly, Novation did it to the Circuit and Korg also on the SQ-1. I was hoping Arturia was not going to do it again after they used DIN5's on the Keystep, but alas.

Out the Wahzoo haha - it's an Australian term.
Hey thanks for your indepth comments about the switches (and lack of on the Freak- must be a reason) and explanation of osc etc.
I like the sound of the hollow body one and, well all of them really. It is a real gusher isn't it. If it was battery operated I'd definitely be in. Super micro synth. Possibly a dream.

I guess it is. If using Urban Dictionary for the definition, go with def 2. Intended as a comical exaggeration

With regards to battery opperation, as it can be USB powered, you can use a USB charger block/power cell to run it. I power my Beatstep Pro and SQ-1 in the same why when I go to my mates' to jam. I use 20,000mAh power cell with two outputs. It's powered the two sequencers for over 3hrs and still had about half of it's capacity left, so probably could also run my Keystep too and still make it through a long session.

[Spheric El]

I just guessed it was Australian lingo from your profile and the way it sounds I've not heard it over here yet.

Battery operation -Yes ofcorse! 20k, thanks for the info.

[Bachus]

Actually the biggest news for me where 2 upgrades..

-kurzweil forte 4.0 with ccsequencer and a new FM engine (6 opperator dx7 compAtible
-omnisphere 2.6, even more hardware support and a brilliant new arpeggiator