Arturia MicroFreak Exploring Synth Engines

Arturia MicroFreak is about to launch. I'm trying out the synth engine here, and explaining it as I go along. I think it sounds great! It'll be a great, affordable little friend for on the go studio music production, portable performance rig etc. Good stuff.
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[@ArturiaOfficial]

Happy that you enjoyed it Cuckoo! Great to hang out with you. Good to get Freaky on the MicroFreak!

[@THEELECTRODANDY]

Arturia I love my new little friend, very good synth. It was In my next album 👍🏻❤️👌🏻👊🏻

[@gregonater]

I will always admire your ability to film single long takes of everything sounding good 😍

[@truecuckoo]

❤️

[@NeoLudditevisons]

This is the droid im looking for!

[@Zeal808]

Neo Luddite solid!

[@Charlieboy2680]

The microfreak has got even better over the years with the new updates !

[@alexstixx]

The release date is April 1, and I'm super excited to get mine. Seeing this synthesizer a few months back inspired me to start building my own design, and I've finally gotten into generative and programmatic music. Thanks for the video on it, Cuckoo!

[@strelokknoize]

In Germany it's April 29th. We are always the last country getting new gear. Still no Volca Drum available here. When new stuff finally hits our market all cool reviewes are already done.

[@michaeltyborski4802]

Arturia did a fantastic job with the MicroFreak. It's economical and impressive. Thank you for showing us what an experienced synthesizer player can do.

[@lambda_calc]

Haha the description at 18:13 of the randomized vocal patch made me laugh. Great demo, this appears to actually be a very solid/playable synth.

[@Doctormix]

Niiiiiice!!!!

[@juliusjeremy4723]

dunno if anyone gives a damn but if you are stoned like me atm you can stream pretty much all of the latest series on instaflixxer. Been binge watching with my gf during the lockdown xD

[@anderssantana4683]

@Julius Jeremy Yea, have been using instaflixxer for since november myself =)

[@chrisliddiard725]

One of the best hands-on look at the MicroFreak that i've seen. Amazing as its clearly the first time Cuckoo has had a chance to play with that device. As he says, he's only scratching the surface of this latest wiz on the block. I'd like to see someone run external midi gear through it, specifically a wind controller.

[@jthorpe4droid]

That is definitely on my I want(no I really want) list, but I don't need :) great video and some excellent sounds.

[@georgejuson6912]

my thoughts exactly

[@PaulBoos]

Microfreak - the Wasp of 2019. Good demo.

[@robertsyrett1992]

But with a SEM filter and Waveforms by Mutable Instruments. Too bad they made it look so ugly.

[@PaulBoos]

@@robertsyrett1992 I actually think it looks fine.

[@robertsyrett1992]

@@PaulBoos I simply dislike the illustrations and orange caps. The rest of it is fine.

[@PaulBoos]

@@robertsyrett1992 Yeah I don''t mind either. I can see some benefit to highlighting the digital oscillator knobs. I actually find teh illustrations sort of complement the 'keyboard'. But hey, that is just me... Art/design is very personal.

[@New_Zealand_Music]

Robert Syrett Maybe you can change those knobs Out?

[@baleinerenard7629]

How could it be another way? The man rock it right away :) Great video !

[@pauljackson514]

Great demo ,thanks cuckoo.This and my drum brute impact will make a nice duo.

[@bjornfelle]

They weren't kidding when they said "freak". This thing is fucking weird. In a really good way.

[@CameronClarkeOG]

Best demo i've heard of this yet, I almost want it now!!

[@SparklesofGold]

The device definitely has a personality. Interesting.

[@lagduck2209]

That's actually some wild oscillator. Filter has a nice touch to the sound too. Probably with some effects (and external MIDI feed) you can actually get quite awesome sounds. This guy is not "all-in-one sooperexpensive workstation", but pretty versatile and unique sounding "synth as sound-source".

[@iscariah71]

tanx my friend always a pleasure to see you test new real synths.

[@VictorSteiner]

Without Mutable Instruments they couldn‘t have delivered such an amazing device for that price, but they also did a great job on the mod matrix and the spice/dice.

[@truecuckoo]

Yeah that open source library of algorithms sure was a great starting point for them.

[@nelieroCR]

loved the exploration of the synth! if you get your hands again on this machine could you do more polyphonic stuff? :)

[@cravensean]

Your statement about the capacitive keyboard expresses my own experience -- I never had piano training so (real? acoustic? analog?) keyboards don't feel musically responsive to me and this keyboard does. Now I wonder how much trouble it would be to make a capacitive control surface.

[@Philtho]

This looks like so much fun.

[@c4ps742]

Du är en inspirationskälla 🤟 denna synth verkar vara superbra för en som aldrig hållit på med waveforms då den är så pass enkel, men skulle ändå vilja ha den 😋

[@truecuckoo]

❤️ ja jag kan verkligen rekommendera den.

[@Bananskuden]

Great job, Arturia!

[@Dogboy73]

Got one on pre-order. Irresistible.

[@TLSWalters]

That’s so awesome! I’ve got a microBrute, I’m thinking of getting this!

[@jimshannononsounds]

This packs in a lot of stuff for the price and a step sequencer. Holy crap. 👍😃🎹💪

[@AlexandreSoma]

SO MUCH FUN!

[@JamesLamb]

I have a Microfreak, and, uh, every time I sit down that's about the same thing I do... I feel like I spend all my time playing with the knobs. I get some good sounds, and I think "that's a sound I could use" , but then I never actually create something beyond that. The next time I sit down... repeat.

[@chris.dillon]

Cuckoo is always so positive! I'd probably rant for 5 minutes about the keys and waste y'alls time. He just does a shoulder shrug and tilts his head. He already knows that it's a negative thread, he just doesn't go down it in any of his videos. :)

[@MatthewMouras]

Thanks for this overview. I thought this thing was entirely monophonic. The pariphony was nice to hear. You get some great sounds out of it. Looks fun to play

[@rcmusic35]

Nice video. Can wait to get my hand on this one, expected early April here in France.

[@georgeray3492]

Great demo. I second the WASP comment. If it had battery power and guitar lugs, the WASP comparison would be complete. Great job on showing the modulation matrix functionality. This is on my GAS list for this year, for sure.

[@luisgonc]

You can power it with an USB Powerbank! :)

[@ChrisLeeW00]

Man, I cannot wait to get my hands on that little freak.

[@hammercanttouchthis]

Very chip tune esque. Takes me back to the Commodore 64 days. Has some good features and I like the keys.

[@chrislynch9364]

This little synth sounds great!! I predict a feeding frenzy on release.

[@TheTwyker]

preordered. this is just way too special to miss.

[@neuzethmusic131]

Man I love the freaks sound and timbre when it goes paraphonic! Cant wait to get mine! Also looking forward the patch save function. This constant patch snap shoting on my analog modular stuff to remember the cable setup... 😂💩

[@neuzethmusic131]

Bratislav Metulski Okay, seems like you never worked on multible different projects or on recreating older sounds for a live performance...

[@dcashley303]

To be honest I wasn't that convinced by the initial video put out by Arturia (maybe put off by the attitude) but I really like the FM/Analog combination here. Has that clean and crunchy digital sound but you can get some nice analog movement and depth.

[@Bombtrack411]

i like the sound of the filter

[@AlexIsMusical]

This is like every sub $500 synth released in the last 10 years rolled into one disguised as a digital buchla music easel. Take my money.

[@Makwa977]

does it have a glide feature?

[@brettmarshalltweaksource]

18:50 Stephen hawking yodelling...on acid...

[@hudahekizzy8402]

Interesting. Some cool sounds and options but the controls seem a bit unpredictable. I imagine it would take a while to get used to as some knobs seem not to have the expected effect and some seem to be super sensitive. Still, unique and worth thinking about especially for the price.

[@hudahekizzy8402]

Almost forgot to add... great vid and thanks in a big way for the deeper look at this thing. I've been waiting since NAMM.

[@kentxx12]

Cuckoo du er bare så god (you are so good/Great/Nice/Wonder full/Funny) ok that is it :)

[@truecuckoo]

Takk Mann!! 🙏🏼🙏🏼

[@thesoundkid9118]

where are low ranges? all of the videos show only mid and high range sounds..

[@nicholasspangler1128]

Company’s name, size of synth, number of current iteration. This is how every synth is named. Lol

[@nothingmemorable486]

Hi, I have been selling some unused kit to fund the purchase of one of these things and have a question. When connected to a DAW can I use the microfreak as my main midi interface. Ie: will it output midi to other instruments??

[@v1o]

Are those the new generation 4 KRK Rokits in the background? They're not even out yet.

[@truecuckoo]

Oh.. I have no idea about that. Sorry.

[@Nik.leonard]

The paraphony of the Microfreak only applies to the filter and not to the volume envelope?

[@johnoffinland]

SPEECH synthesizer...! What fun!

[@truecuckoo]

Yeah!! I know!!

[@thetownwaites118]

Thanks for this, i havent seen any good sounding videos of this thing yet. I am teetering between this and a MicroMonsta. What do you think?

[@difflocktwo]

micro moster all the way

[@thetownwaites118]

@@difflocktwo Ya...im leaning heavy in that direction. I think it just generally sounds better.

[@HotStrange]

MicroMonsta for sure until I hear more from this guy. The MicroFreak seems cool and versatile but the MM is unreal for the price.

[@Noiretranquility]

The Town Waites why are you even considering buying something that you’re admitting you don’t like the sound?

[@emokarlffm]

Can't believe they had no mic stand for you at thomann :D

[@truecuckoo]

Haha, they have all the stuff. But sometimes I like to just go rogue :)

[@HotStrange]

So do you run the same waves through different synthesis styles or does each synthesis mode have its own set of oscillators? For example does the wavetable mode have actual wavetables? Also can you run other wave shapes through the various synth types?

[@truecuckoo]

Each type has its own unique algorithm to generate sound.

[@HotStrange]

cuckoomusic thank you 🙏

[@tubemoog]

Ok.....I want one

[@emilyschmanks]

anyone tell me what interface that's hooked up to? looks like its by ZOOM?

[@marcovinten716]

ZOOM H6 I think

[@emilyschmanks]

@@marcovinten716 thanks dude!

[@Phil-1]

18:45 Robot voices. LOL

[@francismielhugo5009]

how to adjust the tempo?

[@nickthomasson]

How's the mod matrix? How many parameters can you manipulate simultaneously?

[@HotStrange]

There’s more info on their website but it’s 5 x 7 with 3 assignable.

[@Trottelheimer]

@@oOFTJOo Being a matrix, you can assign any or all sources (rows) to any or all destinations (columns). If you wanted to you could "light up" the whole mod matrix for 35 simultaneous mod routings.

[@Trottelheimer]

@@oOFTJOo Yes, the 3 assignable destinations can be any parameter. Another very cool thing is that you can go one level deeper: the 3 assignable destinations can also be assigned to modulate any of the other matrix points. That way you can do thing like, e.g. using an envelope to control the LFO-to-Pitch amount. I.e. modulating modulators.

[@Trottelheimer]

@@oOFTJOo Hehe... No you can't modulate spice and dice :)) At least not yet...

[@jean-pierrejoubert6140]

Thanks for the video, but ... TRIPOD!!! GAH!!! I need to see me those knobs without the wobbly wobbly!!! :)

[@truecuckoo]

I'll make a proper in depth tutorial once this comes out. I really like this thing. I'm gonna get one for myself.

[@SenorTb0ne]

Is a cycling envelope kind of like an lfo?

[@truecuckoo]

Yeah, but you can control both the rise and the fall independently, among other things.

[@SenorTb0ne]

@@truecuckoo cool, thank you!!

[@nusakara]

hi cuckoo!

[@zacdior9402]

Deffo sounds like the wasp synth. I wonder why arturiA went with a touch keybed. Peace ✌️ out people

[@bittergums32]

For something different for the most, also portability...but mainly to keep the price down low.

[@Kdkjdjewerdnxa]

What were they thinking with the touch keys though.

[@Tom-nm6qf]

They figured everyone has a midi keyboard controller they can use on this already, so why not go for something new and interesting.

[@Kdkjdjewerdnxa]

Tom Kellicut not everyone does but even if everyone did, it makes it less of a standalone device.

[@aaronellson9849]

Then you get something else with keys...this is marketed at the curious and playful musician. It's like saying you wish that banana was an orange instead, or something to that effect. Go and get an orange for yourself and let someone else have a banana. I dont get why people complain about one of the most interesting/intriguing features of one of the more interesting and affordable synths of 2019 so far. Either you love it or you just dont get it lol

[@Tom-nm6qf]

@@Kdkjdjewerdnxa Tell that to Arturia. I'm just passing on their reasoning. It's still a perfectly fine standalone device. It is only not standalone if you want it to be something that it isn't.

[@Trottelheimer]

The touch keyboard is one of the attractions. It's poly pressure sensitive too. When/if you don't like that, just play it from another keyboard, or your guitar-to-MIDI converter, your wind-controller or whatever.

[@SydneyDunk]

2nd!

[@alexhakkah]

This synth is a plagiat of macro oscillator 2 by mutable instrument on vcv racks. You know that? This vst is free

[@truecuckoo]

They've been using a lot of open source stuff that is heavily developed by Mutable Instruments in the first place I think.

[@moistpeanut5986]

Sounds thin

[@antoniomarcello9872]

12:21

[@moistpeanut5986]

Antonio Marcello still thin compared to bass station ll or a behringer model d.

[@pomprocks]

Must be because it doesn't have weighted keys.

[@HotStrange]

Moist Peanut Totally different synths for different things. Those are bass synths first and foremost so it’s pointless to compare it to something that’s not.

[@Trottelheimer]

He mostly plays in the higher registers. This little freak can sound massive when programmed to and playing in lower registers. Edit: he also doesn't use the filter much, which is of course a requirement for "phat". But hey, isn't it refreshing to hear a little harmonics.

[@matszh]

Ugly, but very innovative :)

[@matszh]

The Doctor Not really, just looking for reasons to resist buying it...

[@clivemathieu9386]

Unoriginal mutable code

[@lukelukeaurelio6848]

not a good promotion sorry

[@lukelukeaurelio6848]

Sorry