Arturia Microfreak - Let's Build... an FM Bass!

After a Lead and Pad tutorial, I'd be arrested by the Synth Police if I didn't now make a bass on the Arturia Microfreak - so here we are! Although you can get some great classic subtractive bass sounds, I decided to go digital and end up drawing influence from mid-90s SoundBlaster sound cards (no, really!).
Transparency Notice: The MicroFreak was kindly provided to me by Arturia.
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[@scorinth]

Just the right amount of words.

[@OscillatorSink]

We got there!

[@___xyz___]

... and just the right amount of synth.

[@chateautemp]

2022 and MF is still going strong..early days here. Thanks for your great videos. They teach MF but also fundamentals of synthesis nicely..

[@mikemeengs5720]

I'm glad you mentioned that the assignable mod slots are each capable of controlling multiple parameters...very handy!

[@mattkaz9604]

To zero a mod matrix you can just hold the button for 1 second at it will go to zero/ turn off. Quicker than scrolling back to 0. Good video.

[@OscillatorSink]

Great tip. Can't believe I hadn't spotted that!

[@MyOtheHedgeFox]

Gotta say I love your tutorials for being so universal and deep. You review every use a device can have, you ease the viewer into many concepts, the editing and the zooms are really neat, and they also double as soothing sleeping aid in a pinch. =)

[@rars0n]

I am in love with the Microfreak. Thanks for this. Looking forward to the next one!

[@krazywabbit]

I was sent here by internet friends after I threatened to return the MF. Your videos saved me. Every other video was not making sense. You've given me new life and a place to start and practice. THANK YOU! (caught a sub too)

[@OscillatorSink]

That's great to hear - I'm glad I could help you get up and running. Welcome to the channel!

[@radwarriortv]

In the same boat! Came back for a second MF 😂

[@donaldpriola1807]

I really appreciate your clear instruction. Your videos always serve as inspiration for me to make better patches! Thank you!!!

[@OscillatorSink]

Glad to hear that! Get building those patches!

[@jeplarson6519]

please make more of these :) they are so helpful. thanks a ton!

[@cmcmahon331]

this is incredible content. thank you

[@blenderbuch]

As I finally got a MF I dug ot the "old" (internet time) videos. I am still at the beginning, but even with such a good tutorial it is quite hard to get a very similar sound. The little things add up to something that sounds completely different at the end :) But every try enhances my understanding! Thanks!

[@OlivierOzoux]

Welcome back! We've missed you.

[@OscillatorSink]

Who knew that having a baby would mess with your recording schedule so much?! If only someone could have predicted this!

[@OlivierOzoux]

@@OscillatorSink I don't know where you got that informarion, but I've never had a baby, and I knew that

[@markmiller2949]

Oscillator Sink Congratulations!

[@tomhenderson6673]

I'm learning a lot -- not only regarding the technical bits, but as someone new to synths I'm enjoying hearing about your taste preferences. So far as future sounds go: I am trying out looping, so I would be interested in watching you develop an "evolving drone" patch, something that is intended to be interesting when held as a pedal point for several measures. Thank you for the efforts!

[@OscillatorSink]

Thank you for watching! As it happens you might be talking about something I'm experimenting with right now...

[@tomhenderson6673]

@@OscillatorSink Rock. Second idea (also because looping) is, I would love to see how you'd approach making two (perhaps simpler) patches that are meant to go together. A pad and its bass, say.

[@marcel_h_]

great words in fair time

[@OscillatorSink]

You lot are the best ❤️

[@sokoleski]

Please do a chewing , underlating rezonant thick arpeggio , with lots of slides and animation....that turns into a as much as possible distorted mayhem towards the end! Can it go from .....clean to mental ?!?! I wanna know

[@jonrosenblum8371]

These tutorials are great! I don't have a Microfreak yet, but it's on my list.

[@OscillatorSink]

Thank you!

[@jonrosenblum8371]

@@OscillatorSink Just ordered my Microfreak last night and can't wait to play with it and VCV Rack! I'll be using your videos to help me get started.

[@OscillatorSink]

@@jonrosenblum8371 enjoy your new synth!

[@camlong89]

Love these vids. More microfreak patch tutorials please! Maybe a dark drone pad or something.

[@OscillatorSink]

I have got an idea or two, but I'd like to revisit a pad sound for sure.

[@camlong89]

@@OscillatorSink I'm a guitar player who has been getting into synths the past couple of years, and these videos really help me understand sound design a bit better. Following along to your videos is like having personal synth lessons. Definitely earned a subscription.

[@OscillatorSink]

I'm a guitar player really as well. Don't tell anyone!

[@augustosuarez1642]

Muy bueno!!!!

[@davidsharp4073]

As soon as you mentioned the SoundBlaster I had an audio flashback lol

[@OscillatorSink]

Very strong sound memories of slightly too bright FM pad sounds?

[@davidsharp4073]

@@OscillatorSink Yeah I think so 😀

[@nothingmemorable486]

Such a handy little synth that.... you give a really great insight in what can be done. How about that 70's/80's string machine emulation.... pretty please.

[@OscillatorSink]

Definitely on the cards!

[@nothingmemorable486]

@@OscillatorSink Well I grabbed myself a microfreak. Only scraping the surface but so far so good. I have been messing the with the Karplus Strong and I can hear the potential but cant quite get what I need...yet!!!..... I have to say tho its a real great addition to my mostly volca setup.... nice to have some hard clean digital tones again to cut through that analogue volca durge....

[@Niven42]

OS whispers softly: It's ok Synth Police officer, this guy's cool. Loud synth at 4:20: *Noise complaint filed*

[@cymbolic_space1832]

it sounds to me that with this freak you can achieve some deep and clean sub bass tones ala early dub step and jungle.

[@DougieD_Funk]

Pronounced ‘Tam-ber’ by the way. Cool stuff. Enjoyed this homie

[@BeatScience]

Really cool, i’ve owned one for a few months and i’m always learning new things about it and I get the feeling I will for a while! Any chance for a percussion tutorial on this? I find that the most difficult without any noise oscillators

[@OscillatorSink]

I'm planning a percussion tutorial right now, so hopefully in the next month-ish!

[@NZsaltz]

There's a noise oscillator now!

[@tuesss]

If there's FM with feedback, you can generate noise, right? At least Korg Volca FM can do that with just two operators, actually even NTS-1 with the standard FM oscillator (2 ops, no feedback) can make almost-noise good for hi-hats (although with NTS-1 there are much better ways to generate noise anyway...)

[@markmiller2949]

How about a tutorial on percussive sounds using the speech oscillator. Just a thought. Love these tuts you’re making.

[@OscillatorSink]

Like beatboxing? Huh, yeah, I'm going to put that on my list of things that I want to do...

[@spiderlab2526]

@@OscillatorSink Here's a recent track where I used both FM bass and the Microfreak Speech Oscillator (to sing the vocal ). Luv your work! kzbin.info/www/bejne/n6izi4eclNCBrJI

[@michelnassarofficial]

😍😍

[@OscillatorSink]

😎👉👉

[@freejay6091]

the manual is huge. Would you still recommend reading it all before trying out stuff? or come back to it from time to time ? also amazig! build it in "real time" with you and learned just so much about the mod matrix :) huge!

[@OscillatorSink]

I would definitely always skim read a manual at least. That way interesting areas / features you weren't aware of will jump out at you for further research.

[@freejay6091]

@@OscillatorSink thanks! i think its also not the smartest idea to learn 2 instruments at the same time....like the circuit and microfreak in my case. oh well...

[@SANDMAN_66]

Damn those wiggly fingers are giving me shivvers

[@OscillatorSink]

🧐

[@JonadanandtheFreaks]

Is it possible to make so fat moogy taurus bass sound with it ?

[@eightcoins4401]

Letting lfo modulate filter cutoff is always a useful trick for fatter bass sound. Idk if i can do moog sound, but something like the basic va engine on it got a suboscillator built in.

[@brokenpoolhall]

Ah, still waiting in the mail for my microfreak. ! It’s brutal. Is it possible to change the 2 operators from sine, to saw waves?

[@OscillatorSink]

As far as I'm aware, it's sines only, but as soon as you introduce feedback, the modulator stops being a sine - you won't go wanting for harmonic content that's for sure.

[@OscillatorSink]

Oh, and I hope your Microfreak arrives soon!

[@brokenpoolhall]

@@OscillatorSink Thanks so much! Do you know of any hardware fm synths, that allow you to change the operator wave to sawtooths, detune them, etc? Under $1000?

[@OscillatorSink]

Digitone, Reface DX, Op-Six, second hand TX81Z or DX11- there are 5 to get you started. Any reason in particular that Sawtooth operators are of particular interest?

[@brokenpoolhall]

Excellent video!, my question is, can you detune the Two operators?

[@OscillatorSink]

You can detune one of them (the modulator) as part of the oscillator parameters. If you want to detune the carrier you can just modulate the pitch.

[@brokenpoolhall]

@@OscillatorSink You’ve just sold me on this synth. Thank you very much✌️✌️

[@OscillatorSink]

@@brokenpoolhall tell Arturia I sent you! I hope you enjoy it!

[@brokenpoolhall]

@@OscillatorSink You bet!!

[@JDSoundsets]

DOOM! nice Bass :)

[@OscillatorSink]

Thank you!

[@aSpeaker2BlocksAway]

Great Tutorial! I had two MF´s. On both the Matrix Knob died within 1-2 days. I can not turn it anymore it get stucked. Anybody else with this Issue? The third MF is on it´s way to me, because I love it.

[@NZsaltz]

That's weird. I've had it for a little less than 2 months and that didn't happen to me.

[@UNSCPILOT]

Either your unlucky or maybe you're power from the outlet is really rough and might be cooking the hardware somehow

[@jessehernandez641]

do you have this tutorial with korg opsix

[@OscillatorSink]

I haven't done a straight bass patch for the opsix yet, but I was thinking of doing one actually. Of course, you could emulate this pretty easily with any algorithm with 2 ops (algorithm 5 for example).

[@jessehernandez641]

@@OscillatorSink nice man, would love maybe a warp bass (jungle) , and or a donk bass tutorial... but i will work on recreating it on the opsix today. please let me know will subscribe

[@SisterRose]

do you think it's possible to get the megadrive bass sound from Charli XCX's Vroom Vroom lol i feel like i got close and I lost it. getting the decay right seem to be key. maybe with one of the other FM sounding synth models

[@SisterRose]

(also I 100% have played the E1M1 riff several times on my MF too lmao)

[@OscillatorSink]

E1M1 is life. I think, like the dx7, the Megadrive FM chip probably had a 6 stage envelope, so if it's the decay that feels illusive it, could just be a limitation of the a(d)s(r) envelope on the Microfreak?

[@eightcoins4401]

Theres a liven desktop synth based on the yamaha megadrive fm chip now

[@kevincowart362]

Plogue Chipsynth MD is a perfect emulation of the Megadrive. MegaFM by Twisted Electrons literally has two chips from the Megadrive.

[@depaus9461]

Do you think if its worth it to buy it? Even if you own a Deepmind 12?

[@OscillatorSink]

Yes. But also maybe no it can do a lot of things that the Deepmind can't and it's a lot of fun, but the question is whether you want to supplement your setup to do those things.

[@depaus9461]

Oscillator Sink True, I still have to figure out alot about my Deepmind so ye. Thanks for the great tutorial!

[@OscillatorSink]

There's a LOT that the Deepmind can do 😉 kzbin.info/www/bejne/eZbPkmiGqL2MjqM

[@rars0n]

I really feel like this is such an affordable and capable synth that it doesn't make sense not to buy it if you can afford it. It's got a huge personality, too. So much to love.

[@ezassegai4793]

the microfreak needs a bigger version. It does things in very cool way but it lacks polyphony and stuff

[@UNSCPILOT]

A year later, still hoping we get a "SuperFreak", in the mean time though having a lot of fun with my Microfreak, for a tiny unit it can make such a wide range of sounds!

[@Zanix_IV]

damn these synth police people are so uptight

[@fernandomercado2711]

Will I ever get bored of FM sounds? The answer is no.

[@OscillatorSink]

Correct. Answer.

[@youtubeii434]

Not enough words

[@OscillatorSink]

A fair comment.

[@gerardsyd8320]

26 mn !

[@OscillatorSink]

Yes

[@SisterRose]

can you do a Sonic the hedgehog FM bass? lol

[@OscillatorSink]

If you tweak this one I think you'll get close! Probably need more feedback to get that characteristic "rasp".

[@1dkappe]

Wurlitzer or Rhodes

[@OscillatorSink]

An E-Piano patch was on my list... I'll bump it up a place or two...

[@1dkappe]

@Oscillator Sink there are probably a dozen different ways to get e-piano sounds. At someone else’s suggestion, I tried the Modal Resonator engine. Promising. But my mod matrix kung fu isn’t quite good enough to get it all the way there.

[@Thoracius]

After playing around with my microfreak a bit, I didn't find it too conducive to e-piano sounds. I did one 2op fm piano that sounds like an old 80s casio piano ( in other words not much like a piano). Of course one could also always do a classic analog-style square wave wurli. But creating an actual nuanced rhodes or wurli on this sounds like a pretty good challenge.

[@1dkappe]

@@Thoracius your standards for e-piano are much higher than mine. :-)

[@Thoracius]

@@1dkappe ​ I've taken this as a challenge. I've been playing around with it. First problem is a piano should have a long decay and a short release, but for some crazy reason Arturia did not give the option of separate decay/release controls on the MicroFreak. The second problem is that the MicroFreak is paraphonic, not true polyphonic. A piano sound should get darker as it decays. Since all four voices share a single filter, the brightness decay needs to be accomplished by modulating the oscillator controls instead. I couldn't get anywhere close using the model resonator, but I've managed to do it with the 2-OP FM. It's roughly in the ballpark, but it's not an especially engaging sound. If I find some spare time I could post a video showing how to do it.

[@technofications3686]

Add microtuning arturia this is not fair

[@marksondervan5609]

How can you save what you make?

[@OscillatorSink]

Page 22 of the manual. Section 4.2: Saving Presets

[@colinbrash]

Tom, bruh.

[@OscillatorSink]

Bruh.

[@edmontontech2008]

You may wanna run compression or turn your video audio to mono. Your voice is so quiet and the synth is way to loud.

[@OscillatorSink]

In the history of running this channel I've been told both that the synth is too loud and the voice over is too loud... So, for what it's worth - I am compressing the voice over (very hard), and also running a side chained compressor on the synth, which is ducking it by 7-9dB whenever I speak.

[@edmontontech2008]

Oscillator Sink Why are you doing it the hard way? Rip the audio and compress the whole thing. This way it normalizes all the audio and we only have to adjust the volume once.

[@OscillatorSink]

@@edmontontech2008 that's not the hard way - it's the standard way. Most VO's are handled that way (for example in radio). Compress the voice to even the dynamics of the voice, then duck the 'music'. Also (for me anyway) preferable in a sound demo type video because you're actually hearing the dynamics of the synth rather than a squashed version. That's my take anyway, your mileage may vary.

[@edmontontech2008]

Oscillator Sink This is why we have glue compression. Lol. You don’t need to squash anything. If you’re that worried about losing harmonics, you could always mix your videos audio with monitors instead of headphones. Or pass it though Ozone if you’re not confident in mixing volume levels. Idk. Just trying to help a fellow musician. Good luck :)

[@Roboprogs]

Record the voice on a separate track and adjust the volume in post??? Not that I know how to do that. My hobby stuff is “point phone, push record” (with an audio interface attached to the phone)

[@jedigooner]

Too much words

[@OscillatorSink]

It's a tutorial.

[@Aileron90]

its pronounced TAM-BER, not TAAM-BRA

[@OscillatorSink]

Merriam-Webster suggests both to be acceptable actually.

[@Aileron90]

@@OscillatorSink yeah, nah.

[@OscillatorSink]

@@Aileron90 yeah, yeah. www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/timbre