Arturia Forums
Hardware Instruments => MicroFreak => MicroFreak - General Discussion => Topic started by: Chrismusic_1000 on February 13, 2021, 07:09:51 am
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Hey everyone,
All in all I the sound quality is awesome and I love the way the Microfreak looks, but I just cant seem to create any sounds that are spectacular. Occasionally I've been able to come up with a cool sequence using the arpeggiator, or routing it through a ton of effects but I feel like it's slightly limited. What do you guys think about it?
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Hi,
I'm using this synth in production and it offers quite the palette of sound and has so many sweetspots. Most of the time I use pretty simple sounds which are easier to fit many of them into a production so I say this synth is really cool.
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After using this synth for more than a year, I tend to agree with the original post. I can't make it sound interesting. None of the supplied patches nor any other that I've made or downloaded from other users is anything better than cold and thin-sounding. Perhaps it's in part due to the lack of onboard effects and the single-oscillator design, but my Yamaha MX with the Melas software is far more user-friendly and inspiring to programme and play. Arturia hasn't helped improve my opinion in refusing to update the MIDI spec into one that is useable. I'm probably going to sell it and save up for a Yamaha or Roland synth.
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I f*cking love it. I can make it sound so melty and bent and strange. It's not ideal for bright shimmery hi-fi patches. But I don't like those. It suits me INCREDIBLY well. Flawless Lo-Fi machine.
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Are you serious?
The only thing I miss on the Microfreak is more audio and CV i/o so I can use it with my Modular.
I just had a nice v4.0 testing session generating Dolby-like generated gliding chords and boy, the Microfreak has to be the ProgMetal Fanatic's favourite synth given how well it sounds in itself. I am in no way surprised that Jordan Ruddess himself Youtubed himself playing with it.
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Hello. I'm new here, but I'm also an owner of quite a lot of Arturia hardware and software. Some of it I like, some of it I love, and some of it is just okay.
The MicroFreak has its place, but I find that if you're looking for those "big" and "fat" sounds you get from a Moog (one example), or from most modular synth oscillator modules, you're not going to get them on the MicroFreak.
I have used the MF in several of my own recordings, but I will admit that the video that sold me on it—which was posted by Arturia—made it seem a lot more flexible that it really is. In case you're wondering which video I'm talking about, it's the one with the hipster guy playing three MF's and a DrumBrute. I agree with @MISZCZYK on the point that it's a great synth for making the now very popular Lo-Fi hip hop sounds, but it's hardly a flawless machine. It IS however a great synth for the price.
The MF has its strong points. For me, these are its ability to make:
- 80's type poly synth sounds
- Plucky and rhythmic "karplus" synth sounds[/]
- Bells and chimes with option of cool mods
- Pads with great aftertouch mod options – especially for a $300 synth
- Weird percussive sounds which can help round-out a mix that's too heavy on the low end
- Pretty cool sequences using aforementioned sounds
I also like that you can hook up the MF to a computer (provided you own one) and use Arturia's MIDI Control Center to import/export your patches, and get new ones from Arturia. Sadly it's not a very good MIDI controller, and I was really hoping to use it as an auxiliary controller to keep next to my computer's keyboard. Oh well; swing and miss on that one Arturia!
When I was 18, I bought a brand new Korg MS2000B. That synth cost $749.99, and it was roughly twice the synth that the MF is on all fronts, so you get what you pay for. A better comparison would be the MicroKorg though. That thing wasn't anywhere near as user friendly nor as flexible as the MF is, and the sound quality is probably a bit better on the MF (I don't remember, I sold my MK a very long time ago).
To answer the OP's original question: Yes, I am using it, but in a limited fashion. The MF is definitely not the Swiss Army knife of synths—but the price is excellent for what it can do (I got it before the price increase). I'll hang onto mine for now and see where it takes me!
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The MicroFreak has its place, but I find that if you're looking for those "big" and "fat" sounds you get from a Moog (one example), or from most modular synth oscillator modules, you're not going to get them on the MicroFreak.
Personnaly it seemed to be a perfect box to use as a midi guitar expander.
Affordable price, small, reduced weight, many presets and some very original, ARP, midi, setup App and firmware updates to fix bugs and improve.
Quite ideal on the paper.... but.
Midi is a mess where the most common and standard messages are not implemented (all the other synths I've got implement CC7, preset select is implemented with an inverted convention for bank select -MSB and LSB convention inverted-, etc.).
Strange sound output when processor is pushed in its limits (ARP, SEQ, high midi input, etc.)
Mono is a limitation where most of the nowday instruments have stereo.
No clear path of evolution : Vocoder extension has been great for my usage, the other concerning wave tables implying too much work for my usage.
So it is still in my setup but due to all this special work it requires, it gets closer every day to the door...