I’m almost certain to get a little Freak soon, but am indecisive about which one to get.
Currently I’m favoring the MicroFreak (Stellar Edition), but considering the MiniFreak as well (for several reasons, like the fact that it comes with a 1:1 plugin version).
Both got a number of pros and cons for me I have to weigh up.
I guess the most crucial point that would help me to make a decision would be to have a bit of a picture what to expect for both in the future. But I can’t find any resources, “roadmaps” or something, not here on the forum or elsewhere.
Like for example, (for me personally) a big minus for the MiniFreak is that it’s missing the entire Sample/Granular engine. But I can’t find out if that’s planned to be implemented or anything.
Would be great to know at least a little bit about what’s upcoming for the Freaks.
I think Arturia did an astounding job to expand the capabilities of the MicroFreak with their firmware updates! What they did there is really extraordinary and impressive.
On the other hand it makes me think this might be slowing down or even end (for the MicroFreak). Guess at some point it’s simply maxed out, and not possible anymore to pack further features into an existing hardware.
But again, no way to find some information about this 
Merci
Hi @deepspace
I’m afraid no one can answer that for you until Arturia themselves make any announcements. They’re not generally in the habit of making such announcements ahead of time though, so anything you may or may nor hear would likely be just pure speculation.
I have a couple of friends that own MicroFreaks and they LOVE them, particularly as they’ve had so many updates and so much extra added functionality.
I own a MiniFreak myself and am pretty happy with it so far, the last update bought extra functionality too, but i couldn’t possibly speculate on what might or might not happen update wise in the future.
The best way to find out first about this kind of thing is to subscribe to our Newsletter to be the first to know about them.
HTH!
Thank you Mat.
After I wasn’t able to find some infos on my own beforehand, that’s pretty much an answer I expected.
I can understand Arturia’s way to handle it like that, if it’s for the argument not to trigger expectations that might not be fulfilled later on. On the other hand I think users would appreciate if they would act more open and transparent in that regard. And users would also understand if certain things can’t be realized in the end, due to technical reasons or whatever.
So in my case, having zero idea if the Sample/Granular OSC mode will ever be implemented, leads to a big fat minus for the MiniFreak. This might be different if I knew Arturia is planning/trying to bring that to the Mini.
That’s one reason why I’m leaning heavily towards the MicroFreak now, like 90:10.
This and after browsing through some of the threads here, where I could see users having quite some issues with the Mini (hardware and software). Bricked hardware units, unusable software, bug reports, all of that paired with bad support experiences… doesn’t sound too pleasant.
Overall it seems the MicroFreak is the better choice at the moment. More fully matured, stable, and I can be sure what I will definitely get.
With the price difference in mind, I think the MicroFreak is the better overall package.
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I don’t have much to say but I own both and with all the updates on the Micro and the Mini as now, I like the Minifreak a lot more. Just my opinion tho.
I can almost guarantee you they will update the Mini with more.
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That’s interesting, thanks for sharing your opinion. Always nice to hear from somebody who’s able to compare directly.
Well I guess what turned me off the Mini the most in the end, was the amount of rather negative threads here. Bugs, bricked units, requests for things that should be there by default, several oddities, bad support experiences and so on…
From what you are saying, it seems you don’t have a lot of issues?
I might get both in the end, but can’t afford both the same time. So most likely I’ll get the Micro now, and that allows me to calmly wait and see how the Mini is developing. What I definitely want to avoid is ending up with a buggy unit that needs to go to repair right away, or stuff like that.
And from what I’ve been reading here I’m not really sure this won’t happen with the MiniFreak.
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In my opinion, the MiniFreak firmware is currently (2.0.0.1478) simply too buggy to even be considered. See also my posts here, in which I describe that I have immense problems with some oscillators and/or oscillator combinations, where there is interference noise in the hardware.