Okay, first off: thank you Arturia for adding a well-requested, well-appreciated feature. I can see that there is the potential for lots of fun here.
There, however, are some caveats: 1. I’m not particularly liking the included samples from the factory. While they sound perfectly fine, the fact of the matter is: they all just sound like presets that we could already obtain in the MiniFreak through one of its many sound engines. So: what’s the fun in getting sounds that we’ve already had?
I was hoping to match MiniFreak’s modern magic with samples of my own choosing, as well as (hopefully) some sounds from Arturia that would also come from more organic sounds-some of which were sourced from maybe acoustic instruments That way I’d be able to obtain truly new takes on older, or more traditional sounds.
Which brings us, from my perspective, at least, to 2. The need for User Samples.
If I could load my own samples (like I was expecting, and like you can do already with the MicroFreak), then it wouldn’t matter nearly as much what samples I was getting from the factory: I could use them, or not use them, as the mood hit me, safe in the knowledge that I had a means of taking matters into my own hands, and provide whatever sounds I wished, in the moment.
Please tell me there’s a way to load our own samples, and I’m just missing it? Please?
What’s going wrong with the minifreak?
Even with the wavetable engine, it is not possible to load and/or create your own W-tables. Now comes a sample/granular engine that also does not allow user tables, or none can be loaded. The download functions are available in the minifreak V, but somehow the concept of converting the minifreak V into a software center doesn’t work properly, see also the critical firmware update situation with 1.1 and 2.0.
In the microfreak environment all this is available and works fine….
I’m speculating but i’d say there are more options in the Minifreak, like Frozen, Raster and especially Lick that may need a treated sample (the raw12b kind of sample). Lick is not available on the Microfreak.
This article has been helpful in giving a definitive answer to what is going on.
In the second setion of paragraphs, it reads: “In version 3.0, you are limited to the integrated factory sample library. Arturia promised in the briefing that sample import would be a free update soon. So, no worries if you don’t find the section on how much sample time you have or where you can import samples in the plugin. It’s coming soon!”
And this makes sense, given what I had already observed yesterday: a frustratingly empty (and yet promisingly available) box underneath the “Sample Presets” dialog box. It looked very much like the completely empty area immediately below the word “Factory” was a section just waiting to be populated with the listings of other preset categories, different from “Factory”-like “User” for instance.
I would like to amend my previous assessments on the included samples: yesterday I said “I’m not particularly liking the included samples from the factory.” I think this sounds like I’m saying the samples suck.
And upon further exploration, I’d have to say that I actually think the samples are fine. I definitely would have appreciated a few lofi-sounding samples (and this type of content is what I’m looking forward to adding when sample uploading becomes available), but that is not to say that the content that they’ve included is not a well thought-out, nicely curated group of sounds. They’re perfectly fine, and I have already put together a couple of presets that are sounding similar to what I was expecting my MiniFreak to sound like once sample-play was introduced for it, and I’m generally pleased.
I think what I was reacting to was: the presets that Arturia constructed around these various samples. It is that material that I find to be just a basic continuation of a certain sound they’ve already done quite a lot of in all the other presets already included on the MiniFreak.
I don’t exactly see the point of adding something like sample-play, if in the end the presets that you construct around the samples end up sounding just like anything else you could have gotten from the many digital-based algorithms you have already included.
As far as the possibilities that adding sample play gives, the types of sounds that really excite me are the ones that embrace all the features that make samples so unique: their occasional grit; the charms that come from all the limitations that were inherent in the Era of PCM/Sample music-making. And then melding all of that with all the new juicy digital capabilities afforded by modern techniques. That’s what I look forward to; and that approach is something that Arturia even shows signs of having an understanding of (just listen to some of the presets included in AUGMENTED Grand Piano-or even some presets in Pigments-and you’ll get a bit of what I’m talking about.)
And so, I think that the sound of the sample-based presets Arturia has chosen to aim for represents a bit of a missed opportunity for them. But maybe they’re not finished, but instead have only started-so we’ll see.
At any rate: hearing that User Sample Uploading is coming is comforting.
