Are Hardware Synths worth it? Arturia MiniFreak Speed Run 

People never mention: you can sell hardware when you get tired of it.

One of the reasons the Minifreak is my only synth right now. It’s an absolute joy to program. I never feel lost in the weeds. Plus it has one hell of a workflow enhancer with the plugin version. Basically just come up with a sound you like, load the plugin and transfer it directly into your Ableton project.

Fantastic sir! I’ve been playing with the mini freak for bit with elektron boxes. You brought some big inspiration with the random sounds on this one! Thanks!

Watching you flow through to demo this synth is a talent and a treasure. This is gold and we are watching this for free. Amazing.

A few things: 1. Physically touching the thing matters to me and having a knob per function interface makes me work faster. 2. Even with new CPUs, the best sounding soft synths will still slow down your system and can make performance difficult with introduced latency 3. Hardware synths encourage you to commit to performances and move on 4. As mentioned elsewhere you can sell hardware when you want / need. All that said - you absolutely can make as good or better music with soft synths! Hardware workflow just works better FOR ME.

Great demo, thanks Anthony! You're an excellent Creator, and I always understand 100% of the content you share 🙂👍 I used to have the MicroFreak but had to return it within the first month - but I'm glad I did, because shortly afterwards the MiniFreak came out! 😃 Would much rather have the MiniFreak ... will be getting one for myself for Christmas this month 🤩

Also, to me it seems a lot easier (and cooler:) when playing live to use an actual hardware synth rather than fiddling with plugins on a laptop screen 😛

This is my only other hardware synth along with a Roland SE-02. The Mini is so immediate and fun. It covers a lot of ground. I liked this one a lot. Thanks Anthony!

Ah, I thought you were going to do a side-by-side comparison between the hardware Minifreak and the software Minifreak. Now THAT would give a much better answer to the video title's question.

Great video and very good points made. The fun factor is a major part of making music.

Awesome! I was directly hypnotized by the process, despite the fact that I myself do about the same things in Ableton, but without the hardware synth :-)

No mention of MiniFreak V, the VST companion? With that you can have MIDI and automation in the DAW...

This video was great! Composition and design videos using outboard gear with Ableton, how it all works together, would be great to see more of.

This song is probably one of the best I've heard in an Ableton Live tutorial in a long time. Up there with ill gates/mr. bill/tom cosm.

Been a guitarist for a few decades now and recently decided to try making some electronic/synth music. Started with software but really wanted to pick up at least one hardware synth. I ended up getting the minifreak because of its wide range of capabilities and the vst. Very happy with it. Easy to learn/program. Very inspiring to play with. If you just want one hardware synth and it is in your budget I don't think you can go wrong with this unit.

i love how digital and crazy this thing can get. for being more affordable(ish) I feel like this thing is a lot more versatile than a bunch of old school analog synths. hope to grab one one day

Hardware forever !!!

Wow this is powerful

I love my minifreak for the same reason I love my 303 clone: I can just play it , twist all the knobs, and have it make sounds that I enjoy. The second best part about the minifreak, though, is that I can find something I like and save it in the plugin

i have tons of plugin yet hardware is different its fun and you got knob per function almost which is very fun

For me, I mostly use my Minifreak more as a controller that maps 1:1 to the VST and keeps everything midi so I can more easily make changes to the sound and midi later. If the keys are too small for you it is always possible to connect another keyboard/controller via MIDI. I recently purchased an MPC one+ to mix up how I make music too and make it is more hands-on in a different way. It does have a bit of a learning curve compared to Ableton Live.

With a budget, and owning the minilab3, I’ve wondered about how the minifreak vst works in terms of speed and sound design. But at a $200 price tag for a vst, it’s hard to justify not waiting, saving, and lurking on reverb for the actual hardware.

I returned mine but the sound is nice. I honestly think that the software is just as fine.

2:08 “ehhh…. Ooooo!” Yup. My brain said the same.

That’s an awesome groove! Should flesh that one out!

💙🤘

minifreak is an interesting companion to a daw (as well a microfreaks). It can easily become a controller; complete with a very interesting hardware seq and arp; beyond the internal synth. It's also a fun synth to use and patch. I'm not in love with the sound it produces even if you can take to interesting place. Me I've opted for a keystep 37 as my daw controller; and I use the random arp quite often with soft synths. I also have a microfreak which doubles as a polyaftertouch controller (and also is cool to make little improvisation and tracks). With a basic remote script you can turn any of those into a controller that will automap to any plugin so that's something to consider (and for me plugin control is the most useful thing in remote scripts; the rest not so much). Another reason to get hardware is either for really special sounds you can't make any other way as said in the video or to get into classic analog sounds which can really have an edge over plugin emulations (in the last case I would turn to dreadbox nymphes / typhon for the sound/price/form factor ratio which is impressive).

As I'm drinking my coffee next to my pro 1 knock off on the counter table that was placed to draw a picture of, some people will keep the market cause we simply LOVE SHIT. You can't fix this in humanity.

I have a lot of HW Synths because i like when stuff actually works. It needs oldschool 8-din midi plugs and analog out(s) at least. They will work until they (or me) die. Software is always problems, updates or planned obsolescence. Let's not start about this cloud rubbish. I just updated to a M2 macbook, because Ableton 12 will not work on my old macbook. I like the new macbook very much but you are still very dependable of drivers and/or plugin updates. HW Synth -> plug it in and it works.

I like my soft synths, but there's something about knob/slider per function that's easier and faster to work with. Plus, if you're gonna play live I wouldn't want to rely on a computer/laptop to play

unless its analogue, only value a HW synth has over its VST counterpart is its portability and tweakability

i use my Microfreak CONSTANTLY. i really hope i win the raffle i want a minifreak so badly 🥵

In case of MINI it makes a sexy controller with sounds in it : I think 🤔

Sure seems fun to just be able to use your hands and do play w the toys more quickly

I've been thinking about this a lot lately. But, maybe it's the RU-vid algorithm, but I'm not seeing the software synth reviews I used to see all the time. It's all hardware, and that can be expensive, and I don't personally have a place to store it all. I do have a few hardware synths Korg Minilogue, Microbrute (thinking of selling), a couple of Volcas. People I used to enjoy watching only seem to do hardware reviews Andrew Huang (except when he's shilling his own apps), Benn Jordan, Sonic Labs, Venus Theory (actually I don't know what his channel is about anymore. He seems to be just lecturing in a most annoying way). If you read this far, please post some reviews of soft synths and devices you've seen in the last couple of months. I would love to watch.

I’m a software engineer… the last thing I want to do when making sounds is sitting in front of another computer 😂

The only downside to external synths is noise floors and then latency. Other than that i prefer hardware over soft synths.

MiniFreak has a VST minus the analog filters

You’ll never forget your first pot 😂

RU-vid ads are responsible for me no longer watching contents.. do you have alternative channels?

OK kids, here's the lesson from history. Back in the 1980s, as computing hardware became cheaper it became affordable to sell commercial samples. These sounded "real" and nobody wanted that old modular subtractive junk. So it all got sold off cheap, sent to landfill and the manufacturers went bust. Then for 20 years we didn't have any synths, certainly not interesting ones. Why bother? You can do it all in a single box or a computer! No need for all those switches and wires! And then the only synths you'd ever seen were those panels in Reason. Then along came eurorack and saved music, about 20 years ago. So, no, hardware synths will never be obsolete, not should they ever be allowed to become so. Trust me, composing with a mouse and jog wheel is horrendous when it's literally your only interface.

My Deepmind12, virus ti are both mostly programmed from the app. Why buy hardware synths I asked myself. Is it sound quality. No not really. Vsts lot cheaper, no space used. Can easily be combined with effects. Can easily be eQed. The analogs have to be adjusted. I stopped buying hardware. Don't need the pro800 because I have full arturia collection. The only thing attractive about the minifreak is it has an app and it sounds very good. And it's a good price. Nothing touches it in hardware synths for versatility even in more expensive synths.

Of course they're worth it, it was never about the sound. It's a stand-alone device that doesn't require a computer to produce sound. Of course you can use soft synths and MIDI controllers to get the physical controls, but the DAWs usually offer too much options. You need limitations of specific synths to make you follow a specific workflow or write parts in a specific way. And lastly, it's an investment, it's something that has value.

Ctrl + S in software kills hardware imho.

This "Fun factor" using hardware is nonsense, not different than controller + vst. Back some years ago i was using my Yamaha AN1x and had some of sort this fun factor when i fully changed to vsts lol

I hate softsynths and plugins with a passion...turning a knob with a mouse or a touch screen can never compare to the real thing....

It's all about the workflow.

Your title suggests an argument for the pros of soft synths but its ended up being a demo for the hard synth Minifreak. Shame on you.

Are hardware synths becoming obsolete…? And then you start with a giveaway including the MiniFreak…🫣 Would have expected a deep side-by-side comparison with the virtual version of this particular synth.