Arturia Microfreak - Let's Build... a Pad! 

Glad to have helped, welcome to the channel!

Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it!

Yep! The digital oscillator + the Mod Matrix opens up so many options.

If only it had more voices!

I recently took my OP-Z on a long train journey. Portable gear is so good.

👈🤯👉

It's definitely a fun synth to program, I hope you enjoy your new synth and welcome to the channel!

I hope you're having fun with it! Welcome to the world of hardware synths - and to the start of your collection 😉

@@OscillatorSink for sure! no way back to software for me ever again. totally different, hands-on workflow which I love! :)

Creating music on a synth is the only way to go. After 30 years of day after day using a computer at work, I have absolutely no interest or inspiration sitting in front of a Mac or PC. (those of you that do, enjoy yourselves my friends)

I'm glad I could help you get going with your new Microfreak - welcome to the channel!

I'm glad to hear that you're enjoying your new synth!

@@OscillatorSink you shouldn't I already bought a volca kick and some audio interface. One more goes down the rabbit hole of the recreation of a Russian industrial control room fantasy while making strange noises and pissing off their family.

Excellent to hear 😁

Glad you enjoyed it!

Гавно оно и есть гавно для денег

Full money говно

👍

Enjoy your future synth!

Oscillator Sink Cheers, I think it’ll sit quite nicely with my existing set up. What I really want is a Moog Subharmonicon but that’ll have to wait until I’ve sold a kidney!

You and me both. That's definitely on my wish list. Along with a bunch of other stuff I can't afford.

Oscillator Sink MicroFreak arrives tomorrow... Best get the percolator on overdrive, gonna be a late do ✌️

I hope you have fun with it!

congrats mate how is it holding up?

@@ezassegai4793 great!

I was going to save up for a more expensive one. But this seems to do more than enough. So tempted to buy it now

@@Ninjjadog its definitely deeper than the microkorg for example. If I could go back I would get a microfreak instead

Cheers!

Cheers friend!

GAS is real! Hope you can pick one up.

I might do a video on this - and I had a long conversation with Mr Doty about this - I don't like the usage of the "phonic" suffix. In "monophonic", "polyphonic" and "multiphonic" we're talking about note count, but in "paraphonic" (and now "variophonic") we're talking about the articulation of the voices. My preference is to stop using paraphonic (and not use variophonic) and instead start talking about mono-articulated, partially-articulated and fully-articulated. The MicroFreak is a multiphonic, partially-articulated synth. A string machine is a polyphonic, mono-articulated synth. A Juno106 is a multiphonic, fully-articulated synth. A piano is a polyphonic, fully-articulated instrument. I think that actually works to better articulate the meaning (if you excuse the completely intentional pun).

@@OscillatorSink Oh yes, I see what you mean. I'm not so sure how easy it is to sell, but yeah, it makes sense.

Yeah, slap that LPWPA button and get to Padding - but first I want to tell you about SquareSpace.

Thanks!

No problems, glad to help!

I love the final sound

Thank you!

More coming in the next few weeks and months!

@@OscillatorSink Thank you. I have been hesitant to invest yet. Wondering if its capably of creating more lead like lines...

@@am5790 have you seen my video on building a lead sound?

Thanks for watching, I hope you found it useful.

Buy one anyway. Nothing similar exists that is more cost effective.

Thank you!

Thank you!

Your English is good, far better than my Spanish! Glad you enjoyed the video and it's helping on your journey!

​@@OscillatorSink Thanks ! I would like to know what is the best form to loop a Microfreak, i really like can use more sounds, but if i change the preset the last sound lost. This is would if i want to play live, you recommend a pedal loop or ableton?

@@ezequielmorales8115 depends on whether you like using a computer in your performance or not. A lot of people like the Boss RC series of loppers. The Electro Harmonix loopers seem solid to. But I don't use a looper, so I'm only basing this on reputation.

@@OscillatorSink great ! thanks. As usual.. when you do a performance on RU-vid, with a only one microfreak, you use a only one preset? or more? or use one and play with the filter, envelope, etc while the performance lasts?

@@ezequielmorales8115 yes, it is usually a single patch and I'm tweaking during the performance. Also adding some fx pedals helps to keep things interesting.

He's still a little young for littleBits (although I do already own a set!). The Kastle is interesting, but I think I'd rather get a Bitranger if I was getting a Bastl noise maker... Hmm I do kinda regret selling my microgranny...

@@OscillatorSink thanks for the reply, i'm still pretty new to all this, and pretty broke so i went with the kastle 1.5 as a small step into the modular world. looked at the volca modular but didn't think it was worth twice the price of a kastle. plus the kastle is actually made in the czech republic - amazing to see anything not made in china! a microfreak question, if i may, i was under the impression i could layer sound on the step sequencer since it is 4 voice per step paraphony but it seems i can't. i wanted to play, for example, a simple bass line, then add a melody, etc until i reach 4 voices. if more than one note falls on a step the microfreak erases the other note. in live record mode as well. the only way to get 4 notes on a step is to play them simultaneously, a chord. am i missing something? if that is the way it works i'm disappointed! the volca bass still has a better sequencer, easier and more versatile despite it's 16 step limit. i can mix 3 voices together and hear what they sound like right away without having to record each voice separately in audacity to finally hear what they sound like together. what takes me 2 or 3 days in the volca bass takes 2 or 3 weeks in the microbrute and now, i discover, it's going to be the same deal for the microfreak!? the freak sounds amazing though, great versatility and variety of sounds. oh well, guess i'll have to live with or break out the looper!

Thanks!

No you are!

I'm glad you're enjoying the videos - I will do so E more Microfreak, but, although it's not quite as formal, I made a bunch of patches on this stream: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-pJX2rCSVxfs.html As for support - that's very kind, but not necessary, but if you do want to contribute to the channel, then you could check out my music: oscillatorsink.bandcamp.com/ - it's all free, but you can "pay if you want" on Bandcamp. Cheers!

Oh yay! Going to save that for tomorrow! Really fun friday night :D Oh wow, march 28 from sleepytime synths 1 is really beautiful! sounds modular(?), one day I might learn too :D

@@skogsnymphs thanks - the gear I used on each track is listed on Bandcamp (click 'info' for each track). That one is actually just my Minilogue plus some effects though!

@@OscillatorSink Oh that's very helpful to be able to see what gear used! Thanks! Also interesting. I have noticed I've been drawn to other songs and sounds by that synth without knowing it was that one! Def going up a few spots on my wishlist :D

Hi there, I hope you enjoy your journey exploring synths. A "patch" is the arrangement of the various parameters to define a particular sound (so called as it harkens back to a time where you would physically patch together parts of a synthesizer with cables - something we still do in modular synthesizers). A pad is, I suppose you would say, a classification of patch based on its sound. Generally erring towards longer, sustained sounds (that pad out the sonic space). Think of a string section playing a note together as a "real world" example. This video did assume some prior knowledge of the fundamentals of synthesis in general, which may have been what tripped you up a little as it progresses - but don't worry, there are lots of learning materials out there and you can learn a lot by just playing and exploring.

That can go on the list 🙂

@@OscillatorSink thank you thank you thank you!

It's probably just as well to direct you to the manual because you don't want to be waiting weeks or months for that video to come out: From the manual: 4.2. Saving Presets You probably know what it is like to ruin a brilliant patch with one wrong decision and to discover that you can't go back to that moment because you forgot to save your patch. That's why we've put the Save button right next to the browsing encoder. Press the Save button to enter "save" mode. Once in save mode, you can: • save your preset to the current slot or to a different location • modify preset category • rename your preset Note: At this stage you can still change you mind about saving the preset. When you press "Save" once more, the Save process will be aborted. If you just want to save the changes you made to preset in the current location long press "save" to store your changes. The display will respond with "Preset saved" If you want to save it to a different location turn the encoder to select a location and press the encoder to select the new location. The display will respond with "Click to save": you can now select a category by turning the Encoder. You can change the category to any of the eleven available types: bass, brass, keys, lead, organ, pad, percussion, sequence, sfx, strings and template. Click once more after selecting the Category and dial in a name for the preset. The Save button will now blink to indicate that you're in the final stage of the save process. Turning the encoder will guide you through the alphabet, first in Upper case then in Lower case and finally through the numbers 0 to 9. To enter a space turn the encoder all the way to the left. Note: To edit a character in an existing name push+turn the preset encoder. To quickly scroll through the characters options hold [shift] and turn the encoder. Click to make a letter selection final; this brings you to the next field in the name where you can repeat your selection until you have a complete preset name. Now press "Save" to save the preset with its new name. When you save your patch to a preset location, everything related to that preset gets saved: • the position of the knobs • sequences and the modulation tracks • the configuration changes you made in Utility that are specific for this preset (Utility>Preset) Clever use of the "save" option is important if you want to create a song structure; save several presets that make up the song, assign them to consecutive slots in the MIDI Control Center, and load the newly sorted presets back into the MicroFreak. The "Template" category is intended as an in between category where you can store particularly interesting presets that you want to explore further. By storing them as "template" you create a reminder to yourself. You can then use the template as a starting point and save variations of the preset in other slots. Note: Spice & Dice settings are not saved with a preset. Note: If you see a message saying "Memory protect is on", select Utility>Misc>Mem Protect and set it to OFF.

I may have saved it but I didn't show that on camera (I tend to leave the purely functional stuff to the manual to cover). Either way - it's only a few button presses and a twist of a knob. I actually think that a version of this patch was included in the pack of patches that I made for Arturia (which can be downloaded for free from their website).

You'll make me blush! Yeah, it's a really cool little thing isn't it? Not a lot else available like it and it can do classy or weird in equal amounts. I'm really interested to see where Arturia take the "freak" series next!

Maxifreak...what else! Haha

Oscillator Sink I am as well! I’d love to see a physical modeling drum synth like the Volca but with pads and more knobs.

Joe Blow ...I’ve often imagined what that’d be like... like a waldorf Q but freakier oscillators... also thought a minifreak with an audio in and something like 2 separate pan-able filters and 8 voices would be a cool idea too

I have a long wishlist for a "MiniFreak"... So long that it's probably getting on to being a "MatrixFreak" honestly!!

Yeah, all good at the moment. Hoping to post a jam with it soon and just recently did another tutorial that was fun!

There are some tricks, especially with engines like the Superwave and K/S that can sound super reverberant, but what a good reverb pedal might be able to give you is some stereo width, and even used subtly that can make a huge difference for me personally.

@@OscillatorSink I'm running a mono live system not recording stuff

@@williamshaneblyth then all good!

Thank you! I might mention it when I turn it on, but I'll have to track down the moment to know for sure, but it's almost certainly a Digitech Polara, which is my go-to reverb pedal for demos. I actually did a video comparing it to the Zoom MS-CDR70 which is a good way to hear all of its sounds. You can find that here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-FR_Dx6iqWAw.html

@@OscillatorSink oooo thanks, I'll have to look into your videos to see what kind of gear you're using!

Welcome to the channel!

So two things at play here - the Microfreak has a single filter that all voices go through and the Microfreak has 4 voices in "paraphonic mode" at most ('paraphonic' is a bad description for the architecture of the Microfreak as it goes, but I digress...). So if a note it currently holding the filter open and you add a 5th note it will just 'ping' into being among the notes already playing. So you can mitigate against this a bit through playing style. Or, if I recall correctly, if you use the Cycling Envelope on Env mode to modulate the filter cutoff, that should retrigger with each note played.

@@OscillatorSink thank you so much for answering! This has been weighing on me for a while. Yesterday when I tried exactly what you're describing was what I thought too. About adding the 5th note and the oing goes off. So I'm pretty sure that's why. It was way more appearent when paraphonic was of because if I then hold down one key and press another it pings. I'm sure can use this in a cool way too but good to be aware about! I will also try that with the cycling envelope and cut off. Wow this made me much happier this morning to wake up too. Thanks for your help and your video guides!! I'm going to dive in and experiment and learn some more today :D

I've done another two for the Microfreak on this channel, for a lead and bass. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-xnbjzXE9Pu8.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-DT0ge4To0S4.html I think this video I did on envelopes is also really worth a watch, even if I do say so myself: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-wJr3DheLXXM.html I'd also suggest that watching patches being built on other synths can be really useful for learning synthesis in general - if you want to keep it in the family, maybe some Minibrute action would be good: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-wwlcYTiDLkc.html

Well, it was, wasn't it!

It's not there in quite the form you see at the end of this video, but there's a tweaked version in there. Don't ask me what the name is though!

@@OscillatorSink Cool, thanks!

That's right. It's a type of filter design - like a Moog ladder or the Steiner Parker filters in the other brutes.

@@OscillatorSink oh of course, it's right there in the descriptionnn

it has 1 osc ....it aint no beast

That 1 oscillator can do a lot of things (including being more than one oscillator).

@@johngorgis Actually, it has more than 1 osc. How you can use them just depends on the mode. For instance, in the "Basic Waves" mode, you can mix a sub osc, a regular osc, and an osc an octave up. There's no way to do FM, which it has a mode dedicated to, without multiple operators. Either way, 1 osc can be a lot. The quality of the osc, waveforms, filter, and everything else on a synth are what really makes one a beast.

@@johngorgis says the guy who probably calls the 303 a beast. lol

@@MrPaddymulcahy definitely not, minimoog ,octave cat/kitten, yamaha cs80 theese are the synths with a thick fat sound i would consider beastly, this synth is thin sounding ,nothing wrong with that it has its place

I didn't, not yet anyway, but you might want to check out the patch pack that I released, as that has some fairly ambient pads: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ul2tuZAoi74.html

Oscillator Sink I don’t have the MF yet.....................Am very much into ambient sounds/stuff..............and will buy it and your patches. I just want to learn/get a basic understanding of how to make ambient tones with the MF. Can get it from various sources in the UK for next day delivery. Will pull the trigger (on the MF and your ambient pack). Once I am a little more comfortable.

Send your bank account my regards!

When you say "strings" you mean a classic "string machine" type patch? Yeah, you're well placed to do that - also the "vocal" part of a lot of string machines should be easily attainable. On top of that, of course, you have the karplus-strong oscillator, so you can do physical modelling of strings too.

@@OscillatorSink Hi thanks very much for such a speedy reply. Yes that's exactly what I mean... 70's esque string machine... I have a mini studio based around beatstep pro and volca type things. I really feel I need to add some nice warming strings .. but also I want an all round synth to keep with me at all times. I travel for work a lot and want to keep myself entertained.. If microfreak can do convincing strings i think I'll treat myself asap.

Any chance of a lovely string machine tutorial?? ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-8_LVudzk-x8.html

I wish I had some experience with the Blofeld - I understand that everything you say is true though. Tricky call... And one that I'm sadly not qualified to comment one really.

I have a blofeld and just bought a microfreak coming soon. Blofeld is a very deep synth, its wavetables options are way bigger than the microfreak (you can import your own which is cool), it can also do fm, mod matrix is huge BUT the fx are mostly crap since it's quite an old synth now, reverb especially. The interface is not as appealing than the immediacy of the arturia, I prefer to create patch with a max4live device in live than struggling with the 4 pots. Blofeld does great pads and lots of other sounds but you'll have to take your time to tame this little box more IMHO. Polyphony is great but since you start using comb filters or complicated envelopes, voice count will get dramatically lower. The dsp inside are also a little old so the processing power can get affected with complex patches. Anyway, two great synths with two different approaches!

Thank you for your answers. Finally decided for the Blofeld. I'm very impressed with its sound. Pads are lush, and the analog emulation is much better than I thought (I didn't bought it for it's traditional wave shapes, but I'll probably use them more than I thought). Reverb sounds good enough I think....not bad at all, but you get more like a room type reverb.....don't ask for infinite decay. Encoders work well, after updating to the last firmware. It is very well built, and has a generous screen, that makes me feel comfortable when editig presets. It seems professional to me. In the other hand, I tried the Microfreak, and maybe will consider buying it in the future if I find one second hand. Its presets are most of them useless for me, but the keyboard and the paraphonic setting where very interesting. It makes some good sounding chords, but I think it is more limited compared to a Blofeld. It feels plasticky, the screen is nice but very small....not a toy but kind of budget synth, so I think in a couple of years they should be found cheap enough to buy it as a fun addition to my setup.

@@franmoller7322 have a great time with the blo! It continues to surprise me years after years.. A real pad machine! You can achieve some weird sounds with the modifiers (operations like min, max, or, etc...) and also try to use custom wavetables, there's free slots for users wavetables. The sample licence SL is a little over priced so I didn't gave it a chance. Concerning the microfreak, I bought one second hand for the same reasons. I am waiting for arturia to release its bigger brother because it has great potential. Not as deep as the blo (far from it) but it's great fun for jamming and having ideas popping.

What do you want from a synth right now?

It's a real musthave!!!

Firstly make sure that you have updated the firmware, then yes pressing the preset encoder 3 times should initialise the patch - don't do it too fast. The instructions for saving and renaming a patch are in section 4.2 of the Microfreak manual - you can download it from Arturia's website. I'm short: press the save button; turn the preset knob to choose which slot to save it in; press the preset knob; turn the preset knob to choose a sound category; press the preset knob; use the preset knob to rename the patch. As I say - fill details in the manual. Section 4.2.

@@OscillatorSink thank you for the quick response.well i checked it out last night and read the manual. but there is no describtion how to rename. it could be becuse my library of 256 is complete full. i actually downloaded the firmware yestarday.

From the manual (section 4.2): Click once more after selecting the Category and dial in a name for the preset. The Save button will now blink to indicate that you're in the final stage of the save process. Turning the encoder will guide you through the alphabet, first in Upper case then in Lower case and finally through the numbers 0 to 9. To enter a space turn the encoder all the way to the left. Note: To edit a character in an existing name push+turn the preset encoder. To quickly scroll through the characters options hold [shift] and turn the encoder. Click to make a letter selection final; this brings you to the next field in the name where you can repeat your selection until you have a complete preset name. Now press "Save" to save the preset with its new name.

@@OscillatorSink thanks man im gonna step through every step as soon as i get home. thx so much. subscribed!!!much support from munich

You hold out until you can afford it - don't let guilt get in the way of enjoying it friend!

@@OscillatorSink haha logical thinking, mate. I'm eager, but I reckon I can hold out

Sorry for fueling your GAS. But it is a very fun little synth.

@@OscillatorSink it just jumped to the top of my wish list. I say wish, I mean payday.

@Smoke DeGrasse Tyson "I'm definitely not buying any more synths... Except for these ones". The struggle is real!

Yup already have the monologue, and been eyeing the DM 6/12 and the Microfreak, I'm going to be so poor.

Fizzzzmo

There's not a difference, they are classifying different things. Polyphonic means you can play multiple notes at once. Paraphonic relates to how those notes are articulated (paraphonic means that all notes that are playing share a single articulation - the Microfreak isn't actually paraphonic because you have partial articulation of each individual note you play). So switching on the "paraphonic" button gives you 3-4 note polyphony (depending on the oscillator mode) and partial articulation over each note (although they do share a single filter).

Certainly not Arturia!

At the end of the video? It's a Digitech Polara reverb pedal out of shot - that's what I'm reaching out of frame for.

Because it's a quieter synth and my interface has a lot of headroom. Gain staging is important.

Regarding the envelopes - depending on what the envelope is modulating that's to be expected - there's shared articulation of (for example) the filter when the paraphonic button is pressed.

@@OscillatorSink Thank you. I dind´t noticed that when you where playing this patch.

If you take a moment to consider that a patch with all knobs set to zero will be all but inaudible, you'll hopefully recognise why this isn't great advice.

Actually yeah there will be no sound because when you initialize a new patch on the Microfreak with everything turned to zero it can’t be heard. When you decide to do sound designing start over with the envelope. Set the settings according to the type of sound you want to build. To make a pad sound for example set a long decay/release and a slow attack, sustain to 50% and save your preset. Then you can chose the filter type and oscillator type. Then you can also use mod matrix and cycling envelope to add some motion to the sound. Don’t forget to save your preset after a new addition and further tweaking. Finally name your preset and save it near other sounds of the same category. This will help you find the sound that you built without searching for long. I’m not trying to teach you. I’m only addressing my own way on how I approach sound designing on the Microfreak. Starting completely from scratch gives you more control and keeps your workflow clean. Always use one step at a time and go carefully in everything you do. This method will fewer your mistakes and will be conducive to broadening your learning curve.