Addendum: it's *6* voice polyphony - my bad, I apparently can't read, and the keybed is mono-aftertouch (I'll be confirming whether it responds to Poly-AT with a suitable controller).
Finally found the time to watch the entire video -- that last (generative?) patch in the outro is absolutely gorgeous! Any chance you could show how you would go about creating that patch or a similar kind of patch, maybe in a future video?
The expanded mod matrix alone makes this a deeper generative system and makes me wonder if i need to sell my Micro. (Much less the proper polyphony with 6 SEM filters in there.)
Would be great to have more generative MiniFreak stuff. The expanded mod matrix is a win for that. Thanks for the great video, this is my favorite ‘talking hands’ channel. This and Captain Pikant.
That's right! All hail the new king in town Young and old, gather 'round (yeah) Black and white, red and green (yeah, funky) The funkiest gear you've ever seen Tell you what it's name is Minifreak, Minifreak Rock a party like nobody can Rules and regulations, no place in this nation Minifreak, Minifreak
I really like that this isn't just a Microfreak with a bigger keyboard. They've done a great job to expand the capabilities of the Microfreak and address several of its limitations. For whatever reason, I've held out this long on getting a Microfreak, but I'm glad I did because I feel this is a more complete synth. But now the dilemma becomes: the Minifreak, or the ASM Hydrasynth Explorer? No doubt I will eventually buy both of them.
I wish I have had hands on experience with any of the Hyrdasynths so I could offer a meaningful comparison. I have found this to be a really *fun* synth though.
@@pthomas36 I think it's an interesting synth for sure, and I dropped ASM an email some time ago to see if they'd be interested in working with me but never got any replies sadly. I might pick one up for myself one day but as always, it's too many synths, not enough time or money.
Oh my, things just got even more freakier! What a fantastic development from the much cherished microfreak. Your patch 2 is stellar, truly out there. Can't wait to see and hear more. Thank you OS.
I also came to love the capacitive keybed (though I didn't at first), especially since it had poly aftertouch. At least Arturia's mini keys are excellent, and there is at least channel aftertouch.
That was a mistake on my part - I was hearing that note affected independently because of the interaction of the initial velocity with the subsequent aftertouch. There's a note about this in the pinned comment on this video. Having to approach this video without access to a manual was tricky!
Arturia is a pure innovation driver.... completely insane direct access to so much sound power... and honestly a simple interface that opens up (POLY!!!) worlds of things that normally only possible with modular...
Having watched videos about the MF for the past few months, there are so many cool features packed into this instrument that make you go “holy crap!” 😂 I still think we’ve all barely scratched the surface. And judging by the firmware updates in the uF, we can expect some interesting things in MF’s future.
Sorry for the spam, but this announcement has me all hyper. Some thoughts about halfway through: the lfo sequencer would be a real game-changer in conjunction with the wave table oscillators. On the microfreak, wave table #13 in the default wave table oscillator has a smooth series of tones that increase in pitch, so you could literally sequence a held note and hit a bunch of different pitches. You could fine tune it to produce a melody with just the lfo.
To me the best new additions are true polyphony, full ADSR envelope, and built in effects. I love my microfreak but it not having the above are the things I most often am frustrated by.
Great overview and I love the patch at the end, also very interested to see the drum machine version you make. So, when you are overdubbing over your first sequence (01:06:00) are you able to later go and modify the overdub or is it baked into the original sequence?
You are the master of the freak. How is the keyboard action? Do you think the original freak will still be sold? These patch's are really stellar! 🎛 🔈 🔉 🔊
Thanks, I'm glad you liked the patches! Keyboard is identical to the keysteps as far as I can feel - Arturia's mini keys keybed is definitely one of the better options. I would assume that the original will still be available - it's a different price point and the capacitive touch keyboard is still worth getting.
It seems like you could make entire fully listenable and enjoyable compositions to be performed live simply on a single minifreak, no externals needed. Over optimistic? (Maybe some kind of rhythm device external--but the shaped LFO and modulation sequencing, I don't know, could do the trick for that)
I'm in the minority with you one the capacitive keys, harkened to some Buchla greatness even. Which makes me wonder about MIDI control of the MiniFreak using the MicroFreak keybed.... 🤔 Bring on the manual!
Looks great! Built-in FX are a big improvement, so too is another standard LFO. Full ADSR, somewhat expanded Mod Matrix, LFO sequencing all seem to be new too. More voices per-step on the sequencer. Actual DIN MIDI (with THRU!!) and Audio-In. Stereo output. All big improvements. This looks like a real winner! I mean, how could it suck, right? Also most sources I'm looking at cite 6-voice Poly FYI. Thanks for uploading this, your videos succinctly touch on all the relevant specs and you do a great job presenting the info!
You are quite right on the polyphony front - I will lay a little blame on the font they used on the spec sheet I was sent, but, mea culpa - I should have zoomed in to read it properly! I'll pin a comment to make that clear.
It can do those too - I did a "speed run" of a more classic sound during a live stream: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-oSqrpzdvhAA.html Jump to 50:55, that's about where I start doing it.
It's missing in the version of the firmware I have. Fingers crossed that we get it back in an update. It's notable that the Mutable Instruments Plaits wavetables are missing too...
🤔 A Minifreak is larger than a microfreak but the microKorg is larger than both and the minilogue is larger than the microfreak but smaller than a mininova...which is about the same size as a microKorg. I'm so confused!!! 🤪
Thanks for a fantastic demo. I love the second patch you made in particular. I really haven’t been this intrigued by a synth in ages. Excited to see your follow up videos. Do you know if patches from the MF work on this?
Cheers! I don't think that you can import original Microfreak patches right now, but looking at the architectural layout of the synth - it should be possible. I might try manually transcribing a patch from the microfreak to see how closely it matches...
Great demo. A desktop version would be great. Don't have that much space and I would rather connect a midi controller to it, then having another keybed taking up space.
I'm sure the A for Arturia w as The same A symbol as the punk clothing a turned punk women wears ,in the pistol episode s A for anarchy, same as the A for Arturia
I don't know the answer to this. From a synth architecture standpoint things line up (except for the missing oscillator types at the moment), so I guess it would be doable in theory. It'd be an interesting experiment to try transcribing one...
Multimode is sorely missing on so many synths. Even the new Roland botiques can do 2 simultaneous patches and sequences, unlike tons of more expensive synths coming out.
My feeling on this is that whilst inflation continues to affect the prices of everything else for some reason hardware synths have actually gone down in price relatively and they are maybe built to tighter margins than in the past - so whilst CPU power has gone up new digital synths use the lowest cost CPUs and less likely to use multiple dedicated DSP chips. Secondly the quality of oscillator/filter/fx algorithms has gone up (as have sample rates/bit depths) taking more processing power and the need for multi timbral synths has gone down due to the power of modern DAWs. So new synths are built to a budget and relative to costs and resale price, available budget has actually gone down. The BOM cost on synths now is probably more skewed towards all other parts of the hardware vs the cost of CPU/DSP.
Wonderful! Can you tell me the dimensions? I can’t find the specs anywhere. If I can fit it in my backpack I’m buying it for my Southeast Asia journey!
It's listed on Arturia's website, towards the bottom. www.arturia.com/products/hardware-synths/minifreak/overview Size : 22.75 x 9.09 x 1.57 inches (578 x 231 x 55mm) Weight : 8.37 lbs. (2.94 Kg)
You are correct, that was a mistake on my part (there's a pinned comment and a note in the video description correcting this). It's frustrating that I dropped the ball on that - not having access to a manual when I made this video didn't help, but nevertheless I should have checked more thoroughly and that's on me. What's interesting is that if you listen to that section, it does sound like only 1 note is being articulated by AT, and the reason why is pretty interesting: What I was actually hearing was the interaction between the velocity and aftertouch - currently, the aftertouch can't push a modulation below the initial velocity *of each note*. Velocity and aftertouch are combined in the mod matrix, so if you strike a note with high velocity, you get barely any aftertouch, but play a note softly and you get nearly the whole range. I played that one note you hear articulated by aftertouch much more softly than all the other notes I was holding. That means that there are actually tricks you can play with how you program (and then play) a patch that makes it sound like you have something like per-note aftertouch, even though you don't.
@@OscillatorSink Thanks for the clarification and explaining what's happening at that moment with the aftertouch. Now that the manual is up, i checked it and it says the engine itself responds to poly AT (over midi) but just the key bed is mono. I am happy to know that there are tricks that can make patches with such articulation. Thanks again.
No, I was mistaken - it sounded like the newest note was behaving independently because of how the other notes had decayed and the affect of initial velocity on aftertouch response. I believe it responds to poly AT with a suitable controller (I'll be checking with the original Microfreak) , but the keybed is single aftertouch - I meant to add that to the pinned comment, which I'll do now.
Best minifreak demo on RU-vid. Second patch was awesome. Quick question - I always ran my microfreak through a bass guitar overdrive pedal with a dry wet control to add a bit of analogue saturation/distortion and to boost the level (output on microfreak was always very low). Is the output on the mini any better and how does the distortion sound? Thanks.
Distortion sounds good, and you have a few different flavours to play with, including some extreme options. Output is a *lot* healthier (and quieter - as in less noise).
@@mishadoumnovI don't believe the sequencer is running there, just modulation, but don't quote me on that - it's quite a long time since I made this video.
Noisy in what way? I haven't noticed any inherent noise - the microfreak could get a bit "hissy" when boosting the volume, but the minifreak has a much healthier output.
Can you assign the macro strips to control the modulation depth of a connection in the modulation matrix (e.g., by mapping it to a custom assign column that controls the modulation depth of another connection)?
I actually don't know that off the top of my head and I'm not at home to check, but reading between the lines in the manual, I don't think you can right now. There are some special macro assignments that allow you to kind of do some of that, like the one for the cycling env AM amount though.
@@OscillatorSink thanks for your thoughts on this. Seems like a weird omission. At least you can modulate the depth of a connection using the mod wheel/strip, right?
There are 3 digital effects slots with a range of different effects. So yes, there are reverbs and delays (and phasers, choruses, distortions, bit crushers etc.)
Basically, if you can’t make electronic music in 2022, even on a budget, your just not trying. When I first started my love affair with electronic instruments there was no reverb on synths, In fact reverbs we’re as expensive as a synth for that matter. sequencers were 4 track, And if you wanted to record anything you’d spend good money on something like a DA-38. Now you can do amazing stuff with an iPad and something like this arturia, What a golden age. If I didn’t have an iridium I’d be all over this synth
I understand that a keyboard is probably less divisive, but I really liked the touchplate too. If anything my one wish is that they went for something weirder.
The lack of a touch keyboard will significantly delay my purchase. I'd like to see Arturia release a stand-alone 37-key touch plate keyboard I could use with all my synths.
@@streamtracker I think, sadly as users our love of the touch keyboard puts us in the minority. We're the ones that are right, it's amazing, but we're still in the minority.
remember when all the nerds annoyed DSI until they did a Prophet 08 with pots instead of encoders? let's do the same to Arturia untill they do this with the touch keyboard.
The opsix is one of my all time favourites. Genuinely, this has gotten me as excited. It's a different beast, but shares a lot of the aspects that I like about the opsix. They're both super creative instruments.
Overpriced. Will just pick up the MiniFreak V when it becomes available. Already own the Microfreak so spending $600 for this is a bit too rich for my blood.
Features wise vs price of the Microfreak and relative to other devices on the market this synth is a bargain, but it would have been nicer with fullsize keys/more keys.. and like others have complained about, I'm not a fan of the Arturia knobs and would just replace them.
hi oscillator sink. 2 days ago i got the minifreack. i updateted my midi control center, but i cant find the device in the list. i also can:t find minifreack V. so why is that?? i read in the manula that you need to update the firmeare, but how can i update the firmware and download the plugin?? i already ask aruturia, but didn't get an answer. mybe you can help.
It has been a while! How are you sir? I must say I am pretty disappointed with this synth. I expected Arturia to be bold and create a hybrid merging Polybrute with a Freak engine - 6-8 voice poly like that would be a monster. Combining analogue signal VCO with one Freak engine and then routing it all to analogue signal path, better filter and VCA. That would be a new high end synth no one released yet! I get the pros on this device, but it is actually a budget poly, and I expected Arturia to do much more with such potential.
The range of oscillator types The fx section The modulation matrix The analogue filters and VCAs The audio in The sequencer The price And some other stuff. I'm not sure this was a serious question if you've actually looked at both of them?
@@OscillatorSink So there's SIX analog filters in it? And the VCAs are analog? This might make a difference. The rest is kinda equivalent. Oscillators in the 2nd Nord are pretty liimited, but you can get a variety of timbres out of them as well, and my experience suggests that once put through filters and the rest of your instruments in the mix, you don't really benefit from sophisticated oscillators. The mod matrix is impportant, but again Nordlead can counter it with it's brilliant morph function. Effects on a synth is more like a liability. What if in the rush of a live perfomance you forget to turn them off! Signal in and sequencer -- maybe, i loved the sophisticated arpeggiator on the Microfreak. This keyboard is a liability as well. You can't play that live; and it takes space at home. I only judge by your video on the Mini Freak. And i do own a Nord Rack 2X (and had Nord Lead 3 for a while, which i found to be worse than 2X in the end). It kinda struck me, that throughout your video you don't get any noise out of this thing, which would sound impossible for my Nord. To tease you, even Behringer Deep Mind does that.
@@bukkaratsuppa6414 to counter your tease: there's a noise oscillator type which gives you access to white, decimated and particle noise, plus the noise textures that you can get from the destroyer oscillator - which blows both the nord and the deepmind out of the water as far as noise goes - very primitive on the noise front by comparison.
@@OscillatorSink Erm.... why don't you let it shine than? Why do you make it sound like an ambient texture library from early 2000's? For example: imagine, someone stole the opening riff sample from Prodigy's Voodoo people. Can you come up with something on the Minifreak to fill in? Not necessarily this riff, just something to make me bang my head.
Yeah, sorry, that was my bad. I've addressed that in the pinned comment and in the videos description. As I said in the intro, I was doing this video without access to any manual (and, candidly, Arturia sent these units out with less than a week to go before launch), but that's no excuse, I pride myself on the accuracy and specificity of my content and I dropped the ball on that one.
Having tried both (and owning Hydrasynth desktop).. it depends.. Hydra explorer is deeper with nicer keys/poly-AT, Mini-freak seems more immediately approachable/fun.
This right here is why I stopped buying hardware synths. This practice is becoming BS. They could have given us a damn basic chorus/verb/delay... SOMETHING along the lines of FX with the Micro, but nope. This is kind of a big eff you to all the people that bought them originally. Its got keys? Cool, so does my Akai MPK 249. And the MFreaks keyboard is actually damn good and extremely fast. I have a whole FX pedalboard dedicated to my MFreak (since Arturia didnt give us any) so why would people even want this if they own one already and have a array of FX or other synths on hand, or cash to waste? I usually dont rant like this, but damn, I'm really tired of synth companies doing this crap.
Really strange comment.. synth company makes a new synth available with nice options at a reasonable price, and you are upset because it didn't have the exact features/design you wanted.. maybe go develop your own synth/synth company, and, just don't buy it or buy something else. It doesn't make your existing device/s any less valid/useful. You might be justified to complain if one month after release of a product that you bought the same company releases an almost equivalent product at half the price. Quite a few people didn't buy the Micro-freak due to lack of keys and true polyphony + built in FX - this is a product that will be attractive to those people.
