I think what makes Nick stand out most is that in addition to his great presenter skills, he is a great musician. He knows how to make gear musical. So many folks are just making bleeps, bloops, and noise but not in a musical way. They make sound, even great and interesting sound. He shows how gear can make music.
Thank you for all the videos you do. I'm a synth newbie and I really appreciate your coverage of low-cost synths like this, the IK Uno, Modal Skulpt etc.
Ken, always good to see you in any venue! Do you know if the sequencer and arpeggiator output over cv/gate and/or MIDI? I seem to recall the MiniBrute outputting its arpeggiator over cv/gate only. Any insight would be appreciated! Peace.
Splendid, my friend! Excellent (tentative) news! If you get a chance to confirm that, I would appreciate it quite a bit! I am seriously considering acquiring this one if I can use it as a controller for the modular in addition to it's splendid sonic architecture. I especially like the Buchla-esque aspect of that keyboard!
It seems these days it is an accomplishment in itself to get a review by Nick. Good Job Arturia! Now, on the review: not that I needed too much convincing about the Microfreak, but the short arpeggiator demonstration was heavenly.
Listening to what he has said. In most cases they would need to sent it to him. It should not have a very steep learning curve. The OS has to be relase state, or pretty much release state. And it has to be pre-release or just released, he isn't interested in reviewing units that has been out for a while, especially not if it comes from a big maker, no matter the terms of availability up to that point. In that regard I think he is a bit strict, because some synths has a pretty long life-cycle, and may not be irrelevant just because 8 months or even 1 year has passed. And many would prefer Nick Bat reviews over many others.
Thank you for reviewing this little guy. I was waiting for your review, I knew you would display this synth’s true potential. All I have heard on prior reviews was basically chaos. Nothing wrong with that honestly but it’s nice to know this can make some purely musical beauty too. As usual your review makes me want to go out and grab one of these ASAP. Then I can bring it home and be frustrated that I can’t make it sound as good as Nick does. Lol. Honestly though just watching your reviews and performances has improved my sound design abilities from learning to emulate what you do. Bravo Nick!!
Seems like a long time since Nick had a hardware synth review, very refreshing and wonderful review and why I like Nick's reviews the best. Congratulations to Arturia for again producing another very usable (read musical) synth. That little modulation matrix is genius, all manufacturers should take note of it because we synth folks are going to begin expecting it on all synths. Don't miss the missing effects, rather use my own.
I agree except in the case of the Prologue/XD. Those effects are glorious. If the Minilogue XD also had even a small 5x7 mod matrix, I would already own it.
@@HotStrange Oh yea! I did not think about the XD, yes the XD with a matrix would be Heaven....or at least bliss. And yes, the more expensive synths can afford to put high quality effects in the synth, I just don't like the low priced synths like the Freak attempting effects unless they are very good, I don't like useless features.
I was standing in line at the local musicstore in Amsterdam to buy something, it was taking a while and I started to fiddle with this synth on the demo table. I was sold within minutes and bought it. Such a versatile weird little synth! Instant inspiration.
I was against buying this because of the keyboard and the quirky synth types. But now I've heard it, I want it BECAUSE of the keyboard and quirky synth types!
@@ReneeNme What is gimmicky? The 2 buttons Spice and Dice? Because EVERYTHING ELSE is standard Synth stuff ... envelopes, looping envelopes, mod matrix, filter ... Did you even look at the thing?
VictorSteiner good point. I think it’s an amazing little synth. Not gimmicky in the slightest. I really love that there are so many great synths out there for just a few hundred bucks nowadays. With my current income I can easily pick up another synth every two months or so if I wanted to. Got to love it.
ReneeNme I got one and the first day I was planning on returning it for sure. But I had the whole weekend to play with it and I gotta say this thing is pretty insane! The workflow is simple as hell and modulation + the synth engines can take you places that would be super difficult and complex to program on anything else. It’s almost like a modular. The insane mod mixtures while holding the keys or using the arp plus playing the envelopes live. It’s hard to describe but I’m kinda in love with it. Definitely keeping it. The keyboard makes it even better. It’s so fast and the “pressure” mod source is awesome. I’ll be using it with my digitakt and digitone set up.
God I can’t wait until I get mine. Kudos to KORG and Arturia, for blazing the affordable hybrid trail. The same 2 companies that blazed the affordable analog trail 7-8 years ago. The sheer amount of features in this thing for the price is outrageous. 12 synthesis types with more coming apparently, each with their own unique waves and parameters, an analog state variable filter, 2 envelopes/2 LFOs (looping envelope falls into both categories), a very fully featured sequencer and arp, polyphonic aftertouch capability, patch storage, and a 5x7 mod matrix for $299. Absolutely incredible. And to top it all off it’s very close to having 4 notes of real polyphony. Each having its own Amp goes a long way.
It actually is a true polyphonic 4-voice synth. each engine has 4 copies of itself inside the synth and each voice has it's own VCA :0 it's when you begin utilizing the filter that it becomes "paraphonic"
Aaron Ellson True. That’s what I was getting at. If each voice had its own filter that would be incredible. Even still, for the price this thing is awesome.
I want to thank you for this brilliant review of this device which also sells the machine. Many videos on youtube just review the machine without actually selling it. But you've managed to win me over. I was condisering the Yamaha MX49, and even the Behrenger Deepming 12d. But for the money, and for what it does, plus my space issues (can't really cram in any more synths) this fits the bill perfectly.
sonicstate probably size and cost, you can use a thinner and more flexible power cord because the current limit is 2.5A on these IEC C5/C6 connectors. They’re fairly common on laptop power supplies (Lenovo, HP). The regular IEC C13/C14 connectors go up to 10A, so you end up with a fat and heavy power cord. For use with a laptop lighter and smaller is better. Perhaps Arturia has portability in mind as well. Just guessing. Thanks for the review, by the way.
The minute I saw it at NAMM, I was intrigued. The amazing thing is the keyboard and the price, only a bit more than a Make Noise Pressure Points module. Great job, Nick. Kudos Arturia.
Go ahead and pick up one of these. I was listening to a simple demo of the presets on youtube, when my girlfriend commented; "such beautiful sounds. Who is the artist?" Then I decided to get one and it turned out to be one of the most entertaining and musical devices that I have ever owned. It offers enough to keep you intrigued for hours and will fit into any mix.
I have the Arturia Keylab w/all those legacy software V7synths. I have all those options, but this little wacky box sounds like so much fun. Best sounding of Arturia’s small synths. Some really original stuff in that tiny thing.
That's how I looked at it! I bought the launchpad x (still not too sure why I did) and insurance, and after using it with iPad for a bit, I couldn't justify the price with the small amount of things I could do. so I returned it and got this little rock star for a little bit more change and wow is it fun. As a midi controller it rocks, but also the synth is crazy good paired with so many quality iOS FX. Also using my akai mpk222 and launchkey 25 mk3, and 49 to control is sometimes when I want conventional keys. Blown away with it actually for my needs
@@cuezaireekaa You bought the launchpad because you were seeking for external happiness. in depth lengthy version or in other words. something clicked in you when you watched a review on it and you didn't hesitate but bought it right away without putting deep consideration to it. Then you tested it out and found out that it wasn't that good you first thought. That's just human nature and my brain functions the same way and I really have to force myself to think twice. In making any kind of material investment it's always worth to think what you get in return and plan it out well so the impact it has is worth a thousand times of the money you put into it."Fun" and "nice" are very shallow measures of impact a thing can have. Figuring out what value it gives in a long term, can it fill a slot of a need not once or twice but perhaps a hundred times or a thousand times and can it have value to others as well are powerful questions when making buying decisions.
i'd love to see more great sounding digital synths on the market. hopefully this encourages the industry to bring more interesting innovative stuff to the world of digital synths
Nick, fantastic review! Would it be worth your time to do a demo video just doing beautiful sounds? I would like to hear any pads it can do. I love what you do in those demo videos of just doing extended music...
Awesome review Nick, just a small correction, the sequencer is 64 step not 16. and there are 2 of them you can set in each patch. so total of 128 steps.
The sequencer is reminiscent of the Korg Monologue, with its ability to store multiple parameter changes. In fact, this might make a nice friend for the Monologue...
Is the filter really not able to self-oscillate? It was mentioned in promotional materials and in the manual: "Tip: If you need a sine wave you can use the filter to remove all harmonics from the wave - and as an alternative, set resonance on the Filter to maximum. The Filter will then self- oscillate and produce a pure sine wave."
I've held off till now because I've got more synths than time to play them but I finally gave in. It's unbeatable value for money even at Canadian prices especially with the recent update to the wavetable functionality. I really hope it turns out to be compatible with my Roland AE-30 wind synth. In theory it should because I can send breath as aftertouch CC (that works really well with the Behringer Neutron).
I agree about not having onboard effects. I prefer using my own effects pedals, anyway. They offer many more sound sculpting/modulating options rather than getting stuck with a few onboard standardized reverb, delay, chorus and phaser sounds that get old quickly.
Yes I agree too..I'm an Ambient Bassist so have a pedalboard with 14 pedals of all the types of reverb, delay and modulation..The Microfreak sounds glorious hooked up to it in stereo...
Why not start with ....... that PWM patch. (: Love Nicks subdued nod to that infamous pulsewith mod meme right there. ((: Edit: Best sounding demo I heared of this thing to date btw.
Nice bargain synth, giving those cheeky chappies at Behringer a run for their money, sounds nice with loads of good features on it too. The filter sounds nice and creamy and with that mod matrix who needs cables! 😎👍
Top notch review, and it sounds delicious. But I'm feeling there's more going on in the dev kitchen and I want that instrument. Hopefully, the larger version, with more bloopy ness (bitimbral or multitimbral with more voices and a more familiar keyboard with mod and pitch wheels, with the poly aftertouch.. ), will be out within a year.
hey Nick, did you upgrade cameras recently? The video quality seems to be better :) if its the case I'm glad to see the channel doing well enough to afford new gear :))
Another excellent review Nick, out of interest do synth manufacturers contact you on a regular basis asking for you to program patch presets for them ? They should.
Excellent review - thank you! There's something about this synth which is lovely. I think the price-point is great for the beautiful sound, I'd prefer this to yet another mid-priced midi controller. I'd far rather pay for the sound quality and use my own effects. Its an old worn-out cliche, but seriously, sometimes less is absolutely more!
I've never been queasy re digital synths. You can get waveforms which don't occur in "analog nature" with them, and the differences between analog and digital synths' sounds are entirely exaggerated. And what made me interested in synths to begin with was looking at them in music stores as a teen, and being awed by the very strange sounds one can arrive at by barely touching a knob or slider. Digital affords that aspect even better than analogs do.
Nick, thank you for taking the time to dig into this instrument! I was hoping to use this as a controller for my Eurorack system (especially routing that pressure out as a modulation source). One Big Question: Do the arpeggiator and sequencer send note data out the cv and gate? Also curious - do they output over MIDI? I seem to recall that the MiniBrute's arp output cv and gate, but not MIDI. Thanks! Peace.
Nice I just got myself the uno synth ...after watching your review.....the filter is nice on this machine ...ain’t gonna lie ...but I’ll stick with my uno for now ...thanks for another great review sir👊🏼🎶
Excellent review as always. Keep up the good work! Lack of FX is a bummer but sounds like i can put my good Eno reverb pedal to use! I have heard that Arturia's clocking can be a bit weird/non-optimized in non-Arturia workstations - any feedback on that?
A ProfReak ewww. Another omission/ design choice I’m okay with. Mini keys (or whatever) on something like this are less for performance and more for data input. These days with home studio/desktop enthusiasts, everyone has some fx and a midi controller lying about.
sonicstate - the ubiquitous kettle lead seems to be getting less common now unfortunately. Remember when they were actually used for kettles? Scary stuff!!
Are you listening Arturia ?? perhaps the MiniFreak could have multiple oscillators and onboard FX that can be tied into the mod matrix . I wouldn't even be upset if one of the FX was brute factor . Another thought ; heavy duty Arturia power banks capable of powering a couple synths together for a few hours . Yeah , I know there's other power banks out there , but I'm sure they can find something cool to add in to make theirs semi-indispensible , like taking the audio through it via USB to a shared output/headphone amp .
I wish they did a Microfreak PPE, where PPE stands for Patch Point Edition. With a couple of CV inputs for the mod matrix, an audio input, CV-pitch and gate inputs and a few CV outputs from the mod matrix for use with Modular and Semi-modular (they could of course then replace the pressure output with the option of assigning one from the mod matrix to do the same). A PPE would not hinder them from releasing a FREAK, with full polyphony, more than one filter per voice, and velocity + aftertouch + slide. I guess a PPE could be as much as 100 euros more expensive, and it would be a bit bigger... In my mind, worth it though.
00:46 Am I reading that correctly on the synth's display : 'disrespectful' IS that a stab at arturia because they didn't give credit to Amelie from Mutable instruments ?? If so , good ONe !!!
Looks interesting, not too expensive. I have a MatrixBrute and arturia mades a good product. However, Arturia has been way behind in making a software updates for MB to address many problems that exist. Just be warned that once you can buy one (took about a year for the MatrixBrute) do not expect any support from Arturia.
The structure and design of the keys remind me of another compact hardware synth I came across recently.. But I cannot for the love of god remember its name.. :( does anyone know? It seemed to have the same structure that MicroFreak has on the keyboard all over its chassis.
