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Arturia MiniFreak - Feature Overview and 3 Patches from Scratch!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 31 ก.ค. 2024
- The biggest little synth has arrived! The MiniFreak is the grown-up and expanded sibling of the Microfreak, taking everything that made the Microfreak so compelling and adding *more of everything*.
In this video I provide an overview of the Minifreak's features and then get right into exploring them by way of building 3, very different, patches from scratch.
addendum - I say it's 8 voice polyphony in the video, that's incorrect, it's 6 and the aftertouch is monophonic/channel - what I was hearing was the interaction between the velocity and the aftertouch.
Transparency Notice: Arturia kinda provided this unit to me for free for the purposes of making videos. They have not asked for, neither have they been given, any editorial oversight into the contents of this video.
00:00:00 - Intro
00:02:37 - Feature overview
00:15:23 - Patch 1: Spacey pad, feat. LFO seqencer
00:38:00 - Patch 2: Physical modelling soundtrack, feat. oscillator stacking, FX
00:56:27 - Patch 3: Bass, feat. sequencer and macro controls
01:15:13 - Outro
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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.
your enthusiasm is infectious. gassing for one, but vicariously enjoying you explore it
Your sounds....are exactly my taste. Right up my alley.
I have two Microfreaks but I didnt know they could touch on this
Best "first day" demo! Nice to be able to improv on top of sequence... synth sounds great.
Thanks! And yes, the sequencer is much improved on this - a lot of fun!
Fantastic synth.... Fantastic video as always.....
Thank you for this! Helped me a lot since the manuel hasn't been released yet.
Awesome video- thanks for your great work as always
Thanks for watching friend!
This looks superb 👍😊
Will add this to my pair of MicroFreaks.
Amazing value, great interface, and incredible sound quality.
After my Yamaha YC61, MicroFreak is my MVP.
Holy crap. My Summit makes these beautiful sounds. A lot of it is in the Analog filters and the FX
I just preordered a Minifreak. This is what I need
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...
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.
Preordered from Sweetwater today. Can't wait!
Same 👊
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).
Doesn't matter, this thing is so full of features, it is easy to miss one of them. Great first video with some really cool sounds!
clear ,high quality audio
The sounds at 47:00 onward are absolutely phenomenal. The reverb into distortion is 🤯
It's my favourite trick.
Can’t wait.
Ah ,didn’t realise the distortion had subtypes,thanks for that ,great vid
Nice demo - my kind of sounds! :)
Thanks!
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.
Wonderful sounds. Seems a very creative tool and great review 👍
Thanks!
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?
For sure - generative patches are definitely on the cards. That was actually the first patch I made - I was pretty instantly sold on it.
@@OscillatorSink Fantastic, thanks Alex. Much appreciated.
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.)
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.
And yeah - it does feel like Arturia nailed this one!
@@OscillatorSink Awesome, your channel rocks!
Thank you!
WICKED!...cant wait for you to drop the drum machine voodoo on that little beast.
There are a bunch of ways to approach it - I think that'll be the real fun to be had in that video (or videos??)
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.
He mentions the Minibrute has poly AT at 53:01, which I had to rewind and watch twice. I thought it was the Keystep37 keybed but maybe not.
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!
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.
@@OscillatorSink Many of us ASM users would dearly love to see you make a series of videos on the Hydrasynth. It's an incredible instrument.
@@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.
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
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.
Yes!
YES!
Regarding IO on the back. Can I output to something like and audio recorder and monitor with headphones at the same time?
Yes, there's separate line out and headphones out.
@@OscillatorSink Thanks so much. I really appreciate your reply.
I too wish for an isomorphic touch pad, but I guess I'll take after touch on some nice arturia mini keys
I'm glad I'm not the only one who wants more weird!
55:00 you've hit Lyra-8 territory with this!
I love this kind of sound. It's mad that I still haven't picked up a lyra8...
@@OscillatorSink I think many of us feel mad for not having one, main thing holding me back is budget...
Just in case anyone needs the Manual i've just been told by Arturia it will be released tomorrow 23/11/22
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 can switch to overwrite mode to edit it by playing over it, or go in and edit step by step with tbe knobs, but you can't "undo" an overdub.
look powerful n promising
Are you still planning on doing more videos on it? Would love to see more on this synth from you!
There's one being edited right now actually!
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)
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...
@@OscillatorSink FYI microfreak patches are not compatible - you're going to have to recreate them.
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.
It has what I love....Character. its unique a voice
Best minifreak demo on TH-cam. 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).
@@OscillatorSink Thanks. I've one on backorder now. I am very much looking forward to any future content from your good self on this synth.
Do you think you'll be able to put presets from the Microfreak onto the Minifreak?
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...
Would be interested in seeing how the audio input can be used.
I'll definitely address that in a future video. I have some ideas...
Are the keys the same size as the Keystep? It’s hard to tell from the video. They almost look smaller and more “microkorg-like”.
Bo showed them side by side in his review - I'm pretty sure they're the same.
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.
There are so many cool things too can do with that feature; this video could have been 3 hours long! I have lots to say about this synth!
i wish presentors has a zoomed in overlay of the keyboard display
Nice demo of this new synth. Love alot of its sounds but do you find many patches noisy?
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.
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.
@@OscillatorSink Awesome review! Thank you Oscillator Sink, love your channel! I am out👉👉👉👉👉
REALLY looking forward to seeing you turn it into a drum machine. :)
AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
TAKE MY MONEY!!!!
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?
@@stefanherzog yeah, that's totally possible.
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)
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!
There's no reason why controlling it with the microfreak wouldn't work - I'm going to have a play soon!
is the aftertouch actually polyphonic as said at 52 minutes?
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.
Very convincing, you just sold one
Are there no Reverbs or delays built in?
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.)
As a lover of straightforward 80s sounds I'm not sure if this is for me but it defo sounds great!
It can do those too - I did a "speed run" of a more classic sound during a live stream: th-cam.com/video/oSqrpzdvhAA/w-d-xo.html
Jump to 50:55, that's about where I start doing it.
@@OscillatorSink fab I'll check it out thanks dude
The outro sound just uses sample/hold, or is it sequenced also? fascinated how you did it
it's quite late here so didn't have time to watch most of the vid
@@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.
@@OscillatorSink awesome sounds and inspiring video, it's good to see you gushing over a synth
53:14 - Aftertouch is polyphonic? I read somewhere that it is channel aftertouch
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.
good ol" fashion drone, eh?!
what about the special edition mini freak?
what about it?
Wow, quite a little wolf in sheep clothing that!
I will wait for the super freak😅
Intrigued, but I guess they dropped the user wavetable oscillator?
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...
@@OscillatorSink Yeah, thats a (small) bummer. Arturia have always been good with firmware updates, so fingers crossed indeed.
🤔 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!!! 🤪
Perhaps the Mininova is just further away?
@@OscillatorSink lol - that’s it!
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.
Sorry I don't know, I haven't had a chance to try the plugin or update anything.
8 voice or 6 voice?
6. (there's a pinned comment and a correction in the description of the video)
Must resist! 🤣 No seriously I have a micro freak and an opsix enouuuugh.
The minifreak is ace, but that's also a killer combination. I believe in you!
i will try to resist too lol i got the opsix but might trade in the mc707 and get this
POLYFREAK.. full size capacitive touch 61 or 88 key bed, and ALL the fixins'
could be the new easel.. just sayin 😏
Great but I too wish we had the touch plate interface/keyboard.
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.
Another vote here. I use it with my modular all the time. Somehow it is even more expressive on CV out than it is on the internal sound engine.
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
@54:52 Hooooooollly crap I am moved
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 often ask myself, how an Access Virus could have had 80 stereo voices and 16 times multimode more than 10 years ago.
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.
And Digitone can do 4 timbres at once!
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.
#Arturia ,why can't we just have 37 full keys?
Maxi-freak is next :)
Me likey very much 🤤
Would rather have a 49 key cap touch keybed with poly aftertouch and more poly. I will pass on this one and stick to the micro freak
Great.
Not bad but would go for the Korg Opsix - even better and at a reduced rate
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.
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.
Polyfreak
@@jacobbrown1690 winner;)
I wish it was a smaller version of the micro freak
Nanofreak incoming?
@@OscillatorSink yes 😂 this looks better then the mico with keys 🎹 but a lil pricy
I'm sorry, how is this different from Nord Lead 2? Except for the shrunk poliphony and crippled keyboard?
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.
Ah, I see, the 2000s were too recent for you. Well, hopefully I'm going to live stream in an hour or so, so feel free to pop in and make requests.
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.
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.
Non
am i off my tits here? 8 voices???? surely you meant 6?
Yes, see pinned comment.
Is it better than the hydra explorer ?
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.
Don't want it? Don't buy it. It's that simple. People can't always have everything.
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.