loopop

MicroFreak Review + Tutorial

Added 2019-04-21 21:10:00 +0000 UTC

Hello and Happy Easter/Passover if you celebrate ;)

My full review of MicroFreak from Arturia is in (despite my best attempts at editing it down it's a bit over 40 minutes...) - and I can say MicroFreak sets a pretty high standard for the value you get from a synth.

Some of its digital engines are better than others (as is the case with Plaits IMHO, from which 7 of MicroFreak's 12 engines come) - and if you're so inclined, you can judge each as I go through its digital engines individually, but to get four copies of them with 4 VCAs to make it polyphonic (I guess technically paraphonic because there's one filter), along with a really nice sounding SEM filter, a nice generative twist in the sequencer/arpeggiator and a very well presented mod matrix and CV/Gate/Mod outs - all for $300 (Sweetwater)/300 euros, is quite amazing.

It's not all roses though - the PCB keyboard is workable but needs getting used to. I would have preferred a "real" one, and while it can be powered via USB with a tiny power brick, which is a nice plus, the touch surface can "glitch" if it's not grounded - ahh... that's how it is, you get a feature and then complain it's not perfect ;)

So... that's it for Freak - more coming soon.

All my best,

Ziv (making you sit through 40+ minute reviews on youtube as "Loopop"...)