Thanks! And yes, the sequencer is much improved on this - a lot of fun!

Thanks for watching friend!

Same 👊

It's my favourite trick.

Thanks!

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??)

Thanks!

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!

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!

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.)

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'm glad I'm not the only one who wants more weird!

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.

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...

YES!

There's one being edited right now actually!

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.

Yes, there's separate line out and headphones out.

@@OscillatorSink Thanks so much. I really appreciate your reply.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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👉👉👉👉👉

There's no reason why controlling it with the microfreak wouldn't work - I'm going to have a play soon!

It can do those too - I did a "speed run" of a more classic sound during a live stream: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/pbmhpdOrydzMcXU.html Jump to 50:55, that's about where I start doing it.

​@@OscillatorSink fab I'll check it out thanks dude

I'll definitely address that in a future video. I have some ideas...

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...

Bo showed them side by side in his review - I'm pretty sure they're the same.

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 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.

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

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.

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

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.)

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.

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.

what about it?

Perhaps the Mininova is just further away?

@@OscillatorSink lol - that’s it!

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.

Great.

6. (there's a pinned comment and a correction in the description of the video)

Maxi-freak is next :)

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.

Sorry I don't know, I haven't had a chance to try the plugin or update anything.

Nanofreak incoming?

@@OscillatorSink yes 😂 this looks better then the mico with keys 🎹 but a lil pricy

Polyfreak

@@jacobbrown1690 winner;)

Yes, see pinned comment.

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.

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.

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.

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.