An important note: While the MiniFreak's keyboard only transmits monophonic aftertouch, the sound engines of the MiniFreak support polyphonic aftertouch when used with a controller that supports this.

Great breakdown! I was between Minifreak and Hydrasynth Explorer for my first foundation synth and went with the Hydra (started with Volcas). I have no regrets, but it was a tough decision. Both are so amazing. May just add a Freak down the road...

I really like your outro. It gave me kind of a fresh set of ears for this synth actually. 😸👍

Glad you decided to review this. My own reaction to its announcement was very much driven by my ambivalence about the microFreak's limitations -- I thought nah, I don't need a bigger version of that. But it seems they have addressed all the issues, from the keybed to paraphony to built-in effects. And your experimental jam sounded nice :)

Great video. I like that beat at the end bro!

Loved this video Stephen, pick up my Mini F tomorrow 😍😎

Always wondered what that little input with the lock symbol was! Ya learn something every day! The Kensington Lock! 💪🏻

Stephen ,wonderful work as ever.Thank you .Ordered mine this afternoon .I think it's gonna be 'deep down and dirty' enough for my power electronics filth .

Recently got one as well and love it! Great follow up to the microfreak for sure

Love my Minifreak, such a great synth. Just sitting down with it starting with an init patch and making some weird sounds is so relaxing. There are so many options for sound design it's like a meditative experience. Also helps that it can deliver some absolute bangers and the free VST that it comes with it is handy when I'm too lazy to hook up any hardware.

I love how you're morphing into Gloria Hunniford! 😅 Seriously though,great video as usual. I have the white Microfreak,but this does sound amazing.

Highly recommend looking at custom shape LFOs you can make - lets you create a sort twang sound using the filter. the ribbon strips in macro mode let you control 4 parameters simultaneously and of course the mod matrix still affects everything so you can have some crazy modulations where things you modulate with the macro strips modulate each other. I hear what you're saying about the minikeys - they're surprisingly fine. I didn't really get it since my first midi controller was a minilab 2 and then later I got a keystep 2 and I always thought the minkeys were fine. Turns out arturia just makes really decent minikeys compared to others. This keybed feels and looks identical to the keybed in the keystep pro. I really like the effects section, and having 3 pages of 3 custom destinations instead of just 3 custom destinations gives you a lot of room for subtle modulations you might not have had room for in a minifreak. I think the presets aren't really representative of what this machine is capable of, although there are a few decent ones in there. There are also some additional effects/filters etc in the 2nd oscillator you can feed the first oscillator into that are kind of neat too. I really wish the engine and keyboard were MPE - I actually really like the crazy keybed of the microfreak and the nutso things it lets you do without taking your hand and putting it on a touch strip or whatever. It would be a lot more more interesting with MPE. Coming to this machine from a microfreak was 'ya most of the stuff you had before, two oscillators and LFOs, and then effects"' plus even more interesting stuff hidden behind the controls like the custom lfo shape. It feels a lot more complete than a microfreak and very easy to approach and learn from. They're supposedly already working on a new wavetable engine for this that will play better with the device and the VST than the minifreaks ever did. I hope its good!

the regular keyboard made me a bit sad. release a touchplate version Arturia, you cowards!

Your sweater is my spirit animal

hi guy, thanks for your video, I was wondering a question, at the start of the video at 1:24 the LEDs of macro 1 are in red, in what mode do you go to have them in red?

@allmyfriendsaresynths Great video! I 100% am glad that Arturia sent that to you and I recommend they send you more products to review as you give honest reviews and to the point. Arturia is the only synthesizer company that actually gave me a chance to review and use (at that time) their V Collection 5 software suite. For a hardware synthesizer I use there Artuira Microbrute which is a monophonic analog synth.. I think that mini freak would pair up well with that... Arturia makes great stuff. Have a great upcoming weekend! - MrTom

of course! this thing rocks

Oh man this thing sounds and looks friggin sweet! Pretty sure my lab partner is going to grab the VST and now I'm leaning toward this! 😆🐀

I got the vst and I love it

How did you hook up the MiniFreak and the Polyend Play together to sync up and then output to speakers? Sorry, I am a newbie and I love this video!

I bought myself one for Christmas, it's definitely worth the money. The price of a MI Plaits, and a single Noise Engineering module alone would cost more than the price of this, very capable, instrument. I was so impressed I finally bought the Drumbrute Impact - dark version, - for my birthday, also very fairly priced. Would be great if Arturia made a 2u rack mount effects unit, balanced XLR i/o, realtime front panel control, maybe throw in some CV modulation options?..

I do think it comes down to this or the small hydrasynth if looking for this "type" of synth. I believe we will see a full size bi-timbral freak (basically 2 minifreak engines) from Arturia by some time in 2024. Hopefully with the same keybed as the mk2 Quantum or simlar, stereo outs per layer, and priced between the full size hydrasynths.

Fire sweater

love the workflow, but I need a bit more grit to the sound so I'm orbiting toward a peak. I already own the micro, and I might pick up the vst still, love those noise engineering algos. The arp-seq part really seem top notch in this.

I like my Minifreak a lot! Very few omissions, though I do wish (for all the sound design elegance) for performances it sadly lack ls 5-10 dedicated buttons or shortcuts to instantly call up a favorite patch. Maybe they’ll add that to the next one (Superfreak??).. hope so!

The ability to use unipolar vs bipolar lfos is also great. You can use the LFO shape editor to create an envelope and set the LFO to run once and not repeat - boom, custom wacky envelope shape you couldn't get anywhere else.

The synth is cool and all, but I want the sweater more.

Been eyeballing the microfreak for a while, think I might just get this instead now 😂 Does look nice to be fair. Do you get it to keep it or has it got to go back?

Nice jumper.

me thinks that sweater would also go quite nicely underneath that fancy jacket from the polyend tracker mini vid. ;-)

I was eyeballing this the other week. Went and played with one. The next day I was talking about it with my buddy. He put the ASM Hydrasynth back in my head, and by pure chance, they announced $100 off Hydrasynth for the month of April. I couldn't argue with that and picked up the Hydrasynth instead. Had that sale not been going on, I probably would have picked this up instead. Edit: Grammar sucks. 😅

I’ve been tempted for a few weeks now sounds great, I’m trying to downsize to take gear to gigs tho 🤔

This looks to be a great synth and at a very reasonable price.

What is it with Scottish people and synth videos? This guy and the unperson have got to be some of my favourite people on the platform for how they put together these videos.

The Minifreak is a fantastic value in my opinion. I really like the engine. I dislike Minikeys, but I liked the concept so much (and own a Microfreak) that I bought one anyway. I would have paid more for full-sized keys. Maybe we will get a "Superfreak" that has 12 voices and a full-sized keyboard. The competing version of the Hydrasynth is the Explorer, but why buy that if you can get one with full-sized keys? Okay maybe size + budget. I agree about the heft. The unit is surprisingly heavy for its size and cost.

micro has chord mode too...good stuff nice vid. Ta. Vocoder?

Would this be good paired with a Dirtywave M8, or maybe the Micro is better suited as it's smaller and more portable. I know it comes down to the artist but for someone that likes to tinker and isn't that serious is it worth the extra?

Interested to know whether you miss the magical Microfreak key style? Seems like the only piece it’s lacking. I’m looking at both of these tomorrow and trying to weigh up all the pros and cons

I have a terrible confession. I bought the mini freak, which comes with the VST version. Didn’t really like the vibe of the mini freak hardware(knobs, gearsize/screen size ratio, pad button sensitivity) but liked the free VST version so I returned it and now I have a minifreak to sample with my SP ...at no cost :p

Played it whilst in Manchester. Great synth that I did think about buying. Went with the ASM Hydrasynth as (for me) it's a piece of piss to create a complex patch from scratch. Fully expecting the apocalypse as how can synths get any better at decent prices....£500! I mean c'mon it's berserk what we're getting these days.

It's not a bad synth at all, what got me was the VST counterpart is almost exacting sounding, which somewhat devalues the whole value for me when you compare price. I think this is where they made an error, the work flow is great but I'm not sure they did the hardware justice by pricing the software so low.

When can I expect a SuperFreak?

I want one too. If I didn't have a TI2

It's one of the easiest synths to execute a complex matrix routing on with so little diving. My only gripes are the touch transport controls and the fact it doesn't have wavetable yet. I'm sure it will though. Also you can't use chord in osc 1 and that's disappointing because I love the chord osc and really wanted to try running it through the various filters you can use the second oscillator for. Especially comb filter. Oh and FM. I wanted to FM the chords osc.

I was looking at this and Hydrasynth Explorer, just for something small & portable. I decided on “neither”.

general hint for your videos: instead of showing your face 95% all the time, give the gear itself more visual focus. It makes the content more interesting.

Microfreak is awesome but your sweater is more

I’m not a fan my fridge sounds warmer .

I have been eyeballing this baby for awhile, But you know they will come out with the Freak and then? SuperFreak? Only time will tell.