Arturia

A
rturia have an impressive
track record for being
ahead of the curve when it
comes to synth trends.
Back in 2012, the French brand’s
MiniBrute played a key role in
ushering in the wave of affordable,
all-analogue instruments that has
dominated the market for much of
the past decade. While MicroFreak
was by no means the only compact
digital synth on the market when it
arrived in 2019, it’s notable how
many similarly-pitched instruments
have appeared in its wake, such as
Korg’s all-digital Modwave/Opsix/
Wavestate trio and a variety of
pint-sized wavetable machines
from Modal.
Even though its corner of the
market is a little more crowded now,
three years on MicroFreak still stands
out as a bit of an oddity. This is
neither an entirely digital synth or a
proper analogue one, pairing an
oddball digital oscillator and flexible
digital mod matrix with analogue
features such as its multimode filter
and CV-outputting sequencer.
Unique character
There are definite pros and cons to
this hybrid approach. The
combination of MicroFreak’s
eccentric digital oscillator modes
(more on these in a moment) with a
classic, SEM-inspired 12dB filter
certainly gives MicroFreak a unique
character, particularly when
combining something like the
Harmonic or Format modes with a
bit of resonant filter bite. It’s a slight
shame there’s no filter drive option
though, to really maximise the filter’s
analogue characteristics.
However, the consequence of
incorporating these analogue
elements is a slight lack of flexibility
compared to some of MicroFreak’s
Arturia MicroFreak
£270
Is Arturia’s digital/analogue hybrid still as unique
as it was at launch? Si Truss gets his freak on
CONTACT WHO: Arturia WEB: arturia.com KEY FEATURES Mono/4-voice paraphonic synthesiser combining 18-mode digital oscillator, 12dB
SEM-style analogue filter, flexible mod matrix, sequencer and arpeggiator
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