Arturia MicroFreak

Hearing voices

The multiple modes of MicroFreak’s digital oscillator can be easily switched and directly controlled with the 4 dedicated knobs in the Digital Oscillator section. The Type knob switches between the engines, while the Wave, Timbre, and Shape controls let you refine the oscillator to suit your taste.

MicroFreak currently contains 12 oscillator types, but we’ve left room for more to be added in the future! Here are the engines featured in the first firmware version:

Precisely detuned saw, square, sine, or triangle waves let you create the fattest synth sounds around. Perfect for Trance and lush dreamy pads.

Synthesize your sound from 32 sine waves by modulating their volume. The clue is in the name, it creates harmonically rich, vibrant sounds which can be shaped with the filter.

A much-loved synth method using physical modelling to recreate the sound of string instruments, from soft pizzicato to screeching, zingy chords.

Scan through waveform snapshots to find new, unusual, and evolving sounds. It contains 16 wavetables to explore, with room for more in the future.

This oscillator emulates two basic waveforms: the square and the sawtooth. A square wave contains only odd harmonics, and a sawtooth only even harmonics, both having their own unique character.

We’ve also integrated the open-source Plaits oscillator developed by Eurorack legends Mutable Instruments to bring you 7 additional synth modes. While all of the oscillators in MicroFreak are naturally monophonic, you can choose to enable paraphony to play up to 4-voices at once.

Virtual analog, recreating traditional synth methods digitally for a mix of classic and cutting-edge tones.

A triangular wave, processed by waveshaping and wavefolding creating squelchy, aggressive, and often metallic tones.

A simple but powerful twin-operator FM oscillator, with two sine waves modulated each other’s phase to create sharp, acidic tones.

A percussive, granular synthesis engine that is great for adding huge texture and body to sequenced rhythms.

A paraphonic synth engine that triggers duplicates at set intervals, creating defined, static chords with one key, perfect for trance-inspired melodies.

An engine that creates vowel, formant, and simple word sounds. Automate with the mod matrix, and hear MicroFreak come alive!

Recreates the unique inharminic vibrations and resonance of a hollow structure. Perfect for adding texture, or bizarre overtones to your music.

Filtering voices

The combination of digital oscillator and analog filter is a powerful one, and the often sharp, crystalline sounds of the oscillators can be beautifully tamed or shaped using the tasty 12-dB per-octave filter, based on the legendary Oberheim-designed SEM filter.

Low-pass

Lets the low end through, and kills of the highs. Warm up an aggressive sound, or bring everything down to a low, ominous rumble.

Band-pass

Focus on a particular frequency band to accentuate a particular tone in your sound. The ultimate sound-shaper.

High-pass

Carve away at the muddy low-end to create bright, zingy sounds, or create tension-building rises before a pulverizing drop.