Microfreak Patches
Ronna Bordelon
Although I would like to see something like this implemented, I am also pretty sure that the effort involved would be relatively high. But you have the option of transferring and adapting the existing patches one by one, double the fun, so to speak.
This soundbank contains 20 patches for the MicroFreak and 21 patches for the MS-70CDR. All the MicroFreak patches use the Cloud Grains oscillator that was introduced in MicroFreak firmware version 5.0, loaded with one of the 12 custom-made morphing samples that are included in this soundbank. The Cloud Grains oscillator uses granular synthesis to play small loops from the sample, with different timbres depending on the grain position, which can be tweaked and modulated.
Each MicroFreak patch is designed with its own MS-70CDR effect patch, treating the two boxes as one integrated instrument. Those who own both the MicroFreak and the MS-70CDR can load the matching patches on each box and play them together. The MS-70CDR effect patch will also work well with other synths, so if you don't have a MicroFreak, you'll be able to have fun with just the effects. The effect chain for each patch is described in the booklet, so if you have a MicroFreak but no MS-70CDR, you can have a go at recreating the effect chain using other hardware or software effects - or just play with the MicroFreak patches as they are.
Question: from which device (hardware or software) are you sending the program changes? Is the connection USB or DIN Midi?
I use program changes on the microfreak in my setup a lot a and it works perfectly. I would be happy to help if I knew more about your setup.
Have not DL it yet
I have to say Arturia have been great at updating this little guy.
I hear/read a lot of comments stating it lacks FX. True. But with all the hype of pedal FX and others, I do not see it as an issue.
My Blofeld has fx but I rarely use them. Apart from a bit of reverb or chorus. Sparsely though.
Also comments on how it lacks bottom end. Disagree here. Plus the introduction of a Bass OSC and unison is going to make it even bigger
Just a thought.
To be verified
The MicroFreak is a unique hybrid paraphonic synth that features digital wavetables and oscillators routed through an analog SEM 12-db VCF state variable filter. The MicroFreak has a modulation matrix, 64-step sequencer, arpeggiator, lfo and one ADSR envelope. Prepare to get weird with the MicroFreak.
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Yeah, hope they'll add some new oscillator types too and fix some bugs too
I'd be happy if the freak remembered that last used patch when turning it on for starters...
(I keep track of the Arturia forum but it's not super active just a few posts per day or so and mostly repeating previous requests).
I'm loving the Microfreak too, really easy to design patches on, is there a way to recall user patches via PC with bank select?
I've got it working with PC up to patch 127 but haven't gone further, hoping it's possible with bank select.
Hopefully there will be a Mozaic Program Change script soon to recall user presets after number 165 or whenever they begin...
Yep, i hope the forum can be reset after the update, like you said its the same requests over and over. The big one i like is for the cycling ENV to have sync function and for the velocity data to be transferred from the arp to the sequencer when stored.
I'd love to see a Bi/Uni-Polar switch for the LFO in the settings as well as control for start-phase when key-sync is used with 'on panel' way to enable/disable the LFO key-sync and control the LFO start-phase. (I got a positive reply on this after I sent my initial mail to Arturia and it was apparently being considered for implementation already).
Does it play nicely with iOS, then? Wages have just been paid, and I'm planning on getting MicroFreak or similar. Probably MicroFreak, though. First ever hardware synth, so looking forward to it. Do I recall correctly that I'll also need an audio interface to use this with iOS?
I just got a used MicroFreak two days ago. Haven't really done anything productive with it yet, but I've been having a lot of fun just creating weird sounds. The cycling envelope (and flexible mod matrix to attach it to different parameters) is super unique and cool.
@audio_DT You will need an audio interface since it doesn't support audio over USB. I haven't actually connected my MicroFreak to my iPad yet, but the usual way to connect a synth like this is both by USB and via the audio interface. USB gives you MIDI to/from the iPad, and audio obviously gets the sound into the iPad.
Thanks. Yeah, I forgot that it can also be a controller. Will I need to get an audio interface straightaway, or can I use it with the iPad right off the bat (using iPad Pro 2018)? Edit: ignore @walkie kindly replied.
@walkie said:
I just got a used MicroFreak two days ago. Haven't really done anything productive with it yet, but I've been having a lot of fun just creating weird sounds. The cycling envelope (and flexible mod matrix to attach it to different parameters) is super unique and cool.
Sounds great man!
I, too am a new freak owner and I love making patches on this machine. And then becoming one with the keypad makes me feel magic in the touchy sense..hehehe
That matrix fun factor is endless as well, with all the cool oscillator types.
Hybrid !! Filter is analog This is one of reasons why it sounds somgrest, combination of digital oscillators and analog filter is simply great (dsi evolver, shrurhi/ambika, or old good waldorf microwave I)
Trying using Circuit with Patch Base, it becomes a true bi-timbral synth once you can explore patches more easily. For microfreak substitute, I'm very happy with Spectrum mutable instruments port. For $300, I could get a Roli and hopefully soon Spectrum will have MPE support.
I absolutely want to program an 8 operator RCM advanced FM synth with formant control, of course. The day I use someone else's preset in a synth is, well, the day I might as well give up being a synthesist.
@u0421793 said:
I absolutely want to program an 8 operator RCM advanced FM synth with formant control, of course. The day I use someone else's preset in a synth is, well, the day I might as well give up being a synthesist.
Like with so many synth architectures, it's all up to what you make of it.
I've experimented a lot with additive, fm and wavetable synthesis including Wolfgang Palm's TCS variant (which behaves somewhat in-between a wavetable and a sample oscillator) and in most cases, wavetables are very capable of reproducing any short-cyclic waveform, not so much inharmonic transients of course. The harmonic evolutions you talk about are exactly what any number of FM operators in any configuration with their individual envelopes produce. Agreed, you are limited to a selected set of snapshots inside this evolution to bake into a wave table, but most FM sounds can be reproduced this way and by witty WT design, a lot can be done to morph between all kinds of sounds, even though the WT is one-dimensional.