Arturia MicroFreak: Why the Hybrid Synth Is Worth Buying

Most small synthesizers copy a classic. The Arturia MicroFreak goes the other way. It mixes digital oscillators with an analog filter, swaps a normal keyboard for a flat touch surface and builds randomness into its sequencer. Arturia calls it an experimental hybrid synth that rewards the curious musician, and that is a fair summary.

Here is what the MicroFreak is, what makes it special and where to buy one.

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What it is

The Arturia MicroFreak is a compact hardware synthesizer. Its sound starts in a digital oscillator, passes through an analog filter and is shaped by envelopes, a low-frequency oscillator (LFO) and a modulation matrix. Arturia pitches it both at people looking for their first affordable hardware synth and at collectors looking for original sounds and an unusual interface.

It is small and light. Arturia lists it at 311 by 233 by 55 millimeters and 1.02 kilograms (2.25 pounds), which makes it easy to fit on a crowded desk.

Who makes it

Arturia is the company behind the MicroFreak. On the MicroFreak page, it recalls that its debut synth, the MiniBrute, set new standards for compact analog instruments in 2012, and says the MicroFreak set out to redefine what affordable digital synths can do.

The oscillator

The digital oscillator is the heart of the MicroFreak. Four dedicated knobs control it: Type picks the engine, while Wave, Timbre and Shape refine it. Arturia's spec list counts 21 digital oscillator modes, covering wavetable, sample playback and granular processing, plus a Vocoder mode.

Some modes come from Arturia, including Superwave, Harmo, Karplus Strong (a physical modeling method for string sounds) and Wavetable. Others come from partners. Arturia integrated the open-source Plaits oscillator from Mutable Instruments, adding modes such as V.Analog, Waveshaper, Chords and Speech, and worked with Noise Engineering on three more: SawX, Harm and Bass. The Vocoder is a 16-band engine for processing the human voice and other sources.

Every oscillator is monophonic by nature, but you can switch on paraphony to play up to four voices at once.

The filter and modulation

The filter is analog, a resonant 12 decibel per octave state variable design with low-pass, band-pass and high-pass modes, and Arturia says it can self-oscillate. Arturia describes it as based on the Oberheim-designed filter, which helps tame the sharp edges of the digital oscillators.

Modulation is where the MicroFreak punches above its size. The matrix has 5 sources and 7 destinations, 3 of which you can assign yourself. There is an ADSR envelope (attack, decay, sustain, release), a Cycling Envelope that can act as an envelope or an LFO, and a syncable LFO with sine, triangle, saw, square, random and slew random shapes.

The flat keyboard

The keyboard is the first thing everyone notices. It is a 25-key printed circuit board (PCB) with no moving parts. It is capacitive and pressure sensitive, and it supports polyphonic aftertouch, which means each key can respond differently depending on how hard you press. A touch strip above it works as a pitch bender or controls the sequencer's randomness.

Sequencer and arpeggiator

The MicroFreak includes an arpeggiator with Up, Order, Random and Pattern modes and a 64-step sequencer with two patterns and four automation tracks per preset. Two features make it fun. Spice changes the parameters of a pattern without changing its pitch, and Dice randomizes the sequence by the amount you choose. Arturia frames them as tools for happy accidents.

The details

• Presets: 512 slots, including 320 factory presets
• Voices: monophonic, paraphonic or unison, up to 4 voices
• Extras: Chord mode and Scale Quantize
• Display: organic light-emitting diode (OLED) screen
• Connections: control voltage (CV), gate and pressure outputs, Universal Serial Bus (USB), clock, and Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) in and out, a 6.35 millimeter main output and a 3.5 millimeter headphone output
• In the box: the MicroFreak, a universal power supply, a registration card and two MIDI port adapters

Why it is worth buying

• It sounds like nothing else at its size. Physical modeling, wavetables, virtual analog, granular and sample playback in one small box is a lot of range.
• It plays well with others. Its USB, MIDI and CV outputs let it control software in a digital audio workstation (DAW) or a modular synth, and it can act as a polyphonic aftertouch controller.
• It keeps growing. Arturia notes that the MicroFreak has been constantly evolving, adding oscillator types over time.
• It is easy to learn. Arturia designed every feature to be clearly marked and simple to reach.

If you are just starting out, compare it with the picks in our best synthesizers for beginners. To build a small rig around it, add something from our best drum machines and best MIDI controllers, or see how it stacks up against the small, design-led instruments in our Teenage Engineering explainer.

Where to buy

Arturia sells the MicroFreak directly and through its dealer network.

Ready to move from a complete instrument into a case of modules? See our modular synth starter guide covering Eurorack makers and how to build a first kit.

More synths and studio gear live in our home studio hub.