Arturia MicroFreak

The MicroFreak has 22 distinct sound engines (as of the 5.0 update).[3]

They are:[4]

• Basic Waves - a standard synth voice using traditional waveforms,
• Super Wave - a group of detuned waves (like a supersaw),
• Harmonic - a form of additive synthesis where you set volumes of frequencies individually,
• Karplus-Strong - a physical modelling system to replicate string sounds,
• Wavetable - a method of synthesis where the waveform transitions through a table of different waveforms,
• Noise - various types of noise and static.
• Virtual Analogue - a standard subtractive synth voice,
• Waveshaper - a triangle wave that is repeatedly wavefolded,
• Frequency Modulation (two operators) - a method of synthesis where a wave modulates the frequency of another wave,
• Formant - a form of granular synthesis,
• Chords - an engine that plays groups of notes paraphonically,
• Speech - a vocal synthesizer,
• Modal - a physical modelling engine that replicates the sound of hollow objects,
• Bass - another waveshaping algorithm specifically for basslines,
• Harm - a mixture of waveshaping and additive synthesis,
• SawX - a supersaw being phase modulated,
• Vocoder - a voice transformer similar to a talkbox,[5]
• User Wavetable - an engine to use your own wavetables,
• Sample - an engine that plays back loaded samples,
• Scan Grain - a granular synthesizer that scans through a whole sample,
• Cloud Grain - a granular synthesizer that creates overlapping grains from a sample, and
• Hit Grain - a granular synthesizer that creates percussive sounds from a sample.

Of those, 12 are made by Arturia (Basic Waves, Super Wave, Harmonic, Karplus-Strong and Wavetable, Noise, Vocoder, User Wavetable, Sample, Scan Grain, Cloud Grain, and Hit Grain), 7 are made by Mutable Instruments (Virtual Analogue, Waveshaper, Two operator FM, Formant, Chords, Speech and Modal) from their "Plaits" eurorack module,[6] and the remaining 3 are made by Noise Engineering.[7]

One of the USPs of the MicroFreak was its numerous firmware updates and improvements. Arturia continued to improve the user experience years after the original release of the MicroFreak.[8]

The MicroFreak was received very well from the synthesizer community. It is considered by some to be one of the best value for money synthesizers of modern times.[11][12] According to the music production website MusicTech it has "an enormous amount to offer and will really reward exploratory use".[12]

• Arturia MiniBrute – another synthesizer by the same company

• https://noiseengineering.us/ and https://mutable-instruments.net/ - the two other companies that contributed sound engines to the Microfreak