ARTURIA MicroFreak £265
When it comes to new and exciting ways to package hardware synthesisers, Arturia has been on something of a mission for the last few years. Whether it be the petite Brute series, or the colossal MatrixBrute, the company has certainly been pushing the envelope to offer both affordable and desirable machines.
Arturia’s latest little wonder packages familiar and existing technology into an altogether different casing, and at a price which – in synth terms at least – won’t break the bank.
The MicroFreak weighs in at a kilo and is just over 300mm wide and part of the reason for its diminutive size could be because of its largely digital makeup. While some people might run a mile at the sight of the ‘D’ word, digital oscillators have an unbelievable amount to offer and the MicroFreak boasts 11 oscillator modes.
The other weight-limiting factor is the lack of a regular keybed, which is something of a point of reverence to the West Coast synthesis ideals of Don Buchla. He never liked calling his machines ‘synthesisers’, as it conjured up an image of a synthetic world which made him uncomfortable. He is largely credited as being one of the pioneers for control of synths through capacitive technology, which would often not take the
