Analogue purists might bemoan the advent of digital music production gear, but an undeniable upside is the ease with which brands can now roll out firmware updates for existing synths, not only fixing bugs and improving usability, but occasionally adding whole new capabilities to existing.
Originally released in 2022, Arturia’s hybrid MiniFreak polysynth is an instrument that has done particularly well out of this form of free upgrade. Built around a synth engine that combines multi-mode digital oscillators with an analogue filter and comprehensive digital effects, MiniFreak’s mix-and-match approach to synthesis lends itself particularly well to being tweaked and updated.
In the four years since launch, the six-voice MiniFreak has gained capabilities that include a vocoder, wavetable, sample and granular oscillator modes and a variety of new effects. Now, with the launch of its fifth major firmware update, MiniFreak is becoming more customisable by allowing users to upload their own samples and wavetables as source sounds for the oscillators.
MiniFreak 5.0 lets users drag and drop samples and wavetables into the synth’s companion plugin MiniFreak V, which will handle all necessary conversion and allow users to then upload sounds to the hardware.
Samples can be imported in WAV, AIFF and FLAC formats that can be used with the instrument’s sample and granular oscillator modes. The synth’s engine imports mono wavetables with 24-bit, 512 point compatibility, allowing users to upload files from a wide range of banks and libraries.
Along with the new capabilities, MiniFreak 5.0 comes with a bank of 23 new presets that also add new samples and wavetables to the stock library.
Although v5.0 perhaps isn’t as radical an upgrade as some previous iterations, it does add a nice extra dimension to an already impressive instrument, one which we described at launch as being “a joy to get lost in.”
Perhaps the most exciting possibility is the prospect of loading ‘vintage’ wavetables from classic ‘90s synths in order to impersonate hardware classics from the likes of PPG or Waldorf.
As with previous updates, the new features come to both the MiniFreak hardware and its MiniFreak V counterpart. The latter is available as a standalone purchase, allowing users to access the synth’s full feature set in a DAW without buying the hardware – albeit with a virtual recreation of the analogue filter.
MiniFreak 5.0 is available now as a free update for owners of either version. Head to the Arturia site for more.
