Pairing the software with the hardware brings advantages of its own, but is in no way necessary to get the most out of this remarkably flexible, phenomenal-sounding synth. The oscillators, algorithms, LFOs, envelopes – everything barring the filter – is translated directly from the hardware, and you’d be very hard pressed to tell the difference in a listening test. Having the built-in effects is so much more convenient than having to constantly add effects plugins every time you use the instrument.īeing based on a hardware instrument that’s almost entirely digital – and entirely of Arturia’s own design – means that there’s no practical difference between MiniFreak V and MiniFreak. This is most welcome, not because MiniFreak V sounds weak without the effects (it doesn’t) but because the synth is otherwise entirely monaural.

It also has an arpeggiator mode offering the usual up, down, up & down patterns.Ī three-slot stereo FX section with choice of 10 effect types rounds things off. The sequencer can run its programmed pattern as-is in a constant loop, but it’s more useful when triggered and transposed by the notes you play. This lets you define patterns of up-to 64 steps in length, made up of polyphonic notes and four controller lanes. These provide a few shapes over-and-above the usual suspects – ramped sawtooth waves, for example – but their pièce de résistance is that they allow you to create custom LFO patterns.Īnother source of modulation – and notes – is MiniFreak V’s built-in pattern sequencer. In terms of actual LFOs, MiniFreak V has two for you to play with. This is a three-stage affair that can be one-shot-triggered in the same way as a standard envelope, or that can cycle in an LFO-like manner.

Moving on to modulation, the synth offers a standard ADSR envelope generator, hard-wired as the amp and filter envelope, as well as a so-called “Cycling” envelope. Few synths can match the shapeshifting abilities of Pigments.īoasts twin wavetable oscillators and 130 foldable wavetables.

Arturia digital piano