It’s never a good look when your product launch is mired in controversy. Arturia launched their cheap (less than $350), crazy-looking synth, the MicroFreak, with a press kit that among other things championed a collaboration between the company and “acclaimed modular synth pioneers Mutable Instruments.” In reality, the MicroFreak uses open source DSP code from Mutable Instruments, the same as several other products on the market (and Mutable Instruments’ own). Mutable clarified but added they really didn’t care, so we’re all good, and on with the show.
The MicroFreak is a digital synth with 11 oscillator modes, a keyboard that looks like a blown up Korg Volca (but is touch-sensitive PCB instead) and 128 factory presets (of 192 preset slots total), the ability to record up to four automations and edit notes per step or use two sequencer functions called “Spice” and “Dice” for an element of randomization.
