Arturia has released the MiniFreak 2.0 firmware that adds the mighty wavetable engine to the oscillators, a new super unison FX, and more.
The MicroFreak is already a modern classic after just a few years on the market—a mega success for Arturia. The call for a poly version came quickly. Arturia responded to this big request with the MiniFreak release in October 2022—a 6-voice poly version of the MicroFreak.
The MiniFreak V, a virtual version, followed in January. Things have been quiet since the hardware was released last year. But I have good news: Arturia has just dropped a new MiniFreak firmware 2.0 with major new features. An early Christmas present for MF users.
Arturia MiniFreak 2.0
MiniFreak 2.0 is a new free firmware update for the hardware and software version of Arturia’s hybrid polyphonic synth. Both versions receive the same features with this update; expect some minor menu operation changes.
Wavetable
The big highlight of firmware 2.0 is the introduction of a long-awaited wavetable synth engine, previously only available in the MicroFreak.
According to Arturia, it’s an improved version with more fidelity to the original wavetable, higher frequency range, and less noise/aliasing than the engine in the MicroFreak. A downer: the wavetable engine is only available for the oscillator 1 slot, not on both. So you can’t create a super 2-oscillator wavetable synth.
Once loaded, you can tweak the engine with three parameters. The wave knob scans through the selected wavetable. With shift and type, you can browse through the 32 factory wavetables. Timbre adjusts the symmetrical pulse width and shape is a 1-pole lowpass/highpass filter.
Of course, users of the MiniFreak V also benefit from the new wavetable engine. Unlike the hardware, the plugin gives a visualized wavetable and instant feedback on what happens to it when you shape it with the parameters. So far, no custom wavetable import function is available; I hope this will be added in the future.
Then, the oscillator algorithm from Noise Engineering gets a new OSC freerun functionality. Arturia says that the oscillators are capable of phase reset on new voices triggered, and, therefore, they should also respond to this new feature.
Super Unison
Another major new feature is a new super unison FX. It’s a chorus-type effect, with up to 6 copies stacked on top of the dry signal, allowing it to create a very wide, fat sound.
It also has interesting sub-types, including free-running chorus effects. You can control it with three parameters: detune, LP/HP filtering, and dry/wet mix.
The shaper LFO also got an upgrade. You can now set the LFO rate either to a single step or the entire shaper length. With this, you can create custom LFO shapes that run fast.
New Patches & Sound Store
It’s not a new feature of the hardware, but the MiniFreak V now ships with a sound store where you can buy and download new sounds. It ships with three free banks of 32 patches at launch, with more to come.
Plus, you can buy two new commercial banks of 64 patches. These are available for both the hardware and software versions. Talking about sounds. The new firmware also ships with 64 all-new patches showcasing the new features.
For MiniFreak hardware users, there is also a new handy favorite panel for quickly accessing favorite presets.
Lastly, you can set the clock and the transport sends on/off—two useful improvements.
First Impression
Arturia took over a year to release the first major update for MiniFreak. Since MicroFreak has had the wavetables for a long time, this update was up in the air. It was just a question of when it would come to the MiniFreak.
The Wavetables are a nice new engine for the MF. It’s a shame that you only load them into oscillator one. It would certainly be more exciting if you could fill both slots with it. But then the possibility of working with FM, etc., would be missing.
My highlight, however, is the new Super Unison FX, which makes every patch sound fat. That’s an excellent addition. I hope the update with the Granular Sampler that MicroFreak got for Superbooth 23 doesn’t take another year. Please, not Arturia.
Arturia MiniFreak 2.0 firmware update is available now as a free download. The update is also available for users of the MiniFreak V software. MiniFreak is available now for $599/589€.
More information here: Arturia
Available at my partners
Finally… They released it. Wavetable addition was rumored more that 1 yaer ago (during Minifreak release).
So v3 will add Vocoder and v4 PCM ?
What is it so long ?
the need recoded and optimized completely for the MiniFreak CPU. It’s not a easy port thing 🙂
I own the plugin, but this softsynth eats my old CPU for breakfast. When you own a MiniFreak hardware, why is there no option to use the plugin only for total recall and as a remote control and let the hardware do all the calculation? This would actually give me a reason to buy the real synth. PolyBrute Connect for the PolyBrute has exactly this functionality, why not the MiniFreak as well?
PolyBrute Connect is also just an editor for the the synth. It doesn’t offer audio over USB like the Access Music Virus and its Total Recall function.
Correct, you have to connect the audio outputs of the PolyBrute to your audio interface. But still, the PolyBrute Connect plugin offers total recall and automatable parameter control in your DAW, while the sound is created by the synth. I don’t know why Arturia has not given this option to the mainly digital MiniFreak as well, it should be possible.
Or maybe my CPU is just too old for all this fancy New Millennium stuff… 😉