I was eyeballing the original Arturia Microfreak synthesizer for a while. For three hundred dollars it’s a pretty unique and fun little synthesizer. Now, Arturia released a Vocoder edition of their succesful Microfreak.
This means you can have crazy synthesis and modulate your voice a la Daft Punk on top of it.
What is the Microfreak Vocoder?
The Vocoder edition comes in a white finish and includes a gooseneck microphone that you can use on the Microfreak’s Vocoder engine. The new Vocoder engine (also available for existing Microfreak users) has different modes for you to affect your voice, or any other audio source.
Microfreak Vocoder Features
Synthesizer with 256 preset slots and 224 factory presets
14 Digital oscillator with variable mode, including Mutable Instruments Plaits engines and new Vocoder mode
Analog State Variable Filter, 12dB/octave, resonant, Low Pass, Band Pass, High Pass
ADSR envelope
Cycling Envelope offering two modes
Envelope
LFO
LFO with Sync: Sine, Tri, Saw, Square, Random, Slew Random
Modulation matrix with 5 sources and 7 destinations (3 custom destinations)
Monophonic or Paraphonic modes – Up to 4 voices
Chord mode lets you program a chord shape and play it on any note
Scale Quantize lets you set a specific scale for the white notes to simplify the creative process
25-key capacitive keybed with polyphonic aftertouch
Capacitive touch strip
Crisp OLED display for editing and parameter values
Powerful arpeggiator
Up, Order, Random, Pattern modes
Spice & Dice Gate randomizers
64-step sequencer
2 patterns per preset
4 automation tracks per preset
CV / Gate / Mod outputs
USB, Clock and MIDI in and out
6.35mm master and 3.5mm headphone output
Pricing and Availability
The Arturia Microfreak Vocoder Edition is available in a limited run on the official Arturia website and select retailers worldwide for around three hundred bucks.