Arturia - MiniFreak Stellar Hands-on Review
The best budget-friendly synth!
You already know I’m a huge Arturia fan. Back in 2022, I wrote this blog post claiming that Arturia is the best synth company in the world and two years after that, I still believe it. And when I say “the best“, I say it in terms of its product catalog, quality, value for money, and overall positioning in the synth market.
One of the most impressive synths, Arturia released was the MicroFreak. A wildly affordable 4-voice (paraphonic) synth that covers almost every synthesis method, has an analog filter, and an MPE touch surface instead of a keyboard. I still have my MicroFreak Vocoder Edition and use it extensively! MicroFreak’s big brother - MiniFreak - was introduced in 2022 adding a lot of useful features and capabilities and I finally had the chance to get it in my hands in its latest, beautiful version - the MiniFreak Stellar! So today, we are going to go through what it can do, and who it is for, and also make a short comparison to the MicroFreak and find out if it’s worth the upgrade!
Overview
MiniFreak Stellar is a 6-voice, stereo, polyphonic synthesizer with two digital oscillators, a fully analog Steiner-Parker Filter, the incredible Modulation Matric introduced in the Freak Series, a sequencer & arpeggiator, and 3 Effects slots with numerous effects to choose from!
The digital oscillators are extremely versatile with 23 different engines on each of the two oscillators. You will find standard Classic Waveforms in the Basic Waves engine, Wavetables, Speech Synthesis, Karlus Strong, and the list goes on. I honestly can’t think of any known synthesis methods that are not available on the MiniFreak… And the cool thing about the MiniFreak is that some of the engines can be used in oscillator 2 to affect oscillator 1. There are a few filters (Multi, Surgeon, Comb, Phaser) and the Exploding Frog engine called “Destroy“ that are not sound generators but effects for oscillator 1.
The Filter is a Polyphonic state-variable filter with Low-pass, High-pass, and Band-pass that can self-oscillate which adds that analog feel to your digital oscillators while the Envelope is a standard ADSR envelope with 4 modes. The envelope essentially affects the polyphony of MiniFreak and it can be Polyphonic with 6 voices, Monophonic, Paraphonic that doubles the voices to 12 (!), and Unison. The second Envelope is a Cycling Envelope that can be used in Run or Loop modes and can reach audio rate levels. There are also two LFOs that are fully featured with lots of waveforms, and syncing options, while you can even create a custom LFO shape which is so much fun to play with!
The Modulation Matrix is the heart of this synth when it comes to sound design. It’s a 7X7 Matrix with 3 assignable destinations giving you the option of controlling almost any parameter with your envelopes, LFOs, Velocity, Mod Wheel, and Keyboard tracking.
Lastly, there are 3 effects slots with 10 effects to choose from. Here you have all your standard effects like Delay and Reverb but also a few more super useful ones like an EQ and a Compressor.
Design & Connections
When it comes to looks, MiniFreak Stellar just looks slick and beautiful. The all-black aesthetic is amazing and the fact they decided to use an all-black keyboard does make a big difference in terms of its design. Yeah, the keys get more fingerprints on them but it’s a sacrifice we have to accept for beauty! MiniFreak has a 37-key keyboard with mini keys making it quite small for its features and it’s a lot heavier than you might think. It does feel very sturdy and robust and all the knobs and buttons are tight and firm. For a 6-voice polysynth, I feel like the 37 mini keys fall a bit short. and I would love to see a version with 49 full-sized keys on a MiniFreak 2. Having a lot of Arturia keyboards, I’m really used to their keybeds but for some people, the mini keys might be a bit of a hustle to work with.
The layout is great and everything, including all the shift functions, is labeled so you won’t get lost. The only thing that I would change is the touch buttons for the sequencer, arpeggiator, wheel controls, and transport. I found them to be a bit difficult to tap and at the same time, I pressed them a few times by accident. You’ll get used to it and it’s definitely not a deal-breaker but I think that physical buttons would be easier to work with. The Pitch and Mod wheels are also touch-sensitive so there are no actual wheels and can be set to control Pitch & Mod, two Macros, or the Sequencer’s/ Arpeggiator’s Gate and Spice. It’s also great that there are small LED lights next to them so you always know where each of them is set without having to touch it or look at the screen.
On the back panel, you’ll find your Stereo Outputs, full 5-pin MIDI In, Thru & Out, a Sustain Pedal Input, Clock In, Out & Reset, an Audio In which we’ll talk about later, Headphones Out, a USB Type-B connection, and your Power Input. As you can see, the connectivity of MiniFreak is quite extended, and the only thing I would prefer is to have a USB Type-C connection as a standard in all new synthesizers from now on. The addition of a dedicated Audio In is very exciting for two reasons. First, you now have the option of using Audio In as a sound source in your oscillators which allows you to use MiniFreak’s signal path for external sounds. Your sound will use the filter and the effects so MiniFreak is now a sound processor for your other instruments! Secondly, this opens up the possibility of adding the sample functionality that MicroFreak got with its latest update allowing you to add samples in it. With an Audio In, it’s much easier to do this and I would love to be able to sample an external sound, process it with MiniFreak, and play it back! It would be like having a Casio SK-1 on steroids!
Sound Design
MiniFreak is the perfect affordable sound design tool. Its plethora of sound engines and modulation options make it one of the best synths for experimentation, exploring synthesis, and designing patches. Its front panel is very straightforward and easy to use so designing your own patches is fast and immediate.
The Mod Matrix.
As we said before, the Mod Matrix is the best thing about the MiniFreak. Its design is so well-thought and inviting that it invites you to play with it and experiment - and that’s a key factor when you design sounds. Just by taking a glance at the Mod Matrix, you can see what is routed where, and if you scroll on each modulation point you can change its value (positively or negatively). If you ever worked with a Modular Synth, you will appreciate the Mod Matrix even more. It combines attenuverters and multiples in a single matrix that enables you to get wild with it. The only thing I would add to it would be to have a multi-color LED light so I can see the polarity and depth of the modulation without having to go through each one of my modulation routings.
The two oscillators.
Having an extra oscillator on the MiniFreak compared to the MicroFreak makes a really big difference. The amount of combinations is now so big that you can tweak your oscillators for weeks and still find unique pairings and the versatility of the different sound engines is simply amazing. Digital oscillators may not have the thickness and body of a great analog oscillator and tend to muffle after using the Filter but at the same time, MiniFreak can achieve sounds that no analog synth can. I wouldn’t compare it to an all-analog synth because it’s not made for your typical analog sounds (although it can definitely make those sounds too!). Also, the option of using the 2nd oscillator as an additional filter for Oscillator 1 is genius and gives you extra tools you didn’t know you needed! In my modular setup, I often use two filters in series because I can modulate them separately and MiniFreak is one of the very few synths that gives me this option too.
I could honestly talk for days on how fun it is to design patches on the MiniFreak. Having the MicroFreak for years certainly made the transition very easy, but even if it’s your first synth, MiniFreak has a very fast and fun learning curve. Arturia is so good at making user interfaces and packing features in a natural and easy-to-understand way and the MiniFreak is a great example of this.
Effects!
A brand new thing on the MiniFreak is its Effects section. I don’t really care if a synth has Effects onboard because I tend to use external effects and pedals but it’s certainly handy when you have great effects built in. And the effects on the MiniFreak are amazing! Once again, Arturia took the extra mile and didn’t just add a reverb and a delay. On the MiniFreak, you have three effects slots, where you can choose an effect type. The effects available are Chorus, Phaser, Flanger, Reverb, Delay, Distortion, Bit Crusher, 3 Bands EQ, Peak EQ, and Multi Comp. So, if we take the Reverb (which sounds so good) and the Delay out of the way, you’ll find out that the other effects are more of a sound design tool rather than an effect.
I really appreciate having a good-sounding Distortion onboard because I run almost every sound I make through saturation and distortion devices, the Bit Crusher is also one of my favorite effects for synths, and the EQ & Compression effects were an unexpected pleasant surprise! I’ve always wondered why modern synths don’t have an EQ section as an end-of-chain effect so having a simple 3-Band EQ on the MiniFreak was just incredible and I use it on every single patch.
Notable Features
I didn’t want to make this review looking like a manual so I decided not to go through every single feature of the MiniFreak. But there are some very cool features hidden in this little synth that I want to mention.
LFO Shaper: I love this feature and I now need it everywhere. LFO shaper allows you to manually design your own LFO shape and save it on the MiniFreak. Using the Touch Strip and the Sequencer Step and Pattern Legth buttons you can set the LFO’s shape for each step for up to 16 steps. You can control the Amplitude, Slope, and Curve creating a completely new LFO shape from scratch. So no more boring standard LFOs!
Vibrato: If you hold Shift and press the Keyboard Bend/ Wheel, the touch strips are now your Rate & Depth of the global Vibrato! That means you don’t have to use one of your 2 LFOs to create a Vibrato effect!
Scales: Just like on the MicroFreak, you can set a specific scale and now the keys will only play notes from that particular scale. This is a very helpful feature for someone who is not an experienced keys player and will also help you stay in key in a live context which removes a lot of stress.
Mutate: MiniFreak has of course a flexible Arpeggiator with many options but my favorite one is Mutate! By pressing the Mutate button the pattern will start to change randomly creating a new arpeggio pattern with each press. This is such a fun and fast way to make your arpeggios a bit more interesting and unexpected with just a press of a button!
MiniFreak V: MiniFreak also comes with a license of MiniFreak V which is a software version of MiniFreak and works seamlessly with he hardware one. It has the exact same features with the only difference being that the filter on the software version is digital and you can transfer your patches between devices. I’m always using the hardware version when I’m in the studio, but when I’m not, I love the fact that I can create some patches on my laptop using MiniFreak V and then use them on my MiniFreak.
Who is it for?
A while back I was saying that the Arturia MicroFreak is a synth made for absolutely everyone. It is a no-brainer for its price. Does the same apply to the MiniFreak? Well, I think it does.
The MiniFreak is, in my opinion, the absolute best beginner’s synthesizer. I cannot find anything else on the market that has the same amount of features, flexibility, ease of use, and quality at this price point. It is a synthesizer that every beginner will love and hold on it for years to come so it’s safe to recommend it to anyone that wants to start building a home studio and needs a hardware synth. Just like the Korg Minilogue was the best beginner’s hardware synth 8 years ago, the MiniFreak is the new king! And the fact that it’s not “just a beginner’s synth“ gives it way more value.
Even if you’re not a beginner and already have a studio with several synths, the MiniFreak is still a solid option for you. Like I said before, I wouldn’t put the MiniFreak into comparison with an analog synth so even if you have a PolyBrute or a Prophet, the MiniFreak can still have a spot in your studio. Having a versatile digital synth around is a necessity so the MiniFreak is one of the best in its category. The only real competition would be a Hydrasynth or a Waldorf but if you also consider its price, the MiniFreak is probably the best option at its price range.
MicroFreak VS MiniFreak
But what if you already have a MicroFreak? I have both and I believe that’s a tricky question to answer. I can safely say that the MiniFreak is a better synth in every single aspect. It is not a MicroFreak with a few more features but an upgrade in every part of it. More voices (6-voice polyphony vs 4-voice paraphony), two oscillators vs one, more modulation options, effects, and more. Another big difference is the keybed. If you missed actual keys on the MicroFreak, then the MiniFreak will make you feel at home but you’ll lose the MPE capabilities of the touch keyboard.
I think the easiest way to answer the question would be the following: If you love and use the MicroFreak a lot, then you should definitely upgrade to the MiniFreak. All the things that might bothered you on the MicroFreak are now solved with the MiniFreak. The only things that you’ll lose are the Vocoder and Sampling features of the MicroFreak although I’m pretty sure that Arturia will add them and make them even better on the MiniFreak. If you don’t use the MicroFreak that much and you just have it for its sound engines that are somehow unique, not a lot will change by getting the MiniFreak. At their core, they have way too much in common so I don’t think that it will change your mind.
I love how Arturia approaches its product line. The MiniFreak costs almost twice as the MicroFreak but no one will ever say it’s not worth it. We’ve seen so many V2 and upgraded versions of synths that felt like a lack of effort but this does not apply to the MiniFreak. Arturia took all the things that made the MicroFreak great and changed or upgraded every little thing that people wanted from it and created the MiniFreak. It is a perfect example of taking your users’ comments and feedback into action.
Conclusion
Nothing is perfect but if you look at the MiniFreak from a product perspective it gets pretty close to perfection. If Arturia put a +1.000€ price tag on it, it would still be a great synth but I’m not sure I would be so ecstatic about it. But MiniFreak feels like a steal even nowadays that synths are way more accessible than they were 10 years ago.
The attention to all the details, its robust build, and its abundance of features and capabilities make the MiniFreak the best value-for-money synthesizer in the world right now. It’s an amazing synthesizer that anyone can pick up and create a great sound and if you want to go deep with it, you can. Also, in my opinion, the Stellar version looks beautiful and I would definitely get that over the original. I personally do care about looks and MiniFreak Stellar is stunning!
MiniFreak Stellar is a purchase that won’t disappoint you. It can literally be your one and only synthesizer for every sound. From bass to leads, aggressive to soft sounds, pads or plucks, it can deliver all. It will teach you subtractive synthesis or take your knowledge and push it to its limits with all the options that you’ll have in your hands!
The MiniFreak is a future classic in my books. I’m sure we will remember it in 10 years as a revolutionary product that made synths even more accessible and was the first synth for a lot of people starting off their musical journey!
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