Arturia Minifreak VST

[BONES]

Oh, right, so nobody is allowed to have any opinions about anything, is that how it works? Ben may as well shut down the servers, then, there is no point in running this place any more.

[EnGee]

And that is a the best point yet. One synth doesn’t have to do it all. If you find inspiration in what it does well you can reach for something else to fill in the blanks it leaves behind. I personally won’t be looking to this for bass lines or keyboard sounds. It excels in generating animated pads, and textures and I like it for plucks. The sequencer and chord functions are very useful and the poly effects, although few in number are very interesting to my ear. If it were your only synth plugin this wouldn’t be it for me but like so many of you choices are essentially unlimited.

I decided to try before buy and was soon in love with this synth. It really adds something new to my synth arsenal.

+1

I agree. I'm intenting to use it for such pads and weird moments mainly, although it is capable of more.
However, why it should be the only synth you have? It can be, but why?
I didn't purchase it because I have or don't have such synths! I purchase it because I felt it's useful for me and at a great offer price. Simple!

I might combine it with Dune 3 or Hive for a great results (This is what I it insipres me while playing with its presets, I heard nice music accompany it, so it inspires me). I checked some features and found it great I hope it will be from my synths to go as I like it even more than Pigments. With Modwave and Icarus, might be a great start for a piece of music (this is what on my mind now).

If you (talking in general) can't find a use for it, why buy it then?!

[DCrown]

I am not a fan of Arturia 's product presentations. It has the vibe of a presentation of some scientific innovation or a medical product, shouldn't a VSTi be made for creating music first and foremost?! There was a time when music was an emotional and creative thing.
Not many devs have the talent to present their product within a musical context or in a way you can imagine using the synth in a music track, I could name only a few.
The sound or noise examples neither of pigments nor of Minifreak have touched me, so I am not going to even demo the latter. I don't like the sound and wonder what it would sound like in a music production.
But maybe there are sound examples of some nice music tracks with Arturia VSTi and I just haven't found them?

There's a big choice of different softsynths nowadays, features, gui, sound etc are important, but the most important focus seems to be lost quite often - a softsynth is a tool for making or producing music, isn't it ?

[Uncle E]

I am not a fan of Arturia 's product presentations. It has the vibe of a presentation of some scientific innovation or a medical product, shouldn't a VSTi be made for creating music first and foremost?! There was a time when music was an emotional and creative thing.

Arturia has plenty of instruments like that. It sounds like the Augmented series would be right up your alley. Pigments and miniFreak are for the user who's looking for something a little different than normal. "Scientific" might be perfect for them.

[DCrown]

I have a general question to the stupid 20 minutes demo limitation.
Can you demo only once or could you demo again by re-starting your daw or after 24 h or...?
I could have checked it the last time I demoed pigments, but pigments is not for me, so I didn't.

[SLiC]

You can run the demo as often as you like.

[jasco]

Does anyone know the criteria for the $49 price?

[PieBerger]

Does anyone know the criteria for the $49 price?

V9 Collection license owners I believe

[BONES]

I purchase it because I felt it's useful for me and at a great offer price.

Really? What else did you look at? I think it is really quite expensive for what it is. Hydrasynth Explorer, for example, looks like a way better synth for just a few bucks more and then there is Modal's Cobalt 5S which, as I mentioned earlier, is at least as well featured for one-third less.

[inkwarp]

I purchase it because I felt it's useful for me and at a great offer price.

Really? What else did you look at? I think it is really quite expensive for what it is. Hydrasynth Explorer, for example, looks like a way better synth for just a few bucks more and then there is Modal's Cobalt 5S which, as I mentioned earlier...

Besides being a misanthrope you are also a shill I see. No one is talking about your precious 'Modal' but you keep bringing it up. This thread is about opinions re Minifreak but I guess you forget this when this mist of rage covers your eyes. Everything you say is negative. It's also full of broad statements like implying that people who dislike this synth are in the majority. I haven't seen much negative apart from your own bleating. I've seen posts you make like this several times now and always your default position is an aggressive and negative one. I don't know what your problem is but you don't do yourself any favors by constantly moaning instead of having a civil discussion on the topic had hand.

[EnGee]

I purchase it because I felt it's useful for me and at a great offer price.

Really? What else did you look at? I think it is really quite expensive for what it is. Hydrasynth Explorer, for example, looks like a way better synth for just a few bucks more and then there is Modal's Cobalt 5S which, as I mentioned earlier, is at least as well featured for one-third less.

Yes, really!

I've watched the presentation while updating my over 30 products from Arturia (VC9 + Effects bundle + Pigments), then I demoed it, then watched that video about the Frog Explosion thing, then purchase it!

When I demoed it, I was listening carefully with my headphones for the details of the sound. I always play with the sound and change some parameters. I really like this 'thing' that added to the base sound. It is effect plus a kind of unison, then I understood that that you can modulate/effect per voice and mostly this is the reason. Anyway, I compared with some of my favourite sounding synths (Modwave and Massive X) and found it really shine and up to that level, even though it is not a wavetable synth like them.

Workflow is also great! you hover over a parameter a plus sign appears and if you click it, the matrix shows with the highlighted row (up to 9 user selection). You can then choose the modulator which is in front of you (Advanced mode) and modulate that parameter. When you modulate that parameter, you see a simple movement on the ring of the parameter. It is a standard thing I know, but you can see it all in front of you with an elegant simple way to shape your sound. That is just an example how I demo synths (sound, workflow, CPU usage).

The price was $49 offered to me, so why you keep mentioning the hardware version?! I purchased the software only (the VSTi only).

[EnGee]

I purchase it because I felt it's useful for me and at a great offer price.

Really? What else did you look at? I think it is really quite expensive for what it is. Hydrasynth Explorer, for example, looks like a way better synth for just a few bucks more and then there is Modal's Cobalt 5S which, as I mentioned earlier...

Besides being a misanthrope you are also a shill I see. No one is talking about your precious 'Modal' but you keep bringing it up. This thread is about opinions re Minifreak but I guess you forget this when this mist of rage covers your eyes. Everything you say is negative. It's also full of broad statements like implying that people who dislike this synth are in the majority. I haven't seen much negative apart from your own bleating. I've seen posts you make like this several times now and always your default position is an aggressive and negative one. I don't know what your problem is but you don't do yourself any favors by constantly moaning instead of having a civil discussion on the topic had hand.

To be honest, I don't have a problem dealing with Bones. In the past, yes, but I understood him and his nature. He is not a bad person at all, but you can say he has "in you face" nature. Not strange thing here in NZ as well

[SLiC]

Anyway, I compared with some of my favourite sounding synths (Modwave and Massive X) and found it really shine and up to that level, even though it is not a wavetable synth like them.

I agree (and Modwave is one of the best sounding VSTs in my opinion as well) and for $50 is is a bargain. Sure, you can do the 'I can achieve the same with X,Y.Z synths' argument, but the reality is you cam probably do just about anything with 2-3 VST's but many of us have more than that! It sounds great, it looks great, it has some interesting features and really nice workflow ( I really enjoyed making new sounds on this, that's a big plus for me)

[Artie Fichelle]

A question: the hardware of the minifreak seems to have an audio imput. What about the vst?

[EnGee]

Yes, it also has audio in.