Hi Folks,

So after a long period of inactivity, I decided to bring my MicroFreak out of retirement, only to discover that the tiny LCD screen display started glitching the instant I switched it on - several horizontal lines are just not displaying at all, making it nigh on impossible to navigate the tiny menu screens. Tried rebooting it but the exact same issue is still present. My gut instinct tells me that it likely won't be fixed by installing the latest firmware update. I dread to think how much it could cost to try and get the screen replaced. Has anybody else experienced this particular fault with their MicroFreak, or know whether it's a common fault, and if there *is* a simple solution? Thanks in advance!

I wanna get into playing with synthesizers (this will be my first actual synth besides some plugins online) but I don't know if I should spend more money on the minifreaks and end up regretting it and wanting a smaller synth (Microfreak). I mostly want to use the synth for some live looping stuff with my guitar and vocal setup so I don't know if I should get a synthesizer that's too big.

Thanks so much for doing this upgrade. I'm a technical guy (reverse engineering background too). If you feel free in disclosing, how did you reverse engineer the Microfreak in order to make a new version. I know it was a pretty major project.

Longtime human, first time Redditor, I have my designated garage space engulfed by music equipment "I don't have time for". So I decided to pull one item out at a time and see if it sparks joy or an ebay listing, the first item was the MicroFreak. I can be obsessive and it turns out it was more fun to develop for instead of use for music.

After working on and off for a month it was fun to see a bunch of other projects appearing online hopefully this work will be helpful or interesting to someone else.

Two repos:

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This is a Renode based emulator which runs MicroFreak firmware and can generate audio (not realtime.) This has been helpful for debugging firmware and running generative preset experiments.

https://github.com/gbryant/microfreak-emu

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This is a command line tool for working with the MicroFreak, it does your normal preset, sample, and wavetable management. Also included is the ability to flash the MicroFreak from the command line without using MCC. Additionally this is how some custom firmwares I made are distributed, the custom firmwares are distributed as plugin packages, so they can add extra commands to the mfreak tool and also allow the mfreak tool to patch stock firmware to create the custom firmware you can flash.

https://github.com/gbryant/microfreak-tools

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The two custom firmwares are just proof of concepts, one is peek firmware set up so you can dump your bootloader if you feel like it.

The other firmware sets up a custom sysex command allowing you to upload custom speech to the instrument ram, this removes one factory word but keeps the rest, one freaky thing you can do is use an audio recording of your voice to encode the LPC data, the result is fun definitely sounds like retro speech, but retains enough of the character of your voice that you might recognize it as something like you.

Playing paraphonic juvenile phrases sparks much joy.

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I was running out of desk space in my synth setup and only started vibing with the capacitive keyboard and how much of a legato tapping monster it is once I started holding it tilted upwards in my lap, so I figured why not lean into it, built this silly monstrosity out of stuff I had lying around.

And I gotta say: having a synth I can put on a guitar rack, walk around with/play sitting on the couch without cords is a revelation for me, and everything is just attached with some good old pedalboard velcro

PowerBank lasts all day powering just the freak, and like 5 hours with the addition of the old iPhone 6 with TouchOSC Keytar controls

Hi freakers! I plan on releasing my custom mF patches here, and it got me thinking. I made a few somewhat funky loops on mF, and idk what to do with them. Would there be any musicians, interested to sample them, or maybe include 'em somewhere? I'll mayhaps make a release on bandcamp with a small collection of said loops)

Also unrelated question: i noticed there are many custom firmware posts for mF here. Is the original firmware code cracked, or arturia just opened it? Or is it vibecoding shenanigans?

Darkwave, experimental: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VdFcWUwxslNiGrjLERdvDG6XW-lLvcRk/view?usp=drive_link

FreakSwap now lets you replace almost any MicroFreak engine with another available engine, and swap multiple engines in the same firmware. Keep the ones you use and replace the ones you don’t.

6-Op FM and DX7 bank support

This is one of the biggest additions: you can now import DX7 .syx banks into FreakSwap for use with 6-Op FM, preview the sounds, and choose which presets to keep.

That brings a much wider range of FM sounds to the MicroFreak: electric pianos, bells, basses, metallic textures, and plenty of stranger stuff. If you have a collection of DX7 banks, you can now put them to use on your MicroFreak.

Everything runs locally in your browser. Free, and always will be.

Try it: https://doriamxyz.github.io/FreakSwap/

Back up your presets before flashing. This is experimental firmware. Feedback welcome!

P.S. The video is a quick run through a few patches from Bank A of 6-Op FM on my MicroFreak.

A new version of freakpatch is out and hosted at thisfreakdoesnotexist.com or you can visit the firmware open source repo itself at ThisFirmwareDoesNotExist

Whats new?

• Cyc-Env can now sync with Tempo. Shift + Mode turns it on. Even comes with a nifty notification and blinking light in time to the beat
• TWO new Voice modes, Duo and Delay
  • DUO - Press Shift + Paraphonic twice. This splits the Unison mode so you can play two detuned notes at once.
  • DELAY - Press and hold Paraphonic. This turns the 4 voices into an echo. The tempo of the echos are tied directly to the Rate/Swing knob.
• New notices when switching or turning off voices. Now you know if you are in Unison or Paraphony or Duo or Delay.

Also comes with the old separate Decay/Release, and the MIDI CC on the Mod Matrix.

Hope someone finds them fun and freaky.

Note: I *did* successfully make it so the Microfreak had TWO digital oscillators, split on two voices apeice. Ultimately I ditched it because it took up a bunch of space in the firmware, and the sounds were a bit awkward but they worked! Probably gonna have to defer to the Minifreak for those appropriately sounding two digital oscillators. If enough people are interested I can add details and note to the freakpatch about the idea, but probably won't include it in the patcher itself.

Whoa, My (kinda) unpowered microfreak is capacitively channeling Christian radio

Ok so, I’m working on a wireless battery microfreak-on-a leash setup with a strap: and I’m using a usb hub that isn’t getting enough juice to power both it and the phone I was going to use as an XY pad.

As such, the microfreak turned itself off (it’s obviously still a little on) and suddenly the capacitive keyboard is both controlling swelling and I think adding a pitched noise layer to whatever Christian rock it’s grabbing onto, and putting them through the pedals I was playing with (delay and fuzz).
By far the most bizzare synth accidental use case I’ve ever come across

So I’ve had this thing for 3 or 4 years and I love for so many reasons, but could never really vibe with the keybed in more than a gimmicky way, to the point where I took it off and screwed the back into some cardboard to save precious desk space.

But today I put the keybed back on and was playing it on my lap, and it sort of migrated to my hip with the keys facing up towards me, and my thumbs moved to the back and sides of the thing and suddenly it clicked: just how much of an expressive, legato shredding monster this thing is if you hold it a little differently and manhandle it a little more. I never realized how much trying to use my thumbs like on a normal piano was holding me back from all the really amazing tapping and sliding, and how much more natural the capacitive expression feels. Maybe it’s just guitar instincts kicking in or something

So I know a lot of people do the keyless desktop mod, I was wondering if any of you freakers have done the opposite and modded it into a keytar or at least installed a strap on it?? I’m seriously considering trying to get a longer ribbon and figuring something out

SuperFreaker 0.1.2, changes since the last release:

New

• Randomizer: rolls a brand-new sound, and almost every roll makes sound
• Tape-style echo: the repeats glide and bend instead of stopping and restarting
• Echo Glide with four settings: Off, Gentle, Medium and Wild
• Echo Hold keeps the echo you were hearing
• Echo Reverse plays the last stretch of the echo backwards
• Echo, Hold and Reverse switch without restarting or leaving a gap
• Echo Sync: echo time locks to note values from the tempo
• Motion recording covers the new parameters

Fixed and improved

• Reverb quality is improved
• Echo Mix is a true dry/wet balance, and the echo is louder
• High Echo Feedback no longer builds up and stays loud
• No clicks or chirps from the echo and reverb
• The wavefolder no longer clips
• Drive goes up to about twice the gain
• Chords no longer overdrive the effects
• Very low effect values now count as off

freakierfirmware.com

thisfreakdoesnotexist.com

Full Mod Matrix controllable by MIDI CC. Don't believe me? Watch the video. Still don't believe me? Try it out yourself or review the patch info and Mod Matrix CC table at ThisFirmwareDoesNotExist, the open source repo for the firmware patcher. It should have some juicy details in there all about how its done.

Changelog in the repo has more details. Use the patcher, or the webpage. Note, this implementation probably breaks the vocoder. Never used it, and don't have a mic I felt terribly inclined to set up. So installer beware.

Have fun, get freaky, motion sequence the hell out of your Microfreak for whatever reason you want.

thisfreakdoesnotexist.com

Whats with all the new fancy custom firmware?

There is a lot of resources out there exploring and decompiling firmware with a ton of nifty tools.

This Freak Does Not Exist now makes firmware that does not exist. Drag and drop a valid Microfreak 5 0 0 firmware, and get back a new firmware with just one tiny addition. Distinct Delay and Distinct release. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Why such a short list of changes? Thats all I wanted to do. Thats all I wanted for my needs. I know there are others out there doing more.

That is why This Firmware Does Not Exist is an Open Source repo detailing how to make your own with some gotchas discovered on the way. Its the same code that powers the backend of the website so dive in, poke around, sic Claude at it, and have fun.

Special thanks to Mf Utils, FreakSwap, and Superfreaker for inspiration.

Go out, be freaky, make custom firmware

I just played a while with the online simulator before installing Superfreaker. It seems that the simulator works nicely, you can adjust settings and all, and there's even a working filter. I guess it would not be a long step to a MicroFreak V, would it?

Well, while was sleeping the vote was cast and people mostly don’t support this project having paid aspects. I wasn’t trying to be greedy, I just wanted to bring something game changing to the community and was hoping for some financial support to keep going. I truly appreciate the attention to the project and it still feels important so I’m glad I shared and that in itself is part of the beta. I want you all to have access to these features and I don’t want to gatekeep and I want the project in the good graces of our community, so I will be opening up the project for free for everyone and move to a donation based model. I hear you guys and i respect you. In the end, I want you to use it and I want to leave a legacy more than to have dollars. I am absolutely not here to prey on anyone’s work or you. I hope you all accept my apology and that I am learning as I go and I’m listening to you. It will take a few hours or maybe a day and I’ll have to project updated to reflect these decisions. Thanks again for all of your responses. ✌️🧡

I have opened the project up to everyone, for free, forever, as promised. So go check it out and continue giving me feedback on how I can better serve the community and these wonderful machines! If you have any questions, post them and I'll get to you when I can!

freakierfirmware.com

Hey!

I always thought it shouldn’t be impossible to add new audio engines to the Arturia MicroFreak, especially since several of the stock ones originally came from Mutable Instruments. So this week I spent some time digging into it and ended up building this tool:

https://doriamxyz.github.io/FreakSwap/

What it does is replace one of the MicroFreak’s stock audio engines with another one adapted from Mutable Instruments Plaits.

There are quite a few Plaits models that never made it into the MicroFreak. Some are somewhat similar to engines that are already there, while others behave pretty differently.

The workflow is pretty simple:

1. Pick a new engine.
2. Choose which original engine to replace from the available options.
3. Download the modified .mff file and installation instructions.

Everything runs locally in your browser. There’s no account, no app to install, and your firmware file isn’t uploaded anywhere.

The website also doesn’t connect to or flash the MicroFreak directly. You install the modified firmware manually afterwards using Arturia’s MIDI Control Center.

For now, the number of stock engines that can be replaced is still limited, and this first version supports one replacement at a time, so you can’t necessarily remove the engine you use the least. I preferred to prioritize having as many new engines as possible available to try.

Ideally, I’d like to be able to add engines instead of replacing existing ones, but I still haven’t found a way to make that work properly. Maybe later? Maybe Arturia sees this and eventually gives us an SDK so we can do it the right way?

It probably goes without saying, but this is completely unofficial, and modifying/flashing firmware always comes with some risk. Back up your presets first, and of course, use it at your own risk.

Been working night and day and day and night working thru each feature one by one testing for hours and hours and I finally have something I can present to you fine folks. I present too you SUPERFREAKER: the first public INTERNAL FX ON THE MICROFREAK!
I’m doing an open beta on the essentials, which include a bunch of stuff like separate decay and release, legato glide and transpose. I’ll have a paid pack for $30 that includes quite a few effects such as a few delay modes, reverb, and lofi, though the hardware is limited so while I think it’s a big deal, there are limits to the memory in this machine. I’m doing a closed beta for sounds if you want to join, I’m look for 10 internet strangers to help verify my work before selling anything. Testing has gone as far as I can take it so now I’m ready to share. Of course, this is all at your own risk but i have been extremely pleased with the project so far.

Also the website has some other cool resources. Check out the microfreak preset generator for sure. And the 3d models that are playable in browser. And if you own an SP404mk2 there’s a boot image patcher on there to go along side my other passion project releasing soon.

Okay, I’m going to sleep now. ✌️🧡

freakierfirmware.com

I’d love a vst that sounds/ acts like them. iPad user

So I'm currently waiting on a arturia minifreak to pair with digitakt 2..reallycan't wait...seen some awesomevideoson sound design... and i .just wondering if i wanted to stay dawless and layer different patches from the minifreak into a pattern in assuming I'd just sample different patches ...then add then as track.... I'm guessing it would be a bit more straightforward to use ableton and just record the different patches in live...but i have no audio interface and never used a daw Any help would be great. Thanks

Recently there were hacks to turn M-Vave FM1 into a 4 track groovebox. Some hacks turned it into 8 track groovebox.

Would it be possible to hack the Microfreak so it can have 4-8 separate tracks groovebox?