Arturia has announced the imminent availability of a limited edition of its MicroFreak experimental synth: the MicroFreak Stellar.
“Discover a synth that looks as weird and wonderful as it sounds with a slick all-black exterior, decorated with detailed space-age graphics reflecting its controls,” is the opening gambit from Arturia, and go on to talk of its new firmware, sampler engine and three granular engines.
The Stellar also comes with an exclusive selection of new presets, and we’re not going to repeat the Star Trek joke.
The interface is “dotted with unique space-age graphics inspired by its controls, from the ADSR rocket launch to the filter resonance UFO”. This is not a beige release by any means.
Algorithms from Mutable Instruments and Noise Engineering together with the V5 firmware update brings 21 different oscillator modes: Vocoder, Noise, Superwave, Harmo, Karplus Str., Wavetable, BasicWaves, V.Analog, Waveshaper, Two Op. FM, Formant, Chords, Speech, Modal, SawX, Harm, Bass, Sample, Hit Grains, Scan Grains and Cloud Grains.
“MicroFreak Stellar features the same inspiring, bonkers sound but embellished with a unique space-age design.”
Its main features:
- Synthesizer with 512 preset slots and 320 factory presets
- 21 digital oscillator modes, from wavetable to sample playback & granular processing, plus engines from Mutable Instruments and Noise Engineering as well as the 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, Paraphonic or Unison 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 / Pressure outputs
- USB, Clock and MIDI in and out
- 6.35mm master and 3.5mm headphone output
It should be available from mid-May at the latest, with an RRP of €349.
