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MicroFreak

KeyboardHybridParaphonic

Imagine a synth that packs 21 wildly diverse oscillator modes into a pocket-sized powerhouse, borrowing brains from Mutable Instruments and Noise Engineering to spit out everything from glitchy granular samples to vocal formants and speech synthesis. This hybrid beast blends a digital heart with an analog soul, letting you explore sounds no traditional synth can touch.

At its core sits a single digital oscillator with modes like wavetable, Superwave, Karplus-Strong physical modeling, chords, and even user-loaded samples for scanning grains or percussive hits. Shape it with a smooth state-variable analog filter offering low-pass, band-pass, and high-pass modes that self-oscillate for screams and howls, plus dual envelopes, a versatile LFO with shapes from sine to random, and a cycling envelope that morphs between LFO and envelope duties. The modulation matrix is a standout, routing five sources—envelope, LFO, pressure, key position, cycling env—to seven destinations including custom ones, all tweaked via a push encoder for instant experimentation. Play it via a 25-key capacitive PCB keyboard with poly aftertouch and velocity, fire up the 64-step polyphonic sequencer with four mod tracks, arpeggiator, Spice/Dice randomization for happy accidents, and effects like delay, reverb, chorus, and flanger. It's paraphonic up to four voices, with a crisp OLED screen, transpose buttons, capacitive touch strip, CV/Gate outs, and a lightweight 2.5 lb frame measuring 12.5 x 9.2 x 2.2 inches—battery-powered for jams anywhere, and it pairs with MIDI Control Center for 512 presets.

Players love its endless sound design potential and expressive touch keyboard, calling it a DAWless staple that stays fresh years in. That said, the learning curve on the mod matrix and quirky keybed isn't for everyone, but once it clicks, it's pure creative fuel.

Released

2019

Status

In Production

Synthesizer
Format
Keyboard, Desktop
Type
Wavetable, Granular, Virtual Analog, Physical Modeling, Vocoder, Hybrid
Internal Battery
Yes
Voice
A/D
Hybrid
Polyphony
Paraphonic
Oscillators
1
Oscillator Type
Wavetable
Voices
4
Filter
Yes
Envelopes
2
LFO
1
Effects
delay, reverb, chorus, flanger
Expression
Aftertouch
-
Velocity
Yes
MPE
No
Additional
25-key capacitive keyboard, poly aftertouch, mod matrix, spice/dice randomization
Software
MIDI Control Center
I/O
Audio In
-
Audio Out
1 mono
Headphone
1
MIDI
-
MIDI Type
-
Ports
-
Wi-Fi
No
Workflow
Arpeggiator
Yes
Sequencer
Yes
Mod Matrix
Yes
Memory
256 presets
Measurements
Dimensions
12.5 x 9.2 x 2.2"
Weight
2.5 lbs
Last updated Feb 25, 2026