MicroFreak 4.0 Update! Import Your Own Wavetables! (plus: how to make your own wavetables)

Arturia have just released the v4.0 firmware for the Microfreak and, along with some nice "quality of life" tweaks, the headline feature is the new "WaveUser" oscillator type, which allow you to import your own wavetables!

In this video I walk through the new features, explain what a wavetable is, how you import them and how you can make a perfect wavetable for the Microfreak with nothing more than a sound editor or DAW.

Clarification: on the point of the number of samples per cycle - this is what the Midi Control Centre expects as an audio import format - not what appears to be ultimately stored on the Microfreak (which is 256 samples per cycle). From the perspective of generating your own wavetables from audio files, this isn't particularly relevant, but it's interesting to note that your audio is internally resampled before it goes to the Microfreak.

00:00 - Intro
00:33 - Oscillator Knob Speed Update
01:39 - Chord Mode Upgrade
04:42 - New Oscillator Type: WaveUser
05:54 - What is a Wavetable?
07:28 - WaveUser Oscillator Basics
10:24 - Importing Wavetables
13:48 - The Recipe for Making Your Own Wavetables
18:42 - Uploading Wavetables to the MicroFreak
19:30 - Exploring Some User Wavetables
27:01 - Outro

Transparency notice: Arturia kindly provided me with the MicroFreak, but have not requested any input or oversight on any content I create with it.

[OscillatorSink]

Clarification: on the point of the number of samples per cycle - 2048 is what the Midi Control Centre expects as an audio import format - not what appears to be ultimately stored on the MicroFreak (which is 256 samples per cycle). From the perspective of generating your own wavetables from audio files, this isn't particularly relevant, but it's interesting to note that your audio is internally resampled before it goes to the MicroFreak.

[sonicimperium]

What a fantastic thing Arturia has done with this synth and all these fantastic updates! 👍🏻

[puddingchewer]

Im convinced that the microfreak has the highest ratio of price to features of any synth i have ever seen. Its ridiculous what this thing can do, all for $350. And they are STILL putting updates out and adding more features. Absolutely my favorite synth ever.

[JorbLovesGear]

I couldn't even decide if I wanted to cover making wavetables or not, and here you are, blowing it wide open!

Great work, always

[robertkilbourne]

Microfreak - the little synth that keeps on giving.

[thesesmallboxes]

This is extremely exciting, and even more so because you took the time to blaze the how-to trail and deliver it so quickly, thoroughly, and clearly!! 👍🏻 🥇

[floyd]

Your detailed explanation of Wavetables is excellent, even better is your tutorial on how to create our own user Wavetables. Thank you for putting this video together

[goingmodular]

I am late to the game, here, but this has to be the single most useful technical video I ever saw on the MicroFreak Wavetable sound generator.
I left that one a little unused for lack of interest in the wavetable presets, but your « trick » of 1.5 s signals detuned by -21 cents really opens up a whole new world of exploration.
They definitely SHOULD integrate something like your explanation here in the user manual, back at Arturia’s.
Thanks a lot for sharing your mojo !

[Pheonix]

Arturia knocking it out of the park with these updates.

[nomorel]

I never knew about the hold down chords bit. Thanks!

[starsky]

It’s Arturia’s continued support and videos like yours that lead to me buying the microfreak around 2 years after release. A good way to keep sales going and improve on an already epic synth.

[DannySabraArt]

The microfreak was the best investment I've ever made.

[Rompler_Rocco]

ZERO clue why I wasn't subbed til now, but we all owe you AT LEAST that for this one! THANK YOU for diving right in there and knocking out the long division for us!! 🙏👍

[gountberlin]

man i doff my cap to you. that work you did finding out how to approach the wavetable files is ace! keep up the great work, mate! much love

[rossminet]

Thank you! This is called an in-depth review. You don't simply play the new wavetable presets. Most useful.

[NeoLudditevisons]

Arturia best modern synth company by a mile!

[knopfler]

Honestly the Oscillator Knob Speed is a major update for me. Many times I wanted to use the MicroFreak but I turned to another synth in my studio because I knew it would be a nightmare to turn those little knobs indefinitely to sculpt the sound. Now it's much better 🤓

[earlsfield]

Creating custom wavetables is something that I do for some of my other synths - mostly Sequential Pro 3 and its digital oscillator. There is a great thread on Sequential forum about how to create wavetables in details, lots of very complex ideas and technical stuff, but for the basic, make sure you waves are long enough, meaning they fill entire cycle, make sure you align them on zero crossings, and also make sure these do not contain lots of noise, except if that is what you intentionally are going for. Make sure scw level is boosted enough, and try to have SCW in 1024 bit format. There are zillion waveforms across the internet, some of you Octatrack/Digitakt users might already have huge banks of single cycle stuff, here you just need to choose those you like the most and compose the wavetable - however, also think about morphing, meaning, the order of forms. This can actually mean a lot when you import file for scanning WT.

[adamcrafts]

Clicked on this video so quickly. Glad my MicroFreak has leveled up again

[danpreston]

I love it when cheap synths get amazing updates. I hope the user Wavetable gets me using it, they put it on the Peak ages ago and I used it for one day and then never again. Everything just sounded thin and nasty, no matter what I tried to do with the Wavetable editor. Creation of Wavetables is much easier in the Peak, using Components you can just drag and drop wave files into the editor, 6 per Wavetable, and it will allow you to audition it in the computer before sending to the synth.
Excellent demonstration.