Arturia MicroFreak · Front panel

The panel, mapped

Every knob and button on the MicroFreak, what it does, and where it sits in the path from oscillator to filter to amplifier.

Digital oscillator21 enginesAnalog filter12 dB/oct, SEM-styleAmplifierVCAOutModulation bends every stage

Oscillator

Filter

Matrix

	Pitch	Wave	Timbre	Cutoff	Assign 1	Assign 2	Assign 3
CycEnv
Env
LFO
Press
Key/Arp

Cycling envelope

LFO

Envelope

Arp / Seq

Keyboard

One path, many detours

The sound itself takes a short trip: the digital oscillator makes it, the analog filter shapes its tone, and the amplifier sets its loudness. That is the top line of the map.

Everything else is modulation: the envelope, the cycling envelope, the LFO, how hard you press each key, and the arpeggiator or sequencer. None of them make sound. They move the knobs of the three stages for you, and the Matrix is where you decide which source moves which knob, and by how much.

Digital in front, analog behind

The oscillator is digital, which is how one small box holds 21 engines. Seven of them come from Mutable Instruments' Plaits, an open-source Eurorack module, and three were designed with Noise Engineering. The filter that follows is analog, modelled on the Oberheim SEM's 12 dB per octave design, so the part of the sound you sweep by hand is real circuitry.

Sources

MicroFreak manual 5.0.1 · Arturia, MicroFreak User Manual, firmware 5.0.1 (2023): the panel, the Matrix, the envelopes, the LFO and the filter
Arturia: MicroFreak details · The oscillator engines and who designed them, the SEM-inspired filter, the keyboard and touch strip
Mutable Instruments Plaits · Émilie Gillet, Plaits: the open-source macro oscillator seven of the MicroFreak engines come from