I’m definitely going to wait until (more?) actual users have their hands on it. Just like the micro, I assume a lot of people are going to buy it and then hate it for various reasons. This means hopefully cheap used prices. 
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I might be stating the obvious here, but don’t your kids have mini-hands?
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The Hyrda Explorer is plastic, the MiniFreak is aluminum, so to say the Explorer is a better built synth, Hmmmmm, I think its hair splitting. The ASM Hyrda Explorer, in terms of sound, to my ear, sounds richer, less tinny, more lush.
I thought about the Explorer, but went with a Sequential Take 5, and I am not disappointed. The Take 5 is my favorite right now. So if lush, rich timbre and harmonics is what is being sought, go a little bit further than the 600 priced point, and there are even more options. I think about the MiniFreak, like Merris Ottobit, or as mentioned Twisted Electron’s MegaFM, something to occupy that part of the spectrum. LoFi, with purposeful glitchiness and dirt.
I will speculate that there will be numerous updates, and patches available, so in some ways, picking up a MiniFreak, you are getting into a platform. It’s going to grow and evolve, and there is that.
Arturia has done a commendable effort by putting it out, I’m very interested in this synth
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Well, yes, they do actually. However, if it was going to me first to play with, that would negate all of this.
My youngest daughter has a Cobalt (61key version), so she’s already used to real keys.
This! Usually the known paid YT reviewers test new devices in an artificial / isolated stand alone situation where any (MIDI) connection to other gear or DAW is not considered.
I will wait until there is information how and how good or difficult I can integrate it in my home studio.
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I’m very much tempted to buy this synth. I’m a long time owner of the microfreak (bought it when that came out) and I very much love that little synth. This minifreak multiplies all the good parts of the microfreak by a lot! And still a rather intuitive interface for creating complex sounds.
The only thing I find difficult to understand is that the microfreak - which is paraphonic- is equipped with poly aftertouch, while the minifreak - which is true polyphonic- only has channel aftertouch.
I would have loved it if arturia had put 4 octaves of microfreak keys on this one!
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To be fair, for a standard (or at least typical) review, more than that can’t really be expected.
There are no perfect MIDI test tools that I’m aware of to where you could have a pass/fail result that currently exist, unless maybe a big synth manufacturer has something like that in-house.
Testing with other retail gear, actually isn’t a great test, because you don’t actually know which side the issue is coming from necessarily. If the reviewer doesn’t have the latest firmware installed as one example could lead to bad information being spread. There are far too many variables even just hooking it up to one other retail device.
Some REAL testing tools would be very cool for reviewing and even diagnostic purposes. Something that checks MIDI messages being sent and received from a piece of gear, something that could also test sync, latency, overflows from “noisy” modulators, etc. That would be REALLY interesting. As long as the testing device was known to be perfectly within MIDI spec, this could be highly useful.
I’m sure there could be some software out there that could do some of this, but then you’re also dealing with third-party MIDI interfaces, and other variables. Not to mention computers.
It would need to be an embedded device IMO.
I don’t think the average YouTube reviewer can be expected to check against other devices thoroughly. This is the realm of hardware compatibility certification testing. (something I’ve actually done professionally in the past funny enough) It’s not a simple task, and it is VERY time consuming.
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Would love to see a hydrasynth explorer vs arturia minifreak video. I will try both and the best will stay. From the outside i would say the ui of the minifreak has more direct knop controls, but the engine seems a little weak in the low end. But the design of the minifreak sucks for me, and no poly aftertouch sucks. Hydrasynth looks well designed.
Thank you. I prefer the little kaos aspect in the soundengine on the minifreak. Promising a lot unexpected sounds, glitchy and happy accidents. An aspect which brings a Synth to live in my opinion. I have had the Hydra Desktop and it is a really good Synth. But pads only and the wavetable engine i dont like.
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THX for that comprehensive reply!
So let*s wait for the experiences of non professional early adopters in studio real life surroundings.
BTW: I don’t blame professional YT reviewers at all. Most of them do a good job and I understand the hard work behind these videos . It is not easy to generate income that way.
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It still makes me scratch my head a bit when Arturia decided to make a SEM type filter but not have it be continuously multimode. I suppose they probably have reasons and it does sound good… it could have been what pushed it over the top for many I think.
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True. A continuously variable SEM filter has so many “in between” modes/responses, that only a small number of synths can produce. Making it a fairly unique sound.
Assume more manufacturers do not offer this is down to no self oscillation or possibly cost/complexity?
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The microfreak is the synth I’ve recommended to a few friends of mine who wanted ‘a hardware synth’. At 300 there really isn’t much competition if you want multiple voices and some hands-on control.
600 is a great price for what’s on offer here, but yeah certainly more alternatives available at that price. Might pick up a used microfreak for myself if this tanks the prices 
I feel the same, I’ve struggled time and time again to get the Microfreak to sound “nice” and work well in a mix. It’s a prime example of something being less than the sum of it’s parts, sure there’s over a dozen synth “engines” but none of them sound great, having lots of them doesn’t make any difference
I don’t think adding polyphony really helps that (the opposite possibly)
People seem to be losing their minds over this, so I’m in the minority I think
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In the minority, but not alone. I also felt similarly. But I think Microfreak was successful as far as Arturia was concerned, so it is not surprising that they went this route.
Oh as a business decision it 100% makes sense, as the MicroFreak was wildly popular and being digital, turning it into a poly wasn’t a massive job
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I agree. I remember being stoked for the filter in the microfreak when it was announced because it was an SEM style filter, but in use I found it fairly boring. Some of my favorite synths have multimode filters, so I wish they would have done that with the freaks. I guess that is why I am on the fence with this one too. The filter just sounds too bland in the demos. If I didn’t know better, the entire synth could be digital. And I think I would have preferred that, so there could be other filters to switch between with more character.
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Agreed on the filter! In use it was just too dull for me, felt more akin to a color-less filter or EQ just solely for frequency cutting. A filter, as we know, can be so much more than that.
The concept of both the freaks is really intriguing to me, I want to love them but in practice (Microfreak) I just thought it fell flat and I can’t see the mini freak changing a whole lot of that, though I’m sure the effects will help.
It’s been a sad pass for me, even tho I keep coming back to this thread haha
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Sorry for the offtopic question, but how did you get these to work together? I’ve never been able to get my 37 talking to my Microfreak, but have no problems using other sequencers to control the freak and using the 37 to control other instruments.
To bring it back on topic… I loved Daniel Fisher’s Minifreak demo video, but I love all of his videos. The man is just a magician, and even better, he shares his nsight and knowledge in the Synth Clips video series.
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Hard pass. 950$ is the tag here in Australia. I could never pay that much for mini keys. I had the micro. for quite a few months and mostly enjoyed it. Then I got spectrum and Lagrange on iOS. Lagrange especially cleared up my rose tinted glasses. IOS has been a gas killer for me in 2022.
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