The Arturia MicroFreak Vocoder Edition is Back!
4,3 / 5,0 | 
[01 April 2025] The Arturia MicroFreak Vocoder Edition is available again! The striking limited edition of the popular hybrid synth comes with a gooseneck microphone.
Arturia MicroFreak Vocoder Edition Available Again
Arturia originally released the MicroFreak Vocoder Edition back in 2020 to celebrate the release of the firmware update that brought a 16-band vocoder to the tiny hybrid synth. More than four years later, the special edition is now available again. While it’s identical to the regular version in terms of features (with the current firmware, all MicroFreaks have vocoder functionality), the MicroFreak Vocoder Edition sports a striking white paint job and comes with a special gooseneck microphone that provides access to the “hidden” audio input via the TRRS socket.
You can order the Arturia MicroFreak Vocoder Edition from Thomann*.
Want to upgrade your regular MicroFreak to a vocoder? The gooseneck microphone is also available separately*.
The standard MicroFreak and the exclusive Thomann Edition are also available*.
MicroFreak goes disco with Vocoder update and special Vocoder Edition version
[25 August 2020 / Robin Vincent] Arturia has added Vocoder functionality to the MicroFreak in the latest update and released the MicroFreak Vocoder Edition with a microphone. But with no audio input how have they done that?
Somehow Arturia has done a bit of magic with the headphone output on the back of the MicroFreak to add in a microphone input. All you need is a TRRS connector like those found on headset mics or mobile phone earbuds – I found it worked well with the IK Multimedia iRig Mic. That’s a good bit of forward-thinking right there.
With the new Vocoder oscillator you’ll be able to hear up to 4 synthesized vocal notes when playing a chord and singing into the microphone in a 70s disco styli. The Wave knob switches between sawtooth, pulse and noise waveforms, the Timbre knob changes the frequency range of the analysis/resynthesis and the Shape knob sets the bandwidth of each filter. Some of these tonal properties are already there in the Formant and Speech oscillators and so it’s no surprise that these can be repurposed into proper vocoding.
This update is available to all current MicroFreak owners.
MicroFreak Vocoder Edition
To celebrate and promote the update Arturia is releasing a limited edition MicroFreak Vocoder Edition in a slightly weird white colour and a specially designed microphone. The gooseneck mic clamps over that headphone socket and usefully gives you another socket for your headphones. This will give you the full “vocoder keyboard” experience – hooray! The microphone is also available separately to use with existing MicroFreaks.
LEAK: Arturia to release MicroFreak Vocoder!
[25 August 2020 / Angus Baigent] Wow! According to several leaks, Arturia is just about to announce an exciting expansion to its MicroFreak line: MicroFreak Vocoder!
Streetwise Sales & Marketing has a product page of a new MicroFreak version featuring a gooseneck mic. Apparently the Vocoder Engine appears as a new oscillator and features 3 waveforms (sawtooth, pulse width and noise) on the Wave knob while Timbre and Shape adjust the response of the 16 frequency bands. There are also a bunch of presets to give you instant access to all your old disco and sci-fi favourites.
The MicroFreak Vocoder Edition gets a new lighter paint job and a swan motif across the central strip. I guess this is a reference to the gooseneck microphone – so why not use a goose? Anyway, the gooseneck microphone is quite a striking new addition to the MicroFreak. The page says that it plugs into the headphone socket which seems odd but Arturia must have rewired it to accept an input. You still have access to the headphones via a pass-through.
Overall, this looks pretty exciting!
There’s no official word from Arturia on the release of this product or, more importantly, no videos or sound demos which we are aching to hear. Leaks are also turning up on forums and Reddit. Could this be a revolutionary addition to this quirky little synth or will it be another attempt at nostalgia that no one knows quite what to do with? We will see. As soon as we get any details from Arturia we’ll let you know.
More information
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