MicroFreak reader

This application is not maintained anymore.

This application allows you to read and display the presets stored in the MicroFreak memory.

Its main goal is to help visualize and understand how presets are build.

You don't even have to connect a MicroFreak if you want to browse the free presets packs offered by Arturia because they are already loaded in the application.

Click here to open the application

screenshot of the dark theme

Please keep in mind that this is not an editor.

  • You can only read saved presets.
  • You can not edit presets.
  • You can not send values to the MicroFreak.

However, the application can send a PC (Program Change) message to the MicroFreak when you select a preset in the application.

Once the application has read a preset, it is kept in memory until you close your browser or refresh the page.

Accuracy of the displayed data

To create this application, the sysex messages exchanged between the MicroFreak and the Arturia MIDI Control Center have been reverse-engineered. This process is subject to errors and misinterpretations.

NO GUARANTEE IS GIVEN AS TO THE ACCURACY OF THE DISPLAYED DATA.

Reporting bugs

If you think the application display wrong values, or for any other problem, please open an issue in the GitHub project.

Please provides any useful information and data to reproduce the problem.

You can also use the link above to ask for new features or suggest improvements.

Requirements

  • An Arturia MicroFreak synthesizer.
  • A browser supporting the WebMIDI standard (Chrome, Opera).

Usage

  1. Connect the MicroFreak to your PC via its USB or MIDI ports.
  2. If it's not already done, open the Application in your browser.
  3. In the application, select the MIDI input and output ports corresponding to your MicroFreak.
  4. In the application, enter the preset number you want to read.
  5. Click the READ button.

The buttons READ 1..256, et al. allows you to read all the MicroFreak presets at once. It can take some time. Be patient. Click the STOP button to abort the read process.

File save

You can save the application's currently loaded data in a file. This allow you to read the MicroFreak once and, later on, to reload this file and view the presets without having to read the MicroFreak again.

The application already provides the pre-loaded data for the factory presets and other free presets packs offered by Arturia.

The file saved by the application is not a sysex file nor a MicroFreak preset file. You can not use it with the MIDI Control Center.

Limitations

Sequences

This reader does not read the sequences.

Unsupported factory presets

Some factory presets use a format that has not been deciphered yet, especially with the MOD Matrix. The application is usually able to detect these presets and will display a warning if it does not support all or part of the loaded preset.

Viewing unsupported factory presets

If one copy an unsupported factory preset in a user slot or if one overwrite an unsupported factory preset, then, magically, the preset format is updated and the reader is then able to read it.

Here are these two workarounds:

Copy to a user slot:

On the MicroFreak:

  1. press the Save button
  2. choose the destination preset with the Preset dial
  3. click on the Preset Dial twice
  4. press Save button

Save over itself:

First disable the write protection:

  1. press the Utility button
  2. select Misc
  3. select Mem protect
  4. turn the Dial to select OFF
  5. click the Utility button

Then copy the factory preset over itself:

  1. press and hold the Save button for 2 seconds

Known issues

If the Application does not display anything after having red a preset, that's probably because the MIDI communication is not working correctly between your browser and the MicroFreak.

Try this:

  • Reload the page
  • If reloading the page does not solve the problem, restart the MicroFreak.
  • If the problem persist, unplug and re-plug the USB cable on the Microfreak and check the MIDI settings in the application.

For any other problem or suggestion, feel free to open an issue at https://github.com/francoisgeorgy/microfreak-reader/issues

Trademarks

Arturia, MicroFreak and all other products, logos or company names quoted in this document and in the application are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.


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