Polaris Jam // MicroFreak v5 // MS-70

video upload by Waveformer

"It's been a long time since I jammed with my MicroFreak, and it's been like hanging out with an old friend, where you find you're immediately on the same wavelength. In this jam, I explore the wonderful Cloud Grains oscillator that is new with MicroFreak firmware version 5.0. I'm treating the MicroFreak and the Zoom MS-70CDR effect pedal as one integrated instrument, and the patches on each of the boxes are designed as if it is one singe patch.

The custom sample loaded into the Cloud grains oscillator morphs between different timbres with metallic overtones and distortion which are tamed by the lowpass filter in the MicroFreak.

Key/Arp mode is set to Random, which is a new feature in Firmware 5, where each new note played generates a random value that can be used for modulation. In this patch, this random value is set to modulate the Sample Grain Start Position through the Wave parameter. The result is that each note played has a different timbre, and that the timbre is constantly changing. This same random value also modulates Cutoff slightly, to further vary the timbre. And it modulates the Amp Envelope Decay/Release Time, for varying note lengths, and finally the Cyclic Envelope Fall Time, which varies the shape of the looping envelope.

The Cyclic Envelope is looping and set to modulate Filter Cutoff. This introduces a rapid rhythmic / wobbling effect. The LFO is set up to modulate the Cyclic Envelope Rise Time, in effect varying the attack portion of this wobbling effect between sharp and soft.

Some parameters that can be interesting to play with on the MicroFreak as the arpeggiator plays are Filter Cutoff and Resonance, Cyclic Envelope Amount, and Glide.

The effect patch on the Zoom MS-70CDR is Bass Ensemble into LO-FI Delay into Stereo Delay into HD Reverb into Exciter. The LO-FI Delay Mix is all the way down at the beginning of the jam, and introduced after about 4 and a half minutes.

The video contains further patch and jam notes as text overlays.

The Zoom MS-70CDR patch, 'PolarisArW', is included below. To load a patch into the MS-70, connect your MS-70 to your computer using a USB cable, go to https://g200kg.github.io/zoom-ms-util..., right-click an available patch slot, select "Import Patch from text", and paste in this text.

f052006128007101006c056400000d504006000000000000000061020031106e080015502000302420000040000600210100707a60101f17105242464600060040000019002500520924000b704014400600000000000000610000040300540032000000000000000000000001000000000000000000000000000000000800000000140f50006f6c617269734100725700f7

Tempo is not set automatically when you load the patch into the MS-70, so make sure you tap in tempo 127, so it matches the tempo of the MicroFreak.

The MicroFreak sample, "wf-polaris.mfsz", and patch, "PolarisArpWF.mfpz", can be downloaded from here: https://www.waveformer.net/files/jams...

Make sure to load the sample into slot 110 in the MicroFreak before you load the patch. Samples and patches can be loaded into the MicroFreak using Arturia's MIDI Control Center software.

The audio is recorded to SD card on a KP2S effect/recorder box and normalized in Audacity. Video is recorded on a Canon EOS M50 mk2 with the included EF-M 15-45mm lens. Audio and video is synchronized in DaVinci Resolve 18 (free version)."