What happened
Arturia has released firmware 5.0 for the MiniFreak together with version 5.0 of MiniFreak V, the synth's software counterpart; both are dated September 15 on its downloads page. The free update lets owners import their own samples and wavetables, and it installs through MiniFreak V, which walks the owner through the firmware step.
Samples can come from WAV, AIFF or FLAC files and are converted to 12-bit, 32 kHz audio up to six seconds long, where the synth's granular and sample-based engines can reshape them. Wavetables are mono, 24-bit and 512 points wide, a format Arturia says works with libraries including its own Pigments. The update also ships 23 new factory presets built on the new content.
The interesting bit
The limits are the story. Twelve bits, 32 kHz and six seconds is a budget from the era of the first affordable samplers, and it shapes the result: a short, grainy sample fed into granular engines will not pretend to be a sample library, which makes it closer to an instrument than a playback device.
The route in matters as well. Content reaches the hardware through the plugin, which makes MiniFreak V less an optional extra than the synth's editor, librarian and loading dock—nearly four years after the $649 instrument went on sale.