A Huge Arturian Cornucopia of Sounds and Presets
5,0 / 5,0 | 
It’s a great time to be an Arturia user at the moment, especially if you’re a MiniFreak fan. This week, we unapologetically cover a glut of banks for Arturia instruments!
I have long held the opinion that Arturia are the leading synth manufacturer around today, with KORG running them a close second. No other company has such a powerful, capable and broad range of musical instruments on offer today, and last week’s debut of the MiniFreak 49 merely solidified that place at the top of the tree. So it’s no surprise that sound designers are busy making sound banks for Arturia products. Here are some great ones and a free bank for a Cherry Audio favourite too!
Sounds and Presets
Oberheim OB-8 for Arturia MiniFreak by Nick Klimenko
I was going to feature this bank last week, but noticed at the last minute that it wasn’t compatible with the MiniFreak hardware. However, in the last few days, that incompatibility has been addressed, so I present to you a bank of sounds for the MiniFreak range based on the classic Oberheim OB-8.
Shortly before the MiniFreak 49 was released, Arturia updated the firmware of the platform to version 5, adding the ability for users to upload their own samples and wavetables to this powerful little synth. Whilst the sample capabilities of the MiniFreak are no match for dedicated sample playback instruments, you can certainly process and manipulate them to great effect.
This bank takes samples from a classic Oberheim OB-8, 242 of them to be precise, and uses them to create a wide range of sounds, using the brilliant analogue filter of the MiniFreak and other features, such as the granular engine, to deliver 100 fantastic presets that range from classic Obie sounds to something quite unrecognisable.
Big pads, thumping basses, searing leads, all using MiniFreak’s amazing sound manipulation features and performance tools and making great use of the macros. Of course, loading these up into a MiniFreak 49 will allow you to mangle them in real time with the brilliant new Freak Control pad, as well as the Filter FM and stereo panning.
This bank works across all MiniFreak formats, be it the original, 49 or the MiniFreak V software plugin/editor. You can grab it now for €25 at the LFO.store!
Three New Sound Banks for Arturia Analog Lab by Arturia
If you’re ever looking for new sounds for your Arturia synth, be it a V Collection plugin or one of their hardware synths, you need only look at the Arturia website and fill your boots with the broad selection of soundbanks that they have for their instruments. They often represent great value for money, sometimes having free banks available, especially for their hardware instruments.
Just recently, they released three new banks that work with their Analog Lab software instrument. If you weren’t already aware, Analog Lab is a cross between a greatest hits of Arturia and a beautifully designed universal interface for their extensive suite of software instruments. It also forms the backbone of their AstroLab range of stage keyboards.
These three banks feature an artist tribute, a bank for ambient fans and one for lovers of the more retro sounds of the late 80s and early 90s. Created by David Puxeddu, the Björk Tribute bank attempts to capture the diverse and distinctly experimental sounds of Iceland’s most famous musical daughter, with plenty of sonic contrast.
Tape Skies is for those looking for more of a lo-fi, crunchy and atmospheric vibe. Think Eno meets Boards of Canada in a world where everything is worn, gritty and fragile, processed on old analogue media. Retro Waves has a strong 80s vibe, capturing that time when one decade gave way to another, using sharp, punchy sounds with no shame about being completely digital in nature.
Sadly, Arturia never seem to create demo videos for their banks, but you can find audio demos on each bank’s page. Björk Tribute, Tape Skies and Retro Waves are available now for just €9.99 each, although personal offers may apply based on your existing Arturia ownership.
Factory II – Free Bank for Cherry Audio Memorymode 2 by Cherry Audio
According to Cherry Audio’s Dan Goldstein, their Memorymode 2 synthesizer is their biggest-selling instrument of 2026 so far! It was the company’s first attempt at producing a new, updated version of an existing product, bringing it into line with the design, features and performance of their more recent releases. They also took the opportunity to improve the synth overall, setting it apart from the original in many ways.
Its release coincided with the release by Arturia and Xils-Lab of their interpretations of this Moog classic at around the same time, but this didn’t seem to affect sales, with Cherry Audio’s version boasting a much more competitive price and a very authentic recreation all round. It also came with a very large collection of presets from the likes of Dave Polich, Huston Singletary and J3PO.
Factory II contains 100 patches based on an apparently lost bank of factory programs from later Memorymoog revisions, which were recently rediscovered by Eric Frampton, As such, these presets do not make use of any of the extended features of Memorymode 2, remaining faithful to the original machine, but that shouldn’t stop you from messing around with them.
These sounds are for the Memorymode 2, not its predecessor, and are completely free of charge. Just head on over to the Cherry Audio website to add them to your collection.
Ocean Pigments Vol.1 for Arturia Pigments by Ocean Swift
Finally this week, we have a huge, and I do mean H-U-G-E bank of sounds for Arturia’s flagship software synth, Pigments 7. I had a very interesting conversation at SynthFest U.K. last weekend about Pigments and whether it might ever transform into a hardware synth, as so many people would love it to. I posited that the MiniFreak is almost filling that requirement, to a point, notwithstanding the fact that AstroLab hosts the Pigments engine inside.
But the sheer power and capability of Pigments may well make for an overly complex and expensive venture, given its massive feature set, a feature set that this new bank from Ocean Swift makes very good use of. So the “will it, won’t it?” debate will carry on, but until then, let’s dive into this rather large collection. Of the over 170 presets included here, they draw from over 1000 samples, 890+ wavetables and more than 280 noise sources.
That’s a pretty comprehensive, some might say excessive, amount of source material, but when you listen to the demo, it is pretty clear that it was all worthwhile! This bank’s sounds make extensive use of all of Pigment’s features with sounds covering every genre imaginable, plus a big collection of FX presets thrown in for good measure.
All the samples have been seamlessly looped, and the wavetables feature both morphed and single-cycle varieties. As well as being the foundation for all the presets included here, users can easily make use of all of this content to create their own sonic concoctions. NKS support is baked in, allowing for audio previews when Pigments is hosted in Maschine or Komplete Kontrol.
And with 49% off, this bank represents excellent value for money at just €27.99!
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