BAF 2025: Genki Instruments Katla Synthesizer

video upload by sonicstate

"At BAF 2025, we caught up with Kari from Genki Instruments who introduced us to the *Katla Synthesizer*. Touted as perhaps the first Icelandic synthesizer, Katla takes its inspiration from Iceland's largest volcano, featuring side panels made of lava rock, ensuring each unit is unique.

Katla *is a five-voice polysynth that marries elements from both polyphonic and paraphonic synth designs. It offers a range of modes, including a notably dynamic round robin mode, as well as unison options. Each voice in *Katla comes with its own filter, enveloping a unique avenue for creative expression.

The synth is complemented by a suite of modulation sources, including loopable envelopes and integrated LFOs. Effects on board such as stereo reverb and distortion expand its sonic capability. Currently in a digital prototype stage, Genki hopes to incorporate analog components before its release later this year.

More Info:

https://genkiinstruments.com/"

See the announcement post here.

New Genki KATLA Handmade Desktop Synth Inspired by Iceland's Volcano of the Same Name

Volcano Synth - Genki Katla video upload by DECIMA1

"Icelandic electronic music gear maker Genki has introduced the Katla, a unique new instrument that they say 'draws inspiration from Iceland’s powerful subglacial volcano'.

The name ‘Katla’ means 'kettle' in Icelandic, fitting for a volcano often on the verge of eruption. Katla is one of Iceland’s most active volcanoes, located on the South Coast near the town of Vík. It has erupted at least 20 times since 1100, making it the fourth most active volcanic system in Iceland. It last erupted on the 12th of October, 1918, but has been showing signs of unrest in the past decades.

Features:

Handmade in Iceland
Basalt side panels, each unit is unique
Genki’s 'digilog sound engine'
Built in spring-reverb, analog filters and warmth circuits
Specifications are still to come at the Genki site, but it looks like the Katla offers four oscillators that can be used in monophonic, duophonic and four-voice paraphonic modes. Other features include a suboscillator, dedicated controls for aftertouch modulation, dual spring reverbs, dual filters, dual envelopes, LFO, chorus, and preset memory."

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Supercritical Synthesizers - Cable Salad

video by Supercritical Synthesizers

"Lush. Polyphonic. Very lush and polyphonic.

Four Demon Core Oscillators and four Neutron Flux Filters wired with stereo outputs. Four envelopes and some stereo modulation via the Genki Wave ring. MIDI split to four CV/Gates.

No chorus. Just a touch of Valhalla Room.

Cable salad. Definitely needs some Parmigiano Reggio and olive oil. Does it add more lush?"

Thin Air - Genki Wave MIDI Ring vs. ROLI Equator2 Synth Performance

Nular Music

"In this video I used the Wave MIDI ring by Genki Instruments to control the parameters of ROLI's Equator2 synth plugin via hand gestures.

I've been fascinated by this form of expression since I first heard about Source Audio's Hot Hand ring and the Mi.Mu Gloves, but I couldn't see how I could integrate it into my workflow until now.

nularseq, the Max for Live sequencer I developed specifically for finger drumming turned out to work very well in this context: it allows me to trigger sequences of MIDI notes via tapping my fingers.

Equator2's deep modulation system allows me to control the sound exactly the way I want to. In this performance I used the pan gesture to blend between two oscillators, the tilt gesture to control filter cutoff and scan through a wavetable and the roll gesture to control delay feedback, unison detune and various other parameters.

It's a pretty amazing experience to be able to trigger notes and control various aspects of the sound completely untethered, and I can see a lot of creative uses of this technology. Don't panic, I don't intend to ditch my Launchpad anytime soon =), but expect more videos exploring this form of expression from me soon."

Ping-Ping Pong - A Supercritical Neutron Flux study

Supercritical Synthesizers

"I tried to think of the cheapest trick in the modular synthesizer cookbook. Well, the cheapest trick without Rick Nielsen.

Space. Not that fancy let’s-grab-a-bite-of-that-asteroid-while-we’re-there modern space exploration. The ye-olde-paper-mache-flying-saucers type sci-fi. In Finnish we’d use the word ”Pulputus” which means a sort of a bubbling sound but far more useless. The right kind of useless.

Filter pings! Oh what fun with the Liquid 4 pole setting. This patch has a LFO modulating the Antumbra Knit (a miniature Mutable Instruments Plaits) which has a single low frequency saw wave triggering the filter pings. Both cores of the filter are in use and spread with the stereo control.

After the filter it goes to a miniature Clouds. My own hacked kinda-kammerl-parasites firmware. Only verb this time from it. Then it’s routed to the miniature parasite Warps. Tape echo there. Holy mackerel it sounds good!

Oh the ring? The nice folks at Iceland’s Genki Instruments sent us a couple of their products. The Wave ring’s rotation movement controls the filter FM and the gate starts and stops the tape. Controlled directly from the Wavefront module. Ég tala ekki íslensku but damn this thing is expressive and easy to use. You’ll see more of this in our demos later.

-Heikki

Check Genki out at https://www.genkiinstruments.com
Check our Neutron Flux at http://supercriticalsynthesizers.com/..."

Wave + CME WIDI Master Juno 60 Demo

Genki Instruments

In this demo, Wave, the wearable MIDI controller and the WIDI Master, the MIDI over Bluetooth adapter connect to the classic synth, Juno-60 with Tubbutec Juno-66 mod. Vibrato and filter cut-off are being controlled with Wave, adding another dimension to this classic 80's synthesizer.

//Hardware used
Wave by Genki Instruments
CME WIDI Master
Tubbutec mod

See the Genki label below for more.

Genki Instruments Wave Ring Controller At NAMM 2019

Published on Feb 3, 2019 Synthtopia

"At the 2019 NAMM Show, Genki Instruments gave us a quick demo of their new Wave gestural MIDI controller."

Superbooth 2018 Day Three - Genki Instruments

Published on May 14, 2018 Animato Audio

"I don't know about you guys but I really want one :) Seems like you can get some super expressive sounds out of this combo of eurorack and motion capture. Will probably see a lot more coming out of this space in the future"

Genki Wave Controller Brings Gestural Control To Eurorack

Published on May 11, 2018 Synthtopia

"At Superbooth 2018, Genki showed us their Wave gestural controller, and showed how it can be used with Eurorack modular synthesizers."

Genki Instruments Wavefront @ Superbooth 2018

Published on May 4, 2018 Bedroom Producers Blog

"Genki Instruments presents the new Wavefront CV module for connecting the Wave controller ring to hardware setups and software instruments. Wave ring can also be connected via Bluetooth and used as a MIDI controller."

This is the first Genki Instruments post on the site.