Genki Instruments Katla #4 | Winterdagen

video upload by Winterdagen

I can't get enough of these kind of gentle key patches on the Katla synthesizer! For this patch I used a similar approach to the previous one, using the self oscillating filter as a sound source. But this time I played with modulating the wave folder, which at times in the piece almost feels like an extra melody coming in. I also once again tuned one of the voices an octave higher than the other ones, for unpredictable octave jumps in the melody, I just love that so much on Katla! For the next patch I'll try a more distorted one, promise."

See the Genki label below for additional posts.

Genki Instruments Katla #3 | Winterdagen

video upload by Winterdagen

"Time to put Katla through the arp test! Feeding Katla some arpeggiated chords, does it sound full enough? Are the envelopes plucky enough? Is it easy to keep interest up while playing with the synth parameters? I'd say absolutely, but you can judge for yourself!

I love the fact that Katla's envelopes can be both super slow as wel as super plucky. And Katla's super lush reverb really steals the show here:)"

Genki Instruments Katla #2 | Winterdagen

video upload by Winterdagen

"Here's another patch on the gorgeous ‪@genkiinstruments‬ Katla synthesizer.

For this keys patch I made use of Katla's voice rotation, with one of 5 voices tuned an octave higher than the rest, resulting in unpredictable pitch jumps in the melody, which I love. I didn't make use of Katla's oscillators for this patch, in stead the sound is coming from the filter with the resonance fully up, which tracks pitch very nicely when tuned with the simple calibration mode of holding down the two filter mode knobs.

I'm a big fan of these singing filter sine waves, which always feel a tiny bit unstable which makes them sound magical. To top it off I'm modulating the panning of the voices, I blended in some of Katla's lovely noise for some warble and I added some of the amazing internal reverb, which reminds me a bit of my Vongon Ultrasheer. I love this sound so much and I've never heard any other synth make it quite like this!

You don't see me playing the keys in the video, but I played this patch for hours, instant inspiration really. This melody is came out of that improvisation.

Thank you for watching!

ps. sine waves generally don't translate all that well on phone/laptop speakers, so speakers/earbuds/headphones advised.

Katla is shipping as of this week, find more info at: https://genki.is/"

Cyma Forma ALT & Piano | Winterdagen

video upload by Winterdagen

"Happy Holidays! Here's a little wintery piano improvisation over the top one of the patches I've been making the last couple of days with the gorgeous new Cyma Forma ALT synthesizer.

ALT is a very special synth. The sound is gorgeous, the driven filters sing, the pin matrix and quantizable oscillators are amazing for instantly coming up with ever changing movement and melodies, and the delay is exactly the way I like it; when you push the delay times to longer settings, it's full of characterful crunch and noise. Cyma Forma have done a spectacular job with this inspiring and unique synth and I'm super excited to have it in my studio.

Thanks for listening!"

Dreadbox Murmux Adept #3 | Winterdagen

video upload by Winterdagen

"Here's another gentle one on the mighty Dreadbox Murmux Adept :-) For this patch I didn't make use of the oscillators as a sound source. I stead I turned up the resonance on the filter and put the tracking to 100%, making the filter basically output a sine wave that tracks the keyboard. I used a very short decay time and low sustain on the envelopes to output a very soft sound, again helping emphasise the lovely layer of noise coming from the effects. I also dialed in a tiny bit of filter FM giving the sound some edge. Some subtle gritty delays from the Strymon El Capistan plugin add a little texture. God I love this synth."

Dreadbox Murmux Adept #2 | Winterdagen

video upload by Winterdagen

"I love how warm the Dreadbox Murmux Adept sounds. I've had Murmux for a couple of weeks now and I'm still incredibly happy with it. An important test for a synth for me is how it sounds combined with my piano. So this afternoon I recorded this little piece. I think they sound lovely together :-)

ps. apparently I accidentally bumped the right mic forward just before recording this.

Thanks for listening!"

Adept 1 previously posted here.

The Behringer Syncussion is amazing for melodies | Winterdagen

video upload by Winterdagen

"I bought a Behringer syncussion for its weird s&h percussion sounds, which are very cool. But as it turns out, it's also a lovely synth for melodies.

For this piece I made use of a minimal music technique called phasing which I love. Check out a lovely ‪@loopop‬ video on doing it with samples here: • Sampler trick: Steve Reich/William Ba... [2nd video here] Both voices on the Syncussion play the same melody, but on one part the loop is one 8th note shorter, making the two voices drift further away from each other on each rotation. With some help from the Strymon Volante and Erica Synths Zen Delay this turned into a quite hypnotising little exploration."

Dreadbox Murmux Adept #1 | Winterdagen

video upload by Winterdagen

"When I went to Synthfest UK a few months ago, I fell completely in love with the Dreadbox Murmux Adept. I tried just about every poly synth I could find out there and this was the one that instantly mesmerized me. However I thought I would never be able to get my hands on one as only 300 units have been made and they'd been long gone. Until last week, when out of the blue one popped up.

I've been head over heels for this thing the past week. I made about 40 patches and wrote 10 new pieces of music on it in a few nights, it is really that inspiring. I'll be posting some of my first explorations on it over the next few weeks and here's the first one.

For this piece I thought it'd be interesting to see if I could get a patch to start out as an ambient pad, morphing into a plucked sound. I made use of the amazing effects on it (BBD + delay), both adding quite some noise to the signal chain. The delay gets noisy at long delay times and I absolutely love the way it sounds. In fact I compressed the sound afterward to make the ever changing noise of the effects more prominent because I love it so much. Murmux can definitely sound clean as well, but I love pushing the effects to get a more noisy signal to create an intimate world of sounds."