Berna 2.0 Puts A 1950s Electronic Music Studio In Your Mac

berna

Giorgio Sancristoforo has announced Berna 2.0 – a new version of his virtual vintage electronic music studio for Mac OS X.

Berna is a software simulation of a late 1950s electroacoustic music studio. Oscillators, filters, modulators, tape recorders, mixers, are all packed in a easy-to-use interface with historical accuracy.

Berna 2.0 adds:

  • an updated UI
  • a new Comparator
  • an 18 bands 1/3 Octave FilterBank
  • an 18 Bands Vocoder
  • a new Tone Burst Generator
  • two Dynamic Modulators,
  • a new Reverb
  • new Frequency Shifter (with modulator input)
  • new FM Oscillator (with modulator input) and
  • 8 new Complex Oscillators

Here’a a video intro to Berna 2:

Here’s a video tutorial:

http://vimeo.com/63819048

This tutorial shows some new functions of the tape recorders using a tone-mixture technique taken from Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Study 2.

Berna 2 is priced at 12 Euro and is expected to be available in May.

18 thoughts on “Berna 2.0 Puts A 1950s Electronic Music Studio In Your Mac

    1. This seems to upset you. I think, for €12, it looks like a lot of fun.

      Plus, the comparison with guitar hero is Inaccurate. Guitar hero replaces the entire mechanics of playing the guitar with four plastic buttons and a lever. This seems like its pretty involved. Not like there are four giant buttons where you can make instant stockhausen / bbc radiophonic / Louis and Bebe Barron type tonalities.

      1. Regarding the four buttons, you clearly have not played on Expert mode (or anything past easy), there is a fifth orange button that people who spend their time playing real instruments have trouble reaching.

    2. This has JUST the right sound (hrm, on vimeo).
      There are 100’s of old pieces sitting in archives that sound quite like this in places (although they were meticulously composed over 100s of hours, not jammed together in minutes)

      A little unhappy with the patch bay.
      I like the kind of matrix where you set the gain directly in the connection spot (FM8 and others).
      No reason to have it anyplace else; also the single gain on the module prevents balancing of modulation sources.
      Hm, maybe should mail the actual author with this…

      1. The matrix patchbay is actually a little ahead of the time–the 1950s/60s studio used real telephone-style patch bays with real patch cords (a la Reason’s rear panel). But I agree with Giorgio’s decision to go with the matrix, since it makes a much cleaner interface, and the functionality is basically the same.
        Having level controls at each matrix point, however, would be seriously inauthentic, due to the cost of audio potentiometers and amplifiers at the time, the space they would have taken up, and the level and impedance issues they would have created. The studios at the time had mixers, but the controls were all passive: they attentuated the signal, they couldn’t boost it. That had to wait for the development of cheap op amps and accurate carbon pots.

  1. Instant Delia Derbyshire. The only thing missing is the specter of tape snarls and the TARDIS. I’d call it a nice addition for the musical steampunkers who crave really fringe gear like this or the Novachord. Its nice to see so many of the basics in one box. Its like a tube-driven version of Reason.

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