We all love Alessandro Cortini - but Strega not so much?

[@rjschrei]

Great Video.i have a Strega (as well as a lot of other modules now) because of this channel😀) and it’s my favorite module.😀I have noticed though that Cortini’s recent tour was Strega as main instrument, 2 of them in fact, running thru a big sky and volante. Unfortunately there don’t seem to be many entries on you tube of this tour . So before we assign it as🙏🏻 an effects processor , let’s see what it’s like as a lead instrument doubled😀would love a longer version of this🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

[@CinematicLaboratory]

I've been using it as a lead instrument since I got it because I never made the 'link' to processing audio. After a while, you'd forget there's a pre-amp and many CV generated by it. For me, this was a rediscovery. Or maybe even a recovery :)

[@HAntonRiehl]

I really love my Strega! I love finding string sounds inside it. It sounds a lot like string harmonics in the upper regions.

[@AndersWeijnitz]

Too few comments recognize your amazing video work with the amazing sound tracks! Next level stuff! Thanks!

[@CinematicLaboratory]

I make these videos to spend my retirement the best way I can. I feel privileged I have an audience and I am really happy with the way things go.

[@kevinaaronson]

When I am not playing Strega, I am thinking about what I am going to do the next time I am playing Strega. It is an inspirational instrument to say the least.

[@IOSISDRONE]

FWIW Cortini's latest shows have been him performing with a pair of Stregas controlled by a pair of 0-Ctrl sequencers, along with a DJ mixer and outboard delay and reverb. He gets four voices out of this setup by turning the Strega cycling envelope into second voice on each Strega, and the results are fucking incredible.

[@Getthenderson]

I had the exact opposite realisation, initially bought one as an external FX processer but found everything to sound "samey", sold it and bought it again a few months back and have realised it's the VCO that makes it special and creates a unique tone. Then again i'm not trying to sound like Cortini specifically as much as i'd love to.

[@SallowKyn]

So good. Your videos are so arresting and the commentary always enlightening.

[@valdir7426]

the Strega has so much personality I immediatly recognized it in the credits music of the tv show 1899 (a piece by Ben Frost). I'm in love with this instruments since I got it; you don't need to do much patching for it to sound great.

[@PatternRecognitionMusic]

I like Alessandro Cortini as much as the next guy; I certainly draw inspiration from his work, especially the Forse trilogy. I can't say that other artists' sounds haven't inspired my gear choices in some cases - I bought a 6505+, after all, because it is a go-to head for melodic death tones. But I think that there's more to any tone or sound than just the gear - the final result is often more than the sum of its parts. Chasing somebody else's sound can be an exercise in futility, and as an artist, there is a certain freedom that comes with finding your own sound.

[@Gallanitte]

Man! This is truly awesome. The audio, the video, the composition, the theme, I love it all. You have outdone yourself, also how cool to use the work of an actual artist instead of AI to get fantastic cinematic visuals! Off to check your other videos... and probably subscription.

[@CinematicLaboratory]

Thanks! Just checked out your Lyra-8 adventure and subscribed. You give me too much credit. I improvised on my guitar which I can't even play and the visuals come from my stock footage subscription. I have no problem with AI. I am pretty sure it will never be able to figure out the Lyra-8. As for checking out my other videos, there's 645 of them and I haven't outdone myself yet. I am on the verge of something amazing, just don't know what it is yet.

[@Gallanitte]

@@CinematicLaboratory As in many art forms, the secret is not only knowing how to use the tools, which is commendable, but rather to have the experience to select the right ones, at the right moment and add or remove the right amount. The formula of this video really did it for me, and I am truly excited if you feel that you are at the cusp of something more amazing!

[@malwida1022]

Interesting thoughts! I think whole tracks on Scuro Chiaro have been run through the Strega. There is also this old video where AC presents the Industrialectric echo degrader pedal, which is in a similar sonic ballpark and also based on the same PT2399 karaoke delay chip. In that video he also points out his fondness for its unfiltered clock noise. La Storia is based on octave jumps achieved by directly controlling the time on the Buchla 288 digital delay. So yeah, fx processor definitely takes the front seat. Also the fact that the Bruxa is closer to the first prototype than the final Strega. In the podcast with Darwin Grosse AC mentions that he would rather use 2 Strega than a stereo version. I still think MN should have made the Bruxa stereo to distinct it further from Strega, from a marketing perspective. Strega owners would probably have bought a stereo Bruxa but buying the right side of Strega again, not so much… in the meantime I went to other extreme, maxing out the sound generation capabilities of Strega: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mGHZhXaXeqasf9Usi=a2oVkC-1_6dywu03

[@jpiekkala]

❤ Wow, so beautiful video, and complementing sounds.

[@stephpearlskozlowski1949]

It's my favorite synth since a couple of years, the charms of this witch are powerfull and strangely gracious 'and sometime epic too ... ;) )

[@gladlawson61]

I love the strega. So much so that ive owned 2 of them. Plus a bruxa is on order.

[@timmarcusmoore]

My favourite instrument, if I had to pick one. Criticising it for being mono only is missing the point, in my opinion. Like an electric guitar, or many other instruments, it's designed to be the focus of your interaction, but not to be the complete source of sound. Put it through an external delay or reverb to place it in a space, and it opens up. Filter it down to put it in a mix, and it gives you a voice with a unique character. Patch it to itself to make a feedback loop, you get something that draws the worlds of noise rock and electronic music together. Process the audio with something like PaulStretch and discover intricate details and unexpected tones. It's such a source of discovery!

[@CinematicLaboratory]

I could not have said it any better! Thanks for this!

[@kevinaaronson]

This guy Stregas.

[@Somnambule]

Big thanx for sharing this amazing video and your thoughts about strega! I love the strega much, it’s unique tool and yes sometimes it is hard to catch the sweet spots but it’s always a nice challenge. I tried too with guitar here on yt and it’s a real fun to feed different instruments into strega. I‘ll never give the witch 🧙 away…. Greetings and have a good start into this week🖖👽

[@VocalChainsStudio]

Strega is a great bass amp and room tone generator, with a unique VCO for melodic percussion and breathtaking feedback pads. I lurve it. It was my first module and got me hooked on eurorack.

[@KenSwanson-p4i]

Yes, .. I think that many of us, have a couple of chords that we like hearing, together. And then feeding them, into a process like this .. certainly is worth the try.

[@davidb7723]

Great video! Love your video style and soundtracks. I can't say I've heard much hate for the Strega, but then again, i don't talk to many synth people 🤣

[@CinematicLaboratory]

I also called it a rusty chainsaw. But there's a lot of magic in it :)

[@_sleepmute]

Strega is odd. The VCO is often overwhelming. For me a high-pass filter would've helped. I also dislike how it goes slightly sharp at at full clockwise. But for all the times I've thought about selling it, I never have because I end up enjoying just playing with it, even if I'm not sure what to do with the results. I should probably take Cortini's example and use it more as a processor. It does have a nice-sounding amp.

[@christopher_ecclestone]

Great video. Your production is top notch 👌

[@CinematicLaboratory]

Thanks so much! Just doing what I love and that always helps.

[@waivestate3783]

I think a lot of his studio albums are made on wildly expensive unobtanium buchla and synthi systems, which could explain some of the secret sauce. I saw him play a show with 2 Stregas last summer and it sounded great. I think I read he’s going to turn this tour into a tour album of some kind.

[@michaelstaniak8238]

Love Strega… Unlimited texture!

[@AlessandroCortini]

I love you all too :) 😘

[@attiladecsi7061]

You are the best, Alessandro !

[@faruambient]

great video! I think you put it well that Cortini's talent is not included 🙂I believe than when devices get branded with an artists, there are more expectations towards it and buying a device which instantly lets you create his music. Obviously it makes it easier to sell for make noise. Anyway I am looking forward to the new module, mainly because I like the fx sound and dont know how to recreate this chain myself.

[@walrtbstudios5430]

It’s taken a while, but I am slowly coming round to the idea of a Strega- with the caveat that it will never make me sound like Cortini, or even La Laboratoire Cinematique. This video has tipped me ever so slightly closer…

[@CinematicLaboratory]

For what it's worth, it's still one of my top 10 machines since it was introduced. I have tons of modules that never made it this far. Sure it gave me headaches, but when I check out my 'ever growing modular album' on BC, there's a lot of Strega in it. But it always goes through one or more Versio's.

[@walrtbstudios5430]

@@CinematicLaboratory There you go again. I have more than one Versio.

[@corticallarvae]

I love Strega…. And pulsar23 combined with benjolins the rhythmic tone is key on Strega absorb at 12:00….. I run the filter in reverse always and the time high and push them forward… I think functional modules are more important but it does give you a strange formant in the right areas… 😊

[@Lcrymlgy]

I'm a big MN fan and I'll reject the module not because I don't love strega (which I do), but because I already _have_ strega

[@CinematicLaboratory]

That makes perfect sense. I also found out Lyra-8 FX (and the Lyra itself) uses the same delay chip as Strega and Bruxa which is also in that alchemy domain. It figures....

[@Lcrymlgy]

@@CinematicLaboratory that makes a lot of sense. MN just released a talk between Alessandro and Tony Rolando where they mention the delay chip specifically (which _is_ a cheap karaoke mic delay chip, I remember Alessandro saying exactly that)

[@MarzioDeBiasi-j8p]

But the sound of this video doesn't sound much like the direct mono output of the strega :-) BTW great video and great strega (though It has some weak points)

[@CinematicLaboratory]

Indeed. For me, Strega's mono out is like the output of an amp. You'd normally go to the mixing console and the 'tower of power' to add your tape delay, lexicon reverb, distressor, compressor, etc, etc. So you can choose to wrap it up at Strega's output and go 'clean', but I like to run the output through effects. I only used a verb in this take.

[@MarzioDeBiasi-j8p]

@@CinematicLaboratory Yes of course. I had the Strega for a few months and managed to make some interesting tracks with it (on the "generative territory"), but analyzing the behavior of the CV in/outs (with an oscilloscope) I think they could have made it much more interesting (but this opinion is biased by the style of ""music"" I make).

[@TetsuoNoiseBox]

🔥

[@ChainsawCoffee]

Maybe people aren't getting Cortini's sound from Strega because Cortini isn't using a Strega?? The Strega is essentially a collection of modules, but like a recent interview by Anthony Marinelli with Robert Margouleff, Margouleff said they didn't use a Minimoog, because they had a Maxi Moog. Marinelli had been absolutely convinced that Margouleff had used a Minimoog. So while Cortini collaborated on the Strega, he may be using a discrete module assembly for his Strega-like sounds. My sonic philosophy is to just let it go, and not obsess over "that sound." There will be so many other sounds. It's like being in a rose garden the size of a planet, and obsessing over one petal.

[@CinematicLaboratory]

He is actually using it a lot these days. kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z5yTdohqhLSHg9k

[@ethermod307]

I love my Strega. I think that it's one of the most inspiring instruments of today. Cortini's albums are not my thing though... Opinions...

[@CinematicLaboratory]

This is really good to hear. Don't be like Cortini, be yourself :).