Developer Giorgio Sancristoforo shared this sneak preview of Berna 3, an updated version of his virtual recreation of a 1950s electronic music studio.

Berna is a standalone application, designed to let you explore a different way of making music, with the tools and limitations of the mid century electronic musician.

“Berna was my love letter to the RAI Studio di Fonologia Musicale, the electronic music studios of the national radio and television of Italy, founded in 1954 by the composers Bruno Maderna and Luciano Berio,” notes Sancristoforo.

“The Studio was directed by Berio and Maderna, first, then by Luigi Nono, and for me these three composers are the sacred trinity of the classic Italian avant-garde. I immensely love their work and their legacy,” he adds. “But behind the buttons and the mixer console, there was always the prototype of the modern sound engineer and producer: Marino Zuccheri, the technician in white coat that assisted the composers and very often created the sounds of the masterpieces of Italian electronic music. Zuccheri has been an immense inspiration for me, as a sound technician myself, and to his legacy I, once again, dedicate this new version of Berna.”

What’s New In Berna 3

Berna 3 pushes the early electronic music studio simulation further, with more realism and details, and a new set of devices.

• Updated oscillators and filters are designed to have more ‘analog’ sound.
• 9 different type of oscillators, each one has its own character. Some are cleaner, some are “dirtier” and fat.
• New devices, including pulse generators, high precision low frequency high-pass/low-pass filters, a geiger counter and an X-Ray tube driven by a Rumkhorff coil and a simulation of the MESSGENERATOR MG60 used by Stockhausen for Studie II and Kontakte.
• Updated interface – every oscillator, filter, amplifier, has its own window.
• Each device has an ON/OFF switch, which not only is realistic, but helps to minimize unnecessary load on your computer.

Pricing and Availability

Sancristoforo say that Berna 3 is still in development, but is expected to enter beta testing next month. Once testing is complete, it will be available for macOS & Windows for 25€.