Genki Instruments Katla: Analog Digital Hybrid Polysynth With Surprising Chaotic Parameters
2,9 / 5,0 | 
Genki Instruments Katla is the first synthesizer from Iceland and it has some wild synthesis parameters, including per-voice flutter and Mono/Poly-like oscillator round robin.
Genki Instruments Katla
Last year I wrote about the Genki Instruments Katla in Synth Journal, our weekly news roundup for the synth news that isn’t big enough to get its own story. Now that the company has shown off Katla at Buchla & Friends, complete with audio demo, I figured it was time to change that.
Katla is still in early stages. In the video from Sonicstate (below), the Genki rep says it’s still in prototype stage. And if you compare it to the renders on the company home page, there are a number of differences, both cosmetic and functional. But let’s see if we can’t figure out what this thing is.
Genki Instruments Katla: Volcano Power
First of all, Katla the synthesizer is named after and inspired by Katla the volcano, Iceland’s largest. It’s got volcanic basalt side panels, meaning each unit is unique, but more than that, the Genki team has added a lot of unusual and chaotic functionality to their handmade synth.
First up, it’s a five-voice polyphonic synth with an oscillator, filter, two envelopes and LFO section per voice. However, it takes inspiration from paraphonic synths in that you can cycle through each oscillator individually in round-robin mode, with separate waveform and octave settings for each OSC. This reminds me of Korg’s classic Mono/Poly. There’s also a unison mode.
Genki Instruments Katla: Looping Envelopes and Wild Pitch Modulation
The chaos continues with the envelopes, which can be set to loop. They also track pitch, meaning they’ll cycle faster the higher you play. Sounds like a Reese bass machine. Interestingly, the voicing structure and modulation are all connected to pitch, giving you some really wild results. Check it out in the video as it’s a little unclear how this all works.
The synth also features so-called Katla Parameters, which let you add modulation to a number of other parameters, including per-oscillator pitch wobbles for a wow and flutter-like effect, filter resonance wobbles, and modulatable post-filter wavefolder and stereo spread. There are also two stereo effects, reverb and distortion.
Genki Instruments Katla: Per-Row Presets
Interestingly, Katla sports not only global presets but also per-row presets. Much like some soft synths, Katla will let you save states for each row of parameters, so you could recall just oscillator settings or just modulation ones. Pretty slick.
Genki Instruments Katla: Digilog Plans
As mentioned, Katla is still in a prototype stage. The website mentions its “digilog” hybrid architecture but the prototype is currently all digital. According to the demo, they’re hoping to make the filter and distortion analog and possibly the oscillators as well. The renders on the site show a physical spring reverb mounted to the outside of the unit but it’s not on the prototype where the reverb is digital.
Genki Instruments Katla: Pricing and Availability
Genki is hoping to have Katla ready to go later this year. The site says Q3. The price quoted on the site is €4990 and they’re currently taking preorders.
More Information
- Genki Instruments home page
- Genki Instruments Katla product page
- All about synthesizers
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