NACHTFAHRT

Berlin School for the M-VAVE FM-1 · by Cranky Man

A generative 1970s Berlin School instrument. Two sequencers drift against each other over a slow drone, their filters breathing; a lead voice dreams above them. Let it play for hours, or play with it: the white keys give you the melody, always in the piece's key, over the sequences and the drone, while the lead plays its own phrases around yours.

The launch screen: NACHTFAHRT, by CRANKY MAN

The main screen: the chord's name among orbiting dots, the five layers' meters, the two sequences' lanes

PERFORM: Filter, Wet, Energy and Sweep on the knobs

Listen, and play

NACHTFAHRT plays itself from the moment it is switched on, and it never ends: each piece builds, opens into a solo, drifts through a bridge and starts its long rise again. You are invited in. The white keys play the melody in the piece's scale, so every note fits, and the lead makes room for you. The black keys are effects while held: Rise and Close sweep every filter, Transpose lifts the sequences, Supernova, Twitter and more. SELECT turns the level of the layer you are looking at; PERFORM (SEL) mutes and solos the layers and pushes Filter, Wet and Energy.

What it plays

Drone. Organ, strings, horn, saws, glass or a choir whose vowel moves, through a slow phaser, with the root an octave below; its chords walk slowly.
Sequence. The arpeggio at the heart of it: a Moog-style line repeated by the echo, its filter wandering, rising over the piece.
Sequence 2. A second line, usually a step shorter, so the two drift apart and meet again; now and then it moves an octave.
Lead. A gliding solo voice far in the reverb, phrasing in calls and answers; or your own melody on the keys.
Atmosphere. Wind, surf, space or tape hiss, where a piece wants it.

Eight pieces after the records of Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze and Ashra (Timewind, Wahnfried, Phaedra, Rubycon, Stratosfear, Sunrain, Mirage, Cyborg), each remembering how you left it. Every layer has its sound pages and a Move page, where its filter wanders relative to the knob you set.

To go back to the official firmware, use the installer's "Back to the stock firmware", or M-VAVE's updater, M-UPGRADE, from m-vave.com/download. NACHTFAHRT is based on DUB-1 by sbegueria, itself based on AMB-1 by Charles Vestal; its granular cloud follows JIANT's; the platform is Felucca by Leo Kuroshita (Hügelton Instruments). GPL-3.0. Pictures made with ChatGPT. M-VAVE and FM-1 are trademarks of their owners. NACHTFAHRT is not affiliated with M-VAVE or Hügelton Instruments.