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

I've always been in a 'love / hate' relationship with Strega, where 'hate' is a figure of speech because I am actively working on not hating anything or anybody. Regardless, Strega is in my top 10 of all time favorite modules. With the announcement of Bruxa I noticed a lof of comments about Bruxa being just as mono as the Witch, and a more interesting call for help where Strega users just don't come anywhere Cortini's work - and some blame Strega for it (don't).

In this short 'essay', I checked out all videos I could find where Cortini does a Strega demo and found only one at Reverb.com. It's fascinating to see he ALWAYS uses the external input on three application examples.

Using Mr. Spock's logic I can safely speculate it's primarily designed as an FX processor. Sure I knew this, but I didn't get it. Sure there's a VCO, but Alessandro is using it to support whatever's coming in to create low drones, textures and fat saturated atmospheres. So I tried to plug in my guitar and noodled a bit with this new workflow in mind. If you don't have a guitar, try to get a kalimba in. You'll notice there's an abundance of FM paths you can use to influence the VCO and the Time/Filter/Delay/Feedback.

This video is not intended to change your mind about Strega. If you don't like it, that's perfectly OK. But if Cortini's work is part of the music you love most, it's a very convenient and easy way to get you in his 'zone'. He is definitely in there somewhere. And the ugly witch can be a beauty.

3D animations by IceTray, an artist. Not AI. (licensed through Envato Elements)