Buchla+Synthesizers+Project

Buchla Synthesizers Buchla Synthesizers, paired with Robert Moog's Moog Synthesizer, were revolutionary in electronic music and music at large. The first Buchla Synthesizer was created in 1963 was called the Buchla Music Box. This was the brainchild of Don Buchla, the pioneer behind Buchla Synthesizers. Its creation was the result of a commission by avant garde composers Ramon Sender and Morton Subotnick to create an electronic instrument for live performance. The original Buchla synthesizer worked by utilizing several modules that created or modified a "music event". Each "box" in the Buchla Music Box served a different purpose; these were oscillator, filter, sample, and hold. These would, respectively, affect pitch, timbre, amplitude and spacial location. The Buchla Synthesizer was revolutionary particularly for two primary reasons. It allowed musicians to create completely sounds to their own specifications. There were essentially an infinite number of different sounds one could make on the Music Box. This was revolutionary, because previously you would have to use methods such as test oscillators or via musique concrete to create a similar result, and the Buchla Synthesizer did all of this digitally on one machine that could be manipulated for live performances. Also, previous forms, such as musique concrete specifically, had to use actual recordings and then edit those, whereas the Buchla Music Box made completely unique sounds. The other reason was that it broke with the tradition of trying to create synthesizers to replicate the sounds of traditional instruments and embraced the idea that this was a completely new instrument altogether.

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The Buchla 200 series Electric Music Box is arguably the most celebrated piece of the Buchla line. It was a modular analog system the was, overall, a more advanced system than the 100 series. The two main differences were the size (the 200 series was much more compact) and the fact that the 200 series could be interfaced using voltage controlled analog circuitry, essentially allowing the system to be controlled by digital computers. media type="youtube" key="v5y20BdNMug" height="344" width="425"

In the mid 1970's, Buchla began experimenting with digital computer controlled systems, which lead to the development and production of the 500 series and 300 series. These were essentially hybrid analog/digital synthesizers.

Buchla then created the Music Easel. This instrument was unique as it used frequency modulation, amplitude modulation, and dynamic waveshaping to produce its unique sound, and these unique aspects gave it its very "natural" sound.

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Presently, Buchla has been working on creating MIDI controllers, including Thunder, Lightning, and Marimba Lumina.

In 2004, in accordance with the resurgence of interest in modular analog systems, Buchla remodeled and rereleased his 200 series model, aptly naming it the Buchla 200e.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Buchla

http://120years.net/machines/buchla/index.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buchla

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Apples_of_the_Moon

http://www.vintagesynth.com/misc/buchla200.shtml