Ever since I have first read about the Music Easel it was a dream of mine (and probably every Buchla enthusiast) to play one, just for a few minutes at least. But with only 20 or so produced the chances of this ever happening where very little. As I am located in Europe it is even harder to get your hands on one. But even though Don is the guy that never looks back, B&A has been bought and the new owners follow a different philosophy and have announced that they will release a functionally identical Music Easel in the next months. Everything will be the same as the original one. They even left the Programming Card the way it was. So you just take some resistors and solder your own presets for it.
The slot for the Programming Card can also be used for an additional card that lets you hook up the Music Easel to your I Pad or other devices and also lets you save presets.
I have not ordered on yet, but I will when the unit is ready and available in Europe. Can't wait for it. At first I was considering selling my 200e modules but I have since decided against this as I could not live without the 259e or the 267e and all the other wonderful modules.
BEMI's statment on muffs:
Pricing Structure
The Music Easel is BEMI’s first foray into selling Buchla gear through dealers, and while we are keeping the number of dealers purposely small, we are following a traditional dealer pricing model. This means that while BEMI will sell the unit at the MSRP of $3999.99, dealers can advertise it for $3,699.99. No matter whether you choose to purchase directly from BEMI or go through a BEMI dealer, orders will be shipped in the order in which BEMI receives them.
Orders / Email Address Confusion
Due to a combination of circumstances, some Easel inquiries sent to our sales@buchla.com address were not received. Our sincere apologies to those of you who were frustrated by our lack of response. We have recovered the mails, and we are contacting everyone who was not previously contacted and/or who did not subsequently place their order through either purchasing@buchla.com or info@buchla.com.
Features
We’re listening! In addition to the many thoughtful comments we received at NAMM from the Buchla community, we’re closely following the “vintage accuracy versus modern functionality” debate in this forum, and doing our best to find the optimum blend of the two. We’ll continue to refine and implement changes in accordance with your input. Our goal is to put the best possible instrument in your hands.
The preset card is a good example. We think it’s really important to remain true to the original Easel’s preset card architecture (apparently some of you can’t get enough solder fumes). But we also understand the modern workflow and the need for immediate access to multiple presets---hence the design of our optional preset manager/ iPad interface card. Speaking of which, the interface’s spec calls for saving/loading presets, remote programming of the Easel via iPad, and wireless operation. MSRP
TBA.
We’ll post the full feature list and specs on our new Web site as soon as it’s launched. (We’re busy translating the Latin pages now….)
Aesthetics
The debate over original vs. new aesthetics is raging nearly as fiercely as the one over features. Again, we’re doing our best to find the sweet spot. A couple of things you can be sure of: The case lid will be removable and we’re taking a long hard look at all of the graphic elements, from fonts and colors to knobs….
Don Buchla’s Involvement
If you were BEMI, would you reissue the Music Easel without Don’s involvement? Get real!
The Manual
It’s our intention to include an appropriately updated version of the original Allen Strange manual along with new documentation to help users unfamiliar with the Easel unlock its sonic potential.
European Service / Distribution
Yes to both! We’ll be announcing dealers, distributors, and service centers on our Web site as they come on line.
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