For Sale on Muffs: Original vintage Buchla Music Easel / 208

Roman F is selling his original Buchla Music Easel/208 but without the
touch keyboard, the 218.

what is included:

case
psu
2 boats
208
2 patch cards

all is original and works perfect

i'm not interested in selling the 218 atm, but since i don't want to break this unit apart i can trade it to 221.

$30.000, cash
located in LA, i can bring it to any major US city if we share the flight

... that's a york university's easel, later owned by audities, then by couple private persons and i'm the last owner.

Check it out on muffs.

My Modules!!!!! ♥ ♥ ♥

With my Skylab only two weeks away from delivery I tought I take a picture of the modules that are waiting for it. Not much but I think I will have a lot of fun with those five modules. 281e is next as well as some Module Modules with the Timbre from Roman already on order.

 

Buchla Quad Spatial Director Model 204

Someone got lucky and bought the 204 that was for sale a couple of weeks ago.  The nice thing is that it didn't vanish in some studio but ended up with Votek_Mendo a fellow wiggler from muff's who has shared some really nice pictures of the 204. Congrats again on the amazing purchase and thanks for sharing all this nice pictures.

From Muff's:

So, this module is from 1971, which means it was in the heart of the "black knob era". It wants +15, -15, +5, +24 and 2 grounds. The control voltage range at that time officially was 0-15 volts. The power connectors were black Cinch-Jones box connectors on individual chassis boxes that sat inside of a wooden cabinet.

A friend of mine have done away with all of that. It now will plug into a 200e or later 200 cabinet with an EDAC 10 pin edge connector and doesn't need a 24 volt line. The joysticks will put out roughly 0-12 volts and the CV inputs respond through their entire range from 0-10. This module will now plug and play in a 200e system. It actually was mostly working. The only issue was that the joysticks are optical. They have a lightbulb on the PCB and 4 photocells facing up around it. The joystick has a hole in the ball that reflects the light back from the bulb to the photocells, depending on where you lean it. It is a very slight difference between moves, physically. If one of the photocells is 1mm to any direction, the range will change. He was able to get the range proper by nudging them here and there. In other words, if one of them doesn't go all the way to 0 volts, it's a simple matter of pushing that one photocell toward the lightbulb more.

 From the Buchla Website:

Voltage controlled quadraphonic distributor for determining the spatial location of sounds with pan pots or externally applied voltages. Monitor switches and voltage controlled attenuators are included.

The 204's features include:

4 electronically isolated 2-dimensional joysticks with output voltages proportional to lateral and vertical displacement. Generally used to control sound location, but may be used to control other parameters.

4 gain controls for signals applied to inputs. Control voltages may alternatively be used to control amplitude.

Control voltage inputs for defining positions of sounds. Increasing voltages move sounds from rear to front and from left to right. Voltages are generally (but not necessarily) derived from adjacent joystick outputs.

Monitor switches for use in conjunction with the Model 226 Quad Monitor Interface.

Rare original 200 modules for sale on ebay!!!

That's not happening everyday. Not one but six original Buchla 200 modules have surfaced today on ebay, including two of the most hard to find modules. The 237 Polyphonic Keyboard Module and the 204 Quad Spatial Director. If you have the funds, go get them as this is a once in your lifetime opportunity.

284 Quad Voltage-Controlled Envelope Generator Model:

Adds voltage control and variable delay and duration times to the capabilities of the Model 280 (Four independent envelope generators with variable attack and decay times (range is .001 to 10 seconds) and a choice of sustained or transient operation. Input pulses initiate envelopes and optionally control duration time; output pulses, activated at end of decay, are particularly useful for advancing sequencers or looping to inputs to generate repetitive functions.).
All times are internally variable from .002 to 10 seconds; control voltages may be used to extend this range and control overall time while preserving envelope shape. 

237 Polyphonic Keyboard Module:

This keyboard provides the musician with the means to achieve direct expressive control of the Electric Music Box's many voltage-controlled parameters.
Model 237 has 37 keys (3 octave) and 3 voice polyphonic outputs; built-in processor allows polyphonic output voltages to be transposed or modulated by applied signals and control voltages.
Model features velocity and pressure outputs. Velocity output voltages are proportional to initial striking force; pressure outputs are actuated by applying pressure at bottom of key travel.
Key voltage outputs are equal interval -- any equal-tempered scale may be readily tuned with the processing and offset controls built into Electric Music Box oscillators.
 

204 Quad Spatial Director:

Voltage controlled quadraphonic distributor for determining the spatial location of sounds with pan pots or externally applied voltages. Monitor switches and voltage controlled attenuators are included.
The 204s features include:
4 electronically isolated 2-dimensional joysticks with output voltages proportional to lateral and vertical displacement. Generally used to control sound location, but may be used to control other parameters. 4 gain controls for signals applied to inputs. Control voltages may alternatively be used to control amplitude.

Control voltage inputs for defining positions of sounds. Increasing voltages move sounds from rear to front and from left to right. Voltages are generally (but not necessarily) derived from adjacent joystick outputs.

Go to ebay to see the rest of the modules.

Buchla 300 - The Electric Music Box (1980)

Rick who is an expert in restoring old analogue synths, and who has worked on all the old Buchla instruments gives us another insight into the amazing history of the instruments Don Buchla has created over the last dacades.

from muff's:

found this photo from 2007 in a folder on my drive.. was the patch i used to record this piece: soundcloud.com/ava76/buchla-296-buchla-donald

note: configuration has been changed slightly since this photo, now one of 2 original 288s occupies the space to the left of the System Interface.

...its hard to see in this pic but its a hybrid system consisting of 28! Oscillators, Freq Shifter/Bal modulator, 2 Spectral Processors, 16 Lopass Gates, 8 Envelopes, Source of Uncertainty, Voltage Processors, Mixer/preamp, Triple Envelope Follower, System Interface, Time Domain Processor and touchplate. the 300 cpu handles all the sequencing and further voltage processing, multistage complex envelopes.

Q: whats the module left to the system interface?

...its the 298 Silicon cello/sax.. a recreation of the circuit stuffed in the silicon cello... a few were made in 2002 (by me) at the same time as the original run of barberpole modules.

 

The Music Easel has returned!!!

So now that the dust has settled I post some of the information that has surfaced here that is concerning the new Buchla Music Easel that BEMI will release in about 6 months.

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.

 

 

Buchla 100 system for sale at Muff's Modules

There is a super nice Buchla 100 system for sale at muff's that acording to Rick the man behind the electric music box website includes the following modules:

Fully restored 1970s Era Buchla 100 Modular System in 101 Cabinet:

101 2 piece 25 Panel Unit Cabinet
115 Power supply
110 Dual Gate (2 VCAs)
160 Dual Noise Source
175 Dual Equalizer (2 Filters)
194 Comb Filter (Filter)
190 Dual Reverberator
171 Dual Instrument Preamplifier
111 Dual Ring Modulator
106 Six Channel Mixer
196 Phase Shifter
192 Dual Lopass Filter (2 Filters - SUPER RARE MODULE)
158 Dual Sine/Saw Generator (2 Oscillators)
158 Dual Sine/Saw Generator (2 Oscillators)
156 Dual Control Voltage Processor
107 Voltage Controlled Mixer (10 VCAs!)
140 Timing Pulse Generator
123 Sequential Voltage Source (8 Stage Sequencer X 3)
180 Dual Attack Generator (2 Envelopes)
170 Dual Microphone Preamplifier (transformers!)
130 Dual Envelope Detector
114 Touchplate

all modules cleaned/recapped and tested, power supply refurbished.. wood cabinet restored. this system has 4 VCOS, 12 VCAs, several filter varieties including the rare 192 Lopass Filter which was one of the first Buchla module with Optos!, 8 stage sequencer, tons of processors and excellent stereo reverb.

Pics/more details soon

price is $35,000 plus shipping - pics soon.. here is a crappy one for now:

 

 All modules are cleaned and checked out by a Buchla instrument specialist

IRCAM's old Buchla 300

I always like this pictures of the old Buchla 300 from IRCAM and the text, especially this part:

"Even in its current place of rest, under quite a bit of dust, it seems to hearken back youthfully to a earlier time before this age of DSP, when men were men and resistors, resistors."

Check out the rest of the pictures here.

Suzanne Ciani: Lixiviation

Labeled the “American Delia Derbyshire (Delia Ann Derbyshire (5 May 1937 – 3 July 2001) was an English musician and composer of electronic music and musique concrète) of the Atari generation,” Finders Keepers Record has released a compilation that features early compositions by the synth pioneer Suzanne Ciani who was one of the few women around that timethat made a career as a synthesist. This new album heavily features the Buchla 200.

In the 60's sculptor Harold Paris first introduced her to Don Buchla, whose studio building was next door to the UC Berkeley in the industrial waterfront section of Oakland. She worked for Don Buchla in his factory and by doing so got her first Buchla 200.

For me she is not just making music but creates landscapes that unfold in front of you as
you listen to the record. And it takes you to places where you have never been before.

Suzanne Ciani says about one of the pieces included on this compilation:
“This is an exampleof a Buchla piece where the music is generated by the machine itself, after lots of careful programming. I would spend weeks just living with the machine, always on, and tweak the parameters that were interacting to create this “automatic” composition. The idea was that you worked with the machine, setting up sequences and envelopes and filter modulations that interacted  in an organic way. The composition then infolded infinitely, going for weeks.”

Suzanne Ciani has a very detailed but also in my eyes, joyful approche in a way that I realy like and I would say that this record is definitely a piece of electronic music history.