Eardrill's new module: the Morphun

Eardrill, a company that is making Buchla compatible modules has just anounced that they will be releasing a new ModuleModule in the next couple of weeks. Chris Muir introduced the ModuleModule format a while back and is continuing to come up with great designs that compliment the 200e or old 200 systems. Finally also some other manufacturer have dicovered that the ModuleModule is a great platform for some of there designs. For example the Eurorack manufacturer Intelijel will be releasing their uStep module which is a 8-step (or 16 step) stepsequencer.

The new ModuleModule is called Morphun. With the Morphun it you can easily reshape control voltages making it a playable CV processor. The interesting part for me is that it can also be used as a simple eight step sequenzer.

Chris Muir wrote on his home page that the Morphun will have four main modes.

Morph The mode I started with is the morph mode. As a historical reference, Morph mode is sort of like the Tracking Generator found on an Oberheim Xpander, and sort of like the breakpoint generator on the 256e/257e. In this mode, a control voltage coming into the morph jack scans across the values on the sliders, interpolating between slider values as it goes. This lets you sculpt / reshape a control voltage into many curious shapes. 

Snap Then I added snap mode, which snaps between the values on the sliders. A full-scale ramp at the morph input will act as a sort of sequencer, stepping through the eight values on the slider. For example, if you drive the Morphun from an LFO with an ascending sawtooth wave, the sliders will be output in order, if from a descending saw the sliders will be output in reverse order. If you drive it with a Source of Uncertainty Quantized Random section set to 8 steps, the Morphun will randomly select among the eight sliders to output. 

Clock Clock mode is more or less a normal sequencer.

Strobe Strobe mode is sort of a cross between morph and clock mode, the value at the morph input is sampled every clock, than the interpolated value is looked up on the sliders.

Looking forward to this module and I hope I can place an order soon. Love that it has sliders like some old Buchla 200 modules.

µ▲Ω▲‡,,,//N²ℑ⊆▲...

One of my favorite tracks at the moment. Mater Suspirias Vision's remix  of "Love Religion".   
The track was originaly released in October 1994 by U96. The remix is just amazing. The heavy reverb and the very low BPM rate gives this song a whole new feeling. What I realy like about the whole witch house thing is that a lot of stuff is recorded with lofi gear or at least it sounds like it. And it is more like (or was) more like a short movment rather than a style of music. For me with the long delays and reverbs it's feels like an new wave of psychedelica. 

Do not believe in everything you see - the owls are not what they seem.

 ℑ⊇≥◊≤⊆ℜ

My old system and the 258v

My old system before I had to sell it (Sitting on top of the Eurorack). Sadly I have never used an original 258 but the 258v by Mark Verbos is one of the most amazing oscillators I have ever heard. Outer space FM, amazing drones and bell sounds this oscillator does it all. And the great part there are two in one module. The best part is when you crossmodulate both oscillators. Mark even added a trimmed 1.2 volt/octave CV input.

From the Buchla historical homepage: "Two independent voltage-controlled oscillators, continuously tunable from 5 Hz to 20 kHz. Each has two processing inputs and a frequency modulation input. Waveshapes as well as frequency can be voltage controlled. Model 258 oscillators feature low sine wave harmonic content, negligible settling error, and high short and long-term stability, even with rapidly changing ambient temperatures."

This will be my next oscillator for sure as I miss it dearly.

Morton Subotnik's Sidewinder

 My favorite pice of music by Morton Subotnik. I actually met him in person about one year ago when he performed in Vienna and also gave a lecture, explaining his old Buchla 100 system he brought with him. He also talked about his involvment with the first modular that Don Buchla build for him and about the time when he and Ramon Sender founded the The San Francisco Tape Music Center in 1962.

He also brought his 200e with him (he told me that it was actually a loan from Don Buchla) and I talked with him, about which of the oscillators I should get first. It was interesting to see that he had two 292e in a twelve spacer. Interesting choice indeed.
What a nice evening and what a nice person. A true music legend. 

The 281e Quad Function Generator

This was actually my first real Buchla Module. But the first one I had to sell. So after I recived my 259e I picked this one up on Muffs as it was already in Europa and so I avoided the usual import taxes. It was realy nice of the seller to include a double banana plug.

The 281e is a very usefull, fun and also important modules for the Buchla system. It is basicaly four simple Attack Release transient envelope generators in one module. It is not as esoteric as some other Buchla modules but it does what it does pretty well. It can be used as a simple LFO but there is one downside to it. Without a voltage processor like the 256e or the 254v by Mark Verbos the 281e in cycling mode won't go slower than 10 seconds. But appart from that I totaly love it. Reminds me of the days when I still had my Eurorack and used my Math with the QMMG.

The 259e Complex Waveform Generator

Just before I went to  北京 for one semester to study chinese I recived my first Buchla oscillator from Buchla & Associates. I had no power supply for it after selling most of my Buchla stuff a bit earlier to finance my semester in China, so it just sat at home for six months waiting for me to get home and get a power supply again.

I went for the 259e Complex Waveform Generator. Like all the newer Buchla oscillators it is actually two oscillators in one module. The modulation oscillator of the 259e offers three basic wave shapes: square, triangle and sawtooth. The principal oscillator of the 259e offers far more waveforms. There are two wavetable banks that are driven by a digital sine wave. Because the 259e uses digital wave tables, the output waves exhibit aliasing. And I have too say I love the aliasing of the 259e. With the 259e alone one can have a lot of fun. What I realy like about this module is that three of its wave tables on each bank are reserved for memory scanning. The 259e scanns it's own memory and you can find beautiful sounds between silence.

In the beginning there was a garden

My passion with modular gear started a few years ago. When my best friend and I where looking for some Roland keybord synths we discoverd the world of modular synthesizers. We decided, after almost a year of  planning, calculating and recalculating to start a Eurorack together. But after dicovering the Buchla 200 and after finding out that Don Buchla is not only still in business but his new 200e series sets new standards for innovative musician interfaces I knew that sooner or later I had too place an order. The idea that that the Buchla is more than just a collection of modules and feels more like an instrument is still facinating to me. The dream too sit in the garden and wove the sounds that suround me so ever tempting.