ARTURIA BUCHLA EASEL V
Buchla Easel V
West Coast sound design playground.
The Buchla Easel V is the first recreation of Don Buchla's iconic instrument that helped define experimental West Coast modular synthesis in the early '70s. Our enhancements translate to vastly expanded possibilities for sound design and avant-garde music.
Paint outside
the lines
A vehicle for avant-garde expeditions. A totally different take on synthesis. Welcome to the West Coast.
Don Buchla is the father of the ‘West Coast’ approach to electronic music; rather than using synthesizers to imitate other instruments, one sees electricity itself as the instrument. This approach captivated Suzanne Ciani, Morton Subotnick, Alessandro Cortini (Nine Inch Nails), Richard Devine, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, and many other cutting-edge composers. We modeled the Music Easel, Buchla’s suitcase-style modular system, at the component level, then added powerful modulation and sequencing extras to reinvigorate the Buchla spirit.
Briefcase Full of Inspiration
A turn here, a patch there. In the Easel, simple adjustments tend to create sonic surprises that are sure to generate new musical ideas.
Soundscape Sandbox
Complex oscillators. AM and FM synthesis. Percussive filter/gate combos. Ways to modulate nearly every parameter. You won’t run out of territory to explore anytime soon.
The Synthesizer Plays You
Like the Buchla hardware that inspired it, Easel V offers unique possibilities for complex, evolving passages and generative music.
Master In Minutes
The Easel’s logical layout means you’ll be creating sounds in no time. Its sheer depth means you’ll still enjoy creating them years later.
Don Buchla:
the Nikola Tesla of synth designers
While most synth makers pursued commercial musical uses, Buchla felt electronics should empower us to rethink composition from the ground up and free us from stale traditions.
In fact, for a long time he refused to add a piano-style keyboard to most of his modular systems before the Easel. But the most adventurous sonic explorers wanted a portable instrument they could play whenever and wherever inspiration struck — like a painter’s easel.
In 1965, Buchla was commissioned to build an electronic instrument for the San Francisco Tape Music Center. Electronic oscillators so far had been clunky affairs that could not be played or modulated in real time, just adjusted with a single pitch dial
Zen and the Art
of Synth Design
We stayed true to the Music Easel’s interface, putting your hands on the definitive sound sources that brought a new perspective to analog synthesis.
It’s definitely different, but that difference lets you create sounds you won’t hear any other way. Easel V invites you to leave all your preconceptions about synths at the door and updates the Music Easel for the MIDI age.
01. The Main Tone Source
The Complex Oscillator generates harmonically rich tones by folding a waveform’s peaks and valleys back on themselves.
02. Patch Perfect
Easel V’s click-and-drag patch bay keeps cables from obscuring the controls. Outputs are color-coded to match different modulation sources; inputs are black.
03. Modulation Maker
Use the Modulation Oscillator as an LFO, or dial it into the audio range and patch up FM and AM textures from gentle to clangorous.
04. Stepped Voltages
Like a sequencer for modulation, the Sequential Voltage Source features five steps and multiple trigger sources, and can modulate any of 76 targets in Easel V.
05. Original Keyboard
We’ve duplicated the Model 218 keyboard to a tee and even added an arpeggiator. Access all its dimensions of touch and more in the Advanced Panel.
06. Voltage Presets
These can octave shift the keyboard or send four different, steady control voltages to any destination you choose.
Where No Buchla
Has Gone Before
Dive even deeper into Easel V’s mind-expanding universe of sound design with functions that keep you in the creative zone.
It has been said that the best musical experiences combine just the right amounts of predictability and surprise. That was our philosophy when adding advanced features we hope will help create your own magnum opus of electronica.
Unique sound generation
à la Buchla
Through meticulous analysis, reverse-engineering, and our exclusive TAE® technology, Buchla Easel V brings you the limitless potential of the original Easel’s outside-the-box design coveted by synth aficionados since the ‘70s. Covet no more.
The Buchla Easel set out to do synthesis a little differently. By changing the mindset and the approach, the sonic results were radically different. Geared towards pure sonic experimentation and exploration, there’s still nothing that makes sound quite like the Buchla does. That’s the magic that we set out to faithfully capture with Buchla Easel V.
Totally distinct sound sources that go from smooth analog tones to bubbling modulated textures in an instant. Signal processing that goes against the grain to offer unprecedented and surprising routing options. Unique modulation methods that produce timbres that sound as futuristic otherworldly today as they did decades ago. That coveted spring reverb that concludes it all with that echoing, distant, surreal atmosphere.
Included in
V collection
Legendary Keyboards Reinvented
This instrument is also part of the V Collection -your complete dream line-up of the legendary synths, organs, pianos and more that made keyboard history. They’re modeled with the most advanced technologies for authentic realism, and enhanced with new creative options. Whether you use it as DAW plugins in the studio or standalone at gigs, V Collection puts the greatest keys of all time at your fingertips for instant inspiration.
Main Features
A component-level model of the Buchla Music Easel
Complex and Modulation oscillators, dual Low Pass Gates, output section with spring reverb modelling
Modulation sources perfecly reproduced : 5-step Sequencer, Envelope Generator, Pulser
Semi-modular architecture, color-coded routing and cables
Enhanced functionalities, synchronizable Pulser and Clock, Oscillators quantization
Left Hand modulation sources to create multi-point envelopes and LFOs. Add randomness and smoothing to the modulation
Right Hand step-sequencer module
Gravity XY modulation source. Control the sound with the movement of a projectile flying among planets and worm holes!
10 effects, Phaser, Flanger, Chorus, Overdrive, Delay, ...
Control on the Vactrol modelling for fast, medium or slow response
Up to 4 voices of polyphony
256 factory presets
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