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Arturia Buchla Easel V – Analog Synth Plugin

Name: Arturia Buchla Easel V - Analog Synth Plugin
SKU: 1200-49
Price: 149 USD
Availability: InStock

$149.00

Arturia Buchla Easel V - Analog Synth Plugin

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.

Description

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.

The Main Tone Source

The Complex Oscillator generates harmonically rich tones by folding a waveform’s peaks and valleys back on themselves.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Five Extra Hands

Craft complex control curves for up to five separate destinations. Each can loop, play one-shot, free-run, and sync to master tempo.

Your Right Hand

The 32-step tempo-syncable sequencer is ideal for playing melodic passages as you explore, tweak, and sculpt the sound itself.

There’s Outer Space Inside

Modulate target parameters as if they were spaceships being attracted by planets, slingshotting around stars, and teleported through wormholes.

Launch Control

Easel V puts the physics in physical modeling with control over the force and randomness of your spaceship’s trek. You can also adjust how long a gate is generated when it collides.