Step by step

1. Percussive patching with Arturia Easel V

1 Thanks to avante album classics like Morton Subotnick’s Silver Apples of the Moon, Buchla are known for their percussive patches. To create a classic Buchla bongo on Easel V, start with the default patch template. A cable connects the Wheel to the Complex Oscillator’s timbre mod input. We’ll click and drag on the latter to remove it.

3 Reduce the Modulation Oscillator’s second-from-left Frequency slider to between 55 and 110. We’re going to use it to modulate the Complex Oscillator’s pitch. We’ll do this by clicking and dragging a cable from the Mod CV Out jack in the upper-right to the Complex Oscillator’s Pitch modulation input, setting its slider halfway. Set the Complex Oscillator’s Timbre knob to 10 o’clock.

2 The two most important components of the Buchla bongo are FM synthesis, which determines the timbre; and the Lo Pass Gate, that provides the percussive envelope. We’ll start with the former. The Easel has two oscillators: a Complex Oscillator and a Modulation Oscillator. Throw the Modulation switch on the latter to the FM Osc position.

4 We’ll set the Envelope’s Mode Select to Transient. Envelope sliders should be in the topmost (or shortest) positions. The envelope is now activating the Lo Pass Gate with a transient. Now run a cable from the orange jack under the Complex Oscillator to the black one just to that jack’s left – this connects the envelope to the Oscillator’s Timbre. Reduce the Timbre slider a bit for the classic sound.