Suitcase synthesis with the Buchla Music Easel

Join us as we explore Don Buchla’s legendary semi-modular instrument using a modern software emulation…

Packing tons of personality into a suitcase form factor, Buchla’s Music Easel is as distinctive in sound as it is in appearance. Thanks to its snappy modulators and plentiful patching options, it’s a synthesiser that excels at strange sequences, West Coast percussion, experimental drones, out-there textures, techno-style spiky rhythms and more. In our next tutorials, we’ll explore the Music Easel and West Coast synthesis using Arturia’s Buchla Easel V, a modern software recreation. Before creating a distinctive West Coast patch over the page, we’ll look at the instrument’s two oscillators: the Complex Oscillator, a wave-foldable two-part signal generator; and the Modulation Oscillator, a modulator that can operate at either low or audio rates and can be called upon for either FM or AM duties over the Complex Oscillator.

Above this sits the Timbre dial which, when it’s turned clockwise, mixes a second waveform in with the wave-folded sine oscillator. You can use the labelled switch to change this new waveform between an impulse train, square or triangle.

Buchla Easel V’s main signal generator is called a Complex Oscillator, labelled red on the interface. By default, this outputs a sine wave. Raise the Timbre slider to apply wave folding: this folds the wave over and over on itself, creating a more complex wave shape.

Switchable between a saw, square or triangle, the Modulation Oscillator is a signal generator that can function either at low frequencies or at audio rates. It can be mixed in the signal path as-is, or modulate the amplitude or frequency of the Complex Oscillator.