MATRIXSYNTH: The $500 Buchla


Tuesday, August 22, 2006

The $500 Buchla

Title link takes you to a bit of Buchla history.
Excerpt:
"In contrast to Moog's industrial stance, the rather counter-cultural design philosophy of DONALD BUCHLA and his voltage-controlled synthesizers can partially be attributed to the geographic locale and cultural circumstances of their genesis. In 1961 San Francisco was beginning to emerge as a major cultural center with several vanguard composers organizing concerts and other performance events. MORTON SUBOTNICK was starting his career in electronic music experimentation, as were PAULINE OLIVEROS, RAMON SENDER and TERRY RILEY. A primitive studio had been started at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music by Sender where he and Oliveros had begun a series of experimental music concerts. In 1962 this equipment and other resources from electronic surplus sources were pooled together by Sender and Subotnick to form the San Francisco Tape Music Center which was later moved to Mills College in 1966.

Because of the severe limitations of the equipment, Subotnick and Sender sought out the help of a competent engineer in 1962 to realize a design they had concocted for an optically based sound generating instrument. After a few failures at hiring an engineer they met DONALD BUCHLA who realized their design but subsequently convinced them that this was the wrong approach for solving their equipment needs. Their subsequent discussions resulted in the concept of a modular system. Subotnick describes their idea in the following terms:

'Our idea was to build the black box that would be a palette for composers in their homes. It would be their studio. The idea was to design it so that it was like an analog computer. It was not a musical instrument but it was modular...It was a collection of modules of voltage-controlled envelope generators and it had sequencers in it right off the bat...It was a collection of modules that you would put together. There were no two systems the same until CBS bought it...Our goal was that it should be under $400 for the entire instrument and we came every close. That's why the original instrument I fundraised for was under $500.'

Buchla's design approach differed markedly from Moog. Right from the start Buchla rejected the idea of a "synthesizer" and has resisted the word ever since. He never wanted to "synthesize" familiar sounds but rather emphasized new timbral possibilities. He stressed the complexity that could arise out of randomness and was intrigued with the design of new control devices other than the standard keyboard. pp39-40"

Anyone else thinking Starkey? Coincidentally the recent Starkey went for $541 on the bay. Yeah, I know I'm stretching it...

via Peter Grenader on AH.

5 comments:

  1. "Our goal was that it should be under $400"

    Har har!

    ReplyDelete
  2. There is a chapter or two about this in _Analog Days_

    Interesting reading.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Analog Days is a great book, and to make it even better is the 2hour Australian radio ABC broadcast that is quite similar to the book, they interview the author, and there are some great recordings from Further, Cianne, Bob,etc...go to Radio national and search for Analog days

    ReplyDelete
  4. There's another great part of that interview where Subotnick explains that the first 10-key touchplate keyboard was built to trigger audio on 10 Viking tape loop machines (originally designed to play radio commercials) from a store that burned down.

    This was in 1961 or '62. As someone has already noted, take 500 dollars, add a 40% retail markup and account for 45 years of inflation & the price might make more sense.

    Can't find the URL (My copy's on a printout), but the interview was transcribed from a phone conversation between Morton Subotnick and "Woody & Steina & D. Dunn on 2/25/92," if anyone wants to do a search.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Don't see anything connecting what a aural test tone generator for a medical lab has to do with Buchla's design other than the ebay price of that particular auction in 2006. Surely being aimed at research facilities that thing was a couple grand once. If you think about it, besides any quibbling over the meaning of the word synthesizer, these guys - Bob and Donald - were trying and succeeding in offering composers something better to work on *other* than the lab equipment that was available (or that people pass off as synthesizer related) - you know disparate test tone generators and stand alone filters that had few if any means of control rather than manually twisting knobs or reconnecting their wires.

    Of course there is a hint of irony that in the 70s Serge Tcherapnin's main motivation to build his synth was due to lack of access to already "prohibitively" expensive Buchla synths. So his by in large successful plan was to hold a kit building party where participants could build an affordable synth.

    Maybe today Music from Outer Space's build it yourself goal shares the electronic instruments for the masses philosophy, though with the grain of salt in that the designs owe far more to PAIA and then Moog (not that they are copies of either) than the more ideosyncratic philosphies of Serge and Buchla.

    ReplyDelete

To reduce spam, comments for posts older than one week are not displayed until approved, usually same day. Do not insult people. For items for sale, do not ask if it is still available. Check the auction link and search for the item. Auctions are from various sellers and expire over time. Posts remain for the pics and historical purposes. This site is meant to be a daily snapshot of some of what was out there in the world of synths.

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