Buchla 700 Preservation Page

The page includes newly added source code for the Buchla 700: "Source code for the Buchla 700, courtesy Lynx Crowe. This code is provided as-is with no guarantees of completeness or correctness; it's a compilation of various bits of relevant code that Lynx found going through his archives. If you want to delve into this, you are "on your own." Development was done with an Alcyon C compiler on an Atari 1040ST, although it should be feasible to find a modern compiler that will handle this code. Knowledgeable people with time on their hands could potentially do all sorts of neat things with this, such as (a) create some sort of hardware/software upgrade to the 700 that would allow users to bypass the trouble-prone and difficult-to-find video chip, (b) add features to and fix bugs in the software, and (c) create a softsynth rendition of the 700. It's also a fantastic chance to look at the design of a synth OS by one of the pioneers in the field. Please give Lynx proper acknowledgement on anything you do this this. If you have any commercial aspirations, i.e. you plan to actually sell anything based on this, you should contact Lynx to talk about some sort of licensing arrangement."

click here and scroll to see prior posts on the Buchla 700 including video.

Oberheim OB-Mx Source Code Now Available

You can find it at the Oberheim OB-Mx Perservation Page.

"Lynx Crowe has kindly provided his original source code for the OB-Mx, provided for noncommercial personal and educational use. This code is provided as-is with no guarantees of completeness or correctness; it's a compilation of various bits of relevant code that Lynx found going through his archives. If you want to delve into this, you are "on your own." Knowledgeable people with time on their hands could potentially do all sorts of neat things with this. Please give Lynx proper credit on anything you do with this."

Oberheim OB-Mx calibration ROM and instructions

via Aaron on AH:

"Courtesy Tom Virostek.

See here: http://users.ece.gatech.edu/~lanterma/obmx

The calibration procedure is pretty complex and requires a scope (and preferably the voice board extender card that lets you get to the board while the unit is on). The OB-Mx uses some digital pots with built-in nonvolatile memory. I had always assumed that these were recalibrated upon booting up the OB-Mx, but it turns out they are set in this calibration procedure. I suspect that a lot of errant voice boards that are out there just need recalibrated. Maybe some of them were sloppily calibrated to begin with - who knows.

- Aaron

P.S. One caveat is that Lynx Crowe told me he recalled there being some runs of voice boards where Gibson used the wrong sort of capacitors in the oscillator section, resulting in boards that went out of wack as the temperature changed. He couldn't recall exactly what or where."

Instrument Designer: Rare Buchla 700 Synth Coming to Software on Mac, Windows & iOS

via modosc designs

"a modern interpretation of the buchla 700, coming soon for mac, windows, and ios."


If you are not familiar with the Buchla 700, check out Chimeror by Benge on Vintage Buchla 700. According to that post, only about 12 of these machines were ever produced, and there are possibly only 4 working examples left in existence.

Update: Some additional info via modosc designs:

On the developer: "Jonathan Schatz has spent his life pursuing dual passions of music and computing, occasionally simultaneously. One of these convergences led to working with Don Buchla on the 200e system for several years. The latest such convergence is Modosc Designs."

FAQ:

"What is Instrument Designer?
Instrument Designer is a software synthesizer inspired by the Buchla 700.

Ok, what is the Buchla 700?
The Buchla 700 is a 12 voice 4 operator FM synth released in 1987 and designed by Don Buchla. There are several main ways the 700 differentiates itself from the other FM synths common in the industry at that time:

Each algorithm outputs through two independant waveshapers. This allows a single instrument defintion to output two different audio signals without requiring a separate stacked voice. This also increases the sonic palette by allowing a user to easily create non-sinusoid waveforms.

The waveshapers are cousins to the ones use in the Buchla Touche, Buchla 400 and the Buchla 259e. They are quite unique and use some interesting waveshaping techniques.

Each voice has 13 complex envelopes which control almost every aspect of the sound algorithm. The envelopes have a unique exponential display, are programmable with an arbitrary number of breakpoints, and include programmable features such as looping.

Programming was simplified with the help of a graphical user interface and an external monitor.

What does it sound like?

There weren't a lot of these produced so there's not that much out there, but what is out there is quite interesting:

Charles Cohen — Generator
Benge — Chimeror
Ode To Gravity — this is from the release party for the 700 and includes interviews with Don
So what happened to it?
The instrument never became very popular and today is one of the rarer of Don Buchla's instruments (which says a lot). The software itself was never finished, and the video card which connected up the external display was unreliable and eventually end-of-lifed by Intel. Probably 15-20 of these were made - I personally know of 3, of which only 1 currently works.

Why hasn't anyone made a reissue?
Good question. The design is quite complicated and includes 4 separate computers as well as a large membrane input surface. It would certainly be possible to build but it wouldn't be a cheap endevor, and unlike other recent reissues it probably wouldn't be a big seller - it's likely the most difficult instrument of Don's to use.

So why are you bothering?
I love the sound of Don's wavetable synths (specifically the 259e) and I've spent a lot of time implementing and reimplenting various related algorithms. I had the opportunity to play around with a 700 a few years back and the idea was hatched there.

Are you using the original source code?
No. This entire project was implemented using a scan of the original 700 manual as the spec (which was the usual Don way of doing things). You can view the original source code here, which is interesting because it seemingly contains code used for a NASA project as well:

Set ON_B700 non-zero to get a Buchla 700 PROM, or zero to get a NASA 3D Helmet Display PROM.

That source dump from Lynx Crowe is unfortunately incomplete but there is a project that's managed to get it to boot. Unfortunately the source code only includes some of the controller code and none of the DSP code so currently there's no sound generation.

Where can I learn more about the Buchla 700?
The Buchla 700 Preservation Page
Notes on the Buchla 700 audio synthesizer
Buchla 700 archeology
Buchla 700
Chimeror by Benge
The Buchla 700 Emulation Project
Alessandro Cortini of Nine Inch Nails playing a Buchla 700 in Twin Peaks — I don't know if the sound is actually 700 or not but who cares?"

The OB-Mx Story

Click here for a sordid tale of the Gibson Oberheim OB-Mx. If you haven't read this before, make the time to do so. It's an interesting bit of synth history.

"D.N. "Lynx" Crowe and Don Buchla were called in to salvage the OB-Mx very late in the game. They weren't told the whole story of the project to that date; they gradually uncovered the archeological and forensic evidence in the drawings and code. Some details still aren't known, but thanks to the process of Discovery in several civil suits, including depositions of many of the people mentioned here, enough is known to show the mismanagement, fraud, and incompetence that doomed G-WIZ, the OB-Mx, and ultimately OpCode and any other hi-tech company that is fooled into trying to work with Gibson Guitar and its Technohick CEO, Henry Juszkiewicz. Everything spelled out in this narrative is either from my own memories of the time, or from depositions and exhibits already in evidence in the case."

Pictured are two shots of the prototype OB-Mx via Analog Synth Service


Update: OB-Mx Preservation Page.