File Size: 64.7 MB

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.

You’ve always wanted to paint with sound. Now you can with the Buchla Easel V.

One look at the Buchla Easel V and you know this is a different beast. In fact, it makes you think differently about sound right from the start—and the soundscapes you can design with it are as unique as the front panel array. To put that experience at your fingertips, we meticulously recreated the rare 1973 Buchla Music Easel right down to the component level. As you’ve come to expect from our other V-series instruments, we’ve gone the extra mile by designing in an enhanced feature set including polyphony, innovative new modulation/control sources, step sequencer, effects, and more.

Welcome to West Coast school of synthesis

Your music breaks from the pack. So does the Buchla Easel V.

The Buchla Easel V faithfully reproduces Buchla’s Music Easel that helped define West Coast synthesis’ focus on experimentation and breaking musical norms. We’ve applied our award-winning TAE™ modeling technology from the front panel to the resistors to capture it all with incredible realism.

Complex oscillator design, AM and FM synthesis, uniquely percussive gate/filter combos, and numerous ways to modulate and clock just about every parameter, all drop you right in the middle of a sonic sandbox. Design and perform soundscapes that burble, shimmer, pulse and evolve without ever touching a keyboard or pad—unless you want to add even more control. Nearly 300 presets by expert sound designers get you started with timbres ranging from hauntingly beautiful sonorities to clangorous pokes in the ear.

Whether you’re looking to experiment with simple sounds or build complex evolving passages, the Buchla Easel V is a constant source of inspiration for sonic adventurers.

Create sounds no one has ever heard before

In addition to faithfully reproducing a classic, we’ve infused the Buchla Easel V with even more of that vintage goodness to love.

We’ve made patching even more fun and foolproof. When you drag a color-coded patchcord between patch points, only valid targets light up, saving you the frustration of making invalid connections that do nothing. The original Music Easel lacked a noise source, so we’ve added one to the preamp—handy for introducing rhythmic elements. We’ve also designed a feedback loop into the preamp, so you can really get things howling. Up to four-voice polyphony greatly enhances your performance capabilities, too.*

With our extensions to Buchla’s original design, you now have an even more intuitive programming experience paired with additional sonic options.

* Note that while our extreme modeling at the component level on the Buchla Easel V delivers insanely great analog sound, each voice of polyphony requires significant processing power to pull it off—approximately 20 percent of an i7 CPU per voice.

Main Features:

A component-level model of the Buchla Music Easel

Complex and Modulation oscillators, dual Low Pass Gates, output section with spring reverb modelling

Modulation sources perfecly reproduced : 5-step Sequencer, Envelope Generator, Pulser

Semi-modular architecture, color-coded routing and cables

Enhanced functionalities, synchronizable Pulser and Clock, Oscillators quantization

Left Hand modulation sources to create multi-point envelopes and LFOs. Add randomness and smoothing to the modulation

Right Hand step-sequencer module

Gravity XY modulation source. Control the sound with the movement of a projectile flying among planets and worm holes!

10 effects, Phaser, Flanger, Chorus, Overdrive, Delay, ...

Control on the Vactrol modelling for fast, medium or slow response

Up to 4 voices of polyphony

256 factory presets

What's new:

official site does not provide any info about changes in this version.