Showing posts with label Buchla. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Buchla. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Dieter Doepfer reacts to I Dream Of Wires: Hardcore Edition Comments

Dieter Doepfer recently replied in the Yahoo Doepfer A-100 Usergroup on comments to his appearance in the I Dream Of Wires: Hardcore Edition documentary that was released last month.

Many members of the group congratulated and thanked him after seeing and hearing him about the early beginnings of the Eurorack standard in the IDOW Documentary
A few people even compared his work to that of Bob Moog and Don Buchla,
but as always, Dieter stayed humble:

I Dream of Wires: Hardcore Edition
"...I would really not place me on the same level with Bob Moog or Don Buchla.
The start of the A-100 was more a "copy job" than a new technology.
The first modules were nothing but copies of the (Doepfer) MS-404 sub-circuits and the MS-404 had its roots in the famous Moog transistor ladder filter and a common VCO circuit.

I think my main idea was to make an analog modular system affordable and to use a mechanical format (now called Eurorack) and a bus concept that was not too expensive (ribbon cables instead of fixed PCB dimensions as used in the industry standard).
This mechanical format was already an industry standard at this time in Germany.

But I really never imagined that such a huge range of A-100 compatible modules would be ever on the market (Andreas Schneider of Schneiders Laden in Berlin mentioned recently that in the meantime more than 50 manufacturers and more than 800 modules are on the market and that they have a bit lost the track)."

Personally i think Dieter underestimates what he has already done for the Eurorack community.
Doepfer was the first brand that brought affordable analog synthesis within everyone's reach and inspired a whole generation of new Eurorack manufacturers.

What is not mentioned in the IDOW Documentary is that he used this synthesizer-format for the first time on the Doepfer Sound Sampler in 1984, read all about that HERE

I Dream of Wires: Hardcore Edition DVD, Blu-Ray and accessories are now available to order at:

Monday, January 07, 2013

BookTip XIII: Analog Days: The Invention and Impact of the Moog Synthesizer


I have had 2 whole weeks off from work this holiday season, so i had enough time to read a few interesting synth-related books.

The first one i read was 'Analog Days: The Invention and Impact of the Moog Synthesizer' by Trevor Pinch and Frank Trocco.
It's a very interesting book (368 pages) that was published in 2004, and that tells the story about Robert (Bob) Moog, synthesizers from the mid-60s to the mid-70s in general and about the Moog company and its products.

The book has a foreword by Bob Moog himself (he passed away a year after the publication of this book) and the writers have spend a large amount of time and effort into making it.
The book is filled with stories by musicians, technicians and other pioneers from that era where everyone seemed to share a same passion for analog synthesis.

The list of interviewed people for this book is too large to mention, but it includes people like Don Buchla, Suzanne Ciani, Keith Emerson, Rachel Elkind, Tom Oberheim, Alan Pearlman (from ARP) and many more.
That's a very impressive list, and the whole book is written in a chronological style, filled with many anecdotes and interesting facts, what makes it fun and easy to read.
A must-read in my humble opinion, if you are interested in this kind of stuff, of course...

Info: http://books.google.nl/books/about/Analog_Days.html?id=3hjvWzkMK-sC …
Harvard University Press, 15 nov. 2004 - 368 pages
ISBN-13: 978-0674016170

Find my earlier BookTips HERE
My next BookTip will be published somewhere next month.

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Synovatron CVGT1 Eurorack-to-Buchla Converter

If you want to control a Buchla modular synthesizer with your Eurorack (or your Eurorack with a Buchla!) you should know that Buchla uses a different Volts-per-octave ratio as the Eurorack synthesizers, that work on a standard 1 Volts/Oct.
Buchla's pitch CV scaling conforms to neither the common 1V-per-octave or Volt-per-Hz (Roland) standards.

Buchlas generally conform to 1.2V/Octave (100mV/semitone) but older systems have 2V/octave scaling e.g. 258.
The other voltages lie in standard regions. 
Control voltages and timing pulses of the Buchla are +5V (signals with sustain) and +10V (transients only), and should be compatible with most other manufacturers' devices.
Besides that, Eurorack uses 3.5mm mini jack sockets and Buchla uses 4mm banana sockets.

Synovatron's latest module is a Eurorack format Eurorack/Buchla translator called CVGT1.
It was launched a few months ago at the Brighton Modular Meet at the University of Sussex just outside Brighton UK.
The 8 HP wide module allows Eurorack and Buchla synths to interact with each other, as the name suggest it provides a CV and a Gate/Trigger interface.

The module is an active module; The CV amplifiers use precision 0.1% resistors to set the scaling plus very fine adjustment by trim pots to achieve even better accuracy.
Trim pots (on the board) can be adjusted for trigger widths between 0.5ms and 5ms.
Not only does it provide the correct format connectors (and adheres to the Buchla color code) but it also deals with the CV scaling and offsetting and the gate/trigger and timing pulse conversion required to allow control in both directions.
CVGT1 can also be used to adapt to other banana connector synths e.g. Serge or Bugbrand which have 1V/octave using the "1" scale position.

More info at http://synovatron.blogspot.com

Watch the CVGT1 in action below (although it is hardly visible in the video, but i do like the soundscapes):

Video: Mutipatch 1 by Eldancer (Buchla and Eurorack)

mutipatch 1 from Eldancer on Vimeo.

Tony (from Synovatron) mailed me today that he can't make them fast enough, and that he's just over half way through my pre-order waiting list.
He underestimated the demand, initially he only bought enough components, pcbs and front panels for 20 modules (big mistake).
He will be building another ten or so but have negotiated with a local company to build the rest for him.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

CD-Tip VII : Lixiviation - Suzanne Ciani

My latest album-tip is a very recent one, released a little over a week ago.
This album, a compilation of older works from multiple grammy-winning composer/synthplayer and pioneer Suzanne Ciani gives us a nice overview of her electronic works from the years 1969-1985.

From the Finders Keepers Records blog:
" With a sonic portfolio that boasts commissions for the Xenon classic pinball machine, the sounds for the Meco Star Wars theme, the Atari TV commercials and the electronic sound effects in the original Stepford Wives film (amongst many others) the mutant electronic music CV of Suzanne Ciani is proof that in a 1970s commercial world of boys toys, monopolised by a male dominated media industry, a woman’s touch was the essential secret ingredient to successful sonic seduction. 
A classically trained musician with an MA in music composition this American Italian pianist was first introduced to the synthesizer via her connections in the art world when abstract Sculptor and collaborator Harold Paris introduced Suzanne to synthesizer designer Don Buchla who created the instrument that would come to define Ciani's synthetic sound (The Buchla Synthesiser). 
Cutting her teeth providing self-initiated electronic music projects for art galleries, experimental film directors, pop record producers and proto-video nasties Suzanne soon located to New York where she quickly became the first point of call for electronic music services in both the underground experimental fields and the commercial advertising worlds alike...

...Lixiviation complies and recontextualises both secret music and commercial experiments of Suzanne Ciani made for micro-cosmic time slots and never previously documented on vinyl or CD. 
This is the first sneak peek of the early Ciani metal music and non-pop that later went on see her nominated for multiple Grammy awards for her later achievements which brought synthesiser music to the new age movement."

The album contains 16 tracks, but only five of them are longer than 2 minutes, up to a track that lasts a little over 9 minutes.
Besides those nice longer tracks it includes some of her work for TV-spots like the famous Coca Cola 'Pop-and-Pour', music from a few Atari-spots and previously unreleased live bits like the wonderful 1975 Buchla live concert-track.
The longer tracks remind me of her 1982 'Seventh Wave' album that is still my favorite Ciani album.
The CD includes a booklet with an introduction by Andy Votel and track notes by Suzanne Ciani.
Overall it is a very nice compilation from this ' Diva of the Diode', a must-have for the collectors.
Check out an extensive CD-review at Pitchfork.

Here's a preview, a track from the CD called 'Liberator', that she made for an Atari TV spot.
  SUZANNE CIANI - LIBERATOR by Finders Keepers Records

Pubished by Finders Keepers Records. More info HERE
Catalog nr. FKR053CD/LP - total playing time: a little over 34 minutes (!)

Suzanne also recently (re)launched her Twitter account, follow her at @sevwave
or check her out on Facebook (with some awesome classic gear-pictures) or read her blog HERE

Sunday, February 27, 2011

A-101-2 Vactrol Low Pass Gate

I must say i am very happy with my latest module, the A-101-2 Vactrol Low Pass Gate.
This module is a combination of a 12dB Low-Pass Filter and a Voltage Controlled Amplifier (VCA), with 2 vactrols as controlling elements with very unique characteristics and is very popular amongst the members of the Doepfer A-100 Yahoo Users Group.

The module is based on the Buchla Model 292 Quad Voltage-Controlled Lopass Gate module. '
The term "Low Pass Gate" was first used by Don Buchla for a module that can be switched between Low-Pass and VCA.
Buchla's current (2004) update is the Model 292e Quad Dynamics Manager ,that is functionally identical to the older model, but includes some extra functions like velocity inputs, allowing controllers to control note volumes with performance gestures and preset storage.

Doepfer's LPG module can handle 2 different incoming control voltages that can be used to control the Low-Pass filter, or to open or close the VCA.
Additionally a combined mode LP + VCA is available which makes the sound more dull as the loudness decreases. This is characteristic of all acoustic instruments (the harder you strike, pluck, or bow, the richer the overtone structure), but had been lacking in electronic instrumentation before..

In contrast to the Buchla design the A-101-2 offers attenuators for both CV and audio input, a manual resonance control and two gate inputs to control the function of the module in addition to the manual toggle switch.
The filter is hard to describe, but vactrols are known for their smooth sound behavior. Compared to a 'normal' 12 dB filter like the Low-Pass filter from the A-121, they sound quite the same, but the Vactrol inside the A-101-2 does give it a smoother edge that can perhaps best be compared with a very subtle 'slew' effect. The VCA has that same 'slewy' characteristic, but doesn't sound dramatically different than a regular VCA to my ears.

The combination of the LPG and VCA, is (obviously) my favorite setting and with the resonance up this module really starts to shine. ( Resonance is adjustable all the way up to self-oscillation )
A nice extra are the 2 Gate inputs, that can make you ( rhythmically ) switch between the two functions of the module with an external sequencer or other triggers. I'm not sure if 2 Gate inputs was necessary though.., personally i had rather seen an extra CV input for the Resonance (QCV) for example.
(Perhaps this can be modified?)

Overall this is a very nice-sounding module, that i will use a lot in the near future. I'm not sure if i put it in my top-5 list of favorite modules, but it will at least be in my top 10 for the next few months.

- Check my earlier Vactrol Basics post for more general details about vactrols,
or take a  look at Doepfer's Vactrol Basics page.
More about the A-101-2 LPG  including an audio example at Andreas Krebs blog