Buchla Tiptop 296T Demystified

video upload by Cinematic Laboratory

"I must admit I made the same mistake twice. When I bought the Frap Tools fumana, I assumed it was like an EQ. I never really gelled with it. When I got the 296T, I even posted it was like an EQ. In this video, I knew the bands are resonant and colored. I posted a V1 a few days ago, but took it down. It was all about me not liking the 296T because it sounds thin and nasal. I tried all kinds of scenarios, added filters, etc, etc to compensate for the sound and in the end I concluded it's not suitable as an end-of-chain processor. But I wasn't enjoying myself at all and it was all over the video. You could get the impression the 296 wasn't any good. This is absolutely not the case.

This V2 is basically the same footage, but with a different attitude. While going through all of this, I realized the 296 is designed for vocoding and spectral transfers. Sure I knew all that, but knowledge alone doesn't make me wiser. It's the experience. I noticed that the frequency bands on the 296 focus on the vocal range. It will always sound like a vocoder, even without transferring colors and envelopes from sound A to sound B. I already made a 'robot voices' video with the Fumana and the 296, so I've linked it to this video.

Happy patching!
R."