The Buchla 208 Card Slot Explained

video upload by Joel Davel

"Buchla engineer-designer Joel Davel sheds some light on the 208's card slot and how it figures into the general operation of the 208 or 208C. This informal but fairly comprehensive video explains how the card slot works and how it reveals the how the 208 control works in general."

Part 2 here

Buchla Easel Command 208C - Luna II

video upload by TheTrackdriver

"This is 'Luna part II'. I'm performing with my Buchla Easel Command 208C, Strymon Volante and Strymon Nightsky. The audio is sampled continuously on the Elektron Octatrack in two alternating recording buffers. The third track is trigging the samples and adds various effects. The final piece was recorded onto a compact cassette.

The moon was recorded with a Panasonic DC-G9 with a Leica DG Vario Elmarit 100-400mm lens mounted on an Olympus telekonverter MC-20 (2X zoom)."

Part 1 here.

Buchla Easel Command 208C Modular Synthesizer W/ Portabellabz EMS VCS3 Card

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Buchla 208c Easel Command w/ Original Box

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Buchla Easel Command 208c

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via CONTROL Reverb

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The Great Hapax Experiment Vol. 1 - Squarp Hapax sequencing loads of stuff and Cocoquantus improvs

video upload by -CALC-

"Sat with this one quite a bit for quite a bit.... kept it unlisted for over a year but after some revisits thought maybe its time to put it out there. Still stand by what I initially thought, its a "Curate's egg... Good in parts". Squarp and Coco were still newish at the time of this jam so still finding the feels.

This is what I thought of it back then:

I got a new brain!

Here's a full 45 minute noodle with the incredible Squarp Hapax front and centre. To say this is the most powerful hardware sequencer I have ever got my hands on is a total understatement.

WARNING This pretty experimental jam is not for the faint hearted in certain sections. Focussing on Hapax and the CocoQuantus it gets noisy and out there but that's what I love these days.

It was improvised and live-sequenced over a couple of initially formed sequences.
There are good bits but also some really bad sections in the middle too. I considered cutting these out but that would be a hard edit and they eventually do settle down.
I'd say the worst bits are:
20:30 - 21:26 (shitty idea to try and record a kick bass line without tuning the kick!)
28:39 - 29:42 (combo of not realising that the 1010 Blue box was turned down and having a few moments of forgetting how the CocoQuantus worked... oh and a pesky Buchla sequence I forgot to stop!)

Hapax is firing off and controlling a ton of stuff in the room:
Circuit Rhythm
Ciat Lonbarde CocoQuantus (clocking the loopers)
Nord Drum 3p
Rossum Electro Assimil8or (through CV.OCD)
Meng Qi Wingie 2
Novation Summit - also acting as a controller keyboard for everything in the set-up
Buchla 208C
Norns (running Plonky Script for multisamples)
Just Friends in polysynth mode
Vongon Polyphrase
Vongon Ultrasheer
Mutable Instruments Beads
and some dodgy singing
All connected via Hapax's MIDI Outs and a Conductive Labs MRCC"

Buchla Easel Command 208C - In the Loop

video upload by TheTrackdriver

"Playing with the looper on the Strymon Volante delay pedal. I'm using the Akai LPD8 as a keyboard which is connected to the Buchla Easel Command 208C. The Easel and the Gakken Toy Record Maker go into a Behringer Xenyx 1002FX mixer which main output goes through the Volante. The audio chain ends with the Strymon Nightsky pedal. I had recorded a sustained chord from a Waldorf Blofeld onto the vinyl before this session."

Buchla Easel Command 208C - Glowing Hand

video upload by TheTrackdriver

"I am playing with my Easel breakout box for the first time that I have designed and built myself. The hidden functions has now been brought to the front panel of this aux card and I added a few extra features like attenuators and a light beam modifier (Roland D-Beam-ish controller)."

Buchla Music Easel 208C + 218e V3 + cards

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via this auction

"I've pieced together a Buchla 208C, Buchla 218e V3 and placed it lovingly in a custom Haliburton case by Luther. I am including the Buchla 208 Preset Manager and a Portabellabz Stoned Marten LPG+ADSR card. I'm also including a handful of cables. Everything is in mint condition.

This is essentially the same as the Buchla 50th Anniversary Collector’s Edition that will be available for preorder next month for 10k. The case is nearly identical minus the retro colors, knobs, and midi and I/O options."

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Buchla 208c Easel Command w/ Extras

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via this auction

"Lightly used Buchla Easel Command. Includes:

USB-A MIDI Host Expander (installed)
208 Toolbox (DIY assembled by me) and BOB expander (unassembled kit)
Original packaging and documents
1x TINI Cable
Plenty of shorting bars (8 total) and banana cables (21 total of various lengths)"

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Buchla U.S.A. Announces New Music Easel & 50th Anniversary Easel

via Buchla U.S.A.

Iconic. Revolutionary. Mind-expanding.

The Buchla Music Easel was one of the first truly portable electronic music instruments. Fifty years ago, in 1973, only a few dozen were made. Unlike many iconic technologies, the influence was not grown through force of scale, but rather the force of the ideas. The Music Easel made available virtually every musical dimension: timbre, melody, rhythm, and time; how these dimensions intersected was no longer the court of acoustics and material, but signals and voltage. The 208 Stored Program Sound Source engendered “a new functional organization [with a] particularly rapid system of patching and program storage via plug-in cards.”

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Live Annotated performance: rhythmic variation Buchla 208c Easel Command electronic music

video upload by EthanJamesMusic

"I am using the Buchla 208c music Easel Command along with the Make Noise 0-ctrl as a stand in for the 218 touch controller. I am using annotations to try to teach some of my thought process when I'm making these improvisations. This patch demonstrates the rhythmic variations you can get by sending sequential voltage to the pulser CV. I'm also inverting the voltage, so that higher notes last longer, but there are many possibilities for how to achieve rhythmic variations in this way. I am using the west coast technique of starting with something and spinning it out like a centrifuge. I'm processing the sound through a few eurorack modules that I will detail below. Hopefully this camera angle also helps you learn something!"

buchla 208C

video upload by studio snippets

Playing the Buchla LEM218v3: A short performance and introduction to updated 218e ideas

video upload by Joel Davel

"Joel Davel plays a layer of monophonic Buchla 208C and polyphonic piano samples using the latest 218e update, the 218e-V3/LEM218v3. (USB-MIDI goes to a computer and DIN MIDI to the Easel Command.) After the 4 minute demo performance, Joel explains some of his musical design choices and thanks collaborators."

- patching for life - MODEL 408S CONTROL EXPANDER

video upload by Harmonic Of Silence

"MODEL 408S CONTROL EXPANDER

FLPG（Passive LPG with tone control fader"

via P4L (patching for life)

"This expander can extend the functionality of the 208 module by adding a number of inputs and outputs.

Many CV inputs have already been added to the 208C, but using them as secondary inputs makes the behaviour more complex.
This expander was fully tested on Buchla Clone 208p.
And will works on many Buchla 208 and clone machines, but not on 208r Rev.1.
( Depending on your module you may need to change the resistance value. )

Built by hand in Japan."

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Buchla Easel with Extras

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Use this code on checkout for $30 off orders of $100 or more from now until December 31: MATRIX30

"Busa 208c

Bemi 218

Buchla boats with custom flamed walnut folding case.

Tool box card

Custom right angle adaptor

SSL 3650 Sequencer in powered flamed walnut boat.

Everything powers from same brick.

Great portable stand alone system, monster with the Complex Percussion in my other sale."

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Buchla 208p Easel Black Edition

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"Fully calibrated with custom modifications: a white noise source normalled into the preamp input like the 208c, improved AM Mode for more clarity, and a buffered output on the 218 keyboard so it can control multiple modules without voltage droops. Fit into a vintage case with removable lid."

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Buchla Easel Command 208c

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Live annotated eurorack emotional cinematic synthwave, ARP-2600, Moog, OB-6 Tangerine Dream inspired

video upload by EthanJamesMusic

"This is a live cinematic synthwave electronic music performance inspired by later Tangerine Dream music, where I wanted to setup a more meditative environment and create a slow musical progression by interweaving layers with the Eurorack, using the electric bass as a guitar type of instrument, providing bass from the Moog Grandmother, chords from the DSI OB-6, and texture from the ARP-2600, and more texture from the Buchla 208c Easel Command. This is an entirely live and unrehearsed improvised performance, and I included annotations to show some of what I'm thinking about and also to demonstrate the different musical themes weaving in and out of the texture Since I'm a film composer by trade, this came out relatively cinematic and would work in certain movie score settings. This is a very simple setup to make a big sound. I hope this is educational for you as well, in terms of how I put these performances together. Hopefully this camera angle also helps you learn something!

Patch Notes:
Eurorack:
Stillson Hammer running at x6 multiply but using 1:1 gate from 0-ctrl to make bass. Two envelopes, one to VCA, one to filter.
Tempi clock divider running two channels of Make Noise René. First channel is to Dixie II oscillator to Jove filter to Erberverb. Second is to Serge NTO to Serge VQVCF to Echophon. I'm using a x4 clock divider to the Y channel, which is 1:1 to the VCA gate, but I'm using the C channel gate to the filter, which creates an interesting rhythm.

Moog Grandmother:
Normalled patch

ARP-2600:
3 oscillators tuned in octaves.

DFAM:
Pitch to Noise volume to create snare.

OB-6:
Polysaw chord setting"

Buchla Easel Command 208C - From the Balcony

video upload by TheTrackdriver

"I played my Buchla Easel Command 208C on my balcony. The Buchla is recorded on an Uher 4200 Report Stereo IC tape recorder. A simple drum pattern is running from an Elektron Octatrack and recorded on an Aiwa TP-721. The drums were further processed through an Elektron Analog Heat."