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?"
"In 1987 Don Buchla released the Buchla 700 synthesizer. It was the next logical step from Don's previous digital synths (the Buchla 400, Touche, Buchla 500) but was also influenced by the synth trends of the 1980's, specifically FM synthesis and the all-in-one workstation concept. As usual, Don was ahead of the curve and the 700 never took off. Very few were sold and even fewer functioning units exist today. I always loved the sound of Don's digital oscillators, and combined with the scarcity of the instrument it seemed like a fun project to recreate it in software and reintroduce its concepts to the world.
ID700 is a software synthesizer based on the voice architecture of the Buchla 700. Like many of Don's other designs, sound generation is achieved primarily via FM synthesis and waveshaping. Each voice is made up of sixteen individual modules:
