Black Buchla Music Easel w/ The 208 ToolBox

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via this auction

"Recent build of 208/218 music easel, housed in Samodular 8U power enclosure. All rare parts and vactrols sourced directly from Samodular, everything else sourced per BOM specs from Mouser. 208 Calibration done by Constantin of Portabellabz. All functions working as expected, unit is in very good shape overall with only a few cosmetic scuffs. Includes a blank program card and 208 toolbox module."

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Buchla Music Easel vs. 208c Command

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"Just a little jam with Buchla Music Easel and the 208c Command. Both 208s are being controlled by the 218e. All of it is improvised live, mistakes and all. Aside from a minor volume adjustment, no post production was done to the audio. The use of the arpeggiator makes it look as if the video and sound are not in sync, they are.

The card being used is a 208 Toolbox from portabellabz, great little gadget.

The pedal is a Strymon Blue Sky."

Buchla 208r (Easel voice) + 248r (MARF) + Portabellabz / EMS VCS3 Oscillator (synced)

Published on Feb 4, 2020 isvisible isinvisible

Bass Organ Sound - 208 Modulation Oscillator
Brassy Sound - 208 Complex Oscillator
Space Sounds - VCS3 Oscillator (licenced from EMS)

The VCS3 oscillator is being synced by the 208's modulation oscillator. With added cv from the 208's Pulser and one of it's random sources mixed together in the Portebellabz 208 Toolbox.

There's a dash of delay on the output courtesy of a Bugbrand PT Delay.

Buchla 208 & 248 with Portabellabz Synthi EMS VCS3 Oscillator + Toolbox + BOB

Published on Dec 19, 2019 isvisible isinvisible

"Trying out the Portabellabz EMS VCS3 oscillator.
Nothing complicated, just a touch of noise mixed in with the square and triangle, and a smidge of waveshaping.
It's accompanied by the 208 Complex Oscillator doing the plinky plonks.

All with a little dab of the on-board Buchla spring reverb and a Bugbrand PT Delay."

Buchla 208 & 248 with Eurorack Drums

Published on Oct 25, 2019 isvisible isinvisible

"The Buchla 208r being sequenced by itself and a 248r.

The 208r is generating two voices, one a steady bass note using the Modulator Oscillator, the other a more varied one using the audio from the Complex Oscillator being manipulated by the Pulser and EG mixed in the Portabellabz 208 Toolbox.

The Eurorack drums are all being driven by the 208 Toolbox all pulses out, then being multiplied using a Doepfer A-160-5 (clock multiplier), then into a Doepfer A-160-2 (clock divider) to generate different timings into switches for variations for the bass drum, snare and noise. Then the drums are all fed into a Modcan Dual Delay."

Portabellabz 208 Toolbox

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via this auction

"Built by a friend and works fine but does not have any of the top left corner options that are available"

You can find demos of the Portabellabz 208 Toolbox in archives here.

Portabellabz Synthi Card for Buchla 208

Published on Feb 4, 2019 Todd Barton

"The new EMS Synthi (licensed) Card by http://www.portabellabz.be
be sure to checkout these audio files for best sound http://www.portabellabz.be/SYNTHI_Car...
Great to have this onboard.! Wonderful sounds and timbres. I will be making more videos -- hope you enjoy this teaser."

And via Brian Comnes, spotted on Muffs:

"I'm happy to announce the release of a new Portbellabz card for Music Easel and 208 under EMS Cornwall license.

This card expands the Music Easel or 208 with original EMS Synthi A and VCS3 circuits : an oscillator that produces simultaneous square and triangle waveshapes with wide range and features useful modifications (synchronization, shape CV, hi/lo range) and a noise generator with variable colour, together with my acclaimed Random Voltage Generator modification module that expands many original EMS Synthi A, AKS and VCS3, unlike the 208's one, it's true random.
The inputs and outputs voltages are adapted to match the ones used in the 208.


It will be available in late February / early March, pre-built (€460 + shipping, Rogans and rear edge connector in option) or as a DIY PCB set (€130 shipped) like the 208 ToolBox.

The prices include a commission for Robin Wood at EMS, that is the same for each pre-built unit or PCB set sold.

It works with 208p, 208r (not rev1) and BEMI / Buchla USA Easels. The tracking can be set to 1V/oct, 1.2V/oct or 2V/oct (or other, but who wants that ? :lol: ).

A very few privileged persons were lucky enough to already test a prototype and enjoyed it. Thanks to them for keeping the secret.

Hopefully a demo video of the great Todd Barton should pop up soon, thanks in advance Todd.

In the meantime, here are some (very basic) demo of the card with my own 208.
All sounds are coming from the card except the CO modulation track (208's CO modulated by the card). A 218r was used to demonstrate tracking. It's a bit high in the lowest notes but this is fixed.

http://www.portabellabz.be/SYNTHI_Card_demos_mp3.zip

[b]Oscillator[/b]
- 100% analogue discrete components
- square and triangle outputs, blue bananas are full range outputs for modulation, red knobs are outputs to the mixer
- wide range from very slow LFO to ultrasonic, switchable hi/lo range with fine tuning
- tracking good on about 5 octaves via the 208's keyboard CV in
- variable frequency CV input with attenuverter via black banana
- variable shape CV input with attenuator via black banana
- variable sync input with attenuator via black banana

[b]Noise[/b]
- 100% analogue discrete components
- white banana is full range output for modulation
- red knob is output to the mixer
- variable colour

[b]Mixer[/b]
- tinijax out to feed the 208's preamp
- banana out for mixed modulation

[b]Random voltage generator[/b]
- available on the white banana - a mini slide switch behind the panel selects noise or random, this affects the white banana only, the noise is still available in the mixer when random is used
- clock input via the 208's inverter "to card" socket
- noise colour changes the random voltage

Bill Sequeira kindly did this nice overview. Thank you Bill.
The pictured card is a prototype, the production one will look very similar.

[img]http://www.portabellabz.be/images/PortabellabzSynthiCard.jpeg[/img]

Thanks for your interest and more soon."

Fairy House

"test run with new Portabellabz 208 TOOLBOX"

"The shrill trill is a BitRanger being gated in by the tool box switching the source fed into the Easel's 2nd gate, and an Eventide H9 adds that long reverb"

208 ToolBox 10 CV Switching

Published on May 22, 2017 Todd Barton

"continuing exploration of Portabellabz' ToolBox and, this time, the BOB (Break Out Box) for the Buchla Music Easel"

All parts here.

208 ToolBox 09 Figure 21

Published on May 18, 2017 Todd Barton

"Continuing explorations of the Portabellabz' ToolBox card for the Buchla Music Easel. This time looking at the Allen Strange patch Figure 21 from his Easel Manual replicated using the Toolbox"

All parts here.

208 ToolBox 07 More Patches

Published on Apr 13, 2017 Todd Barton

"continued explorations. more info on the Portabellabz's 208 ToolBox:
http://www.portabellabz.be/toolbox.html"

All parts here.

208 Toolbox 06 Oscillator

Published on Apr 10, 2017 Todd Barton

"A new option for the Portabellabz' Easel 208 Toolbox: Audio Oscillator."

All parts here.

208 ToolBox with 208r

Published on Mar 20, 2017 Todd Barton

"Continuing demos of the Portabellabz' 208 Toolbox. This time with a Roman Filippov 208r Easel."

All parts here.

208 ToolBox Overview Videos by Todd Barton

Published on Mar 18, 2017 Todd Barton

"A new third-party offering to the Buchla paradigm: Portabellabz' 208 Toolbox for the Buchla Music Easel. Here's an overview."

Playlist:
208 ToolBox 01 Overview
208 ToolBox 02 CV EG Patches
208 Toolbox 03 SVS Random Patches
208 ToolBox 04 With 208r
208 Toolbox 05 Viewer's Patch
208 Toolbox 06 Oscillator
208 ToolBox 07 More Patches
208 ToolBox 08 External Random
208 ToolBox 09 Figure 21
208 ToolBox 10 CV Switching