Arturia Buchla Easel V

The Arturia Buchla Easel V is the first recreation of Don Buchla’s iconic instrument that helped define experimental West Coast modular synthesis in the early 70s. Arturia's enhancements translate to vastly expanded possibilities for sound design and avant-garde music.

One look at the Buchla Easel V and you know this is a different beast. In fact, it makes you think differently about sound right from the start—and the soundscapes you can design with it are as unique as the front panel array. To put that experience at your fingertips, Arturia meticulously recreated the rare 1973 Buchla Music Easel right down to the component level. As you’ve come to expect from the other V-series instruments, Arturia have gone the extra mile by designing in an enhanced feature set including polyphony, innovative new modulation/control sources, step sequencer, effects, and more.

The Buchla Easel V faithfully reproduces Buchla’s Music Easel that helped define West Coast synthesis’ focus on experimentation and breaking musical norms. Arturia have applied their award-winning TAE modeling technology from the front panel to the resistors to capture it all with incredible realism.

Complex oscillator design, AM and FM synthesis, uniquely percussive gate/filter combos, and numerous ways to modulate and clock just about every parameter, all drop you right in the middle of a sonic sandbox. Design and perform soundscapes that burble, shimmer, pulse and evolve without ever touching a keyboard or pad—unless you want to add even more control. Nearly 300 presets by expert sound designers get you started with timbres ranging from hauntingly beautiful sonorities to clangorous pokes in the ear.

Arturia have made patching even more fun and foolproof. When you drag a color-coded patchcord between patch points, only valid targets light up, saving you the frustration of making invalid connections that do nothing. The original Music Easel lacked a noise source, so Arturia have added one to the preamp—handy for introducing rhythmic elements. They have also designed a feedback loop into the preamp, so you can really get things howling. Up to four-voice polyphony greatly enhances your performance capabilities, too.

Arturia have dramatically expanded the functionality of the original Music Easel while respecting the instrument’s unique personality and design philosophy. One click reveals all the new additions. The Left Hand section provides five full-featured Function Generators individually routable to any of 76 modulation targets. The Right Hand section gives you a modern step sequencer with innovative options. Gravity is an X/Y grid that uses the physics of a bouncing ball influenced by attraction, repulsion and collision with objects to generate unique, unexpected modulation signals. There’s also a two-slot Effects section for additional processing and animation right inside Buchla Easel V.

Features:

• Component-level model of the Buchla Music Easel
• Complex and Modulation oscillators, dual Low Pass Gates, output section with spring reverb modeling
• Modulation sources perfectly reproduced : 5-step Sequencer, Envelope Generator, Pulser
• Semi-modular architecture, color-coded routing and cables
• Enhanced functionalities, synchronizable Pulser and Clock, Oscillators quantization
• Left Hand modulation sources to create multi-point envelopes and LFOs, add randomness and smoothing to the modulation
• Right Hand step-sequencer module
• Gravity XY modulation source. Control the sound with the movement of a projectile flying among planets and worm holes!
• 10 effects, Phaser, Flanger, Chorus, Overdrive, Delay, and more
• Control on the Vactrol modeling for fast, medium or slow response
• Up to 4 voices of polyphony
• 256 factory presets