Buchla Music Easel (Modern)

The development of Don Buchla's legendary modular analogue synthesizer.
In 1973, the Music Easel was one of the first portable electronic synthesizer.

After the release of the Buchla Easel Command and the Buchla LEM218, Buchla now takes the next step with the Music Easel and offers a complete instrument again after more than 50 years.

The Easel has been extended with five additional banana CV connections, with which knobs and faders can be controlled and pulses can be sent independently to different inputs. If there is no aux input, the module produces analogue white noise. The top row layout has been made more logical and there is now an LED indicator for the operation/control mode. The pulser has its own single pulse switch and mode discrimination. The modulation oscillator section has been coloured green so that each main section has its own colour. The listed oscillator frequencies are more accurate and the scaled fader input range can now be set to 1.2 V/oct. In addition, the new modulation oscillator and envelope generator inputs can be trimmed to typical input ranges.

The Touch Activated Voltage Source has been completely redesigned. Buchla's original capacitive touch keyboard has been redesigned and now features better pressure recognition, an optimized interface with a better feel and polyphonic MIDI.

The integration of the new Electric Music Box Input/Output (EMBIO) opens up extended possibilities by providing MIDI-Out (3.5 mm jack and USB) as well as CV-Out from the LEM 218, MIDI-In for the 208 and Audio-Out.

The additional audio mixer allows the Easel to be combined with other Buchla modules, and the slew control can convert the sequence into a modulator or smooth a Square LFO.

Special features of the Buchla Music Easel Modern:

• Robust ABS plastic housing with an internal metal frame.
• Ten panel system including Electric Music Box Input/Output (EMBIO) module
• Expandable with Buchla modules and the Buchla Porgam manager Card
• Sustain pedal connection on the front