I have a Buchla Easel and was curious about this software take. It's impressive. Really good! You could use it alongside easily. But the thing that cracked me up more than anything was the Arturia manual. It's miles better than the "quick start" you get from Buchla. Let's call it "basic" to be polite. I learned more reading the Arturia manual than anything Buchla made. Writing isn't one of their strengths it would seem .The Buchla 200e System7 Manual is unreadable. Good one Arturia! Thanks Loopop!
Another interesting thing about the design is the modulation source and destination plugs are spaced in such a way that you can use a banana plug to connect them, which reduces clutter even further. This is useful for connections you almost always want, like connecting the envelopes to the gates. The plugs they give you also have holes on the top, you can still stack additional cables.
Thanks for making this video! I downloaded the demo about six months ago and yesterday I finally bought it, it was only $149! I’m already using it on a television project and your video is a great Quickstart overview and much quicker than reading the manual. Thanks again for taking the time to produce a very informative piece that gets right to the point.
@@vasil3089 It’s a weird synth, very different from the usual paradigm of ADSR envelopes and ladder filters of ‘east coast’. It sounds different, does sweet leads, growling basses and also capable of very random sounding patches that even good sized east coast modulars cannot do. You either like Buchla or hate it, but Buchla gear is … well Buchla, Nobody gets close in west coast weirdness, except Make Noise. Check out Todd Barton’s You Tube channel if you want to see what an Easel does and other Buchla Modular gear. Hope that helps.
Thanks for your sober and helpful review, as per usual. I was tempted to just get this but I favor the tactile activity of a real synth, so I got the Easel command a few years ago, and now finally adding the keyboard (LEM218 v3). For my level of skill both the Arturia and Buchla versions would have sufficed I’m sure…but I like working off a computer as much as possible. Either way, this is a deceptively deep synth and I am always blown away at what it can do. I’ve barely scratched the surface. This video and the Arturia manual are great resources for learning more.
Great intro video. Being raised on modular Moogs way way back and have several in my arsenal, including the Arturia Modular v2, this is a huge departure from what I do and have done. So thanks again for a quick and great intro 😀🎹🎹😀
I think the CS-80 and the Buchla justify the purchase. Selling hardware gear in order to get the money together. ruclips.net/video/nGIEWkLaSyQ/видео.htmlm3s
This is one of Arturia's best emulations (and presumably Buchla agrees, because their name is on it too). I followed along with the new Buchla Easel series by Marc Doty (Automatic Gainsay) - which is well worth checking out - and it's very close to the real thing. Very weird synth. It takes awhile to get your head around how everything works.
Softtube modular just released a Buchla twisted waveform generator module and it’s CPU friendly comes as a VST or audio unit plug-in that works well in Logic and Ableton as part of the softtube modular synthesizer and as an effect unit which is unlike anything I’ve ever heard before.
Thanks for this great introduction to this beast of a plugin!! I dont know if you did this already but i wish you will do a in depth course by you on the Arturia modular V & Arp2600
Great Tutorial! Love it! One of the most advanced synths in the world of VST. They should do this für iOS also. A touchscreen fits perfect to all the faders and knobs. ...so much fun to play around, and thereby this outstanding special Sound...
Very good job! The interface of the Buchla has always intimidated me. This is a great explanation that makes the instrument much more approachable. Looking forward to MIDI mapping my Arturia controller to parameters !! Thank you!
@@loopop Haha yeah, figured someone could relate to my reaction. Then again, you could always get the iPad app and put the iPad in a briefcase for something similar.
Thanks for the demo. Great job. Now, I have the actual Easel. I wonder if the patched I’d create in the Arturia Easel would sound similar in the actual hardware instrument. I highly doubt it. Anyone has any experience with it? Thanks.
Coming from classic synths to modular to more experimental stuff like Soma Lyra or 0-coast, I don’t get the whole buchla thing. I mean I really want to believe that a Buchla system is more than a 3.000$ car horn simulator and can be used in a track. Your video helped me in understanding the way it’s working and I will give the plugin a try 😊
Excellent intro! I could not suppress a big smile all the time listening to what I watched from around 8:00. How's the precise configuration/routing of the controller sliders done?
Thanks again!! i have already watch to lots of your videos and learning, i started to coment now cause i use to watch it in TV where i can ´t coment, already sub. keep up the good work
I want to hear how you say synthesizer, maybe syntheeesisizer? I'm just fucking with you :) I love your channel, especially how organized and straight to the point your reviews are.
I just go the demo. I can spend hours just messing around with it. About what you said at the end that some sounds go on forever, how do I make it them just fade out? I spent an hour trying to figure that out just tweaking things around but couldn’t.
It seems somebody developed these "West/East" terms in the late 1990s. They were not really relevant synthesis terms before that, as Buchla and Moog (not to mention other East Coast entities that did synthesis) were more similar than different. Moog made many systems without keyboards, and Buchla made some systems with keyboards. Both made sequencers and oscillators and Envelopes etc. Any creative synthesist does not build sounds the same way every time, sometimes using FM, sometimes filtering, sometimes additive, on any of these systems.
Totally agree, I think the most interesting patches are combinations of many styles of synthesis. It's all interesting and both ways of thinking about making sounds (east/west) have clearly influenced each other. For example my bassstation-2, a subtractive synth has a random sequencer and fm possibilities all together. Not to mention eurorack
But is there not a difference in philosophy between how Buchla and Moog saw the role of the synthesiser?- I think that is an important point - there is a tendency to try to smooth over differences but those differences do exist - not perhaps about wave shapers or filters - but about what they each saw as what the future of music would be. Though these considerations may have affected design philosophy as well.
Im looking for a little help with the sequencer. Im working on a patch that is a factory preset (deep forest) and Im trying to change the sequence to be controlled by the Arturia one rather than the 5 step one. totally clueless on this. help? it seems as tho on a default patch the "extra" seq will be engaged automatically... but what if its not?
I just had a thought watching you map the Buchla's faders to your controller. With virtual modular synths getting quite popular and sounding quite faithful to what they're now modelling, like the Arturia Buchla and VCV Rack modules. I wonder if anyone will create/invent a hardware virtual modular controller that would allow you to use actual physical patch cords that would be mimicked by the patch connections in the software? So you had just a hardware box full of jack sockets and some faders and knobs. Then when you made physical patch cord connections they would be virtually represented graphically in the virtual modular synth. I think the technology already exists as mapping virtual knobs, buttons and faders to generic hardware midi controllers made by companies like Novation and Arturia happens all the time. It would just be a matter of choosing the target socket on the virtual modular and deciding which socket on the hardware controller it mapped to, probably by plugging a patch cord into it.
grizcuz labeling would be an issue but yeah cool idea - imagine if you could then connect those cables directly into real modular gear and bridge software to hardware that way!
Yes, I expect keeping track of what was connected to what could be problematic and confusing. I think what you're suggesting may start happening in the future with the hardware and software worlds coming closer together in ways we haven't seen so far. It's all very exciting and back when I was messing with an Atari and Cubase in the 80's if someone had shown me what's possible today it would have seemed like science fiction. So heaven knows just what music technology will look like in another 20 years or so.
grizcuz happened many many years ago with korg and software ms20 ic , why no other developer does it is cost I expect. Not a very hard concept in reality.
Hi there loopop, do you plan to get a real Buchla in the future? Judging from your epic session recently with Suzanne Ciani, it appears you are headed that route.
Thanks! It’s funny, a friend I know told me that after he saw the video - “dude, you’re buying a buchla”. And while I would love to, I don’t think I could justify the cost. It’s too early in the Buchla GAS cycle to tell.....
Makes sense to call it _syn-thesis_ - it makes the origin of the word more obvious. It's like how I like to call them _kilo-meters_ and not the usual pronunciation. There is no such thing as a “mtr”, and neither is there “ths's” :)
Im impressed by the fact they modeling some of the most complex analog synth, but for me those buchla synth was too esoteric for my taste, i feel like im controling nothing, i prefer using the synclavier or even the matrix 12 and yamaha cs80, than this glitch box, but anyway thanks for explaining thé concept and philosophy of this synth.
If you like the Easel, you will love this little film: vimeo.com/902069 . I absolutely fell in love the first time I saw it, way back. (Also I love the films aesthetics.)
I think we could be another 15 years off before we get a vst that sounds like a hardware Buchla. I don't know what to think of this plugin, a proof of concept? A tech demo? Something Buchla should give away for free as a sort of digital brochure? I've heard nothing interesting from all the RUclips demos of this plugin. Flat, lifeless, lack of depth, uncanny, but worst of all uncanny. It doesn't FEEL good to hear this plugin which is the main issue. That's my #1. It's fatiguing to listen to, perhaps comparable to using VR goggles vs looking at the real world in all of its depth and glory.
My take is that if it has super low CPU utilization and is priced under $20 I'll get it just to mess around with to get a feel for the layout of the real thing.
+Roboticus - I've never been impressed by Arturia's recreations of vintage synths. The MiniV is probably the worst compared to Monark and The Legend. Put there ProphetV next to Uhe's Repro 5 and I start to wonder why they even bothered. That said, I'd be willing to demo this just because Buchla's are a total enigma to me. Softube modeled just the complex oscillator for their Virtual Eurorack "Modular", but unless you already own Modular there's no way to hear it.
I think there could be a vst today that could be more "analogue than analogue", it would need to focus on maximizing entropy. Every component simulated as a user refinable controllable convolution unit. That sort of thing. Benn Jordan on his channel showcased a modular synth in its alpha stage that sounded pretty good. At the end of the day I think we all care more about a synth (hardware or software) sounding good more than it being "faithful" to something. You would think all of these analog simulations would give us tons of options to push the algorithms further (turn up the mooginess or turn it down).
Arturia's DX7 is quite like the original: ruclips.net/video/iHycGwuWcn0/видео.html A vintage Easel starts at 6,000$ US. How many can prove you wrong? The youtube audio quality???
I have a Buchla Easel and was curious about this software take. It's impressive. Really good! You could use it alongside easily. But the thing that cracked me up more than anything was the Arturia manual. It's miles better than the "quick start" you get from Buchla. Let's call it "basic" to be polite. I learned more reading the Arturia manual than anything Buchla made. Writing isn't one of their strengths it would seem .The Buchla 200e System7 Manual is unreadable. Good one Arturia! Thanks Loopop!
I just bought this for £65. Thanks for making this very useful video.
Every time I am looking into another V collection 7 synth, I am entering into an alternative synthesis universe. That's very cool. Thx for the demo.
That's why I'm here too! I was like "what's this one?"
This is actually a brilliant way to get a feel for the hardware workflow before investing a fortune on the real deal.
Make noise has pretty awesome west coast modules , so does Verbos electronics ( former buchla repair guy )
Sure this machine is not for every one, it's a wierd conceptual and esoteric synth.
Thanks a bunch. You just saved me thousands of dollars.
Another interesting thing about the design is the modulation source and destination plugs are spaced in such a way that you can use a banana plug to connect them, which reduces clutter even further. This is useful for connections you almost always want, like connecting the envelopes to the gates. The plugs they give you also have holes on the top, you can still stack additional cables.
Thanks for making this video! I downloaded the demo about six months ago and yesterday I finally bought it, it was only $149! I’m already using it on a television project and your video is a great Quickstart overview and much quicker than reading the manual. Thanks again for taking the time to produce a very informative piece that gets right to the point.
I first encountered the Easel as this VST. It looked like a child’s puzzle.
It became my favorite.
So I bought a real one. It’s even better.
how so?
@@vasil3089
It’s a weird synth, very different from the usual paradigm of ADSR envelopes and ladder filters of ‘east coast’. It sounds different, does sweet leads, growling basses and also capable of very random sounding patches that even good sized east coast modulars cannot do.
You either like Buchla or hate it, but Buchla gear is … well Buchla, Nobody gets close in west coast weirdness, except Make Noise.
Check out Todd Barton’s You Tube channel if you want to see what an Easel does and other Buchla Modular gear. Hope that helps.
Thank you! Finally i get what West Coast synthesis is about, not just in abstract words but hands on :)
the Buchla is so sick. i was so stoked when they included it with Analog Lab 3
I learned a lot of great stuff in this tutorial. Well explained and will be useful. Thanx to loopop !
Such a great explanation in a short amount of time! Thanks!
this is realy helping understand the voltage research lab!
Thanks this was helpful for my Easel explorations!
thank you so very much Loopop, man your videos are just awesome!
Well paced and clear. Thanks.
Thanks for your sober and helpful review, as per usual.
I was tempted to just get this but I favor the tactile activity of a real synth, so I got the Easel command a few years ago, and now finally adding the keyboard (LEM218 v3). For my level of skill both the Arturia and Buchla versions would have sufficed I’m sure…but I like working off a computer as much as possible. Either way, this is a deceptively deep synth and I am always blown away at what it can do. I’ve barely scratched the surface. This video and the Arturia manual are great resources for learning more.
Great intro video. Being raised on modular Moogs way way back and have several in my arsenal, including the Arturia Modular v2, this is a huge departure from what I do and have done. So thanks again for a quick and great intro 😀🎹🎹😀
Brilliantly clear and concise tutorial. Congrats!
Just bought it recently, what a great Synth. :-) Thanks for the good Video!
Wow, now i'm gettin interested in the V collection.
I have it and it is fantastic.
I think the CS-80 and the Buchla justify the purchase. Selling hardware gear in order to get the money together. ruclips.net/video/nGIEWkLaSyQ/видео.htmlm3s
Is that the west coast pronunciation of synthesis? :)
Kevin Price west coast of Europe maybe... ;)
I lol'ed
@@loopop Synth-eesis, lol
This is one of Arturia's best emulations (and presumably Buchla agrees, because their name is on it too). I followed along with the new Buchla Easel series by Marc Doty (Automatic Gainsay) - which is well worth checking out - and it's very close to the real thing. Very weird synth. It takes awhile to get your head around how everything works.
Such brilliant explanations as always. My No 1 tutorial channel.
Very nice tutorial as usual
Matt Cellitti thanks ;)
Nicely done
Thanks very much Todd!
High praise right there
Very well done. Hoping Arturia secures permission to explore some of the more complex Buchla units in the future.
George Ray thanks and indeed!
The question is whether or not your computer has enough processing power to run an emulation of a more complex Buchla setup.
Softtube modular just released a Buchla twisted waveform generator module and it’s CPU friendly comes as a VST or audio unit plug-in that works well in Logic and Ableton as part of the softtube modular synthesizer and as an effect unit which is unlike anything I’ve ever heard before.
An excellent guide and explanation
Thanks for this great introduction to this beast of a plugin!! I dont know if you did this already but i wish you will do a in depth course by you on the Arturia modular V & Arp2600
syntheeeeeeeis luv it thanks for the great vids. you are the best.
West Coast - gotta pronounce it differently...
thank you so much, I love the way you explain gear stuff
Great Tutorial! Love it! One of the most advanced synths in the world of VST. They should do this für iOS also. A touchscreen fits perfect to all the faders and knobs. ...so much fun to play around, and thereby this outstanding special Sound...
Thanks and I agree!
Awesome tutorial, much appreciated !
Just got this & your video is a huge help. Thanks!
Very good job! The interface of the Buchla has always intimidated me. This is a great explanation that makes the instrument much more approachable. Looking forward to MIDI mapping my Arturia controller to parameters !! Thank you!
That first clip got me good, I was like "A briefcase with a screen?! Or are those just the flattest patch cables I've ever seen?"
Mikeureko it’s just a fun 3D video overlay - doesn’t exist in real life
@@loopop Haha yeah, figured someone could relate to my reaction. Then again, you could always get the iPad app and put the iPad in a briefcase for something similar.
Excellent tutorial, thank you
Very well done. Thank you!
my heart skipped a beat for the while i thought this was some new commercial hardware clone. it's a great overview of the software anyhow!
storerestore thanks! Yeah I had an empty case and after effects so I couldn’t resist....
There is one in making on kickstarter.
Thanks for the demo. Great job. Now, I have the actual Easel. I wonder if the patched I’d create in the Arturia Easel would sound similar in the actual hardware instrument. I highly doubt it. Anyone has any experience with it? Thanks.
Coming from classic synths to modular to more experimental stuff like Soma Lyra or 0-coast, I don’t get the whole buchla thing. I mean I really want to believe that a Buchla system is more than a 3.000$ car horn simulator and can be used in a track. Your video helped me in understanding the way it’s working and I will give the plugin a try 😊
Excellent again as useful too! Peace Christo 👽🎶🐕🛸☮️😉
Loved it man!!!! I learned :) Thanks man!!!!
Spice T Music thanks and you’re welcome ;)
Excellent intro! I could not suppress a big smile all the time listening to what I watched from around 8:00. How's the precise configuration/routing of the controller sliders done?
lighttraveller thanks! Do you mean using the controller? The software has a midi learn function.
Thanks again!! i have already watch to lots of your videos and learning, i started to coment now cause i use to watch it in TV where i can ´t coment, already sub. keep up the good work
Ahh I see. Did not have time to investigate it extensively. Thnx !
I want to hear how you say synthesizer, maybe syntheeesisizer? I'm just fucking with you :) I love your channel, especially how organized and straight to the point your reviews are.
Thank you
Thanks! That synth is really cool!
Thank you. Thank you very much.
Damn i love this already ...
Vera well explained!!
Are you using the Analog Lab map on the Keylab, or a user map?
I have yet to create a straight sound that does not wobble or filtersweep on the easel.
Thanks!!
I just go the demo. I can spend hours just messing around with it.
About what you said at the end that some sounds go on forever, how do I make it them just fade out?
I spent an hour trying to figure that out just tweaking things around but couldn’t.
by sending them to the envelop generator
It seems somebody developed these "West/East" terms in the late 1990s. They were not really relevant synthesis terms before that, as Buchla and Moog (not to mention other East Coast entities that did synthesis) were more similar than different. Moog made many systems without keyboards, and Buchla made some systems with keyboards. Both made sequencers and oscillators and Envelopes etc. Any creative synthesist does not build sounds the same way every time, sometimes using FM, sometimes filtering, sometimes additive, on any of these systems.
Totally agree, I think the most interesting patches are combinations of many styles of synthesis. It's all interesting and both ways of thinking about making sounds (east/west) have clearly influenced each other. For example my bassstation-2, a subtractive synth has a random sequencer and fm possibilities all together. Not to mention eurorack
But is there not a difference in philosophy between how Buchla and Moog saw the role of the synthesiser?- I think that is an important point - there is a tendency to try to smooth over differences but those differences do exist - not perhaps about wave shapers or filters - but about what they each saw as what the future of music would be. Though these considerations may have affected design philosophy as well.
@@bobpercy Yup, definitely a difference in philosophy.
Im looking for a little help with the sequencer. Im working on a patch that is a factory preset (deep forest) and Im trying to change the sequence to be controlled by the Arturia one rather than the 5 step one. totally clueless on this. help? it seems as tho on a default patch the "extra" seq will be engaged automatically... but what if its not?
thanks a lot !
"So, that is basically either a cop coming, or vibrato."
Ahh the best! Just found this (somehow) :)
I just had a thought watching you map the Buchla's faders to your controller. With virtual modular synths getting quite popular and sounding quite faithful to what they're now modelling, like the Arturia Buchla and VCV Rack modules. I wonder if anyone will create/invent a hardware virtual modular controller that would allow you to use actual physical patch cords that would be mimicked by the patch connections in the software?
So you had just a hardware box full of jack sockets and some faders and knobs. Then when you made physical patch cord connections they would be virtually represented graphically in the virtual modular synth. I think the technology already exists as mapping virtual knobs, buttons and faders to generic hardware midi controllers made by companies like Novation and Arturia happens all the time. It would just be a matter of choosing the target socket on the virtual modular and deciding which socket on the hardware controller it mapped to, probably by plugging a patch cord into it.
grizcuz labeling would be an issue but yeah cool idea - imagine if you could then connect those cables directly into real modular gear and bridge software to hardware that way!
Yes, I expect keeping track of what was connected to what could be problematic and confusing. I think what you're suggesting may start happening in the future with the hardware and software worlds coming closer together in ways we haven't seen so far. It's all very exciting and back when I was messing with an Atari and Cubase in the 80's if someone had shown me what's possible today it would have seemed like science fiction. So heaven knows just what music technology will look like in another 20 years or so.
I would think there would be some delay in updating the software, but I'd love that.
grizcuz happened many many years ago with korg and software ms20 ic , why no other developer does it is cost I expect. Not a very hard concept in reality.
Hi there loopop, do you plan to get a real Buchla in the future? Judging from your epic session recently with Suzanne Ciani, it appears you are headed that route.
Thanks! It’s funny, a friend I know told me that after he saw the video - “dude, you’re buying a buchla”. And while I would love to, I don’t think I could justify the cost. It’s too early in the Buchla GAS cycle to tell.....
is this available on iPad
If you have sidecar you can operate it from your iPad. Still running on the Mac though obviously.
thankyou
Wow, the fin,al sound...
West coast synthesis, East coast synthesis - just gimme Heartland synthesis.
Makes sense to call it _syn-thesis_ - it makes the origin of the word more obvious. It's like how I like to call them _kilo-meters_ and not the usual pronunciation. There is no such thing as a “mtr”, and neither is there “ths's” :)
You know, I don't know what came over me pronouncing synthesis like that in the video but now that you mention kilometers I feel somewhat redeemed.
Im impressed by the fact they modeling some of the most complex analog synth, but for me those buchla synth was too esoteric for my taste, i feel like im controling nothing, i prefer using the synclavier or even the matrix 12 and yamaha cs80, than this glitch box, but anyway thanks for explaining thé concept and philosophy of this synth.
Try placing with one, you’ll take it home.
Was the background noise in the beginning created with the buchla vst???
Well I wouldn’t call it noise but yes
Nice
If you like the Easel, you will love this little film: vimeo.com/902069 . I absolutely fell in love the first time I saw it, way back. (Also I love the films aesthetics.)
Get her more Tape!
syntyeezus
Good plugin but resource hungry. Forget it if you don't have at least i7 or equivalent AMD CPU. And even then 2 voices will use 40%+ of your CPU.
You really need some pitch modulation w/ the vibrato to scare the sketchbags living in the flat below ;) woopwoop
Arturia plug-ins are the sht. Hate there hardware as it always breaks on me, always.. The whole v collection is bad ass.
Not sold on the East-West dichotomy.
Did you just say..... "syntheezus" .....?
This is a modular catfish video.
I think we could be another 15 years off before we get a vst that sounds like a hardware Buchla. I don't know what to think of this plugin, a proof of concept? A tech demo? Something Buchla should give away for free as a sort of digital brochure? I've heard nothing interesting from all the RUclips demos of this plugin. Flat, lifeless, lack of depth, uncanny, but worst of all uncanny. It doesn't FEEL good to hear this plugin which is the main issue. That's my #1. It's fatiguing to listen to, perhaps comparable to using VR goggles vs looking at the real world in all of its depth and glory.
My take is that if it has super low CPU utilization and is priced under $20 I'll get it just to mess around with to get a feel for the layout of the real thing.
+Roboticus - I've never been impressed by Arturia's recreations of vintage synths. The MiniV is probably the worst compared to Monark and The Legend. Put there ProphetV next to Uhe's Repro 5 and I start to wonder why they even bothered.
That said, I'd be willing to demo this just because Buchla's are a total enigma to me. Softube modeled just the complex oscillator for their Virtual Eurorack "Modular", but unless you already own Modular there's no way to hear it.
I think there could be a vst today that could be more "analogue than analogue", it would need to focus on maximizing entropy. Every component simulated as a user refinable controllable convolution unit. That sort of thing. Benn Jordan on his channel showcased a modular synth in its alpha stage that sounded pretty good. At the end of the day I think we all care more about a synth (hardware or software) sounding good more than it being "faithful" to something. You would think all of these analog simulations would give us tons of options to push the algorithms further (turn up the mooginess or turn it down).
Oh really? Check this video. I'm sure you can tell which is which, right? LMAO
ruclips.net/video/TW4WEvFZ-Rs/видео.html
Arturia's DX7 is quite like the original: ruclips.net/video/iHycGwuWcn0/видео.html
A vintage Easel starts at 6,000$ US. How many can prove you wrong?
The youtube audio quality???
synth-eh-sys not synth-eesis
Derek Riggs you’re saying it the east coast way
it sounds terrible, I tried the demo for a day, awful digital sound that any vst synth can make, get the hardware.
Super helpful! I can't thank you enough!