At Superbooth 2018, we talked with synth guru Marc Doty, who gave us an update on the state of Buchla USA.
The company, originally founded by Don Buchla in the mid-1960s (as Buchla and Associates), is now headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota and headed by CEO Eric Fox.
Doty also shared his personal take on learning more about Buchla’s approach to synthesis, and a hands-on demo of the hypnotic Buchla Polyphonic Rhythm Generator.
i don´t care what he says. when i watch nick batt´s sonictalk and doty is on i get frustrated within a minute. the guy is an ideolog par excellence who doesn´t think outside of his tiny little analogue box imho.
ot.: can someone please share a clip about the mpc x in action? inmusic was also present at the superbooth. my gut feeling is that the mpc x is a modern classic, although i think its display is not in the right ergonomic position. as a touch screen it is way too far away from the user.
That is totally not true. Marc is a synth historian of sorts and because of that he is partial to historic pieces of equipment (think older Than 1980).
But he owns a frigging Continuum and one of his favorite mini synths had come to be the Pro 2 (only analog filters), so he is not the all-analog elitist you may seem to think he is.
At most he is biased towards drifting tuning.
Mr. Doty is an interesting character. He can come across as either exuberant or irritating, often with little grey area in between. That being said, I have a great deal of respect for his expertise, for his many instructional videos on YouTube, and his overall zeal for synthesizers.
Here’s hoping that this new era of Buchla will see fit to release some Eurorack compatible modules, and take part in the most robust aspect of the Modular Renaissance.
The Buchla stuff looks so good, but the Polyphonic Rhythm Generator is really the only module I’ve lusted after.
They would be smart to do a Euro version of it.
While I really like the principle of Buchla, most of their (Buchla USA) stuff is really expensive.
It means that if Buchla I want, DIY it will be.
I know there are costs, etc, but nothing can justify designs that expensive.
The average is around 1500$ for one module (without taking into account boats).
Even if they are quite versatile (that’s the spirit), well…
I don’t ask a cheap thing (I’d never make any compromise on quality) but I hardly think it is that expensive.
Or, honestly, I’d like to know the reason.
They are complex, original designs, and Buchla is probably lucky to sell a few dozens of each.
Any other questions?
A few dozen because they are that expensive… Could be part of the strategy of course, high volumes are bothersome for various reasons, storage, logistics, service etc.
Yeah, I know.
As it seems, Buchla design were never mainstream.
But with the “synth-mania” these days, people are blurring frontiers between so-called East and West Coast.
By that, I mean that there are more and more people interested in the Buchla paradigm.
So they might sell more, since it’s not a “connoisseur” thing anymore.
For such modules, IMO, the really expensive thing is, most of the time, R&D. When it’s done, production could be optimized.
Admin: Personal attack deleted.
Keep comments on topic and constructive.
Also you’re using multiple names to comment (bob, stan) which will lead to your comments being flagged as spam.
If ever there was a time to let the music do the talking…