After more than forty years, Buchla engineers returned their legendary synthesizer onto the market. The modern model does not differ much from the vintage one. In fact it is the same Music Easel but expanded with modern functionality.
The basis of the synthesizer is the principle oscillator and modulation oscillator.
The range of the principle oscillator's notes is within five octaves. The shape of the sound wave is regulated by the "timbre" section and can take the form of a saw, square, triangle and intermediate complex shapes.
For the modulation oscillator only sawtooth, triangular and square waveforms are available. For this oscillator there are modes available:
HI - allows the oscillator to be used in VCO mode (voltage controlled oscillator).
LOW - low frequency oscillator mode.
The switch selects the mode of interaction between the modulation and main oscillators. You can conduct ring modulation, amplitude or frequency modulation. The depth of modulation is set by the fader, and can also control external CV signals.
The signal from the oscillators goes to the "dual low pass gate" block, which is functionally very similar to Buchla 292h module. The function block can operate in VCF (low-frequency voltage controlled) mode, VCA (voltage controlled amplifier) or combine both modes.
The synthesizer has a real analog echo effect built on a spring module. It is located in front of the output block and offers a depth effect adjustment.
The synthesizer has basic support for MIDI commands (Note On/Off) and the ability to synchronize the built-in arpeggiator with MIDI Clock. Also there is an archaic way of storing the sound preset on special cards (the settings for them are set by resistors).
Anyway, users note when playing chromatic passages the imperfect tracking of notes is observed.
For power supply, an external 12V source is used, and battery power is also provided (included in the delivery). When using the battery, the synthesizer is able to work autonomously for up to three hours.