Charles Cohen at the Buchla Music Easel

CHARLES COHEN AT THE BUCHLA MUSIC EASEL from ∆LEX on Vimeo.

I recently found this amazing video on accident when I was reading Wei Zhu’s Developer Blog on Facebook’s Developers Website.

Now, while there is an enormous amount of information pertaining to synthesizers, be it their history, what they are, and how they work, I have had very little experience with analog synthesizers such as this one. I have worked with numerous synthesizers in software based music sequencers and DAWs, such as Ableton Live, Reaktor 5, and Logic Pro 8. But while I thoroughly enjoy messing around with my software based synths, I literally cannot wait til I get the chance to sit down and play with one of these monsters. Oh and, that’s if I ever get the chance to mess with one of these being that Buchla only made 14 of them…

Here’s a little excerpt describing the Music Easel published by Buchla & Associates back in 1973!

The Music Easel contains many of the elements commonly used to generate and process sound: a keyboard, sequencer, pulser, preamplifier, envelope detector and balanced modulator; oscillators, gates, envelope generators and filters; facilities for mixing, monitoring and reverberating. Many of these elements possess an unusual degree of sophistication. The keyboard is solid state, with touch sensitive, chromatically organized keys, accurate and reproducible pressure output, tactile feedback, octave shifting, and voltage controlled portamento. A complex oscillator, developed through computer aided simulation studies, is a rich source of complex audio spectra. featuring voltage control of pitch, timbre and waveform, this oscillator provides the Music Easel with a timbral range unapproachable by other musical instruments. Dec, 1973, By Buchla & Associates. Read more…

/ / / / / Viewing with headphones or a stereo source is highly recommended / / / / /

This colorful video features sound artist Charles Cohen improvising on a 1970’s Buchla Music Easel. This extremely rare instrument is one of Don Buchla’s 200 series. Buchla (a pioneer of audio synthesis) only manufactured 14 of these units. The entire film was edited from an hour-long set of free improvisation, with audio was taken directly from Charles’ mixing board.

All of the photography and editing was produced by Alex Tyson, a sound and video artist from Pennsylvania. The film was shot in 16:9 720p High Definition format, using the Letus35 Extreme and a 35mm LensBaby 3GPL.

At this time the film is only available online. While you can stream it in HD, it is best viewed on DVD.

Please contact the filmmaker for hard copies if interested.

Alex can be reached at alextyson (at) gmail dot com

Thanks to LensBabies for making this awesome lens!

Technorati Tags: Alex Tyson, Buchla, Buchla Music Easel, Buchla Synthesizer, Charles Cohen, Circuit bending, Experimental, HVX, HVX-200, Improv music, Improvisation, Lensbabies, LensBaby, LensBaby 3GPL, Letus35, letus35extreme, Noise, Noise Music, Synth, Synthesizer