Isolation No.3

Isolation

Here is a 12 minute video of a Buchla 200 playing by itself. Nothing else!

You can put this on in the background while you are doing your self-isolating, it might help pass the time?

Blipper

Automatron

Here is a completely automated patch on 2 Buchla systems - a 200 series Easel (clone) and an original 100 series modular. The famous Low Pass Gates weren't introduced until the 200 series in the early 1970s, and there are two of them in the Easel. They are doing the percussive noises here. The rest is sustained tones from the 100 but it is all connected together using one randomised clock and the 8 step sequencer from the 100 and the 5 step sequencer from the 200. I added a very long delay from the Bel AD80 (around 3 seconds) and some EMT Plate reverb for good measure

Benge Bells

Completely self-playing patch on the Serge. It uses the Analog Shift Register to modify the sequence as it goes. OK I do adapt it a bit by hand but you get the point

Buchljic

All created on the Buchla 100 and an Electro Harmonix looper in one take. And a video I shot of some light

Horny Two

Here is another self-playing horn patch thing on the Buchla 100. This ones got a bit more space in it... Its a tweak of the same patch as this one

Horny

Buchla 100 patch, utilising proto-horn type sounds, about 4 layers of them. HORNY!

Buchla 100 Krell Meme

Here is a self-playing patch on the Buchla 100, another Krell meme. The patch is as follows: 158 sin/saw vco into 185 frequency shifter then into 191 filter and then 106 mixer ch1. 160 noise into mixer ch2. 144 sq wave vco into mixer ch3. 140 timing pulse to 130 envelopes which control the 191 filter cutoff and a 110 gate. 140 timing is being randomised by the 165 random voltage generator, which also controls the pitch of the main vcos. The 140 also triggers the 123 sequencer which is controlling the 102 stereo locator and pitches of 144 vco. A second 158 vco is being used to modulate the principal vcos. The 102 stereo output goes to each side of the dual 190 reverb, then to the 175 stereo eq. Interspersed with all this are the very useful 156 cv processors, I think all 3 are used in the patch to limit the randomness and range of the 165, and to invert certain voltages. The whole thing is very tweakable, but in this video I just set it up and left it running

Tanks a Bunch

Finally I got the 100 fully up and running. I can now hear the dual reverb tanks in all their glory. Thanks Keith!

Random Vids

Messing on the 100, creating some random patches...

Cabs

Right, the wooden cabinet arrived and I put the buchla 200e modules safely in it so no more cardboard boxes / fire hazards which is good especially here. So I made a patch with the 100 series modules (including the 190 spring reverb, for which I have been awaiting the spring tanks) going through the delay. I worked out how to use it as a stereo unit - like all good Buchla-format modules theres a lot of features but no instructions! The patch uses an LFO to bend the delay time around - woozy!



Longer / hi-res audio version here:

The Mighty Buuch

Heres a video of a patch, based loosely on the example in the user manual where the sequencer changes speed randomly every few notes. Its a really cool patch, a bit like the krell meme patch. I added the touch plates in for extra control. It was going pretty well till the camera fell off its stand

Oil City

When we were in Vienna last week I filmed this oil refinery on the way to the city. Then I put some Buchla and VCS3 sounds on it when I got home

Krell Party

Furthering the Krell Meme (see label on right) here is another patch on the Buchla and EMS VCS3. This time I wanted to explore more percussive ideas, like as if those crazy Krells were having a bit of a party, so the Eardrill Pendulum / Ratchet was used to set the clock rates going to the various VCOs and Low Pass Gates. The VCS3 was used for reverb and additional filtering, as well as the Space Echo. So its a development of the patch in the last Krell piece. The video is of the audio going to the oscilloscope then recorded on the Phillips V100 analog video camera

Green Fire

Here's a new Krell meme, again using the tape delays and VCS3 reverb and filter, oh and the footage is a close up of the oscillators going through the oscilloscope translating the sound into green flames

Krell Meme 4

Having listened again to L&B Barron's amazing electronic soundtrack to Forbidden Planet, I decided the Krell meme (label added on the right so you can keep track of them) needed some tape delays. So I dug out the Watkins Copycat and was horrified to find that the tape loop had broken. So I googled a bit to find some instructions and 20 mins later I had some nice new home made loops. The synth patch is pretty similar to last time except I added in the tape delays from the Copycat and also the Space Echo, and the VCS3 was hooked up to provide extra filtering and VC spring reverb

Krell Meme 3

Here's another development of the Krell meme started by Todd Barton. There's been lots more over on muff's, I might do a compilation at some point. Anyway, this patch uses Todd's original concept but with more oscillators, and I sent out triggers from the P/R module to fire the vactrols in the 292e low pass gates. This gives it a more percussive feel. This time I left it running while I watered the plants before I left for Crete

Krell Meme...

So following on from this post, I was digging around on Muffs and saw that the meme had evolved again. Slipperysoles had posted another self-generating Buchla patch, this time based on an idea from Douglas Leedy in 1970. Leedy made an album called Entropical Paradise which explored automata in music, which is documented in the indispensable book Electronic Music by Allen Strange. See the scan I made of the flow chart of Leedy's original patch. I decided to try and recreate the this on my 200e system, which is itself a evolution of the Buchla 100 Leedy used. There are lots of differences in the modules and functions I had to contend with but I got somewhere close, and as always with the Buchla found something unique along the way

Krell Meme

Here is a piece of music I made on the Buchla. Its completely self-playing - I set up the patch then left it running for 15 minutes while I made lunch. The patch is based on a concept by Todd Barton (his video below explains the initial idea), but I added to it a little bit by using a second oscillator which different cv parameters. (Technical info: the same cv is coming from the 261e SOU but is being tripped up by a clock division using the Eardrill P/R - it only changes pitch on every 3rd count. The second vco is the 144. I also added some pitch modulation which comes in and out randomly using a 254v cv processor)

Building The Krell Muzak Patch from todd barton on Vimeo.