Buchla Electronic Musical Instruments

Buchla Electronic Musical Instruments is a manufacturer of synthesizers and unique MIDI controllers. The company was originally founded as Buchla & Associates by synthesizer pioneer Don Buchla in 1963 in Berkeley, California.

Company origin

Buchla's beginning in synthesizer design was the result of a San Francisco Tape Music Center commission by composers Ramon Sender and Morton Subotnick, along with a $500 grant from Rockefeller Foundation. Subotnick envisioned a voltage-controlled instrument that would allow musicians and composers to create sounds suited to their own specifications. Previously, one had to use either discrete audio generators, such as test oscillators—or musique concrète, recorded sounds from natural sources. Buchla designed the synthesizer in a modular fashion, combining separate components that each generated or modified a music event. Each box served a specific function: envelope generators, oscillators, filters, voltage controlled amplifiers, and analog sequencer modules. Utilizing the different modules, a composer could affect the pitch, timbre, amplitude, and spatial location of the sound. The instrument was controlled and played via an array of touch and pressure-sensitive surfaces.