Buchla Electronic Musical Instruments

Earlier in the month, we brought you the news about Don Buchla selling his company to a new company, Buchla Electronic Musical Instruments.

Here’s a video from the 2012 NAMM Show about the announcement, via Sonic State. It features new Buchla CEO Michael Morans and a rare appearance on camera from Don Buchla, who clearly has a lot to say about the deal.

Here’s the official press announcement for Buchla Electronic Musical Instruments:

One of the most respected electronic musical instrument design companies is now under new ownership, with exciting plans for the company’s immediate and long-term future. Buchla & Associates, the company founded by legendary synthesizer designer Don Buchla, will soon be known as Buchla Electronic Musical Instruments. Don Buchla will remain very active at the company in the role of Chief Technology Officer.

The acquisition of Buchla & Associates will provide a slew of new resources for the design, manufacturing, sales, and marketing of their products that were previously unavailable to the company. These resources will enable Buchla to introduce more innovations in music technology, as well as allowing the Buchla product line to expand into new areas that will make their instruments available to a much wider range of musicians.

Making its debut at the 2012 NAMM Show, Buchla Electronic Musical Instruments is comprised of music and audio industry veterans who hold Buchla’s innovations in the highest esteem. In addition to Don Buchla in the CTO role, the new company includes principal directors Danny Olesh, John Fuller, and Lewis Chiodo, and president / CEO Michael Marans, each of whom have decades of experience in the electronic musical instrument and pro audio industries.

“Don has been a major contributor to our industry for over 50 years,” noted Marans. “His legacy — and the Buchla name — is now in the hands of people who care deeply about Don, his work, his place in history, and last but not least, the musicians who use his remarkable inventions. We’re very much looking forward to supporting Don’s vision for the next generation of truly innovative and expressive electronic musical instruments.”

5 thoughts on “Buchla Electronic Musical Instruments

  1. +1 on the Music Easel. But I think it would be possible to use a lot of digital processing to replace some of the original circuits for affordability.

    Whenever we have these “dream gear” topics two main themes always emerge.

    1- an All Analog Ubersynth that sells at an Alesis Micron price point.
    2- more innovative sound engines.

    The first is a case of unrealistic expectations just being premeditated disappointments. Knobs and sliders cost a a lot of money. Quality pots and sliders are ridiculously expensive. Dave Smith has done just about everything that can be done to make an analog polysynth affordable. And his stuff is not ALL analog either. I think a better yardstick is how it sounds, and Dave’s stuff sounds fabulous. I am not bothered if his envelope generators are digital.

    And to the second point. Innovative does NOT sell. Yamaha FSR1 was not a success, but it was innovative. Alesis Fusion was way ahead of it’s time and while there were some OS issues it was nothing as bad as the whining flame fest that you read on the web. Mine is perfectly functional and never a single problem. Another problem is that there are only so many ways to generate a sound. Most of them have been done repeatedly and can be done more cheaply in software than hardware.

  2. I think this is great news for everyone. Even if they just release synths at the same price points as current units from companies in the standard synth marketplace, Buchla can excel on quality. But if they really start answering the wants and needs of players instead of the wants and needs of investors, this arrangement could really shake things up for the better.

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