At Superbooth 2021, Tiptop Audio and Buchla USA have announced a joint project to bring classic Buchla 200 Series modules back as affordable Eurorack modules.
The Buchla 200 Series Electric Music Box was introduced in 1970, and replaced the earlier 100 series. Like the original Moog modular synths, 200 Series systems were rare and expensive, so few people had access to them.
Buchla and Tiptop Audio say that they’ve joined forces to resume the production of these designs, but in Euro format and with module prices expected to start around $160 USD.
Pricing and Availability
Six modules have been announced for the Buchla & Tiptop Audio Eurorack 200 Series:
- Dual Oscillator Model 258tDual Oscillator Model 258t – expected Winter 2021, priced at $160-200
- Quad Lopass Gate Model 292tQuad Lopass Gate Model 292t – expected Spring-Summer 2022, pricing TBD
- Dual Voltage Processor Model 257t – expected Spring 2022, pricing TBD
- Source of Uncertainty Model 266tSource of Uncertainty Model 266t – expected Spring 2022, pricing TBD
- Quad Function Generator 281t – expected Winter 2021, priced at $170-210
- Sequential Voltage Source Model 245t, expected Winter-Spring 2022, price TBD
Wow, that’s incredible news.. great idea on the part of Buchla and TipTop!
Count me in!
Wow! This is awesome news.
epic win! I’ll have to get at least that oscillator.
This is wonderful news. I love that they copied the jack colors in an Eurorack format too. Prices look great. I trust TipTop that the sound will be there too. Exciting stuff.
This is very good news and a smart strategy by Buchla.
They still have their high-end current products, but now they also have inexpensive Euro versions of both the 100 Series and the original 200 Series.
Doing these sort of collaborations also means that the Euro versions aren’t just designed to be cheap, but they that they’re pretty good reproductions of the originals.
This strategy cuts off Behringer before they even get the copy machine running.
When you can get the real thing from Buchla and Tiptop for $150 or $200, there’s not going to be a lot of people excited about a cheap knockoff.
Companies like Roland could learn from this.
Buchla noob question here – what does this mean for patching?
I thought that Buchlas used stackable banana cables. Is that lost in Euro?
it looks like these have normal eurorack patch cables rather than banana.
TipTop (and a couple of others) make stacking cables for Eurorack.
Tiptop also makes stackable Eurorack-compatible 3.5 mm TS cables (used in the video above) https://tiptopaudio.com/stackcable/
Tiptop and others make stackable 3.5mm cables.
Buchlas use bananas and tini jax (a slightly incompatible cousin of the 3.5mm jack).
What a great idea to to bring back highly desirable vintage gear that has become ridiculously expensive, and offer for an affordable price! I guess we all know who to thank for that.
I hear Behringer is already making Clones from Stem Cells called Buhringer
Well here is the real reality it not cheap lower price yes.
Too bad the Red modules was not in a cheaper price like $100 bucks each hack wat is in them 80 bucks.
Hey Buchla do a production deal with me I love to produce the Red Modules!
Now if they produce 250e Dual Arbitrary Function Generator and 252e Polyphonic Rhythm Generator for $200 bucks I will buy 3 of each
Count me in! Great news! TipTop Audio and Buchla working togeather….awesome pairing! I own a piece of each!
These are very fair prices given niche product electronic manufacturing in the USA.
I just can’t decide if I’ll buy a Source of Uncertainty module.
Bravo! This will finally bring that elusive Buchla sound to the masses. Always wanted to get into Bucha stuff, but the prices were out of my reach. Great stuff!
Begs the question: if Buchla can be easily made into inexpensive eurorack modules, were Buchla ever really selling them at face value to begin with or just exploiting a very narrow niche in the modular synth market
And now realising that they have been completely missing out on one of the biggest synthesizer booms in decades
Who knew production quantity and expenses had anything to do with each other, right? What a shocker!
You’re forgetting that these are 40 year-old designs, so they’re pretty much doing what Behringer does, exploiting 50 year-old designs, but just not cheaping with the build quality. These are NOT modern Buchla designs.
Recycling ancient module designs is much different than making new designs, for a niche audience, pay for themselves.
You’re also forgetting that the electronics that made synths expensive in the 60’s are dirt cheap now. The pcb and circuitry in one of these modules and in most analog modules probably costs $10. There are exceptions – like Moog choosing to use new old stock parts and retro manufacturing techniques for their reissues, which suddenly means that they’re using rare expensive components instead of cheap modern ones.
You’re also forgetting that Buchla USA is not the same company that Don Buchla ran. Don Buchla had zero interest in mass producing a generic product. He was trying to make the instrument of the future and make enough doing it to be able to continue.