Buchla USA has officially introduced three new versions of the classic Music Easel, aka ‘The Electric Music Box’.
Since they previewed it at Superbooth 2023, they’ve added a new ‘Retro’ option.
Here’s what they have to say about the new synths:
“This past month at Superbooth, we showed off our completed Music Easel and the Limited Edition 50th Anniversary Easel.
The love for the Anniversary Easel was strong, but the retro-at-all-costs build with guest artist preset cards, publication, signed artwork, and special edition LP was not within everyone’s range.
When we returned, we set out to determine if we could incorporate the retro appeal of the Anniversary Easel into a more affordable package that could be built in higher numbers. The answer: ‘yes.'”
Pricing and Availability:
- Preorders for the Music Easel (modern & retro) begin June 16, priced at $4,999 USD.
- Preorders for the 50th Anniversary Collector’s Easel run from July 1 – 31, priced at $9,999.
See the Buchla site for details.
West coast meets east coast: now Buchla ànd Moog make mono synths with 5K price tags. I’ll stick to my existing gear 🙂
A beautiful tiny colourfull 70s look woke retro hipster synth. Looks like a babytoy keyboard, sounds like a wetfart thru springs. I think the price is good for a monosynth without presets.
They always have, other brands just started making cheaper stuff with cheaper labour.
yeh i love to see a behringer clone of this AND also the AKS Synthi
and don’t forget to clone the OP-1 so all the hipsters will rejoice
You and me both
Wow, that’s a lot of money!
It is very beautiful (all of the models), and it has a lot of functionality.
But $10,000 or $5000? That is a lot!
yeh i love to see a behringer clone of this AND also the AKS Synthi
and don’t forget to clone the OP-1 so all the hipsters will rejoice
Uli please
Look up the behringer enigma
yeh i love to see a behringer clone of this AND also the AKS Synthi
and don’t forget to clone the OP-1 so all the hipsters will rejoice
You gotta be kidding – those prices are outrageous! Thanks again to TipTop for releasing the 200 series Buchla modules for the working man!
No wooden doll choir?
I know, right? For that price, they should throw in both the complete east coast choir and the complete west coast choir.
I would prefer an anime cat girl or two.
As much as I enjoy all the modern synths based on “West Coast synthesis,” nothing sounds like an actual Buchla. But, at this price point, I would want Don himself to have been personally involved in the assembly and testing of the unit I purchased. (That’s not happening.) Beautiful instruments nonetheless. If you afford one, more power to you!
IMO, Arturia Buchla Easel V sounds very much like a Buchla Easel. It emulates that functional quirkiness in sound that the hardware has.
Do you say the same about newer products released by Moog and Sequential too?
Note:
Bob Moog died in 2005
Dave Smith died in 2022
At first glance I thought these were iPad apps, so I quickly scrolled down to look at the price and then quickly scrolled back up again to look at the pics then quickly back down again to look at the price then quickly back up again to look at the pics then…
Incredible but nope.
C’mon TipTop, you know we’re all waiting on a $799 208t.
(Fat chance I know…)
I know a certain amount of complexity is part of the game, but its hard to imagine taking on much else if you play this one. A Buchla is almost like a small pile of more traditional synthesizers. Its not for people who are looking to play Top 40 covers, but if you have the right kind of musical gland, its hard to beat.
The Easel by itself really is not that complicated, just a bit different in its interface. It’s a bit simpler than a Minibrute 2.
?
Guys, they need cash for a lawsuit against samodular who offers affordable do-it-yourself Buchla stuff. Makes sense huh ?
Was really hoping I could afford one of them.
Ugh, a Facebook video. I’ve turned off The Platform and am not going to reenable FB’s tracking just to watch this. Looks kind of neat, though. Too rich for me, but the collector class is def a thing — wonder how many they’ll sell?
Use a vpn
Here’s another way to look at this. If you check the Buchla website, you’ll see that while the standard Easel is $4999, the Spectral Processor module alone is $3399 and the Twisted Waveform Generator is $1699; that’s over $5000 for just those two modules. So while I certainly can’t afford any of these, and am extremely happy to have the Tiptop Buchla modules, I don’t think these prices are inconsistent with Buchla’s pricing policies.
No.
$10K is simply an exploitative price for a limited edition status symbol.