The reissue of the classic modular unit comes as a collaboration between Buchla instrument expert Todd Parton and the San Francisco Tape Music Center’s Morton Subotnick and Ramon Sender. Unlike other reissues we’ve seen in recent years, the Buchla 100 Series is set to return in its original form – no shrunken interface or optional keyboard to be seen here. Users will have the option to purchase the unit as either a build-your-own-synth-kit or a ready-built version, which is bound to tantalise more than a few budding DIY enthusiasts.
Although Don Buchla, the founding father of the company and a pioneer of what’s most commonly known as ‘West Coast Synthesis’ passed away in 2016, his designs are revered as some of the most important to the development of electronic music as we know it today. Given the recent boom in Eurorack units, it makes sense for the Buchla 100 to receive a large scale reissue, and it’ll be cool to see more of these big beefy things in the wild.
Watch a video from Buchla featuring Morton Subotnick discussing the history of the Buchla 100, as well as the company’s plans to reissue the unit, below.
Remember when that engineer discovered LSD inside a Buchla 100 and tripped out for nine hours? Catch up on that wild story here.
