A VCO from Feedback Modules, modeling West Coast style oscillators.
Not a simple build, but not too bad (no SMD), intermediate builders and up.
Fun sound, I plan to use this one a lot.
Two59 build
Check the Dannysound listings, also...they've got a module that's just the Buchla 259's waveshaping section. Feedback themselves also have something similar.
Amazing, really...Buchla used to be prohibitively expensive, and now we've got loads of Buchla-type stuff, and even actual Buchla (via Tiptop, or via several other companies that do Buchla clones) stuff in Eurorack now.
True
Democratization of design via inexpensive components, fast and inexpensive PCB development , and a reasonably open platform in Eurorack.
I think it's very healthy for the business, and (except for Yamaha viciously defending their patents) most folks don't mind too much when there are derivative products.
Actually, Yamaha's exclusive license to John Chowning's FM tech which was developed at Stanford has been expired for a while now, so it's more or less "safe" now to do algorithmic FM if your company isn't Yamaha. But that was a bitch to deal with back then; most any company that attempted to head in that direction got dinged pretty hard by their lawyers. The only one I know of that dodged those courtroom bullets was NED, as the FM implementation on the Synclavier systems predated Yamaha's use, so they had to eat a bit of crow there. And the license being done means that we can have toys like, say, the Akemie's Castle...which gives you algorithmic FM with CVs. Wild!
Fact is, though...if Uli was better-behaved and housebroken, you wouldn't see nearly as much push-back as you do these days where Behringer's concerned. But he doesn't play nice, and has a long history of not doing so, either. Even so...the synths they've released are astonishingly GOOD; the Pro-1 is about as spot-on a copy of the Sequential Pro-One as you'll ever hear, the B.2600 (even the "Xmas tree" version) behaves exactly like a newer ARP 2600, one of which I did get to use from time to time in the early 1980s, and so on. And it's...
1) Available to purchase, and...
2) It's not "crippleware" like Korg's 2600M, and...
3) It doesn't have its origin in some very sus "make the celebs jump for joy...and f*ck everyone else" marketing BS, like the 2600FS. Or rather, it's the "antidote" to that. So yeah, I'm down with how these market disruptors are shaking up the idea that a "vintage synth" should cost you a kidney and then some. FYI, I find it very telling that Sweetwater is NOT stocking the Korg 2600M...the 2600FiaSco s**tshow was apparently something that Chuck and Co. took a VERY dim view of.
But yeah...I'm personally waiting for a $500 FPGA synth, or maybe we can prod Behringer into "copying" a synth that uses a synthesis engine that's Public Domain...namely, the "Bell Labs" synth (at Oberlin's TIMARA facility these days), which begat the Crumar GDS, which begat the DK Synergy and Synergy II, and then these begat the Mulogix Slave32 Expander. It's a cheap AF design these days, and could probably be done for $400-700 as it avoided the use of proprietal/esoteric parts, and the current state of microprocessors makes the original synth seem like it's made out of rocks and sticks. THAT would definitely be a welcome development, as none of those synths ever had huge release numbers and, in fact, were WAAAAAY ahead of their time.
Anyway, rambling...time to hit the sack/oil mod/Eliane Radigue CD thing...
Now you'll put me in a rambling mood....
Yeah, I had to deal with eh Yamaha FM patent in the early '90s at the computer company I was working for, they had it locked up so tightly we had to go in a different direction, and fortunately that direction paid off, we did better than we could have had we licensed theirs.
And thinking about this made me miss Ensoniq again. Their chip in the Apple IIgs was a pretty awesome thing to work with in the mid-80's, the programming model fit my brain really well.
And... ah, I'm not going to ramble more tonight, I could have a problem stopping. Have a digital delay module out in the workshop I have to finish up tonight so I'll go do that.
