200e

the cost of the 200e is due mostly to the ultra-small scale of their
production; basically B&A is still only don buchla, hanging in there
since 1964 (this is not Moog... we don't have t-shirts...)

but there are other factors. small-scale production is relatively
cost-effective for analog stompboxes, compared to digital stuff, which
requires expensive components, super expensive development tools, and
exotic development skills. and boutique pedals still often cost 4 or
5x their mass-produced counterparts. scale that up to the kind of
labor, materials, and r+d that a massive hybrid modular requires, and
factor in a very very limited production capacity... the math is not
good. it's kind of amazing that the thing exists at all.

anyway, the topic of cost has been discussed a great deal on this
forum and elsewhere. (check out the front page of the yahoo group...)

so, moving on: the only real reason don doesn't distribute the manual
digitally is that it undergoes revisions as the firmware changes and
he doesn't want obsolete information floating around. 200e, eternally
beta... i have been wanting to make a public guide to the system,
since this comes up about once a month, but i'm pretty damn busy as it
is... i would love for someone else to do it, and a couple people have
offered but nothing has materialized as yet.

sometime, though... i promise...

let's see: we don't have block diagrams. they would look really weird
and probably not that useful, definitely more trouble than they'd be
worth for me and don and anyone else who's actually working on the
system. the only useful level of abstraction is the schematic and
firmware spec, which we don't distribute for obvious reasons.

(the block diagram for the 261e would be like: [knob input] ->
[compute frequency]->[sine wave]->[some super weird shit happens with
vactrols and opamps]->[audio out] ... hm, not so helpful...)

as for modelling the 259e, the basic idea of crossfaded wavetable
synthesis (or wave-terrain synthesis, in a fancier representation) is
bread-and-butter in the digital world, should be pretty easy with yr
Nord. the 259e weirdness comes largely from what's actually in the
tables, though... google chebyshev polynomials... chop those up and
use yr imagination... try stuff out... best i can offer.

the 261e would be very hard to model digitally because the waveshaping
is pure analog, and i would be hard pressed to provide even a
quasi-useful analysis of the circuit. people have a damn hard time
modelling a stupid vacuum tube... i'd guess that the best approach to
modelling a 261e waveshaper or a vactrol gate would be perceptual
("add some harmonics to a sine wave..."); a deterministic physical
model would get hairy real quick.

same deal with, e.g. amp modelling: a block diagram of an amp provides
only deep and well-coded clues to the construction of an analogous
nonlinear transfer function (the computationally viable digital
equivalent).

hope that helps...

/eb


On Wed, Aug 6, 2008 at 3:29 PM, intellijel <danjel@intellijel.com> wrote:
> I am a fan of the Buchla 200e but like many people I can only dream of
> being able to afford a system.
>
> In the meantime I want to learn more about how they work and to better
> understand why they cost so much (and why they are worth it).
>
> One thing I would really like to do is try modeling some of the core
> modules in a Nord Modular 1. I know that someone did this before for
> the Complex Waveform Generator module but unfortunately he lost the patch.
>
> I have also been trying to find block diagrams of how some of the
> Buchla modules work but the information seems to be scarce. I was also
> told that users who receive the User Manual are told not to distribute
> it. This seems odd to me. I would imagine that any prospective buyers
> of a Buchla system would definitely want to read the manual ahead of
> time to gain a far better understanding of the systems capabilities
> and to help select modules to purchase.
>
> Is there anywhere that I could get some of these details?
>
> thanks!
>
>