Buchla Electronic Musical Instruments

Buchla Electronic Musical Instruments (BEMI) was a manufacturer of synthesizers and unique MIDI controllers. The origins of the company could be found in Buchla & Associates, created in 1963 by synthesizer pioneer Don Buchla of Berkeley, California. In 2012 the original company led by Don Buchla was acquired by a group of Australian investors trading as Audio Supermarket Pty. Ltd. The company was renamed Buchla Electronic Musical Instruments as part of the acquisition. In 2018 the assets of BEMI were acquired by a new entity, Buchla U.S.A., and the company continues under new ownership.

Buchla's first modular electronic music system was the result of a San Francisco Tape Music Center commission by composers Ramon Sender and Morton Subotnick in 1963, who later allotted $500 from a Rockefeller Foundation grant to Buchla in 1964. Subotnick envisioned a voltage-controlled instrument that would allow musicians and composers to create sounds suited to their own specifications. Previously, one had to use either discrete audio generators, such as test oscillators—or musique concrète, manually composed and edited magnetic-tape source recordings of other musical, spoken word, or other audio. Buchla designed the synthesizer in a modular fashion, combining separate components that each generated or modified a music event. Each box served a specific function: envelope generators, oscillators, filters, voltage controlled amplifiers, and analog sequencer modules. Using the different modules, a composer could affect the pitch, timbre, amplitude, and spatial location of the sound. The instrument was controlled and played via an array of touch and pressure-sensitive surfaces.

The instrument was named the "Buchla 100 series Modular Electronic Music System," and was installed at the San Francisco Tape Music Center in 1965 and moved to Mills College in 1966. Subotnick completed his first major electronic work, Silver Apples Of The Moon, with another unit that Buchla had built and shipped to New York. This same unit was also used on Buffy Sainte Marie's influential 1969 album, Illuminations. Along with Robert Moog's Moog synthesizer, it helped revolutionize the way electronic music and sounds are made.

The original Buchla modular synthesizer was commissioned by Morton Subotnick and Ramon Sender and funded by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation. The earliest modules are labeled "San Francisco Tape Music Center." Later modules were offered through the musical instruments division of CBS.

The Buchla 200 series Electric Music Box replaced the previous model in 1970 and represented a significant advance in technology. Almost every parameter can be controlled from an external control voltage.

Buchla 300, 500, Touché (mid 1970s)
In the mid 1970s, Don Buchla began experimenting with digital designs and computer-controlled systems. The results were the 500 series and the 300 series, both of which paired the new technology with existing 200 series modules to create hybrid analog/digital systems. The Touché was also the result of this research, and was also his final attempt to market a "mainstream" Buchla synth^{[citation needed]}.

Buchla 400, 700, and MIDAS (1980s)
Also in 1980s, Buchla released the 400 series and the 700 series software controlled instruments operated by MIDAS, a Forth language for musical instruments, and also equipped with MIDI.

Buchla tended to not refer to his instruments as synthesizers, as he felt that name gives the impression of imitating existing sounds/instruments. His intent was to make instruments that create new sounds. This goal is evident in the omission of a standard musical keyboard on his early instruments, which instead used a series of touch plates that were not necessarily tied to equal-tempered tuning.