Catalyst Audio Buchla 100 clones for Eurorack

nearly ghost · Post by **nearly ghost** » Thu Jul 13, 2017 2:04 pm

Freaking amazing! So excited for these.. When, when?

quadrupole · Post by **quadrupole** » Thu Jul 13, 2017 9:59 pm

These are really intriguing! And they sound fantastic. Has anyone put these on modular grid yet? I looked under catalyst audio but I didn't seem em. I need to plan! And also, I'd like to get a clear look at the face plates so I can get a better idea of the functionality. I've been scrounging up old pics of the original 100 series with mixed results!

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pre55ure · Post by **pre55ure** » Thu Jul 13, 2017 10:24 pm

Positive Modular Attitude wrote:Will the final panels be white as in the videos or aluminum/metal? Keeping my fingers crossed for aluminum/metal since it's better for my OCD...

Sorry about your OCD my friend. They will indeed be white. (Still metal - but white powdercoated).

Best solution is to just get them all and put them in their own case

Actually, if there is enough demand it won't be difficult to do a run of aluminum panels. I also know that Greyscale is both aware of these (Wes was nice enough to help me match some fonts etc...) and is starting to work on some Buchla format stuff anyway, so that might be another option.

CatalystAudio · Post by **CatalystAudio** » Thu Jul 13, 2017 10:28 pm

Oops - posted that under the wrong name. Guess the cat is out of the bag.

quadrupole wrote:These are really intriguing! And they sound fantastic. Has anyone put these on modular grid yet? I looked under catalyst audio but I didn't seem em. I need to plan! And also, I'd like to get a clear look at the face plates so I can get a better idea of the functionality. I've been scrounging up old pics of the original 100 series with mixed results! :

I'll be putting the panels up on MG as soon as I get confirmation from the panel manufacturer that everything is good on his end. I just submitted the final artwork yesterday so it should be soon.

If you have any particular questions about the functionality, feel free to post here and I will do my best to answer.

southphillysynths · Post by **southphillysynths** » Thu Jul 13, 2017 10:44 pm

CatalystAudio

Ayyyyy glad to know a solid wiggler is behind this new company

nearly ghost · Post by **nearly ghost** » Fri Jul 14, 2017 12:23 am

The white panels look great, on that video the they look especially nice next to a few black make noise panels.

nordheim · Post by **nordheim** » Fri Jul 14, 2017 5:36 am

CatalystAudio wrote:Oops - posted that under the wrong name. Guess the cat is out of the bag.

quadrupole wrote:These are really intriguing! And they sound fantastic. Has anyone put these on modular grid yet? I looked under catalyst audio but I didn't seem em. I need to plan! And also, I'd like to get a clear look at the face plates so I can get a better idea of the functionality. I've been scrounging up old pics of the original 100 series with mixed results! :
I'll be putting the panels up on MG as soon as I get confirmation from the panel manufacturer that everything is good on his end. I just submitted the final artwork yesterday so it should be soon.

If you have any particular questions about the functionality, feel free to post here and I will do my best to answer.

i am so happy to see these progressing. was the most exciting thing i saw come out of namm... any idea of price per module now that you are further along in the process?

WeepWow · Post by **WeepWow** » Fri Jul 14, 2017 11:43 pm

Count me in. Also very interested in seeing these ASAP..... before I do something stupid and sell all my Euro.... and start buying original Buchla

southphillysynths · Post by **southphillysynths** » Sat Jul 15, 2017 9:50 pm

these are all 14hp correct?

Just want to lay out a space in my system

CatalystAudio · Post by **CatalystAudio** » Sun Jul 16, 2017 12:18 am

southphillysynths wrote:these are all 14hp correct?

Just want to lay out a space in my system

Yes. All 14hp.

Meeting with the panel manufacturer on Monday to look over colors and drill locations. Will post them all on MG if everything looks good.

quadrupole · Post by **quadrupole** » Sun Jul 16, 2017 8:28 am

CatalystAudio wrote:
southphillysynths wrote:these are all 14hp correct?

Just want to lay out a space in my system
Yes. All 14hp.

Meeting with the panel manufacturer on Monday to look over colors and drill locations. Will post them all on MG if everything looks good.

Awesome! Thank you!

CatalystAudio · Post by **CatalystAudio** » Mon Jul 17, 2017 8:59 pm

Just a quick note to let you guys know that I posted the front panels on MG today. You can find them listed under manufacturer: Catalyst Audio

The colors don't look quite right on MG (file conversion maybe?), but they look good in real life.

quadrupole · Post by **quadrupole** » Mon Jul 17, 2017 11:14 pm

Great! I think they look awesome! I will say they all seem pretty straightforward with the exception of the 156V. That one is a bit perplexing to me. I found this from a previous version on MG:

Serves to mix, compress and invert control voltages. Each channel has two control voltage inputs and an internal voltage source. Particularly useful for obtaining fine pitch control, transposition capability, and range compression of control voltage sources.

I guess the key question is do I need the 156 to accurately control the 158A? That would be weird.

The Junglechrist · Post by **The Junglechrist** » Tue Jul 18, 2017 1:32 am

I'm actualy very curious about the 156 to replace my current MVP for something a little bit weirder (I mean more Buchla hehehe)

nectarios · Post by **nectarios** » Tue Jul 18, 2017 2:02 am

Is the Model 110 Quad Gate, 4 LPGs?

Positive Modular Attitude · Tue Jul 18, 2017 3:29 am

Awesomesauce!

nordheim · Post by **nordheim** » Tue Jul 18, 2017 9:39 am

beautiful! any more of an estimate on price? any possibility of a bundle price for all of them?

CatalystAudio · Post by **CatalystAudio** » Tue Jul 18, 2017 1:10 pm

quadrupole wrote:Great! I think they look awesome! I will say they all seem pretty straightforward with the exception of the 156V. That one is a bit perplexing to me. I found this from a previous version on MG:

Serves to mix, compress and invert control voltages. Each channel has two control voltage inputs and an internal voltage source. Particularly useful for obtaining fine pitch control, transposition capability, and range compression of control voltage sources.

I guess the key question is do I need the 156 to accurately control the 158A? That would be weird.

You don't NEED the 156. That being said the 158 has some weirdness to it that the 156 helps address (though you could certainly use other CV processor as well). The original 158 didn't adhere to any real standard for tuning - but we have added a trimmer to the circuit so that you can scale it to 1/voct (I can get about 4 octaves of pretty good tuning out of mine). The other weirdness is that the large "frequency" knobs on the bottom are essentially disconnected from the circuit as soon as you switch the 158 into external control mode. The idea being that if you were going to control it externally you would be using a 156 to process your control voltages.
So you can use it (158) without the 156, and you can have it tracking 1/voct without the 156, but if you want to change the tuning, or shift the octaves etc.. all that has to be done externally.

I wrote this about the 156 a few pages back -

It's basically a mixer/attenuator offset generator. There are 2 cv inputs on each channel (theres an "A" and a "B" channel) that are mixed via the bottom pot. The middle pot sets a fixed voltage (offset) and the top pot then mixes/adds the mix of cv coming into the inputs and the offset. This cv value is what is present at the output. Additionally, one of the inputs to the "B" channel is inverted automatically before being mixed. All the 100 series stuff (and pretty much all Buchla as far as I am aware) is based on unipolar (0 - 10v) voltages. So the inverting channel flips the CV but it always remains a positive voltage.

This brings up one issue when using it with oscillators (including the 158) in a Eurorack context - In the original context that the 156 was designed for, none of the cv sources were quantized or set to 1/voct. However, If you use the 156 with a 1/voct CV source (like a keyboard, or a quantized sequencer) then it doesn't work as well, because it is designed to function at a gain ratio of 1:1. If you put 1v in to the A channel, turn the mix control all the way toward A, and set the int/ext mix all the way to ext, then you will get 1v out. However, this means that you can't mix in the other input or the offset etc... without messing up the ratio of your 1v input.

We worked on trying to find a way around this for a while, but finally just decided that it would require too much change to the original circuitry to get it to work in a way that would be conducive to being used with a 1/voct controller.

As such we are actually going to release a second version of the 156 - the 156M (M for modern). This will be a completely redesigned (as in, we designed it, so NOT original 100 series) version of the 156. Panel graphics will stay almost the same - The knob functions will stay almost the same - lowest knob will mix CV's, middle knob will add an offset (though we allowed it to offset by negative voltage as well) and the top knob - becomes a polarizer with some additional gain at each end of the knob's travel. This way you can use a 1/voct cv source, and use the offset to set tuning/octave/transposition without messing up your scaling.

Hope that wasn't too much of a word salad there. If it's not clear, feel free to ask again and I'll try to make it clearer.

CatalystAudio · Post by **CatalystAudio** » Tue Jul 18, 2017 1:15 pm

nectarios wrote:Is the Model 110 Quad Gate, 4 LPGs?

110 is basically 4 discrete transistor core VCA's
"Gate" was just the term used in the 100 series for the VCA's

Not your question exactly - but contrary to popular belief that there were no vactrols used in the early Buchla stuff, there actually is a LPG in the 100 series, the 192.

nectarios · Post by **nectarios** » Tue Jul 18, 2017 1:19 pm

Thanks for answering the 110 question.

So I am confused with the VCO as well...would I be able to put it next to say the DPO and control that with Rene as I would the DPO? Will the coarse/fine knobs, work as expected, whist it receives quantized CV from a common sequencer, like Rene?

CatalystAudio · Post by **CatalystAudio** » Tue Jul 18, 2017 1:22 pm

nordheim wrote:beautiful! any more of an estimate on price? any possibility of a bundle price for all of them?

We are hoping to do a bundle price if you buy them all as a "system", Still too far away to give any concrete details on that though.

As far as price goes - not yet sorry.
We basically know the cost for panels, parts, and distribution, but we are still waiting to get a final quote from manufacturers.

CatalystAudio · Post by **CatalystAudio** » Tue Jul 18, 2017 1:43 pm

nectarios wrote:Thanks for answering the 110 question.

So I am confused with the VCO as well...would I be able to put it next to say the DPO and control that with Rene as I would the DPO? Will the coarse/fine knobs, work as expected, whist it receives quantized CV from a common sequencer, like Rene?

Probably not. Just to be clear - the 158 is perfectly capable of playing in tune over about 4 octaves. But (the 158) it doesn't have any tuning capabilities built in. The large knobs that look like they should be used for tuning? They basically directly control the pitch of the oscillators when it is in "internal" mode, but they are disconnected from the circuit when you use an external voltage. Given the context and the controllers that were designed to be used with these osc's in 1968 it wasn't much of a problem (touchplates with individual cv control for each plate, or unquantized sequencers) but in 2017 and in eurorack it's not ideal. We thought about redesigning this aspect of the 158, but it would have involved essentially changing some fundamental aspects of how the oscillator works (electrically) and we didn't want to do that. This is actually why we designed the 156M I mentioned above. Using that as a front end to the 158 you would be able to adjust tuning and scaling and use the same CV from Rene to control both a DPO and a 158.

You should of course be able to use Rene's unquantized mode to set the pitch on the 158 to whatever you like. This is essentially what the original Buchla touchplates and sequencers did.

nectarios · Post by **nectarios** » Tue Jul 18, 2017 2:01 pm

I see. Thanks for the explanation.

nordheim · Post by **nordheim** » Tue Jul 18, 2017 8:43 pm

CatalystAudio wrote:
nordheim wrote:beautiful! any more of an estimate on price? any possibility of a bundle price for all of them?
We are hoping to do a bundle price if you buy them all as a "system", Still too far away to give any concrete details on that though.

As far as price goes - not yet sorry.
We basically know the cost for panels, parts, and distribution, but we are still waiting to get a final quote from manufacturers.

cool! thanks for the update!

quadrupole · Post by **quadrupole** » Wed Jul 19, 2017 12:14 am

Yes, thanks for all the info regarding the 156/158! It's much appreciated, and I'll definitely look forward to the 156M. These modules seem really inspiring, and have me thinking of another case for the first time in a while!

MOD WIGGLER

MOD WIGGLER

Catalyst Audio Buchla 100 clones for Eurorack