Buchla 259 - Episode 01 - In the Beginning...

Many - if not all - contemporary complex oscillators are inspired by Buchla's original 259 from the 1970's. I don't think there's anything before that, except maybe the 258 ('60s) and FM radio ('50s). John Chowning is considered the father of digital FM synthesis - also in the 70s - but even in 2017 scientists were breaking their heads over 'how to make a digital wavefolder'. I guess eurorack would be far less interesting without mr. Buchla's work. In this episode I'll focus on the main/principal oscillator of the complex VCO design. We'll check out the DPO and the Cs-L while being guided by the 259's panel (thanks to mr. Todd Barton for shooting some great images), but even mr. Barton's 259 is a clone. I learned a lot by just looking at the panel. The 'autotune' on the original is not implemented on the clone PCB's so DIY people wonder how it would have worked.
I recently learned it actually never worked because Don never implemented it.

So this video contains inevitable speculation, but even that is very inspiring. I'll try to get a Verbos CO for episode 02, since Mark Verbos actually built original 259's in Buchla's garage. It brings back memories and visions I can't possibly have, but it only confirms the 259 is - and will always be - very special.

00:00 Introduction
01:33 High level layout
02:19 Functional compares
03:55 The Principal VCO
05:24 The Furthrrr Generator's Principal VCO
06:43 The DPO's Principal VCO
09:11 The Cs-L Dual Principal VCO
11:05 The Buchla 258 predecessor.