Chances are, if you have dipped your toes into the Buchla paradigm you more than likely will run into a performance or recording in spatial sound. In the 70s, quadraphonic sound was considered the new frontier with quad turntables popping up left and right (or front and back).

Composers and performers had been using multi-speaker setups for years, but there weren’t many interfaces meant to specifically mix for this setup. Instead, they had to bring pairs of power amps and preamplifiers, and rely on careful mixing and modification to move sound about a room. Don created many quad mixers, and Buchla composers were no longer just limited to writing pieces regarding only pitch and duration. The spatial element was the future of composition.

The 223 was a one-off module that was more than likely designed to work in tandem with the 227 System Interface. It connected to each input channel of the 227 to allow the user to preselect the starting position for a sound, instead of the default position that the 227 was configured for. On the System Interface, the sound starts in the rear left speaker. Switching the start point of these CVs through a series of inverters, one can use the same CV output scheme for all channels, but cause the sounds to move in opposite directions.

223 PANEL

The 223 is still in development, but we decided to give it a panel graphic to complete the look, with labels that made the most sense in relation to the schematic.

This module currently resides at EMEAPP in Philadelphia, and is part of their Buchla collection.