Textual Buchla:

Re-Interfacing the 250e

Final Year Research Project 2024/2025
Carried out in fulfillment of a BSc in Music Media & Performance Technology at the University of Limerick

This research investigates the Buchla 250e Dual Arbitrary Function Generator and presents a series of max patches encapsulating the conceptual metaphors of the 250e in a new textually controlled environment, developed for live performance contexts.

This work presents a new interface for the functions of the Buchla 250e, taking inspiration from Live-Coding approaches and allowing for the development of new abstractions over device functionality. Alongisde a new interface, this work expands on the functionality of the 250e and integrates the device alongside a number of synthesis and sampling approaches, unavailable in the Buchla ecosystem, such as granular sampling.

A Max for Live version of the resulting device will be available soon.

The Buchla 250e is an esoteric device used for the sequencing, structuring and manipulation of voltages and pulses in the Buchla 200e Modular Synthesis system. By grounding the development of a new device in the powerful conceptual framework leveraged by the 250e, this work presents a device which extends Buchlas' sequencing concepts into a new textually controlled context.