Don Buchla

Don Buchla grew up with a passion for music and a passion for engineering. When he combined the two loves, he created electronic musical instruments the world had never dreamed of before. His early synthesizer work parallels the similar work Robert Moog was doing on the East Coast while Don was working in Berkeley, California. In 1965, the composers of the San Francisco Tape Music Center commissioned Don to build an electronic musical instrument for live performances and recording. As a result, Don introduced developed his first voltage-controlled synthesizer modules and, soon after, began selling the Series 100. Over the years he has introduced the first digitally controlled analog synthesizer available commercially, the Buchla Series 500 in 1971, and the portable Music Easel a year later. He was a regular at the NAMM Shows until his passing in 2016.