Tuesday 5 December 2017

Buchla 200e explores space

Have you ever wondered about the origin of the names of some of Don Buchla's instruments?
Esp the later 200e series. Skylab, LEM, Aquarius, Spider, Snoopy ????
I must thank my friend Justin for enlightening me.
They are all references to NASA space exploration vehicles.

Skylab
Skylab was the United States' first space station, orbiting Earth from 1973 to 1979.
 The Buchla Skylab. It's a 10U size system designed to be portable.
LEM
The Apollo Lunar Module (LM), originally designated the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM), was the lander portion of the Apollo spacecraft built for the US Apollo program




 An amazing piece of engineering to say the least.

Named the LEM 208, it's a BEMI easel, minus the 218 keyboard.

Aquarius
"Houston we have a problem"

The Apollo 13 mission almost ended in disaster. An explosion on board forced the crew to circle the moon without landing. Oxygen tank No. 2 blew up, causing the No. 1 tank to also fail. 
The command module's normal supply of electricity, light and water was lost, and they were about 200,000 miles from Earth.  Apollo 13 "Aquarius" was used as a lifeboat. It burned up in Earth's atmosphere April 17, 1970 but saved the lives of all crew. An incredible achievement.


Below is the Buchla LEM7 Aquarius, with a 218 keyboard.
Its a great interface module ... esp for eurorack systems, providing MIDI, usb, CVs, gates etc.
The Aquarius LEM Includes:
a 3 module powered boat
225h Midi to CV converter
202u multiples & utilities module
4 half module blanks

Spider
Apollo 9 was the third manned mission in the United States Apollo space program and the first flight of the Command/Service Module (CSM) with the Lunar Module (LM, pronounced "lem"). It launched on 3rd March 1969. It was a luna module test flight. This was the first space docking of two vehicles with a crew transfer between them. The CSM was named "Gumdrop" and the LEM was named "Spider".


The Buchla LEM Spider.
The Spider LEM includes:
3 module powered boat
225h MIDI-CV interface
226h CV-MIDI interface
252e Polyphonic Rhythm Generator


 Snoopy
Apollo 10 was the fourth manned mission in the United States Apollo space program, and the second (after Apollo 8) to orbit the Moon. Launched on May 18, 1969, it was the F mission: a "dress rehearsal" for the first Moon landing, testing all of the components and procedures, just short of actually landing.
As you have probably worked out my now, Snoopy was the name given to the LEM.

The Buchla LEM Snoopy
Snoopy consists of :
3 module powered boat 
226h (CV to Midi converter),
225h Midi and CV interface,
292h Dual Dynamics Manager
281h Dual Function Generator
261e Complex waveform Generator


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