Moog Labyrinth has two sequencers · Source: Moog
What happens when subtractive analog synthesis meets West Coast synthesis? More sound-creating options! These five analog hardware synthesizers combine the best of both coasts, giving you new ways to play and program sounds.
We all know subtractive synthesis. That’s the architecture that Bob Moog developed in the 1960s in New York. Also known as East Coast synthesis, it starts with dense harmonics generated by oscillators that you then shape (or subtract from) with filters and envelopes. At the same time that Bob was working up his synths, Don Buchla in California was pioneering a different kind of analog synthesizer. This West Coast style started with simple sine wave oscillators and then used frequency modulation and wavefolding to add harmonic complexity.
Thanks to the popularity of Eurorack, manufacturers started combining elements of the two styles into single instruments, introducing new ways to program sounds and also play them. After all, a traditional piano-style keyboard is far from the only way to interface with a synth.
Here are five of the best bi-coastal synths, ones that combine elements of both East Coast and West Coast synthesis.
One of the first synthesizers to capture the zeitgeist for bringing elements of East Coast and West Coast synthesis together was Make Noise’s 0-Coast. A semi-modular standalone tabletop analog synthesizer, it is neither Bob nor Don-style but something entirely new. Hence the name meaning “no coast.”
The oscillator section is West Coast-inspired. The VCO starts with a triangle core and then gets passed through unique Multiply and Divide sections that affect the oscillator, creating frequency ratios and new harmonic relationships. There’s also an Overtone control for introducing wavefolding. You can then modulate these sections with the Slope.
On the East Coast side, there’s no filter. There’s no West Coast low pass gate either. Instead, you get a Dynamics section that acts like a traditional VCA.
Make Noise 0-Coast is a fun and unique way to explore concepts derived from both coasts. It also sounds beautiful.
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Pittsburgh Modular is at the forefront of analog synthesis, and Voltage Labs 2, the second standalone semi-modular synth in our list, is a shining example of what happens when you combine the best of East Coast and West Coast synthesis.
Each of the two Laboratory Oscillators does something freaky with wavefolding. Oscillator 1 features Center Clipping, which gives you independent control over the top and bottom of the waveform, processing from the center out as opposed to from the peaks inwards as on traditional wavefolding. Oscillator 2, meanwhile, includes Pulse Symmetry for a new type of pulse wave, and Reflection, which reflects the bottom half of the wave up to the top.
Other Buchla-inspired parameters include the low pass gate-like Dynamics Controller, which affects frequency and amplitude simultaneously, plus a touch controller for more freedom of playing expression than a traditional keybed.
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When Labyrinth dropped from Moog, there were shocked faces all around. The company that invented East Coast synthesis was dipping its toes in the West Coast pool? This makes Labyrinth fairly unique for a Moog synth.
Coming in the same Eurorack-ready 60HP format as the Mother-32 and Spectravox, Labyrinth features new types of oscillators, a non-Ladder state variable filter, wavefolding and parallel processing. The two oscillators deserve a closer look: one offers a triangle wave that you can run as an LFO to modulate the other’s sine wave. Complex oscillator, anyone?
The heart of the synth is its two generative sequencers, with adjustable control over the VCO, VCW (Voltage Controlled Wavefolder) and state variable VCF cutoff.
Don’t get the Labyrinth if you want to make funky basslines (that’s what a Minimoog is for). But for sonic exploration and freaky experiments, I can’t think of anything better to get lost in than Labyrinth.
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A key component of the Buchla-style complex oscillator is frequency modulation. While we normally think of FM as being a digital kind of synthesis because of the mathematical preciseness ones and zeroes can deliver, analog can do it too. It’s just one oscillator modulating another, after all. Magnolia from Frap Tools is such an analog FM synthesizer.
And not just FM, but through-zero linear FM, a special kind of analog frequency modulation that produces cleaner FM tones than what analog is usually capable of. Now imagine that with eight voices of polyphony, both East Coast and West Coast-style oscillators, a high-pass and low-pass resonant filters, analog pre-filter saturation, and envelopes and LFOs. And all with a five-octave velocity-sensitive keyboard with polyphonic aftertouch and adjustable curves.
Frap Tools Magnolia is a powerful synthesizer that beautifully combines bi-coastal synthesis functionality.
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While many of the other synthesizers we’ve looked at here are East Coast with West Coast additions, Buchla’s new Ziggy works the other way around. It’s primarily West Coast but with some concessions that might make it a little more familiar to those used to subtractive synthesis.
The monophonic tabletop analog synth is very Buchla – but up to a point. You get a complex oscillator and modulation oscillator, waveshaping and a low pass gate. There’s also a source of “uncertainty” available for the LFO-like Cycler, something important and part of the experimental ethos of Don Buchla.
However, in a nod to the East, you also get selectable envelope shapes that respond to gate signals as part of the low pass gate. Other Bob-like functionality includes MIDI, adherence to the 1V/oct CV/gate standard, Eurorack-style gate inputs rather than banana jacks, digital effects, and preset storage.
Ziggy is a great way to bridge the chasm between the two styles for West Coast newcomers. It will work as-is in your current studio and interface with other gear you already have. However, it offers enough of the Buchla spirit to keep it from being a watered-down experience.
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