Buchla 200e series, User Manual

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Because traditional sequencers tend to operate with an assumed concept of a “note”, it’s
important to emphasize here that there is no inherent relationship between pulses and CVs in the
252e. They can be assigned or not as you like. Cells can have pulses but no CVs, or CVs but no
pulses. As you’ll see below, CVs and pulses are both represented in the ring display as R/G/B
colors, but that doesn’t imply a functional relationship. For example, you
can create a single synth
“voice” using the 252e where the Red pulse is the note on trigger, CV 1 is pitch, and CV 4 is
velocity. We have made it convenient to organize the outputs this way because it’s an obvious
application when creating three voice polyrhythms using three rings at the same time. However
many other logical organizations are possible and encouraged.
Ring Display Modes
The ring display at the center of the 252e can show four different sets of cell properties using the
R/G/B color scheme. At power on time, the “pulses” view is displayed. It might be helpful
conceptually to think of the different views as layers, analogous to visual layers in programs like
Adobe Photoshop. The “pulses” layer indicates the presence of pulses in cells with the colors red,
green, and blue (and their simple combinations). The “cv 1-3” layer shows the presence of CV
assignments for outputs 1, 2 and 3 using the same R/G/B scheme. The “cv 4-6” and “subdiv”
layers show CV outputs 4,5 and 6 as R/G/B, and cell subdivide pulses as Red. A fifth mode
shows them all superimposed so you can see which cells are empty and which are occupied.
Having different display layers helps one to visualize where the various kinds of cell data has been
assigned in the rings, but it also affects certain editing procedures. The “paste”, “clear”, and
“phase” controls affect only the data associated with the current display layer. So for example, if
you press the “clear” button when the “subdiv” display mode is active, only the cell subdivide
pulses will be erased from the current cell. Similarly with the other controls and display modes. If
you want to duplicate only the CV data for outputs 1, 2 and 3 from one ring into another, you can
copy and paste while the “cv 1-3” is active. In fact,
copy always copies the data from all layers,
it is the paste function that’s selective.
This feature adds some complexity to the user interface of the 252e which may make things a little
bit confusing for new users, but after a little bit of practice, its utility when editing and performing
with complex arrangements will become apparent.
Let’s suppose you choose to associate pulses and CVs together to describe a set of three
traditional synth voices. In this scheme, the red, green, and blue pulse outputs would represent
note on triggers; red for voice 1, green for voice 2, and blue for voice 3. CV outputs 1, 2, and 3
would represent pitch, and CV outputs 4, 5, and 6 would represent note velocity. A simple
application would be to use three different rings, perhaps ring 4 containing only red pulses, ring 7
containing only green pulses, and ring 16 containing only blue pulses. Next you would enter pitch
data for ring 4 by adding CV values for output 1; then pitch data for ring 7 using CV output 2; and
finally pitch data on ring 16 using CV output 3. Then for velocity on ring 4 use CV output 4; ring 7
velocity on CV output 5, and velocity on ring 16 using CV output 6. This gives you three kinds of
data on three different display/edit layers.
Using the display modes, you can now modify and shift the temporal relationships between
rhythm, pitch, and velocity independently. For example, with the “pulses” layer selected, turning
the “phase” knob will shift the rhythmic pattern in relationship to the pitch and velocity data. When
combined with the “randomize” feature described below in the
Advanced Editing section, you can
very quickly create musically expressive patterns and vary them in many interesting ways.