◊ Historic Buchla Modules
Buchla pages > Buchla 200 modules > 298 Sili Con Cellosax
Buchla pages > Buchla 200 modules > 298 Sili Con Cellosax
The Sili Con Cellosax, a custom module, reportedly only a half-dozen ever made. Custom-built for performances of Silicon Cello with Bay Area mathematician and cellist Ami Radunskaya in the late 70's.
Ami describes the piece: "In the early days of electronic instruments, we would create interactive performances by linking together various analog devices with wires, controlling the amplitudes or frequencies of oscillators by changing voltages. One such an attempt is a piece called Silicon Cello, where various analog modules respond to the cellist through envelope detectors and filters."
Initial peformances were realized using individual modules:
Designed as an interactive system to respond to performance gestures from acoustic instruments. Using a microphone connected through a preamp and envelope generator, control voltages and gate signals could be generated from acoustic sounds and used to control the synth. The unique binary counter module interprets the CV and gate signals and 'plays' the synth by instructing it to generate musical sounds.
(updated 4/2022 with clarifications & corrections from Rick Smith.)