{"id":151771,"date":"2026-01-21T17:54:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T23:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.synthtopia.com\/?p=151771"},"modified":"2026-01-21T20:16:37","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T02:16:37","slug":"exploring-the-touche-don-buchlas-rare-polyphonic-keyboard-instrument","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.synthtopia.com\/content\/2026\/01\/21\/exploring-the-touche-don-buchlas-rare-polyphonic-keyboard-instrument\/","title":{"rendered":"Exploring The Touch\u00e9, Don Buchla&#8217;s Rare Polyphonic Keyboard Instrument"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Touch\u00e9: Don Buchla\u2019s Rare Polyphonic Keyboard Instrument\" width=\"900\" height=\"506\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/84Rwyp9WIy0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>Electronic musician <strong>Sarah Belle Reid<\/strong> shared a new video, exploring an extremely rare electronic instrument called the <strong>Touch\u00e9<\/strong>, created by <strong>Buchla and Associates<\/strong> in 1980.<\/p>\n<p>Filmed at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.buchlaarchives.com\/\">Buchla Archives<\/a> in Vancouver &#8211; an organization dedicated to the preservation of Donald Buchla\u2019s work &#8211; the video offers a rare opportunity to hear and see an instrument that very few people have ever encountered firsthand.<\/p>\n<p>Reid\u2019s video begins with an overview of how the Touch\u00e9 grew out of Buchla\u2019s earlier computer-controlled instruments of the 1970s, including the 300 Series systems. From there, the video offers a detailed walkthrough of Touch\u00e9\u2019s sound architecture, including many musical demos.<\/p>\n<p>In the following video, below, Reid shares a short live performance with the Touch\u00e9. <!--more--><\/p>\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Sarah Belle Reid plays the Buchla Touch\u00e9\" width=\"900\" height=\"506\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5Vb8NL3lNTs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p><strong>About The Buchla Touch\u00e9<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Only around five Touch\u00e9 are known to have been built, and very few remain functional today. Because of this, the instrument has remained largely absent from both public performance and documentation. Reid\u2019s video helps bridge that gap by sharing the Touch\u00e9\u2019s sound, design, and historical context with a wider audience.<\/p>\n<p>While Don Buchla is best known for his modular synthesizers such as the 100 and 200 Series, he also created a number of non-modular, computer-based instruments like the Touch\u00e9 that explored new relationships between performance, software, and sound.<\/p>\n<p>The Touch\u00e9 was conceived by Don Buchla in collaboration with composer <strong>David Rosenboom<\/strong>. It is a bi-timbral, eight-voice polyphonic keyboard instrument that combines digital sound generation, analog processing, and computer-mediated control.<\/p>\n<p>via Ryan Gaston<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Electronic musician Sarah Belle Reid shared a new video, exploring an extremely rare electronic instrument called the Touch\u00e9, created by Buchla and Associates in 1980. Filmed at the Buchla Archives in Vancouver &#8211; an organization dedicated to the preservation of Donald Buchla\u2019s work &#8211; the video offers a rare opportunity to hear and see an&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.synthtopia.com\/content\/2026\/01\/21\/exploring-the-touche-don-buchlas-rare-polyphonic-keyboard-instrument\/\">Read More <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Exploring The Touch\u00e9, Don Buchla&#8217;s Rare Polyphonic Keyboard Instrument<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":151869,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[19,12,25],"tags":[36099,331,3865,36112,3044],"class_list":["post-151771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gear-reviews","category-keyboard-synthesizers","category-synthesizers","tag-2026-buchla-friends","tag-buchla","tag-buchla-and-associates","tag-buchla-touche","tag-don-buchla"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.synthtopia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/buchla-touche-synthesizer.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.synthtopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.synthtopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.synthtopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.synthtopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.synthtopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151771"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.synthtopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":151859,"href":"https:\/\/www.synthtopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151771\/revisions\/151859"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.synthtopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.synthtopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.synthtopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.synthtopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}