West Coast synthesis is an exciting alternative to East Coast subtractive but it can often come at a price. These offerings will satisfy your wavefolder cravings without the boutique prices.
Best West Coast Synthesizers for Cheap
Eurorack has changed everything. Thanks to its popularity and experimental ethos, we’ve seen cross-pollination happening, with formerly esoteric and boutique synthesis principles making their way into otherwise traditional subtractive synths. One such type is West Coast synthesis, with the wavefolder appearing in all number of mass-market synthesizers now.
Previously the exclusive playthings of a small number of dedicated modular boffins, West Coast is now having its moment in the sun. However, it remains a pricey beast, with Buchla modules selling for shockingly high sums of money. Even Tiptop Audio’s Eurorack conversions of Buchla classics are on the pricey side. What’s an adventurous synthesist to do then? Well, you don’t have to sell your car or a major organ as there are a few ways to get that California sound without bruising your credit card.
Here are our picks for the best West Coast synthesizers for cheap, in both hardware and software form.
What Is West Coast Synthesis?
Before we dive into the picks, let’s address what some of you might be thinking: what is West Coast synthesis anyway? West Coast synthesis refers to the type of synthesis architecture that Don Buchla developed in San Francisco (hence “West Coast”) in the 1960s.
Whereas East Coast synthesis, as pioneered by Bob Moog working in New York, starts with wave shapes like sawtooth and square and then subtracts harmonics and volume with filters and amplitude envelopes, West Coast synthesis begins with simple waveshapes but makes them complex with wavefolders and frequency modulation. It also often features a lowpass gate, a combination filter and amplitude envelope. It’s a unique approach that can yield some radically different sounds than East Coast and therein lies the attraction.
For more on Don and the history of the Buchla, please see this article.
Best West Coast Synthesizers: Korg Volca Modular
There’s no better (and cheaper) place to start your journey with West Coast synthesis than the Korg Volca Modular. Actually semi-modular (it will still make sound even without patches), it features a number of West Coast standards: a triangle VCO carrier and modulator, a wavefolder circuit, a dual lowpass gate, two function generators – attack, hold and release plus Rise-Fall – and a random signal generator. Take full advantage of all of this with the included pin cables for patching between modules.
Being a Volca, it also has all that that encompasses, including a 16-step sequencer and parameter automation. Rather than MIDI in, though, it sports CV in so you can pair it with a modular setup. All this makes it one of the best West Coast synthesizers for cheap.
Best West Coast Synthesizers: Cre8audio West Pest
Designed in conjunction with Pittsburgh Modular, the Cre8audio West Pest is a tabletop synthesizer with a number of West Coast-style parameters (as the name suggests). Semi-modular with plenty of patch points, you can also take it out of its enclosure and drop it into a Eurorack case if that’s your thing.
The West Pest is not slavishly West Coast in a Buchla vein but instead uses the synthesis style as a starting point. There’s a buzzy oscillator with FM, a waveform contour (like a wavefolder with a Gold’s Gym membership) and a dynamics controller, which acts as an envelope generator, VCA and lowpass filter. There’s also a sequencer and arpeggiator plus MIDI, so it’ll play nicely with your DAW and otherwise traditional East Coast setup.
The Cr8audio West Pest is surprisingly inexpensive given the sound quality, making it another one of the best West Coast synthesizers for cheap.
Best West Coast Synthesizers: Arturia MiniBrute 2S
“What? This guy must be an idiot if he thinks the MiniBrute 2S is West Coast. It’s clearly East Coast. Grrr!” OK, hear me out. I realize that the Arturia MiniBrute 2S is ostensibly a semi-modular subtractive analog monosynth and it might not be the best choice for someone looking for West Coast in the strictest meaning of the term. However, if you look at the MiniBrute 2S in a certain way, it has many West Coast elements.
First off, it has a complex oscillator and modulating oscillator for FM. There’s also the wavefolder (the Metallizer). You can modulate the filter resonance, it has random LFOs and can even exhibit lowpass gate-like functionality if you need.
Again, it’s not West Coast in the strictest sense but if you need a synth to hold your hand while you make the transition from East to West, the Arturia MiniBrute 2S is standing by.
Best West Coast Synthesizers: Make Noise 0-Coast
One of the first West Coast-lite instruments to come out, the Make Noise 0-Coast actually proclaims no loyalty to either coast – the name is “No Coast” after all.
A semi-modular analog monosynth that expands when you patch it, Make Noise 0-Coast features an East Coast-style oscillator, two waveshaping circuits plus both an ADSR and loopable Buchla-style Rise-Fall envelope. Additionally, the 0-Coast has CV for Eurorack integration and MIDI for traditional keyboard playing.
If all this sounds impressive, you should hear the 0-Coast in action. Capable of both ear-pinging West Coast and synthy East Coast sounds plus loads in between, it’s a versatile instrument that is an excellent way to dip your toes into the West Coast pool.
Best West Coast Synthesizers: Moog Labyrinth
A Moog in a West Coast synthesist listicle? Well, if the synth fits. East Coast synthesis may be named after the location where Bob did his early work developing the Moog modular in the 1960s but that doesn’t mean the company can’t try out different types of synthesis. Enter the Labyrinth, a West Coast-inspired, semi-modular tabletop synth.
Sequencer-driven, it has two generative sequencers for creating unusual and unexpected patterns. The sound section includes two sine wave oscillators, a diode-transistor wavefolder, through-zero FM, ring modulators and – unusual for Moog – a state-variable filter that morphs from lowpass to bandpass.
Probably the most unusual of Moog’s tabletop series, it represents an atypical foray into experimental territory. This makes it one of the best West Coast synthesizers for cheap.
Best West Coast Synthesizers: Software Options
If you prefer to keep your West Coast travels in the box, there are a few solid software options to introduce you to West Coast synthesis concepts.
Arturia’s Buchla Easel V recreates the Buchla instrument of the same name from the early 1970s. Sort of like Buchla’s answer to the Minimoog, it allowed adventurous synthesists to take their bleeps and bloops on the go. Arturia’s version looks and sounds great and – thanks to the built-in help prompts – you’ll be tweaking and banana-cable patching in no time.
Aalto by Madrona Labs is a Buchla-style semi-modular software synthesizer with a number of West Coast-style parameters including a complex oscillator with FM, timbre and waveshape controls, a lowpass gate module with a vactrol emulation in the control path and a patchable waveguide/delay module with a waveshaper, as well as a state-variable filter.
Lastly, for those with an iPad, Bram Bos Ripplemaker is a semi-modular West Coast synth with an easy-to-understand GUI.
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