When Don Buchla decided to build a synthesizer with four computers inside it in 1987, he wasn't just making another instrument—he was creating something that felt like it arrived from the future, even though it was designed to fit under an airplane seat. The 700 Series represented a radical departure from analog-only thinking, merging digital control with analog sound processing in ways that wouldn't become common practice for decades.
The heart of the 700 is a hybrid architecture built around a Motorola 68000 processor (the same chip powering early Macintosh computers) running custom MIDAS VII software. You get twelve voices, each with four digital oscillators capable of FM synthesis, waveshape interpolation, and timbre modulation—that's 48 oscillators working in concert. The analog domain handles the filtering, phase shifting, and dynamics processing, while fifteen envelopes per voice with up to 96 breakpoints give you granular control over every parameter. The instrument can manipulate up to 190 acoustic variables simultaneously, which is genuinely staggering for the era.
What sets the 700 apart physically is its control surface: nearly every control is a pressure and position-sensitive touch plate, eliminating traditional knobs and sliders in favor of a sealed membrane interface. The built-in LCD display shows you what you're editing without needing an external monitor, though you can connect an EGA video monitor for more detailed editing. Three MIDI ports with independent channel assignment let you control different voices from multiple controllers at once, while CV/Gate, RS232, and SMPTE inputs round out the connectivity. A built-in 3.5-inch disk drive stores up to forty instrument definitions for later recall.
The 700 has earned respect among those fortunate enough to encounter one in working condition. Its combination of deep FM capabilities, unusual waveshaping algorithms, and sophisticated envelope design opened sonic territories that felt genuinely novel at the time.
