The Tiptop Audio Buchla Model 296t is a 16 band spectral resonator & vocoder based on the original Buchla 296.

The 296 was first introduced in 1978 and very few were ever made. Making a module of such complexity at a time when electronic schematics were drawn with pencils, with 48 filters that were most likely hand-calculated is just incredible.

The 70's were a great era of exploration and proof of audio electronics scientific theories, but for Don Buchla it seems like it was always something beyond theory.

The 296 might at first look like an equalizer, but Don Buchla had totally different ideas for it. He managed to pack into it a 16-band analogue modular spectral processor, a cross-band vocoder, plus a massive amount of patch points to work with his synthesizer system.