Buchla unveils Ziggy: a €1,025 desktop synthesizer arriving later this year

Buchla has announced Ziggy, a desktop analog synthesizer priced at €1,025, with shipping planned for late summer or early autumn 2026. The instrument debuted at Superbooth 2026 in Berlin.

Buchla is one of the most historically significant names in synthesis. Don Buchla’s 1963 instrument, developed at roughly the same time as Robert Moog’s synthesizer, established what became known as West Coast synthesis: complex oscillators, lowpass gates, and wavefolder-based timbre control, rather than the subtractive filtering associated with the Moog. The Ziggy applies that framework in a desktop format priced under $1,100.

What’s inside

The primary sound generator is a complex oscillator, accompanied by a modulation oscillator. There is no traditional filter. Instead, Ziggy uses a lowpass gate, which combines amplitude and filter control in a single circuit. The result is a sound that opens and closes rather than simply fading in level, giving it a percussive, organic quality that a standard VCA does not produce. A timbre wavefolder provides additional harmonic control by folding the waveform back on itself, generating overtones.

Beyond the analog core, Ziggy includes a digital effects section covering reverbs, pitch-shifting, flanging, delays, and distortions. Patch memory is included for preset recall. Connectivity covers 1V/octave, gate, and CV inputs, plus USB-C MIDI, 5-pin DIN MIDI, and 3.5mm MIDI. Power is via USB-C.

Price

At €1,025, Ziggy sits below Buchla’s Easel Command, which retails closer to $2,000, and lands in the same price range as the Make Noise 0-Coast and the Moog Subharmonicon. Whether the Buchla name justifies the premium over those alternatives depends on what you want from West Coast synthesis. The complex oscillator and lowpass gate here are the genuine article, not approximations of the design philosophy.

Buchla showed Ziggy at Superbooth 2026, running May 7–9 at FEZ-Berlin. Shipping is expected in late summer or early autumn 2026.