West Coast

West Coast is a synthesis method, which probably has more to do with the history of synthesizers and the way things developed initially than with what you’re supposed to or can do today.

An over simplified explaination
This is a simplifed explaination to illustrate subtle points. Actual usage involves a combination of both East and West Coast techniques.

Most music synthesizers are East Coast and are used for subtractive synthesis. This is the classic VCO-VCF-VCA patch, with ADSR envelopes for the VCF and VCA. The oscillators usually have very simple waveforms such as sawtooth and square wave and the filter is used to produce the timbres. This setup is easy to understand and operate, e.g. by a keyboard.

The three primary synthesis modes in West Coast instruments are additive, non-linear waveshaping and dynamic depth FM. Instead of a keyboard, these instruments are controlled with a sequencer or complex envelope generator. They produce a larger and different set of timbres than the East Coast instruments.

The classic patch in a West Coast instrument involves two blocks. The first is a complex oscillator which supports both non-linear waveshaping and dynamic depth FM (e.g. Buchla 259 or Serge NTO). The second signal processor is a Lowpass Gate (e.g. Buchla 292). The primary timbre generation is done directly with the oscillator, the Lowpass Gate just tweaks the amplitude and frequency character. These two blocks are designed to be controlled by one complex envelope generator with multiple outputs routed to all the factors of the timbre.

DIY West Coast projects

 * CGS - Ken Stone's Modular Synthesizer has some Serge and a Buchla style Low Pass Gate.

DIY

 * Grant Richters synth-DIY page