Anyone here own one of these beauties? Or, at least had the pleasure of testing one?
no, but I want everything they make! Sometimes I wish I had family money like this guy
Got to try one out over at Big City Music last summer. Certainly a work of art. I guess it depends on if you music needs those sorts of sounds or rather you want to create music that features it’s sonics. It’s not something that easily replaces something else or can be easily replaced by something else.
For me, it’s not worth the $3250. I could justify it if it was $500, but 3250 is a bit too much. It does have a really powerful sound, though. Is it tube based?
That was the first thing I thought also.
It’s hand built and has 8 VCOs, but AFIK not tube based. The point on the Swarmatron is surely that they can be user controlled to all converge or diverge.
8 VCO’s certainly explains the cost! 
As cool as they look and sound, those things are more like artwork than instruments. They are all discrete and unique, but a bit too gimmicky for the price.
Yeah, on the one hand it looks overpriced and gimmicky, perhaps a bit too “hip” and simple. But on the other hand, Trent Reznor has gotten some amazing sounds out of it that I wouldn’t mind recreating. Anyone have any ideas on how to duplicate that sound with a Moog and some CV control?
Well the first thing I can think of after watching that video is that if you want to recreate that on a Moog, youll need reverb!
I wonder how much of the studio does Trent know how to program himself. He’s got so much going on in there (Buchla) I think it would require a steep learning curve.
It could be more Atticus Ross…but who knows. Im not hating on Trent.
I love the sound, but it seems like a bit of an expensive trick, eh? maybe I’m not avant garde enough, but I don’t know how I could really use that as a primary instrument in a semi-normal song… maybe some bizarro awesome soundscapes, but that’d be a whole lotta dough for bizarro awesome soundscapes… multitracking a Voyager on a big bag of mushrooms would I bet yield a similar result… mmmm mushrooms… 
Just last week I played my Voyager on a mild dose . . . think I may have experienced time travel. 
Sound auras exploding into chaotic colorscapes, bleeding trails through warped tunnels of nowness.
I think the Buchla is more recent after getting into general modulars earlier (eurorack etc.), so it’s probably just the natural next step up in complexity. My bet is Trent got into Buchla through playing with Alessandro Cortini - who is all about the Buchla. P.S. Trent’s got a pretty nice Serge Modular going too!
I love the use of the Swarmatron doing the “lead” in BBB by How To Destroy Angels. It’s shown in an interview video online, visiting Trent & Atticus in the studio talking about the The Social Network Score.
But I agree with Filtered in terms of price vs usability of the Swarmatron (maybe for me personally anyways).
Regards,
David Smyth
NZ
Indeed, David.
That song specifically comes to mind. I also noticed in the video what looked like a piece of tape above the ribbon with the notes of the riff marked out, probably the only way to play exact pitches on it . . . unless of course you’re one of those lucky mofos with perfect pitch