West coast synthesis is an approach to sound design associated with Don Buchla in California. It starts with simple waveforms, such as sine or triangle waves, and builds harmonic complexity with tools like wavefolding, waveshaping, and modulation. Buchla systems also leaned on complex oscillators, function generators, and low pass gates. Despite how it is sometimes described, it is not additive synthesis, which builds a sound by stacking individual sine waves.
The west coast label comes from where Buchla worked, in contrast to Moog’s east coast. It is a useful shorthand, but instruments from both traditions can do both things.
