Pioneer Tribute Modules Preferred to Eurorack Size

We recently had the pleasure of delivering a Pioneer "Tribute" system to the studio of Steve Everitt, an accomplished professional composer and musician. Steve has been a regular contributor to 'Eat Static' - an eclectic electronic band headed by Merv Pepler. Taking along another Pioneer "Tribute" system and combining it with Steve's Aviator meant there was a total of 5 complete Exclusively Analogue synth lines. Tony commented - "Whilst I have the technical ability to produce the equipment, I sadly lack the musical talent to be able to produce anything remotely appealing. In contrast Steve has talent by the bucket load, which was proven within the first 30 minutes of my being there when he added a sound from his new Pioneer system into a beautiful piano led piece he was working on. The piece already had Steve's Aviator in the mix and the end result was a magical combination [...]

2014-04-14T16:20:05+00:00April 14th, 2014|

The Story Of Aviator No.28

It's always great to hear the stories and thoughts of Aviator owners and this post is more of a guest post than anything else. The owner of Aviator No.28 has written in to give us his story and how he has used it as part of the setup for his band Eat Static. When I bought my Aviator, I was in an experimental techno band called Eat Static. That was around the time of our 3rd album, 'Science Of The Gods', so probably 1997. Your synths were as rare as rocking horse poo at the time and highly sought after. Luckily, I had become a successful Production Music composer in my day job and was able to pay a bit over the odds for mine. Worth every extra penny! There were three members in Eat Static and we had an enviable collection of analogue synths and drum machines. No modular [...]

2014-02-18T20:21:02+00:00January 22nd, 2014|

The early days of the Aviator

Digging around the other day we came across a set of photographs of the very first Aviator, the “First of the Few”. This first unit was very much a prototype and although it had a full front panel initially it was mounted into a rack case with all the additional electronics circuitry bolted on. Later the unit was modified, put into a proper case and the additional circuitry tidied up. On the very early Aviators the 3 Voltage Controlled Oscillators and the Voltage Controlled Low Frequency Oscillator were built on individual circuit boards that were stacked. The 24dB Low Pass Filter, the Range Switch and Ring Modulator Circuitry were also on individual circuit boards. When we did the update last year to build the “Last of the Few” we did quite a major redesign to tidy up the circuit boards without changing the actual circuitry or sound of the Aviator. [...]

2013-08-26T07:56:22+00:00August 26th, 2013|

Aviator #33 and #42 Showcased

We've already mentioned the "Happy Knobbing" event in a previous post where a group of enthusiasts in Germany get together for some Synth fun. One of their "meet ups" happened recently and the owners of Aviator #33 and #42 were kind enough to send us some photos. Aviator #33 uses the original design of the front panel while #44 (as can be seen in the photos below) has the new black front panel. The cabinet housing #44 also has in it a Theis TMSS modular synth. If you're the proud owner of an Exclusively Analogue Aviator we'd love to hear from you. What other systems do you use it with? What do you regard as the best features? Drop us a note and say "hi".

2013-05-26T17:30:05+00:00May 26th, 2013|

Aviator No. 41 Dispatched Plus More Sound Samples

Aviator No. 41 is built, tested and ready to be delivered and work on No. 42 is about to begin. Here's hoping that No. 42 will indeed be the answer to life, the universe and everything for the person that's ordered it. Keep an eye out for some more photos of The Aviator in coming weeks as there have been a couple of custom requests we'll hopefully be able to share with you. In the meantime here's a few more sound samples for you, quickly recorded on a laptop while testing No. 41 so apologies for the sound quality. One of the sounds demonstrates the VCO sync function used for the lead synth part of a Jean Michele Jarre piece and what makes it great is that it's almost the analogue synth equivalent to an overdriven electric guitar. Another sound demonstrates the "Sample and Hold" in use controlling the VCF [...]

2013-05-05T18:29:06+00:00March 9th, 2013|

Why Analogue Synths In A Digital World?

I’m often asked why I remain firmly rooted in the past using technology from the 1970s and 1980s rather than taking the leap into the present and embracing the digital world. While you might think at my age I would enjoy nothing better than driving my car listening to classical music, heavy rock or perhaps the Bee Gees it might surprise you to know that Tiesto, the Swedish House Mafia, or a Trance compilation (played at the required high volume sufficient to get the whole car to become a bass resonator) is nearer the truth! I know Trance is an acquired taste but what attracts me is that if you listen to most tracks you can guarantee that a lot of the sounds used are “analogue'” in origin and in particular a great deal of use is made of sweeping filters. Analogue synthesizers have been part of my life since [...]

2013-02-02T19:28:10+00:00February 2nd, 2013|
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