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 synths, though, (unless you include the Waldorf Wave with its then innovative digital ‘patchbay’). All three of us had (and I think still have) a Roland SH-5, famous for its raucous bandpass filter, ring modulation and useful patching switches. The SH-5 was perfect for creating the sound of imaginary animals or alien voices, a kind of signature in our music, so the Aviator was initially tasked with trying to outdo the Roland in this regard.

I remember that we used to sample little snippets of the Aviator making atonal screeches, sweeps, bubbles and other ‘cross-mod’ effects and then set up sampler patches with multiple Aviators, one sound on each key, (something I still do today). Also, we would use MIDI to CV/Gate units to send a rhythmic part to the Aviator to create deranged hi-hats, guiros, congas etc. Of course, the fun part was twiddling knobs ‘live’ while recording these rhythmic parts. The three of us were always in competition over who could create the most outrageous noises and make the others laugh most. To make things even more interesting and enjoyable, we would try to pull faces that matched the sounds. All this while surrounded by about 30 cats in my studio. Happy days!

That was before I got married, obviously! Now, we have only two gigantic Maine-Coon cats, though I still pull stupid faces when I’m playing with the Aviator or SH-5 on the next Hairy Bikers’ theme or whatever. : )

What I’ve always enjoyed about the Aviator is not so much its sublime, warm musicality, (which is there, of course), but its ability to ascend to the ridiculous via unheard groans, squelches, burbles and all manner of grotesquerie which innovates rather than imitates. Analogue synths have a character and, while others are known for their warmth, purity, complexity or rawness, for me the Aviator endures for its ability to do all those and be funny and rude without being offensive – probably because its British, and exclusive.

Aviator #28 - Exclusively Analogue

As you can see from the image above, Aviator #28 had a custom front panel and colour scheme making in a definite collectors item.