In celebration of the 50th anniversary for the E-mu Modular Exclusively Analogue will be hosting a seminar at Synthfest 2022 which will be taking place on October 8th in Sheffield UK. […]
A line from ‘Arnie’ in the Terminator movie of “I’ll be back” I can now change to “I am back!” At the end of 2014 the takeover of the airline I worked for caused me to make the decision to go somewhere else before the airline ceased to exist. I ended up working in the United Arab Emirates flying nice new Boeing 777 and 787 aircraft all over the world and that provided some unique opportunities but kept me busy. The flights I operated took me to lots of new places including Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles and during those flights I managed to meet Rob Drinkwater at Chicago University and Mr E-mu himself, Dave Rossum in Scotts Valley, California. I had been in contact with Rob Drinkwater previously because the university has quite a large original E-Mu modular system and I was able to help them repair some of [...]
As the festive period hits and the end of the year draws ever closer it seems like the perfect time to provide a quick status update on Merlin and how things are progressing. For those who have been keeping an eye open for new updates there is a mix of news to share. The first (good) news is that re-designs of the initial concept circuit-boards are moving along nicely and should make Merlin easier to build both as individual units and as batch jobs when we get to that stage. If we can finalise the design of the boards it will then enable us to confirm the size of the casing to house it and how that then compares with the more traditional Eurorack module sizes. So what about other news? As some readers will know there have been busy periods in the past where the day job has taken [...]
We're pleased to confirm that 'The Merlin' is now real and in direct response to feedback and suggestions from Exclusively Analogue customers. In keeping with the aviation link the 'Merlin' is named after the iconic Rolls Royce engine that powered a number of aircraft including the Spitfire, Hurricane, Mosquito, and Lancaster. The aim of Merlin is to provide a powerful analogue synthesizer with maximum flexibility and at a competitive price (approximately £800 depending on format). Part of the flexibility comes from making it small enough to fit into the Eurorack format but without compromising usability. To this end all of the jack sockets are on the bottom to avoid patch leads crossing the controls which is a common drawback of a lot of Eurorack modules. Merlin is available either as a self powered 19" rack mount module, a self powered desktop module, or in Eurorack format able to utilise an [...]
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 [...]
At the end of 2013 Tony decided to build a special 24" by 24" "Square" Pioneer 'Tribute' system similar to the original Emu modular that he had in 1994. The modules have been built into a Maple wood cabinet and have been set up as two complete synthesizer lines including 5 VCOs, 3 different Voltage Controlled Filters, 2 Dual Transient Generators, 2 Voltage Controlled Amplifiers plus a few other useful modules. The picture below shows two modular systems together. The two systems provide 4 separate analogue synth lines controlled by various Kenton MIDI/CV convertors. Using the MIDI files of some well-known pieces of music Tony had the basis to experiment with different sounds. As an example, he used 1 line for the bass, 2 lines as sequences and the final line as a lead with an added drum track from a MacBook Pro. The MacBook Pro, running Logic Pro, was [...]
