The Pioneer Archives - Exclusively Analogue

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 [...]

admin2014-04-14T16:20:05+00:00April 14th, 2014|

Two Emu Modulars In Use – The Analogue Monster

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 [...]

admin2014-02-18T20:35:40+00:00February 18th, 2014|

Emu Modular Rebuild

We've recently completed a rebuild of an original Emu Modular for a customer in Germany. The rebuild involved supplying a new large cabinet, power supply and some of the Exclusively Analogue Pioneer Tribute modules. The picture included below shows the completed system and if you look carefully you might be able to pick out the new modules. Apart from adding the large VCO, 2 Low Pass Filters, Universal Active Filter, Dual Transient Generator, Lag Processor, Noise Source and a Ring Modulator this system also received two of the VCO Range Switch modules and one of the new Pot Pourri modules. This is the comment from the customer; "The modules Tony built sound spot on identical to the old originals and the craftsmanship is second to none. I am very happy"

admin2013-05-06T08:58:06+00:00May 8th, 2013|

Synth Apps on a phone vs The Real Thing and a new Universal Active Filter

It's been a while since my last blog mainly because my 'day job' of flying an airliner has kept me very busy recently. I, like so many people Worldwide, have joined the 'Apple' family and ended up with an iPhone and an iPad. One of the interesting things I noticed was a number of Apps (Applications) that you can get for musicians including some quite good analogue synthesizer ones. There is a very good app from Korg, that recreates the famous MS20 synthesizer, and another from Akai. Both allow you to recreate some very realistic analogue synth sounds on your iPhone/iPad. The downside however is the lack of tactility that you get from the 'real thing' and you are left trying to get used to finger movements on the screen and that takes time to master. It's so much easier to just tweak a knob or switch on the real [...]

admin2012-12-02T17:29:32+00:00August 2nd, 2012|

More Pioneer Tribute Soundbytes

While being busy at work and building the Pioneer "Tribute" systems a small window presented itself to record some more soundbytes. Available via the Exclusively Analogue soundcloud profile you can also listen to them below. In the future we will be looking to host more of these on Soundcloud and ensure we have a central store people can refer to in order to hear what the various Exclusively Analogue systems are like.

admin2012-05-31T07:51:41+00:00May 31st, 2012|

Pioneer “Tribute” Sound Test

As work continues on building the Pioneer "Tribute" systems and as a follow-up to the photos supplied in the last blog post here is a short sound test that was recently recorded. Apologies for the fuzzy ambient noise in the background, future recordings will hopefully have this reduced so the full capabilities of the system can be admired.

admin2012-04-15T20:03:35+00:00April 15th, 2012|