Author: catsynth

  • Doris: A kitten on a Kitten

    Doris: A kitten on a Kitten

    Orange tabby kitten on an Octave KItten synthesizer.

    Meet Doris, an adorable kitten who has found the purrfect synthesizer to scamper upon: the Octave Kitten!

    Submitted by Edda Jayne via our Facebook page.

  • Monday Comics: Psychic TV

    Monday Comics: Psychic TV

    Resident cartoonist and CatSynth TV co-host J.B. shares his 1992 “special guest appearance” with the band Psychic TV.

    The text from the story in the comics:


    CIrca 1994, Psychic TV were one of my tavorile bands. was really Inspired by The lechno-Acid-Trance-Rock Thing They were doing at The time. As fate would have it, the band had moved their base of operations from London to the San Francisco Bay Area (long story…), and were playing around town a lot.


    On 29 May, 1992, Psychic TV played at 177 Townsend in San Francisco. Surprisingly, They then had a saxophonisi, Gamall Awad, playing some Free Jazz improvised lines over their thundering electro beats.


    This was a revelation. I had a cassette That I would listen To over and over – It had the Pat Metheny /Ornette Coleman album Song X on one side, and PTY’s Towards Thee Infinite Beat on The other. I daydreamed about what it would sound like to weave those two threads together. And here it was!

    Jus over Iwo months laler, on Augus 5th, Psychic TV played at The Edge In Palo Allo.

    Once again, Gamall was playing with the band. During the performance, Genesis P-Orridge spotled someone in The audience holding up a sitar.

    Genesis signalled to this person to join the band onstage.
    The sitarist, Chandra Shukla, joined the band onstage for an improvisation.


    A few thoughts came to mind. It seemed like audience parlicipation was an option here. And, since the band now had this saxophonist doing some Ornette-flavored alto lines, why not add some Eric Dolphy-type bass clarinet?

    decided That I was going to play with The band.

    My bass clarinel was in my Truck; I had gone siraighi lo The gig from a Vacuum Tree Head recording session.

    I went and grabbed The insirument.

    I Told the bouncers,

    “The band said that I could play with them”.

    Unbelievably, they let me back in.

    Chulzpah? Definitely!

    When the moment felt right, I “invited myself” onstage, went up To a mic, and look a brief solo.

    The band seemed alternately confused and amused by this.

    I finished up and jumped off.

    Later, Genesis waved both Chandra and I back onslage. There was an Improvisalion wilh myself on bass clarinet, Genesis on shehnai, and Chandra on sitar over one of Fred’s programmed beats.

    There is a recordng of all of his out there.

  • Sirius and SOMA Laboratory instruments

    Sirius and SOMA Laboratory instruments

    Sirius wanders among the various instruments from SOMA Laboratory, including the Lyra and Pulsar, in this captivating drone video by Anri Kiria.

  • Milo On Milton

    Milo On Milton

    Older tuxedo cat sitting on a blanket next to an analog step sequencer module.

    The venerable Milo relaxes next to a Milton Sequencer.

    Submitted by Keith Winstanley via our Facebook page.

    You can see Milo’s previous appearances here.

  • Pina and Modular

    Pina and Modular

    Beautiful calico cat Pina strolls in front of a massive Eurorack modular system.

    From ssilentstrike on Instagram,

  • Peter & Ozzy with Elektron Digitakt & Syntakt

    Peter & Ozzy with Elektron Digitakt & Syntakt

    It’s rare to see Peter and Ozzy together, but here they are on the platform behind the Elektron Digitakt and Syntakt boxes.

    From Dani Durán on Instagram.

    You can see a bit of the cats enjoying some beats on the two boxes here.

  • Haku and Future Retro 777

    Haku and Future Retro 777

    Cute gray tabby cat with a Future Retro 777 synthesizer.

    Handsome Haku graces us with not just a single photo but an entire photo shoot with the Future Retro 777 synthesizer.

    Cute gray tabby cat with a Future Retro 777 synthesizer.

    Submitted by our friend Erik Ribeiro via our Facebook page.

    Cute gray tabby cat with a Future Retro 777 synthesizer.
    Cute gray tabby cat with a Future Retro 777 synthesizer.
    Cute gray tabby cat with a Future Retro 777 synthesizer.

    You can see Haku’s previous appearances via his tag.

  • Grady and Yamaha DX11

    Grady and Yamaha DX11

    Grady plays us a drone on the Yamaha DX11 FM synthesizer. From Doug Llewellyn (@doug_whoever) on Instagram.

    The DX11 is essentially a version of the Yamaha TX81Z with a keyboard. It is a four-operator FM synthesizer with the added ability to switch waveforms on each operator (something the 6-operator synths like the DX7 didn’t have).

    You can see Grady’s many other appearances on CatSynth via his tag.