This picture, which comes to us via the Facebook group Classic FM, does reflect our mood on this dreary afternoon. Making the best of it with warmth and cats.
Author: catsynth
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CatSynth TV: Wicks Looper (with Korg Delay Monotron)
One of our CatSynth TV episodes this week featured a close-up demonstration of the Wicks Looper by Rarebeasts, a tiny musical instrument that can make beats, loops, and all sorts of noises. We also added a Korg Delay Monotron for filtering and delay effects in the last portion of the demo.
The Wicks Looper is a fun instrument that I have used in several live performances, though less so lately. Its audio jack is a bit fussy at times, but as long as I remember I know how to make it work reliably. Both it and the Monotron should see more use again this year as I plan out new ideas for solo performances. And we still love that cat logo that looks so much like our dear Luna. But there is also a (non-black) Luna who lives with the human who created the instrument, a fact involved in our discovering it in the first place.
Rarebeasts has moved on to newer custom electronic instruments that are quite sculptural in nature. You can see their work at their Etsy shop.
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Wordless Wednesday: Fishies! (Delancy/Essex Subway Station)
Piscine mosaic in the New York City subway. Specifically, at the Delancy/Essex Street Station.
We passed through this station last November during our Ai Weiwei expedition.
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CatSynth Pic: Cat and XP-50
Cat sitting atop a Roland XP-50 synthesizer, and not looking too pleased 😸
By Dragos Frangulea in the group Synthesizer Freaks.
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Fun With Highways: Downtown Atlanta on #MLKDay
It remains to be seen whether this Martin Luther King Day is more surreal than last the one last year. But in the meantime, we take a virtual trip to downtown Atlanta in the vicinity of the historic and social institutions celebrating Dr. King’s legacy.
The Downtown Connector carries Interstates 75 and 85 through the heart of the city, with downtown Atlanta to the immediate west. Aesthetically, we at CatSynth have a fondness for urban freeways, but we cannot ignore how the adversely affect neighborhoods and displace residents. The Downtown Connector cut the Sweet Auburn neighborhood into two. The historic neighborhood is also bounded by the Freedom Parkway (Georgia State Route 10) to the north, and Blue Line of MARTA to the south, which serves the district via delightfully modernist King Memorial station.
[By Keizers (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons]Sweet Auburn is Dr. King’s neighborhood. His childhood home is at 501 Auburn Ave. The Ebeneezer Baptist Church is about a block or so away. The Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Park covers these and the space in between. On the south side of Auburn Avenue is the King Center (formally, the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change). Martin Luther King Jr’s tomb is on the site. But it is also worth noting that the King Center is not simply a museum, with ongoing research, education programs, and activism.
[User:Sjkorea81 [GFDL or CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons]Many of us are perhaps approaching this day with bated breath, hoping a certain openly racist leader with a tendency to make everything about himself doesn’t make things even worse than they already are. But it might be better to reflect on some of King’s darker words that seem prescient in the moment, such as the Mountaintop Speech or “It’s A Dark Day In Our Nation” (primarily about the Vietnam War). We leave this as an exercise to the reader.
See more of Atlanta and many other fine places across North America in our Highway☆ app, available on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
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CatSynth Pic: Volca Collection (Eevo Lute)
Our fluffy white friend from Eevo Lute Music & Technology is back once again. This time with four Korg Volca synthesizers.
We currently have two Volca’s here at CatSynth HQ, so those stands caught our interest. 😺
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CatSynth Pic: “Mister Bluuuue Skiessss” (Korg VC10 Vocoder)
From Alsún Ní Chasaide on the Facebook group Synthesizer Freaks.
Like I spent weeks restoring this & she can’t wait to get on it. If vocoders aren’t for sits, then why are they made of warm?
We at CatSynth had the opportunity to play with a Korg VC10 vocoder last year. It is indeed made of warm, as are most analog vocoders 😸. It also had a bit of the Korg grit that characterizes their vintage instruments, and best of all it allowed for external carrier signals (this is something I wish was easier to do on the Roland VP-03).
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Highway☆ 1.2.0 now in the Apple App Store!
We are excited to announce the release of Highway☆ 1.2.0 for iPhone and iPad! It is available in the Apple App Store.
This new version includes some of our most requested features.
- Switch between map and satellite views. This saves battery and bandwidth on the road.
- Sometimes connectivity on the road can be poor or non-existent. Highway☆ now matches missed routes once connectivity is restored.
There many more features we have in store, but for the moment we turn our focus to the 1.2 version for Android. And we are looking forward to putting the app through its paces on our upcoming road trip to NAMM 😺
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NAMM Classics: Bastl Instruments and Bitwig Studio
That most wonderful time of year known as NAMM is fast approaching! As we prepare to cover this year’s show, we’re sharing some of our past NAMM videos on CatSynth TV!
This year’s show starts on January 25. Please let us know in these posts about anything specific you would like us to investigate or review while we are there.
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Wordless Wednesday: Tempest (without a Teapot)
Mary Street, a small alley in the South of Market neighborhood of San Francisco. Tempest is a local bar visible in the middle of the image. More in the comments section.
