Author: catsynth

Feline Mother’s Day

“New Mom” by Steve Jurvetson on Flickr. (Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0))

Mother’s Day (the second Sunday in May) has become a celebration of motherhood and all things maternal. I enjoy seeing my friends’ photos of and with their moms; but also of feline moms, as in the photo above. Motherhood is one of those things that truly transcends species, and especially among fellow mammals, the patterns are instantly recognizable.

Our friend Marg at Marg’s Animals has this tribute to one of the cat mothers in her care, Lil Mum. And at Sweet Perfections, Truffle and Brulee pay tribute to their moms. And of course, our friends at Animal Shelter Volunteer have a message for all the moms, human and feline.

Sadly, mother cats who come to shelters with their kittens often find themselves left behind as their kittens are adopted out. The adult moms need love, too. When looking for a new feline friend, please consider adult and senior cats, and the moms left behind.

As for me, I’m content with my status as a cat mom (now the mom of two cats). And while I do my best to distinguish between this status my friends who are mothers to their own (human) children, I have on occasion been wished a “Happy Mother’s Day” and it makes me smile.

Weekend Cat Blogging with Big Merp and Sam Sam

We have exciting news. Big Merp (aka “Marlon”) has come to live with us at CatSynth HQ!

That is a soulful face a cat who has seen a lot in his short life (our vet thinks he actually isn’t that old, but life on the streets can certainly age one quicky). Due to circumstances beyond the scope of this site, our buddy in Oakland found himself needing a new place to live – otherwise, he would be back out on the streets. We’ve come to know him and love him over the past year, so it seemed like the obvious solution to welcome him into our home. Things were rather tentative at first, a new place and concept in a new city.

But it didn’t take long for him to get comfortable, and now he practically owns the place.

Sam Sam, on the other hand, is not too pleased with this intruder into her idyllic life. She has been a bit nervous and skittish, often looking for places to hid and decompress.

She has mostly stayed on the upstairs level while Big Merp mostly stays downstairs for the time being. Their encounters to date haven’t been all that friendly, but Sam Sam is slowly gaining confidence. She prefers to stay upstairs, and I’m doing my best to shower her with affection and remind her that this is still her home and she is my special little girl.

Merp is a very friendly cat, but Sam Sam has had some bad experiences in her past and it’s understandable she’s taking a little longer to adjust. I certainly hope that in the long run, they get along.

CatSynth Pic: Ceephax Acid Crew ‏

Cats find interesting ways to sit, with or without synths. And this kitty is no exception. From Ceephax Acid Crew on Twitter.

I espy an Ensoniq DP/4 signal processor, Yamaha TX802 FM module, Korg Wavestation A/D module, and more that are left as an exercise to the reader.

CatSynth Video: Brian Eno and his manipulative cat, Angel

We know Brian Eno loves his cat, but his cat really runs the show as we see in this interview.

Brian Eno and Angel definitely give us something to aspire to 😸🎹.

Wordless Wednesday: K

CatSynth Pic: Casio SK-1

A cute cat contemplates a Casio SK-1 sampling keyboard. Seen on matrixsynth.

“My cat came to look at it (pictured, looking at speaker), when I sampled his name and ran it in demo mode.”

We at CatSynth have a soft spot for our own SK-1. I have used it in several live performances over the years.

CatSynth Pic: Studio Panther (Arturia, Elektron, GameBoy)

A gorgeous house panther shows off her studio, which includes a MicroBrute and controllers from Arturia, an Elektron SidStation, and a Nintendo GameBoy. From Shaun Steven Struble on Facebook, who says this about the GameBoy:

My main composition machine. If I can write it in three voices on the gameboy and it sounds good, I know it’ll sound good when I expand it to the other synths.

CatSynth Pic: Big Merp and Roland JD-Xi

We all know and love Big Merp, but he never had a “CatSynth pic”. Until now. Here we see him sitting in front of a Roland JD-Xi synthesizer.

The JD-XI is a cool little instrument, a hybrid analog-digital synth with a built-in vocoder. I haven’t had a chance to try the vocoder yet, but I’m curious how it compares to our VP-03 (also from Roland).

CatSynth Pic: Gracie, Moog, LinnDrum, Arp, PPG

Gracie is back, and inspecting the current crop of repaired instruments, including a Moog Subsequent 37, LinnDrum, PPG Wave, and what appears to be an Arp Odyssey (1st version). She always has quite the collection.

From Alsún Ní Chasaide (Alison Cassidy) via Facebook.

CatSynth Pic: Chancer Von Chonkerfloof (with Moog and Nord)

This is Chancer Von Chonkerfloof, a rather handsome fellow if we say so. This studio portrait comes to us from skinfitz via Instagram. And he is posing with synthesizers from Moog and Nord, two brands dear to our hearts at CatSynth.