Cats

Miles Davis Centenary

Today marks the centenary of Miles Davis’ birth. The music of Miles has brought us at CatSynth much pleasure and inspiration over these years. He was an innovator who kept exploring new ideas each decade.

We at CatSynth are especially partial to his work in the 1970s, but we also enjoy what he did both before and after, as Sam Sam demonstrates with her album selections.

Black and white cat posing with two Miles Davis albums, Mayisha and Aura.

Beyond the music itself, Miles Davis was known for finding and bringing together a great many noted musicians, including some of our heroes like Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, and Chick Corea, as well as folks like saxophonist and composer Sam Morrison, whom we recently featured right here on CatSynth.

In addition to Sam Sam, we’re sharing a comic by J.B. that appeared on the CatSynth blog a few years ago, “Miles and Teo” 😺🎺🎶

Comic in three panels: "Miles and Teo, by J.B." 1st panel "Teo, see if you can get Oedipus to come to the session on Friday" 2nd panel "Oedipus? What are you talking about, Miles? Why do you want Oedipus?" 3rd panel "'Cause he's a bad motherfucker."

Haku, Chihiro, and ASM Hydrasynth 888

Tabby cat sitting next to an orange ASM Hydraysnth 888 synthesizer.

Haku poses with an ASM Hydrasynth 888. We see Chihiro in the background. She is a bit more visible in this second photo.

Tabby cat sitting up against orange ASM Hydrasynth. We see a tortie cat lurking in the background.

I have to admit, I really like the orange color on this one.

From our friend Erik Ribeiro (@eriksuperlazy on Instagram).

Updated the @ashunsoundmachines Hydrasynth Explorer 888 and a bunch of other gear with fresh firmware on Sunday. Haku and Chihiro got up close and personal to inspect the process.

If you’re curious what the firmware update looks like:

Tina and Hammond 102200 synthesizer

White cat sitting behind a Hammond 102200 synthesizer with the keyboard angled towards the viewer.

The beautiful Tina poses with a rare Hammond 102200 synthesizer. Submitted by AxWax via Mastodon.

The Hammond 102200 is a new one for me. It’s a quirky monophonic synth with instrument presets (a bit like the ARP Pro Soloist) and an unusual matrix for modifying each of them with different waveforms, envelopes, and modulation options. I’d be curious to see/hear one in real life.

Fritzie with Logic, Behringer, Arturia, Modal, more

Fritzie is back helping out in the studio. We see two monitors behind him with a Logic session, a Behringer X-Touch One, a Behringer Edge percussion synth, an Arturia MicroFreak directly below him, a Modal Electronics Argon, and more.

Submitted by @peoplemusic.bsky.social via BlueSky

Fritzie in front of my monitors with a logic pro screen showing some project that might become a hit. Fritzie stands between keyboards and controllers

Chichiro and Modular (Behringer, MOK, Happy Nerding…)

Chihiro enjoys rubbing up against the modular in this adorable video. She seems to particularly like the Happy Nerding modules and a MOK Waverazor. I also noticed the Behringer vocoder module, the Piston Honda from Industrial Music Electronics, and more.

From our friend Erik Ribeiro (@ericsuperlazy on Instagram), who notes that Chihiro was probably most taken with the case itself, a Dopfer Low Cost LC with its vinyl-like siding.

Juanita on Behringer Blue Marvin

Juanita stands proudly atop a Behringer Blue Marvin, a tribute to the early “Blue Marvin” version of the ARP 2600. Plus, the Star Wars poster makes her photo purrfect for today, May the 4th!

Submitted by Galex Zodifire via Facebook.

I got the opportunity to see a rare actual ARP 2600 Blue Meanie at NAMM this year, courtesy of the Alan R Pearlman Foundation.