Meet Brisket, an adorable tuxedo cat. Brisket is showing off a Korg MS-20 mini today. You can see more photos on Steve Peglar’s Instagram, embedded below.
I have been intrigued with the MS-20 mini since it came out a couple of years ago. Sure, it’s not the original, but both the smaller size and the modern features like USB+MIDI make it quite attractive. You can see our review from NAMM 2013 here.
We have been having some amazing weather in San Francisco over the past week. Warm, hot even, not too windy. Perfect for spending some time out on the patio. And as I enjoy a glass of wine and some snacks, taking in the sounds and textures of urban summer, Big Merp has discovered that he, too, enjoys some outdoor time.
In true cat-like fashion, he wanders the perimeter, and when things seem “secure”, he just relaxes nearby.
Seeing him wander the patio with his tail up reminded me of Luna, who also enjoyed her time out here. I think she would be proud (Sam Sam is more of an indoor-only cat and has rarely ventured outside, but she enjoys looking out windows).
The first pairing features a dark zinfandel (Amador County) with dry Spanish chorizo; the second is a chardonnay with Port Salut cheese and a spicy calabrese salami. Indeed, it was the latter that inspired me to re-release the “commercial” as a standalone video.
Big Merp came over to sit underneath, probably in the hope that something would fall off the table.
I like the way the combination of Merp’s fur, the afternoon light, and the colors of the slate contrast with the bright blue of the table.
We hope you are enjoying your weekend. For us, it’s back to the studio to work on our next video…
A bit more guitar than synth, but still cats and music. And best of all, it’s a benefit for our friends at House Of Dreams No-Kill Cat Shelter in Portland. If you are in the area, please go check it out!
Max, with his lovely marble markings, explores the studio. He is walking past an impressive collection of Eurorack modules, stepping on an Arturia BeatStep, and about to tweak some patches on the Behringer Model D. From coresect23 on Instagram.
Gracie is back and performing her duties as the quality manager for Synthetic Dreamscapes.
This Oberheim OB-Xa is not totally rebuilt yet, but our Quality Manager just had to get in on the action early!
The OB-Xa is one of the classic Oberheim analog synths and was featured in lots of early 1980s synth-heavy pop music. For me personally, it would probably be more interesting to have the SEM filter to complement the other instruments, but it still has a sound that would be instantly familiar to fans of this era.
The OB-Xa is a massive analog synthesizer with a very familiar and classic Oberheim sound. Its sound, size and power are very similar to the Prophet 5 from Sequential. However this one has up to 8 voices which can be split, layered and stored!
The OB-X was very similar to the OB-Xa except that its voices could not be split or layered and, more significantly, the OB-X had a lowpass-only discrete SEM 12dB/oct state variable filter, which had a great and classic Oberheim sound. The OB-Xa changed that in an attempt to economize manufacturing and increase stability by switching to CEM3320 Curtis chips for its filters. The Xa offered two switchable filter modes: 12 dB/oct (2-pole) or 24 dB/oct (4-pole). This hardware change resulted in a more agressive sound, not quite as creamy as the OBX original, but what still became a “bread and butter” sound of the Oberheim line.
Vintage Synth Explorer: http://www.vintagesynth.com/oberheim/obxa.php
As I was editing our most recent CatSynth TV episode featuring the Pocket Operator, Big Merp jumped onto the desk and decided he wanted to get into the act.
He loves to be wherever the action is, so I took a bit of video and a few more photos. I even pulled out a (dusty) Korg Monotron for him to pose with.
His video clip made it into the introduction for the episode, which you can see below.
Dino from Ok Housecat naps on a circuit-bent and colorfully adorned drum machine.
Dino dreams of drum machines 👌🏠🐈#drummachine #circuitbent #circuitbending #cat#yamaha #beats #cool FOR SALE on the UPDATED Ok Housecat Etsy page!
You can find this and other items at Ok Housecat’s Etsy page https://www.etsy.com/shop/OKHOUSECAT
A black-and-white cat plays hide and seek in an Arturia gig bag. From particlesintowaves on Instagram.
We have the exact same back here at HQ for our Arturia MiniBrute 2 and RackBrute 3U. It makes gigging with that instrument very easy. But I hope neither Sam Sam nor Big Merp decides to make it a hiding place…
As promised in yesterday’s Weekend Cat Blogging post, here is Big Merp with our main modular system.
He always wants to be wherever the action is, and at that moment the action was in the studio, where I was editing our latest episode of CatSynth TV, which itself has a feline theme.
