This weekend we check in on our feline pal in Oakland, Marlon. We have dubbed him “Big Merp” for his large size and vocalizations that sound like “merp“.
This the face of a cat who has lived life hard, and just wants to chill out in his older years. Fortunately, he is getting that opportunity as he has been spending more and more time indoors. This included getting to stay indoors during the worst of the smoke from the wildfires to our north last month.
As we have mentioned before, it is clear he was a pet cat at one point in his life. He enjoys the comforts of indoors, attention from humans, and food. Lots of food. His friend Hissy is not so sure about the indoor life and is still wary of humans, but she does come around for food and to hang out with Big Merp.
The two of them clearly share a connection, even though they don’t always have the same outlook on life. We hope Hissy does learn to trust people a bit more in the future.
We close with a reminder to readers to be kind to the cats – and other animals – that share our neighborhoods and spaces with us.
Loki poses with a Waldorf Streichfett synthesizer in a beautifully composed photo. From Nicky Skolagava via the Facebook group Synthesizer Freaks.
The angle makes the Streichfett look large, but it’s a rather compact little box with an interesting story. From the Waldorf website:
Streichfett combines the best of the previously extinct species of String Synthesizers of the 70s and early 80s. Its dual sound engine features a fully polyphonic strings section and an eight voice solo section, which is essential for recreating classic movie sounds from the 70s and 80s. The Ensemble Effect provides depth and movement to the String Section, while the Effects section adds adjustable Phaser and Reverb. Additionally, the Animate Effect can be used to modulate the strings registration, allowing spectacular sound morphs.
This cat is interrupting the unboxing of a new Modulus 002 synthesizer from Modal Electronics. By Godric Wilkie via Facebook.
When the little thug isn’t swearing at Sascha, he’s sitting on my synths…
The “little thug” has stumbled upon an interesting instrument that we at CatSynth don’t know much about, but learning more here. Now called a Modal 002, it’s a rather massive beast.
Syd struts down a Roland Juno 60 with maximum floof effect. From Moustafa Ismail via the Facebook group Synthesizer Freaks.
A bit more on the Roland Juno 60, one of the classics:
Among the first in Roland’s amazing Juno family! Six analog voices of polyphony and patch memory storage!! The Juno-60 sounds great, however, like the Juno-6 it lacks MIDI control. The Juno-60 includes 56 patches of memory storage. The Juno-60 is still popular due in part to opinions that it sounds better (punchier) than the Juno-106. The Juno-6 and 60 are very rich sounding synthesizers and are great analog machines as long as you can withstand the absence of MIDI control.
It’s been exactly two years since Sam Sam made the long trip from southern California to come live with us at CatSynth HQ! And not a day goes by that we are not grateful to have her in our lives. I’m pretty sure she feels the same way.
Samantha, or “little Sam Sam”, had a complicated life. She started out (as far as we know) in the suburbs south of San Francisco, and then moved with her human to the high desert north of Los Angeles – we like to joke that she lived “out in back of Palmdale where the turkey farmers run” in tribute to one of our musical heroes, Frank Zappa.
When her human passed away, she then went to live with his sister, also in southern California. Unfortunately, the sister’s health was declining and another cat bullied Sam Sam, so this was not a happy chapter for her. As her new human was preparing to go into assisted living, Sam Sam needed a new home.
In December of 2016, I was still deeply grieving after Luna’s death – and also reeling for the shock and horror of the election. I hadn’t yet prepared to welcome another cat into my life, but when a friend and bandmate reached out to me that he needed to find a new home for a sweet cat whose human was headed to assisted living – and then shared her adorable photos, I said yes. How could I not?
At first, Sam Sam was exceedingly shy and skittish, spending most of her time hiding under the bed, coming out only for food, water, and the litter box. She was mostly silent but occasionally emitted these tiny squeaks. As she adjusted to her new home, her personality blossomed. She’s quite friendly, vocal, outgoing, and quite a ham.
And she has no trouble demanding exactly what she wants from her humans.
“I want food nooooowww!”
We close with this episode of CatSynth TV featuring Sam Sam is all her adorableness.
Please join me in wishing Sam Sam a very happy Gotcha Day!
Meet Miko, another of the cats that lives with our friend Charles Whiley in Arkansas. She assists him in the studio as he produces his wild synth jams; and she is absolutely adorable!
You can see Whiley’s previous contributes to CatSynth via this link.
Identification of the synths left as an exercise to the reader.
