Cats

CatSynth Video: Sophie’s Cameo (Arturia Matrixbrute, Studiologic Sledge, Alesis Samplepad, more)

Submitted by Chrissie Caulfied via Twitter and YouTube.

Another garden-based synth jam to celebrate Stuart’s purchase of an Arturia Matrixbrute and Studiologic Sledge 2.0 Me: Elektron Digitone, Novation Circuit, Alesis Samplepad pro (rather badly at the start!)

Wait for Sophie to appear at 2:46 😸

CatSynth Pic: Wooden cat and Juno 106

Our wooden feline friend is back, this time on a vintage Roland Juno 106 synthesizer.  Submitted by thedigitalpurrgatory (Anton Largoza-Maza) via Instagram.  You can see a previous appearance here.

This is the second appearance of the Juno series in less than a week.  Last Thursday we featured the Juno 60.   The Juno 106 has a full MIDI implementation, including SysEx based editing and control, as opposed to the 60 which has no MIDI at all.  Sound-wise they are quite similar, although many say that the 60 has a “warmer sound.”  We at CatSynth cannot verify this.

CatSynth Video: Keromin

From keromin papa on YouTube.

Translated text:

“It is a video that plays the mouth and plays the cat in the voice of meow. In addition, authentic school which can set various tone colors such as violin sound, organ sound, frog voice, etc. The difference from keromin line is that the pronunciation when turning on the power is meow. Others, Sora Momo mode, drum mode, various types of setting are the same as Cokeromin · Lime. Reservation reception starts on 20th year new release, February 22nd  Nyan pussy cat’s day)! It will arrive in about 22 days from reservation. www.keromin.com”

Original Japanese text:
口をパクパクしてニャーの声でネコふんじゃったを演奏する動画です。 その他、ヴァイオリン音・オルガン音・カエル声など様々な音色の設定が可能な本格派。 コケロミン・ライムとの違いは、電源オン時の発音がニャーになっていることです。その他、そらももモードやドラムモード、各種設定の種類はコケロミン・ライムと同じです。 2015年新発売、2月22日(=ニャンニャンニャン=ネコの日)に予約受付開始! ご予約から約22日でお手元に届きます。 www.keromin.com

CatSynth Pic: Juno 60

Juno 60

Cat with a vintage Roland Juno 60.  Submitted by Steve Peglar via our Facebook page.

The Juno series of synths are still very sought after, especially the Juno 60 and Juno 6.  Unfortunately, these two models lack MIDI, which wasn’t available until the successor 106 model.  The 60 does allow external input, though pitch and gate are via a proprietary interface.  There is external CV input for filter control.  And there are kits to retrofit a Juno with external input options.

CatSynth 12th Anniversary

It’s our twelfth anniversary!  It’s hard to believe that this little project I started as a lark in 2006 is still going and expanding.  Here is that first picture of Luna that went up on July 19, 2006!

As always, we look to the anniversary as a moment for reflection and for changes.  We don’t have compiled detailed stats this year, but we do have several high-level milestones.  Most notably, we launched CatSynth TV last October, and since then have shared 74 videos! More are on the way.  We have continued to develop our apps, including the original CatSynth: The App! and Highway☆, though there is so much more we want to do there, both with existing and new apps.  And Sam Sam has blossomed into the new star of CatSynth!  With so many facets competing for our attention, there has been less time for the long-form reviews that once dominated this site, though we still write long-form articles when we can.  So with that, we make some announcements:

  • Sam Sam finally takes her rightful place on the masthead alongside the late great Luna!  It’s a change that is long overdue.  And appropriately, we are featuring one of her scratch’n’roll poses.
  • We are going to open up the site to new voices.  We have already had a couple of guest music reviews, and of course the semi-regular Mensa Cats cartoon series.  This is going to expand in the coming months.  If you have an idea for an article you would like to contribute, please let us know.
  • And as always, please keep sending us your cat-and-gear pics.

So please join Sam Sam and me in celebrating twelve years of CatSynth!  We look forward to sharing many more with all of you.