Another picture courtesy of Regina Cherene via our Facebook page. This one features Lissette the cat near a Micromoog and sundry items.
Cats
CatSynth pic: Cleo and Korg Poly 800 II
Submitted by Regina Cherene via , where you can submit your own cat-and-synthesizer pics.
I am particularly curious to hear from those who still use the Korg Poly 800 II in their music, but as always any or all comments are welcome 🙂
CatSynth video: Singer and attentive cat
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Yes, this is not a cat-and-synth pic, but it is definitely cat-and-music, and too adorable not to post. Via Facebook.
CatSynth pic: Cats on Synthesizers in Space
From the group Cats on Synthesizers in Space on Facebook as well as their website. Yes, there is such a thing!
Snow Leopards and Stone Cats from the Bronx Zoo
We begin our articles from my recent trip to New York with a special Weekend Cat Blogging featuring some of the cats I encountered at the Bronx Zoo.
Greeting visitors who arrive at the original Fordham Road entrance are two stone cat sculptures.
While these sculptures have a very contemporary look about them, they actually date back to 1920s. They are the work of famed sculptor Anna Hyatt Huntington, who donated them to the zoo in 1937, where they have remained on the stairs between Astor Court and the entrance fountain ever since. You can read more about her work with the Bronx Zoo here.
This was a short and very directed visit, focusing on a few specific animals, and especially those with recent offspring. Among those where this adorable snow-leopard cub.
It’s hard not to fall for the cuteness of these cubs. The other one was fast asleep a few feet away.
Mama snow leopard was sleeping nearby as well.
In the next enclosure, we met the proud papa, Leo.
Leo was rescued as an orphaned cub after being found in the mountains of northern Pakistan, and has served as “an ambassador for Pakistan at the zoo since 2006” (read more here).
The Bronx Zoo, along with the neighboring New York Botanical Garden and the large Bronx Park that contains both institutions, is a gem of a borough that gets an unfair rap. We will have more from the Bronx, including art and photography, in upcoming articles.
CatSynth pic: Adventures in Electronic Music with Little Cat
From Charles Petzold’s highly recommended article Adventures in Electronic Music. You can read it in its entirety here.
Turning 90° to the left, you can see the windows in my apartment overlooking Broadway, flanked by steel shelving containing my LP collection and a pair of Polk speakers. My bed is to the left. (Yes, this is a studio apartment.) The edge of my piano can be seen at the far left. Little Cat is on the floor.
The synthesizer in its final form was capable of generating 80 simultaneous sine waves, combined in pairs for simple FM synthesis of 40 tones at a sampling rate of 31,250 Hz. For the multiplication of the sine curve values by the amplitude, I used a massive 64-pin TRY MPY16HJ chip, which could perform a 16-bit by 16-bit multiplication in 50 nanoseconds. (How fast can the microprocessor in your desktop computer perform a 16-by-16-bit integer multiplication?) This dedicated multiplier chip cost $241.
Interesting to think about how computer and DSP technology has changed.
CatSynth pic: Nina Dove and Juno 2
Submitted by our friend Rob Robinson via Facebook. Besides the Juno 2 on top, can you identify any other synths in Nina Dove’s studio?
CatSynth pic: Sweet Spot (Arturia MiniBrute)
CatSynth pic: Jam Session Cat
Not strictly a cat-and-synth picture, but definitely a cat and musical instruments :). Submitted by ⓉⒺⒸⒽℕ⌽▃ⒾⒹ●⒞⒪⒨ via Twitter @catsynth.
“Ready to go for the jam session …”
Weekend Cat Blogging with Luna: Documenting Art
We have a lot going on at CatSynth HQ this extended holiday weekend. Here we see Luna supervising the process of documenting artwork.
It’s actually not my artwork, or Luna’s; but it is a series of great cartoons by a very close friend of ours, many of which are part of a series called the Mensa Cats. I am using both a portrait (fixed) lens and a zoom lens to get the best photos possible. This impromptu photo featuring Luna was done with the portrait lens, which sometimes blurs a bit.