Cats

Weekend Cat Blogging: Mission Cat

Late last year, I was heading to an opening at Southern Exposure in the Mission when I passed by this cat on the street:

The cat seemed familiar, and indeed it turns out we had encountered one another on the same street back in 2009! You can see some photos in this Weekend Cat Blogging article. It was great to see a cat here in the city with a long-term stable living situation, and the confidence to greet passers by on the street (albeit with laser eyes fully armed).

This neighborhood is mixture of residential buildings and converted factories and warehouses, not much greenery. Similar to the area around CatSynth HQ, actually. But there are lots of little cracks and places for a savvy cat to explore.

Oh, and the art opening was a mixed bag. There were some very interesting pieces, some others less so.

The Carnival of the Cats will be up this Sunday at Mind of Mog.

And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

CatSynth Pic: Mystery Rhythm Machine – Barns & Mullins Percussionet 20

Via matrixsynth, where you can find more info and pictures.

“I recently picked up an old rhythm machine at an estate sale, It’s called a Percussionet 20, made by Barns and Mullins, London, England.

I think it may be rare because I could not come up with any info about this unit online anywhere, even tried Emailing Barns & Mullins twice, but they never responded.

Perhaps one of your readers may have some info about this oddity.

It will play all of the rhythm styles such as ( Fx – Foxtrot, Tw -Twist, Ch – Cha Cha, Tg- Tango etc.) at the same time, so you can combine various rhythms, also you can select and de-select the individual instruments in the rhythms such as: Snare, Tom Tom, Side, Bass, Bongo etc.

Rear has Hi and Lo output and ¼ ” footswitch input that starts and stops the rhythms.

Add some verb and delay or modulation effects and it sounds pretty incredable.

As usual, Charlotte the cat has her own thoughts about my Percussionet 20, see attached photos.”

CatSynth video: Synthesis for Cats

From Poppaneedsanap, via matrixsynth

“OJ (Turkey Leg) on the Etherwave pitch CV controls the rate of random LFO, pinging a Q106 oscillator. Bling Bling (aka Manwich) goes nuts on a contact mic and Moog MF104Z Delay. Ok, I mixed the contact mic pretty low I admit, but it was his first time wiggling and he was a little self conscious about his performance.

A more robust jam will follow when I find the fucking laser pointer!”

Weekend Cat Blogging with Luna

It’s a new year, and Luna is ready to play.

She always seems particularly eager for attention when I am about to leave home, which point she launches into a rather effective guilt trip. But this week she has been getting quite a bit of extra attention, between the New Years vacation and my feeling under the weather the last few days. It has actually been a good time to catch up on cats and electronic music.

The Carnival of the Cats will be hosted tomorrow by Nikita and Elvira at Meowsings of an Opinionated Pussycat.

And the Friday Ark is postponed until next week…

CatSynth pic: Quasimidi Rave-O-Lution Drum Machine SN 42262

Another “cat not included” auction photo courtesy of a matrixsynth:

“Cat not included!”

“This unit is unexpanded (hence the moderate price)… There are many technical photos of this synth at http://www.loscha.com These pictures are of the actual unit you will be buying.

The power socket has a slightly broken shell, but the plug holds in no problems.”

KORG Polysix/Mono-Poly era knobs.

CatSynth pic: M-Audio Venom Synth Keyboard

Via matrixsynth, where you can find more info.

49 full-size keys with velocity
12-voice polyphony
Features 512 single patches and 256 multi-sound patches
41 oscillator waves and 53 drum sounds sampled from vintage analog and digital FM synths and drum machines
Three oscillators per voice
FM, sync, and dynamic wave-shaping
Three LFOs and three AHDSR envelopes
Four-part multitimbral
Four independent MIDI-syncable phrase sequencers
Two global bus effects and one inset effect per part
Classic arpeggiator
Tap tempo and top-panel BPM control
Built-in USB 2.0 2-in, 2-out 24-bit audio interface
Microphone, instrument, and stereo line level inputs
MIDI in and out via 5-pin DIN connections
Large custom LCD display
Four rotary encoders for editing and performance control
Assignable pitch bend and modulation wheels
Vyzex Venom software editor for Mac and Windows included”

Cool cat not included.

We think the cat probably prefers the box 😉