Cats

Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt: Missed

The theme if this week’s Photo Hunt is missed.  So for our combined Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt post, we present Morty:

As one can see, Morty was a rather smart cat, and like some other individuals we may know enjoyed his coffee and newspaper every morning, and kept his cell phone nearby.  Though it does appear that Morty enjoyed the department-store ads more than the news.

The cell phone definitely dates this picture, which I’m pretty sure was taken in early 2002. Seen in comparison to the current iPhone, it is definitely not missed. I still have that coffee mug, which I had originally gotten from a used store when I first moved to California several years earlier.

Morty was actually the first cat I lived with.  He was a rather impish character, always getting into mischief but also seemingly aware that his cuteness would prevent him from getting in trouble.  Even though he often drove me crazy, I still miss him once in a while. (As far as I know, he is still alive and well and still making mischief.)

Appropriately for a post featuring a tabby cat, Weekend Cat Blogging #310 is hosted by the “three tabby cats in Vienna”, Kashim, Othello and Salome.

Photo Hunt 265 is hosted by tnchick. This week’s theme is missed.

The Carnival of the Cats will be hosted this Sunday be Samantha, Clementine and Maverick.

And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

CatSynth video: kitchen electro jam: Moog Slim Phatty, iOS Midi Touch & bent QY10

From burnkit2600 on YouTube:

Sick with a cold, Miette keeps me company while I take a 1st test drive of this portable little setup. I’m using my newly created iOS Midi Touch controller for the Moog Slim Phatty. I’m controlling the MSP arpeggiator and using it’s DIN MIDI output to play the drums on my circuit-bent Yamaha QY10. Also sloppily playing the tiny keyboard on the QY10. The audio from the QY10 is partially routed back to the Moog for processing. My bent megaphone toy circuit (red box) offers some echo on the unprocessed drums. The crappy Boss mixer & homemade stereo amp combo make the cats ears twitch. Fun.
Links:
QY10- http://www.burnkit2600.com/yamaha-qy-10/
Midi Touch- http://iosmidi.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=114
Moog Slim Phatty- http://www.moogmusic.com/littlephatty/
Miette- http://www.burnkit2600.com/graphics/ani-miette-sunbath.gif

I like how Miette just sits quietly there. It reminds me of Luna on her beanbag chair in the studio.
I will have to try out MIDI Touch when sometime soon…

CatSynth video: Analogue Solutions Telemark Demo (with Doepfer DE LFO)

From HubertSsound on YouTube, via matrixsynth:

It’s actually a rather catchy demo. Check out the cat’s participation at the beginning of the song.

Controlling Analogue Solutions Telemark’s filter with Doepfer Dark Energy LFO. Dark Energy has an incredibly high LFO rate and can make for some interesting sounds when paired with the Telemark.

Gear used:
Analogue Solutions Telemark
Doepfer Dark Energy
Vermona DRM1 MkIII

If you have your own cat-and-synthesizers or cat-and-music pictures, you can send them to us via our Facebook page, or tweet us @catsynth, or try our submission form.

CatSynth pic: synth gato

From TheBeastBrothers on flickr, via matrixsynth:

“”His name was Martin (pronounced in spanish) and he liked the Cure’s disintegration album the most (for real)”

The Beast Brothers are also visual artists. You can check out their website www.thebeastbrothers.com or visit their shop. I liked Suavecita (watercolor) and the Shinin (sculpture).

Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt: Digital

The theme of this week’s Photo Hunt is digital. Rather than simply use a digital photo – which could be any photo ever taken of Luna – I chose a couple of images that demonstrate the unique opportunities of the medium. A digital photo is really just a stream of numbers, not unlike digital audio, and can be processed in countless ways using digital signal processing or applying other mathematical functions.

For a piece I originally did in 2007, I took one of Luna’s adoption photos from Santa Cruz County Animal Services and applied an algorithm that overlaid these colored bands, as shown above.  The color bands were generated using a set of hastily chosen trigonometric and hyperbolic functions applied to the timeline of the animation sequence.  These photos are stills from the full animation.

I did these using image and video extensions to Open Sound World – one nice feature of that work was that I could use the same functions for both audio and video, and “see” what a particular audio-processing algorithm looked like when applied to an image.   And I would probably use the Processing environment for future visual work, perhaps in conjunction with OSW.

Weekend Cat Blogging #309 and Carnival of the Cats are both being hosted by Billy SweetFeets this weekend. Perhaps Luna’s animation could be part of one of the dance videos they often feature.

Photo Hunt #264 is hosted by tnchick. This week’s theme is digital.

And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

A special note this week. Our friend Judi at Judi’s Mind over Matter (home of Jules and Vincent) has information on how to help animals affected the storms and tornadoes in the southeast US. They live in Alabama, not far from the place that was hit hardest by the tornadoes. We’re glad they’re safe, and able to provide this information for those who would like to help.

Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt: Square…and Rememberance

This weekend, we have another combined Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt. The theme this week is square. Geometric shapes, including squares, abound at CatSynth HQ. But with the exceptionally gorgeous weather, we turn our attention once again to the patio:

The patio is covered in square slate tiles on which Luna enjoys rolling around. We are still doing some work to fix things up for spring now the construction is in the past. New design ideas to emphasize the industrial and geometric aesthetic.

This weekend we are also joining our friends the Three Tabby Cats in Vienna ~ Kashim, Othello and Salome ~ in a Weekend of Remembrance. We participated when they hosted a similar weekend back in 2007, lighting a candle like this one.

As we have made more friends online, so we have also lost many friends. We said goodbye to Mickey only a few weeks ago. Last year, we lost DJ Kikovas, the feline companion of our friend and fellow electronic musician Vivi Pedraglio. We also said goodbye to Tali and Sniffie. It is interesting to look back and see the diverse collection of people, mixture of musicians, engineers and cat lovers, who cross paths in these stories. We have also lost many heroes in music, art and mathematics in this same period of time; and some personal friends. We remember them as well.

Our thoughts for all our friends who lost love ones (human and non-human) over the past year, and for those who are struggling in the current storms in southeastern U.S., recovering from the disaster in Japan, and living through the seemingly greater number conflicts around the world.

Weekend Cat Blogging #308 is hosted by Samantha and Clementine at Life From a Cat’s Perspective. They are dedicating their post in remembrance of Praline.

Photo Hunt #263 is hosted by tnchick. This week’s theme is SQUARE.

The Carnival of the Cats will be up tomorrow at Meowsings of an Opinionated Pussycat.

And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.