Cats

Weekend Cat Blogging: Luna and Monome

This weekend we present a photo of Luna posing with the monome interface:

I like the desaturated grayscale version, but also the original color photo as well:

Notice that there is very little difference in the monome itself between the two photos. It is the new grayscale edition, with a silver front panel, white LED buttons and a black case. The monomes interface all have a very elegant minimalist design, but this edition is particularly well suited for our aesthetics.

I am hoping to use it tonight in a performance I am doing at a Lunar New Year party here in San Francisco.

Monome is a very small operation in the New York’s Catskills region. They design the interfaces and produce limited runs of each edition. We were fortunate to get one when they went on sale at the beginning of January. I thought this photo from their website, showing the team hard at work filling the orders, is quite appropriate:

Weekend Cat Blogging is hosted by breadchick and LB at The Sour Dough.

Carnival of the Cats will be hosted by Nikita Cat on his blog Meowings of an Opinionated Pussycat.

And of course the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

CatSynth videos: Wicks Looper

From potterpaint2000 on YouTube, via matrixsynth:

“an improv featuring a KP3 processed Wicks Looper from Australia, a wonderful cacaphonous little device. Thanks Brian!…also a Nord Lead and a Stylophone Drumbeat”

I am not familiar with the Wicks Looper, but I did find some more info here, and another video:

CatSynth pic: Octave Electronics CAT SRM fact sheet, 1978

Retro Synth Ads posted this fact sheet for the Octave CAT yesterday:

[click to enlarge]

I believe we have seen seen this picture with the actual cat before. Additionally, the spec sheet contains the blank patch diagram that I have occasionally used for the Octave CAT.

You can see full-size images as well as additional analysis at Retro Synth Ads.

Weekend Cat Blogging: Roll

Luna obliged with some cuteness for this photo series. She really is a fantastic photography model, when she chooses to be.

Weekend Cat Blogging #243 is hosted this week by Jules and Vincent at Judi’s Mind Over Matter.

The Carnival of the Cats will be hosted on Sunday at Kashim, Othello and Salome.

And of course the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Analogue Haven

Our last post from NAMM 2010 features more images from the Analogue Haven booth, where I spent a fair amount of time.

First up, a modular from Make Noise:

I was particularly intrigued by the two-dimensional sequencer module (in the lower left). A wide variety patterns can be generated along the X and Y axis and modified by selectively removing elements or subsections.

This video probably doesn’t do it justice, but it at least provides some atmosphere:

A portable modular rock (from Analog Rocket) featuring modules from The Harvestman, including the Hertz Donut and Piston Honda:

If I put together a modular system anytime soon, I would want that monorocket case.

Livewire modules, also some remakes of Wiard modules by Malekko Heavy Industry:

Of course, there are a splattering of Doepfer modules in many of these setups.

A compact modular setup from Tiptop Audio: