Cats

Nord Wave and Stage EX

As soon as I arrived in the hall at NAMM I immediately faced the bright red instruments from Nord. The Wave synthesizer (featured below with Zip) was interesting in terms of programming features though the use of external waves was a but limited. I did like the new filter models including the multi.

My friends had recommended the Nord Stage. I tried out the electric piano models and now I want one for my live shows! its too bad the stage and programming products arent in a single package.

Weekend Cat Blogging: Works of Art

I managed to get this photo of Luna sitting in front of a ledge overlooking the downstairs. I think she matches the works of art on the wall quite well.

Astute readers may recognize the large black painting from one of our reviews last October. See if you can pick out the artist.

Weekend Cat Blogging is being hosted this weekend by The Meezers.

The Carnival of the Cats will be up on Sunday at iMeowza.

And of course the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Acxel Resynthesizer and Rhodes Chroma

From Kevin Kelly of The Audio Playground Synthesizer Museum, via matrixsynth:

The Technos Acxel is an interesting synthesizer, based on manipulation of spectra in the frequency domain. This is something several of us have been doing in software for quite a while.

In addition to the Acxel and the Rhodes Chroma, I see an E-MU EMAX in the background.

CatSynth pic: Button and a Dotcom Modular Bed

From James Price, via matrixsynth:

“This is my mostly empty dotcom with my kitten, Button, inside.”

“dotcom” of course refers to the Synthesizers.com rack, which apparently doubles as a comfortable napping spot.

We would like to remind everyone that you can submit your own cat-and-music pictures via our online form, via facebook, or @catsynth on twitter.

Weekend Cat Blogging: Desaturation

Our first Weekend Cat Blogging of 2010 begins in grayscale:

Luna is on her favorite beanbag chair in a relatively clean studio. Nearby is a crate full of old audio interfaces – it seems we have quite a few E-MU, M-Audio and Digidesign interfaces, some in various states of disrepair or obsolescence.  We rely on one or another of these portable interfaces for live shows.

Meanwhile, Luna drifts off to sleep…

Weekend Cat Blogging will be hosted by Pam at Sidewalk Shoes.

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

The monthly Bad Kitty Cats Festival of Chaos will be hosted on Sunday by Samantha and The Orange Kitty at Life from a Cat’s Perspective.

And of course the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

CatSynth pic: Happy Times

From Retribution Body on flickr, via matrixsynth:

“I’m very happy with the new rig. It’s very West Coast Serge / Buchla compared to the ARP, it’s a very different beast. I’m looking forward to doing some serious recording with it.”

“Once again, Ernie is very helpful.”

You can see more on the associated flickr set.

Weekend Cat Blogging: Holiday Windows

This weekend, we present some of the cats featured in the Macy’s SF/SPCA Holiday Windows. Every year during the holidays, San Francisco SPCA teams up with Macy’s in San Francisco to feature adoptable pets in the holiday window displays at their main store in Union Square.

Here are couple of kittens in one window:

and this handsome black cat:

Many passers-by in this busy shopping district were surprised and delighted by the live animals in the displays.   We at CatSynth certainly hope that some of these animals, including the cats featured above, find new homes as a result of this program.

To find out more about the program, including when to see the animals and how you can contribute, please visit the official Macy’s SF/SPCA Holiday Windows site.

Weekend Cat Blogging #238 will be hosted by our friends at the House of the (Mostly) Black Cats.

Carnival of the Cats will be going up this Sunday at When Cats Attack!.

And of course the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Happy Holidays!