Max, with his lovely marble markings, explores the studio. He is walking past an impressive collection of Eurorack modules, stepping on an Arturia BeatStep, and about to tweak some patches on the Behringer Model D. From coresect23 on Instagram.
Gracie is back and performing her duties as the quality manager for Synthetic Dreamscapes.
This Oberheim OB-Xa is not totally rebuilt yet, but our Quality Manager just had to get in on the action early!
The OB-Xa is one of the classic Oberheim analog synths and was featured in lots of early 1980s synth-heavy pop music. For me personally, it would probably be more interesting to have the SEM filter to complement the other instruments, but it still has a sound that would be instantly familiar to fans of this era.
The OB-Xa is a massive analog synthesizer with a very familiar and classic Oberheim sound. Its sound, size and power are very similar to the Prophet 5 from Sequential. However this one has up to 8 voices which can be split, layered and stored!
The OB-X was very similar to the OB-Xa except that its voices could not be split or layered and, more significantly, the OB-X had a lowpass-only discrete SEM 12dB/oct state variable filter, which had a great and classic Oberheim sound. The OB-Xa changed that in an attempt to economize manufacturing and increase stability by switching to CEM3320 Curtis chips for its filters. The Xa offered two switchable filter modes: 12 dB/oct (2-pole) or 24 dB/oct (4-pole). This hardware change resulted in a more agressive sound, not quite as creamy as the OBX original, but what still became a “bread and butter” sound of the Oberheim line.
Vintage Synth Explorer: http://www.vintagesynth.com/oberheim/obxa.php
As I was editing our most recent CatSynth TV episode featuring the Pocket Operator, Big Merp jumped onto the desk and decided he wanted to get into the act.
He loves to be wherever the action is, so I took a bit of video and a few more photos. I even pulled out a (dusty) Korg Monotron for him to pose with.
His video clip made it into the introduction for the episode, which you can see below.
Dino from Ok Housecat naps on a circuit-bent and colorfully adorned drum machine.
Dino dreams of drum machines 👌🏠🐈#drummachine #circuitbent #circuitbending #cat#yamaha #beats #cool FOR SALE on the UPDATED Ok Housecat Etsy page!
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A black-and-white cat plays hide and seek in an Arturia gig bag. From particlesintowaves on Instagram.
We have the exact same back here at HQ for our Arturia MiniBrute 2 and RackBrute 3U. It makes gigging with that instrument very easy. But I hope neither Sam Sam nor Big Merp decides to make it a hiding place…
As promised in yesterday’s Weekend Cat Blogging post, here is Big Merp with our main modular system.
He always wants to be wherever the action is, and at that moment the action was in the studio, where I was editing our latest episode of CatSynth TV, which itself has a feline theme.
It’s been a week of both progress and setbacks as we work to make a happy home for both Sam Sam and Big Merp. To help give Sam Sam more of a sense of territorial ownership over the loft level, and to give her more diversions, we bought her a wall-to-ceiling cat tree. After tentatively exploring it for a week or so, she finally claimed her place on the top platform as “queen of the loft within the loft.”
With these and other steps, she has been becoming bolder and more confident. I was able to capture this close-up showing her radiating happiness and beauty.
We also got her a Cat Cave, a cozy and calming little place to sleep, which she liked as well.
Another positive step is that she was able to remain while Big Merp entered the room. No fight or flight. Things were tense but peaceful, and both cats hung out in the same space for quite a while.
Sadly, it was not to last. By the latter half of the week, Sam Sam had retreated back to hiding in the studio, while Big Merp resumed encroaching on her spaces. I know that he just wants to play and be where the action is. Whether I’m doing business or creative work in the studio, he always wants to be nearby and be “the little helper.”
Indeed, there were enough studio pics from the last few days that we will feature him in a “Man-Cat Monday” post tomorrow complete with synthesizers. On the downside, the studio is one again becoming ground zero in the territorial conflict between him and Sam Sam. I do really want comity between them or at least detente, so we can all enjoy these spaces together.
Dino steals the show in this video from Ok Housecat. Lots of fun circuit-bending in this one, and Dino seems to be enjoying it.
A beautiful calico cat sits behind an (also beautiful) Buchla 208 system. From macron_electron via Instagram.
The 208 is really just the top half a Music Easel, i.e., the synthesizer without the touch plate controller. Recently, my interest in Buchla gear at HQ has been rekindled, first by the announcement of the still elusive Red Panel series at NAMM, and then by the demo that we got from Thomas DiMuzio at his rehearsal for the Outsound summit.
