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Farewell to 2024: Beautiful Dissonance

2024 has come to a close, so it is time for our traditional end-of-year collage and post. You might notice another kitty in the corner this year – that’s Golda, one of the wonderful cats I stayed with in Berlin. She is representing our European adventure this summer, along with Plac Grunwaldzki in Wroclaw, Poland.

It was a banner year musically. I am especially proud of the album, the best musical work I have done to date! If you haven’t heard it yet, you should. Opening the San Francisco Electronic Music Festival was a special experience. And we had numerous other musical adventures both live and recorded, and an ever growing community of musicians scattered across the country and beyond that are not just colleagues, but friends.

It was a banner year for CatSynth TV, our best to date in terms of viewership, subscriptions, and audience interaction. 50% year-over-year growth ain’t bad. January of 2024, with NAMM, was our best month on record. We even saw an uptick in blog readership, including a new cohort of loyal followers for our cat+synth posts and Wordless Wednesday.

Indeed, with CatSynth TV, I look not only at what we accomplished this year, but what was left undone. So many videos partially complete or in the ideation phase, waiting to be finished in 2025. We are particularly looking to jumpstart our interview series that was big in 2023 but took a bit of a back seat this year because of various circumstances.

The dissonance between things at a personal and CatSynth level, and at a national and world level, is deafening. The election here in the U.S. this year was tragic and heartbreaking, and this coming year is going to be difficult. This time, it wasn’t a fluke, it was a choice, and we chose…unwisely. In my usual cynical way, the best I hope for is sheer incompetence by the new regime, but even so, a lot of people will be hurt, including people who are a lot like me.

So we go into 2025 in a very strange place. The personal successes and hopes for the New Year, set against the fear and coming disasters in the world. All we have is forward motion, each other, and defiance.

Gracie and Roland Jupiter 6

Gray and white cat sitting on top of a keyboard synthesizer (Roland Jupiter 6) on a hardwood floor.

Gracie stands proudly atop a vintage Roland Jupiter 6. As the quality manager for Synthetic Dreamscapes, she always has access to some of the best instruments (including a few of ours that we have sent in for repair).

The Jupiter 6 was a somewhat scaled-down version of Roland’s flagship Jupiter 8 polyphonic analog synthesizer. But it did have a sound of its own, perhaps a little edgier, and it sported one of the earliest MIDI implementations. We at CatSynth enjoy its sound indirectly through Cherry Audio’s Mercury 6 virtual instrument.

Farewell to 2022

It’s that time when we at CatSynth post our traditional end-of-year image, along with a few stats and thoughts on the year that is coming to an end. It was a bit harder to settle on a set of images to represent this year given how much has happened. First, a few quick stats.

On the blog:

  • 207 posts
  • 142 “cat-and-synth” posts

On CatSynth TV

  • 61 new videos
  • Most watched video made in 2022: Klaus Schulze: A tribute to his music and legacy
  • Second-most watched made in 2022: The Logistic Map: Attractors, Bifurcation, and Chaos (Part 1 of 2)

Although there were fewer videos produced this year, there were some ambitious ones, like the two “Red Robot Show” videos. We emphasized quality over quantity.

Compared to the previous two years, 2022 was active and busy. Even a bit chaotic and over-committed at times. Perhaps this is a form of “return to normalcy” after the deepest parts of the pandemic. We did continue the new tradition from last year of releasing at least one EP or album by the end of the year – I am quite proud of the way Merp Friend came out. I also traveled farther and more frequently than in previous years, reconnected in person with more friends, and will be off to visit New York at the start 2023 for the first time in 3 years (the longest I’ve ever been away in my lifetime).

For this coming year, I already have a new album in the works and lots of ideas for the video channel. I would like to see CatSynth TV grow – and this website could use some serious updates. The challenge is sustainability between music, videos, my personal life, and my “day job”. Finding that balance has been at a time challenging this past year, and continuing to develop my new organization and meditation techniques will play a part. And I of course look forward to spending as much time with my cat family – Sam Sam and Big Merp – as I have these past two years. Working from home has truly been a blessing that came out of the challenges since 2020. As my good friend G Calvin Weston says, forward motion.

Wishing you all the best for 2023 – and we’ll keep doing what we do.

Orion and Eurorack Serge (Random*Source)

Orion the gray tuxedo cat sits behind a Eurorack serge modular system with numerous patch cables.

Orion shows off a complex patch on a Eurorack Serge system featuring modules by Random*Source. From Justin Sullivan (@justin3am) on Twitter.

We at CatSynth have long been curious about those Serge modules from Random*Source as a way of exploring Serge-style modular synthesis in more detail. The underlying premise is building up complexity from very simple building blocks like slope generators.

You can see all of Orion’s appearances via this tag.

Farewell to 2021

Collage of images from 2021, including the new album, Sam Sam and Big Merp, San Francisco, Death Valley, and Joshua Tree

I have remarked on numerous occasions that this year seemed to go by exceptionally fast. There was hope, excitement, optimism giving way to a mixture of frustration, cynicism and resolve as the pandemic and political situations dragged on and darkened. I have seen the goodness in many people, while I have witnessed the worst in others. But our personal year at CatSynth was a rich one filled with many experiences.

Most notably, the new album Meow Meow Band is out. I am really proud of the music, the presentation, the collaboration with other musicians and everything out it. Please do take a listen if you haven’t already. It was also a chance to reconnect with the city, go out on the road and into the desert, and start experiencing live music again. Of course, most of the time this year was spent here at HQ with our music, Sam Sam, and Big Merp. I always value time alone with my cats, music, and ideas and this moment in time has provided ample opportunity for that.

It’s been another strong year of growth for CatSynth TV. The most popular videos continue to be our synth demos and tutorials, but I’m also proud of music videos, highway videos, and expanded review series. There were fewer videos total this year. We took more time to get them right, but also time off to focus on other things (like the album). Trying to find that balance between the drive to always do more and the limits of time and resources will always be a challenge. We close out the year of videos by spending some time with Sam Sam and Big Merp.

We at CatSynth are grateful to all of you who chose to join or continue this journey with us in 2021, whether here on the blog, on CatSynth TV, or on social media. It is a fool’s errand to guess what will happen in the coming year, but we do have many goals, aspirations, and hopes; we will take each day as it comes.

Wishing you all a Happy New Year and health and joy in 2022.