Synthesizers

CatSynth Pic: Bok Choy and Casio SK-1

Please welcome Bok Choy, making her long awaited debut on CatSynth.

Bok Choy and Casio SK-1

Here we see her checking out, and showing a bit of disdain for, a Casio SK-1.

Bok Choy and Casio SK-1

The Casio SK-1 is actually an awesome little instrument we have used many times.

Bok Choy is the cat that lives with Maw Shein Win, our longtime collaborator in Pitta of the Mind. And on that note, Pitta of the Mind will be performing next Friday at Nomadic Press in Oakland (23rd and Telegraph).

Join us for an excellent Uptown Fridays featuring readings by Norma Smith and Sofia Lopez, with musical guest Pitta of the Mind featuring Maw Shein Win and Amanda Chaudhary. Emceed and curated by Reńe Vaz .

Suggested donations of $5-25 collected at the door, but no one turned away for lack of funds.

Red wine and Red Bay coffee will be available.

Red Robot Show presents Vacuum Tree Head Live @ HSP2017!

The Red Robot Show and Vacuum Tree Head are back! This time Jason Berry brings footage from our March show at HSP2017, and is joined by Marlon Brando in this full-length episode.

The members of the band for this performance are:

Jason Bellenkes : Alto Saxophone and Clarinet
Jason Berry: Conductor
Amanda Chaudhary: Keyboards and Vocoder
Richard Corny: Electric Guitar
Michael de la Cuesta: Guitar, Synth, Vibraphone, Sitar, etc.
Richard Lesnik: Bass Clarinet
Justin Markovits: Drum Kit
Joshua Marshall: Soprano and Tenor Saxophones
John Shiurba: Bass Guitar

Video credits:
Cameras by Amanda Chaudhary and Jason Berry
Edited by Berry / Chaudhary
Audio Engineering by Amanda Chaudhary
Animated and Directed by Jason Berry

Special Thanks:
Mika Pontecorvo
Mark Pino

Brought to you by White Wine. Crisp. And Refreshing.

Church of the Superserge at Robotspeak: Djll, Day, Normalien

The monthy Church of the Superserge event at Robotspeak in San Francisco has been going on five years. We at CatSynth were on hand to mark this milestone during the May show.

Musically, the highlight was a solo set by Tom Djll on modular synth and mini trumpet. It was quite musical, blending rhythms and phrases with the timbral elements, even a “melody” of sorts from the processed trumpet.

The afternoon opened with a set by Normalien, also on modular synthesizer. Some delightfully weird sounds with rhythmic elements.

And Carson Day closed things out with a forceful set that included Novation and Dave Smith instruments.

It’s always a fun afternoon at Robotspeak. Not only do I enjoy the music and technology in the performances, but also just browsing the display cases on the wall, seeing what instruments I should covet next. This little DIY synth stood out this time, especially juxtaposed between the giant vacuum tube and the WMD pedal.

We look forward to next time, and perhaps playing again soon.

CatSynth Video: 3 Time & Timbre TimeStings controlling 3 TAL-Basslines

From DaanSynthesizers on YouTube, via matrixsynth.

There are no midi tracks playing in this video. Everything is done live with the Time&Timbre pack. Every Timesting and Bassline-101 is controlled by three knobs and two sliders:

First knob: Density of the Timesting sequencer
Second knob: Offset of a LFO that controls the Filter Frequency
Third knob: Amount of reverb from a Convolution Reverb
First slider: Release
Second slider: Wetness of the Time Delay

A fun video to close out the week. And we love the little cat figurines 😺.