Sasa gets ready to perform a noise set with pedals from Digitech, Boss and Line 6. From Mark Wilson via Facebook.
Of the three pedals, I am most familiar with the Line 6 DL 4 delay pedal. It was my go-to for many years for delay and loops, even acting as an extra oscillator when the feedback was turned up. One memorable show with the DL 4 was performing Polly Moller Springhorn’s piece Flip Quartet at Book Zoo in Oakland, one of a few times I played it.
Today is both 808 Day – after the Roland TR-808 drum machine – and World Cat Day. As a bonus, the date works in both American and international formats. Is there a greater confluence of this blog’s core themes than this date? 😸 🎹
The picture above was from an old Reddit post. We have featured a few cats with the TR-808’s successor, the TR-8, such as this post from 2017, courtesy of adrianhalo on Instagram.
They have a very different look – the TR-8 was part of Roland’s AIRA series with the glowing controls. The sound and technology is also different, but both instruments have found their way into a great variety of music.
Casio the tabby cat finds a comfy spot in this cozy bedroom studio. By Kris Nicholson via Facebook.
This little bedside studio is designed for me not to get out of bed and it’s not just a little music studio but also I can create my computer animations using Poser.
I’m using a Korg microSTATION Music Workstation and iPad Pro loaded with music apps and synthesizer apps and also you can see my cat her name is Casio.
Loki getting comfortable on top of a Novation Bass Station 2. From thedigitalpurrgatory on Instagram.
Sometimes Juno is the cat, sometimes Juno is the synth. Today it is the synth, as Miss Lali sits proudly atop a JUNO 106. Submitted by Caroline Sommer via our Facebook page.
Miss Lali with the Juno 😊🐈❤️
A little on the JUNO 106 from Vintage Synth Explorer:
The Juno-106 is a very common and widely used analog polysynth. It continues to be one of the most popular analog synths due to its great sound and easy programmability. It was the next major incarnation of the Juno-series, following the Juno-60. While it has virtually the same synth engine as the Juno-60, the 106 added extensive MIDI control making it one of Roland’s first MIDI-equipped synthesizers. There was also increased patch memory storage, up to 128 patches instead of the 56 patches available in the Juno-60. However, the Juno-60 is often said to have a slight sonic edge over the more advanced 106. The 60 had the ability to modulate oscillator pulse from its envelope and has a “punchier” sound quality.
http://www.vintagesynth.com/roland/juno106.php
Coco sits in front of a rather large Eurorack modular system. Submitted by Daniel Warner via our Facebook page.
Identification of individual modules and brands left as an exercise to the reader.
This cat shares an extremely impressive modular collection, including Serge Panels, with our friends Dmitri SFC and Elise Gargalikis of Slope 114.
Check out some of their music at https://slope114.bandcamp.com/
House panther with an Arturia MicroFreak, a current favorite of ours at CatSynth. From Mark Mosher via Facebook.
My cat is helping me rehearse for my performance at meetup on Tuesday “Intro to the Arturia MicroFreak + Performance by Mosher-Deane” https://www.meetup.com/Rocky-Mountain-Syn…/events/264937585/
I can has Octatrack?
Gracie is back, this time with a Korg Poly 61 synthesizer. From Alsún Ní Chasaide (Alison Cassidy) of Synthetic Dreamscapes, who repaired the instrument.
This unusual Korg Poly-61 with factory MIDI retrofit (not Poly-61m) is finally finished and working perfectly. As usual, the last 20% takes 50% of the time!
In this case, the non-working panel buttons were traced to severe oxidation around two connectors on the MIDI board. Both pin headers *and* connectors had to be completely replaced / rebuilt for this to be long-term reliable. Also, one new rubber key contact set was needed, and Andrej’s new CPU board from yesterday.
And after a tune-up – perfect!! Ready to go back to its local owner 👍🏼😊
Gracie is the Quality Engineer for these repair projects 😸🎹
I got a new control surface with a motorized fader and I should have known the interns would be fascinated by it@maddyandphoebe pic.twitter.com/oXydSUeBOc
— Ben Prunty 🔜 GDC (@benprunty) March 2, 2019
This cat (one of Mandy and Phoebe) is clearly fascinated by the motorized fader.