Mount Olympus, once dubbed “the geographical center of San Francisco”. It is now a somewhat obscure park at the center of a residential neighborhood. You can see more, including the 360-degree views of the city, in our recent video.
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Winslow the Pianist
Meet Winslow, who has his own toy piano and knows how to play it.
Winslow’s playing reminds me a bit of Nora, but with a toy piano it brings to mind John Cage’s Suite for Toy Piano, and some of my own composition.
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CatSynth Pic: Kurzweil K250
A handsome tuxedo cat introduces the Kurzweil K250 synthesizer. By Jamie Breustedt via Facebook.
The K250 was the first of the Kurzweil’s “K” series of synthesizers in the 1980s and 1990s. Released in 1984, it was among the first to allow ROM-based samples to be layered and played on a keyboard – although the Synclavier and Fairlight CMI already offered sampling at this time. But it did have features such as variable rates and 16-bit sources that gave it the ability to play long samples and get closer to that holy grail of sampling a grand piano – indeed the K250 was supposedly inspired by a bet between Ray Kurzweil and Stevie Wonder on whether he could make a synthesizer that sounded like a “real piano.”
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CatSynth Pic: Hydrasynth
Cute cat atop an ASM Hydrasynth. From Luke Chable via Facebook.
The Hydrasynth was one of the more exciting instruments to come out of at the start of this year, with three oscillators with a rich set of wavetable operations and a polyphonic-aftertouch keyboard. We featured it in our NAMM coverage on CatSynth TV.
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Pixel in the Studio, with Moog and Korg
Pixel returns, this time holding court in her studio. We see two Moog synthesizers, a collection of Korg Volcas, another keyboard, and more. Submitted by @DJLahbug via Twitter.
Pixel says hello from her studio!!!
Note that this is her studio.
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Big Merp with Yamaha RX5 Drum Machine
Big Merp has taken to our recently acquired Yamaha RX5 drum machine. I think he will be ready to lay down some rhythm tracks soon. He also has his rear paw on another recent acquisition: the Buchla Red Panel 158 oscillator. Look for these two instruments featured in upcoming episodes of CatSynth TV!
Back in the late 1980s when I was getting into synthesizers, Yamaha’s DX series dominated the landscape (along with Roland’s D series). I got Yamaha’s “After Touch” magazine which featured new releases including the RX5, which became the flagship of their drum-machine line. It was beyond my reach then, but I now I have one and looking forward to seeing what I can do with it in our eclectic studio at CatSynth HQ.
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CatSynth Pic: Moog Prodigy
Cat sits on a Moog Prodigy mid-peformance. It looks like the cat has a paw on a Moogerfooger pedal as well.
From Brent Regier via Facebook.
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CatSynth Pic: Novation Bass Station
This cat has a serious look as he prepares to play a Novation Bass Station synthesizer. From Luke Chable via Facebook.
