This cat is in charge at the console and ready to mix his next hit record. Submitted by Dirk Vanstraelen via our Facebook page.
Identification of the synth in the background is left as an exercise to the reader.
Cat at the Console
Wordless Wednesday: Three Black Tanks
Louis and Samson Patchbay
Louis is quite excited about this new Samson patchbay, or at least the box it came in. By Justin Saunders.
“Boring Gear Monday! My patchbay finally arrived. It’s cool how a simple device opens up possibilities for recording and effects chains. Also, Louis appreciates a new box now and then :-D”
Patchbays are among those under-appreciated but very useful pieces of studio gear, especially when one has a lot of synthesizers and I/O channels. I take mine for granted.
Green Cat and Moog Modular
This cat has some amusing photos in front of a Moog modular. The images are also rather…green. You can see more in the Instagram post from dj.wadada embedded below.
Milali and Roland Juno-106
Milali returns, this time strolling atop a Roland Juno-106. We also see a Roland SH-101, and the MS-20 and Future Retro Revolution from her previous appearance.
From midiride via Instagram.
Wordless Wednesday: Le Fleur Du Mal
Korg Poly 800 and Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man
Tom Petty (the cat) lounges on a Korg Poly 800, We also see an Eletro-Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man near by. It looks like he is getting ready to for some serious drone music.
From nonbinarysynthesis via Instagram.
Drone master 😭
Pinkie and Ensoniq VFX
Pinkie has just written a new sound patch on the Ensoniq VFX and she is very proud of it 
. Submitted by Edda Jayne Hill via our Facebook page.
She will probably switch on the Atari ST and get a sequence going next
Sounds like a great combination. The VFX was the successor to the Ensoniq SQ-80, a flexible wavetable synthesizer that could achieve complex timbres by shifting through different waveforms, a technique pioneered by the PPG Wave. It was released at about the same time as I got my Ensoniq EPS (as I was very focused on sampling at the time). But the VFX is particularly intriguing now as we are in the midst of a proliferation of wavetable-based instruments.
The Atari ST is another interesting electronic-music artifact from the late 1980s, but that’s a story for another time.
Happy Gotcha Day Big Merp!
It was two years ago that Marlon, aka “Big Merp” came to live with us at CatSynth HQ! We had already known him for a while, but circumstances arose where he needed to find a new permanent home, and we were more than happy to oblige.
We first met him in 2018. He was living on the street in the Temescal section of Oakland, California.
Life on the streets can be rough, and it showed on his face. But he was incredibly friendly and loved people, and enjoyed coming indoors to hang out. He was clearly a former house cat, likely abandoned. We’re glad we found him and gave him a home. The posh indoor life has been good to him.
Big Merp is a “synth cat” – he loves to get up on the main instrument desk to be close to the action. There is the iconic photo lounging with the Novation LaunchPad Pro and Arturia MicroFreak above, as well as many others.
Although he bonded with the humans right away (including visitors), things were a bit more difficult with Sam Sam. She was not happy with this newcomer to her home and tried her best to avoid him for quite a while. Over time, however, her confidence returned and the two grew more comfortable with each other’s presence. They may not be the best of friends, but they do at least accept one another and share space.
Please join us in wishing Big Merp a very happy second Gotcha Day!
