Published on Jun 16, 2016
Ziggy Cat & Bill T Miller of Orgy Of Noise studio recording session at Headroom Studios Boston on December 5, 2015 (couple days before ZBC Radio appearance) – http://billtmiller.com/12.05.15.bill….
BTM RIG with FieldScaper iPad App with Ziggy Cat Purr & Leaf Blower Drone Samples controlled by Arturia Mini Lab Keyboard & custom BTM Spring-O-Phone instrument with Korg Mini-Kaoss Pad for Delay. (Moog Mother-32 Synth is pictured, but not used on this composition.)
Directed & Edited by Bill T Miller
Cameras: Bill T Miller & Sheri Hausey
Co-Producer / Assistant Editor: Ziggy Cat
X-tra THANX to Ziggy & Sheri
and Igor Vasiliev for creating FieldScaper & SoundScaper apps
and to DJ Deftly-D & DJ Josh B at WZBC Radio.
Long time reader and fan Jen Grover shared this adorable picture of her young cat Lester with an Arturia Minibrute synthesizer. We think they make quite a pair 🙂
When first saw previous of the MatrixBrute from Arturia, I was sure it was a hoax. The synthesizer in the images was huge and monstrous mix of everything, and I figured it must be a riff on Arturia’s well received compact analog synths, the MiniBrute and MicroBrute. But the MatrixBrute is in fact real, and his here at NAMM.
And it is a beast! It has a fully analog signal path headed by three “Brute” oscillators (the same ones found in Arturia’s smaller analog synths), plus both a Steiner filter and a traditional ladder filter. It has a lot of knobs for controlling…everything, as well as 12 CV inputs and outputs in addition to Trigger CV, and of course MIDI. The place where this machine gets both very powerful and a bit overwhelming is in the modulation matrix. The matrix is literally that, an array of 256 LED buttons that can be used to route from anything to anything.
This is not new, modulation matrices have been part of synthesizer architecture for a long time. But seeing it laid out on a panel like this in more unusual. It makes it both powerful and immediate – one can just press any of the buttons at any time. But it also a bit difficult to get the hang of. It’s challenging to keep track of and predict what a particular matrix configuration will do. In this video, you can see my attempt to play this instrument, including the matrix points.
It’s quite difficult, but presumably someone one can master with patience and practice (and a quieter listening environment). One thing that I would have expected from a synth of this magnitude is polyphony, like the much more modest Korg Minilogue. The MatrixBrute is monophonic/duophonic. Polyphony in an analogue synth is no small feat, but I would have liked to see it. Nonetheless, coming in at just under $2000, it does have quite a lot to offer.
We have another recent photo of Mimi, this time with an Arturia Minibrute.
Submitted by Eric of of polynominal. As one can see in this pic, Mimi is getting older and having some health issues. We at CatSynth are sending her healing thoughts and vibes.
“Teaser ! Savoir comment accorder un oscillateur analogique sur toute l’étendue de sa plage d’octave, ça vous intéresse ? En tout cas, moi j’ai connais une que ça intéresse vivement : ma fidèle et unique Miss Papée !”
It looks like Miss Papée wants to touch the MiniBrute 🙂
From DarkSideoftheTune on SoundCloud. Submitted by Shawn Shirey via our Facebook page
A Howling Free Sample Library from Dark Side of the Tune
Hella Kitty is a 39 sound library containing cat sounds that were altered with a vocoder to create robotic and ethereal sound design options.
Source synthesizers include:
Arturia Minibrute
Moog Slim Phatty
Doepfer Dark Energy
As always, if you like these sounds, please consider stopping by the shop and checking out the other libraries for purchase at www.darksideofthetune.com