blogoversary

CatSynth 16th Anniversary

Today marks 16 years since our first post on CatSynth. And of course here is the photo of our beloved Luna that started it all.

Although I still miss her dearly, I love being able to see her through my hundreds (maybe more than hundreds) of photos.

With everything that has been happening in the world and personally, I haven’t marked the anniversaries as much as in the past. But this year seems like a good time to do so, as at least some things from the past are beginning to re-emerge.

And with that, let’s look at some stats. The viewership for the blog continues to be down from its heights in the early 2010s. But we do still get a lot of visitors from all over the world.

According to our Google analytics, the greatest number of visits from July 2021 to July 2020 came from the United States, the United Kingdom, China (glad to see we’re not blocked by the “Great Firewall”), Ireland, France, Canada, Germany, and Sweden.

Our most popular blog post over the past year was NoiseKick FX Meme Screamer Plus (TS/Klon/Boost). And of course, we ended up buying that Meme Screamer pedal and presented it on CatSynth TV.

Speaking of CatSynth TV, the channel has continued to grow. We gained almost 1,500 subscribers and had well over 150,000 views. Perhaps small by YouTube standards, but I am proud of the work we have done and look forward to more growth. Our most popular videos were mostly old favorites including our many Arturia V Collection reviews and demos. Our tributes to electronic-music heroes also were among the most viewed, especially our tribute to the great Klaus Shulze. Again we welcomed viewers from around the world, with the largest viewership in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Canada, and Japan.

We at CatSynth are looking forward to another year of cats, synthesizers, music, art, and so much more. And thank you for all your support from myself, Sam Sam, and Big Merp.

CatSynth 12th Anniversary

It’s our twelfth anniversary! It’s hard to believe that this little project I started as a lark in 2006 is still going and expanding. Here is that first picture of Luna that went up on July 19, 2006!

As always, we look to the anniversary as a moment for reflection and for changes. We don’t have compiled detailed stats this year, but we do have several high-level milestones. Most notably, we launched CatSynth TV last October, and since then have shared 74 videos! More are on the way. We have continued to develop our apps, including the original CatSynth: The App! and Highway☆, though there is so much more we want to do there, both with existing and new apps. And Sam Sam has blossomed into the new star of CatSynth! With so many facets competing for our attention, there has been less time for the long-form reviews that once dominated this site, though we still write long-form articles when we can. So with that, we make some announcements:

Sam Sam finally takes her rightful place on the masthead alongside the late great Luna! It’s a change that is long overdue. And appropriately, we are featuring one of her scratch’n’roll poses.
We are going to open up the site to new voices. We have already had a couple of guest music reviews, and of course the semi-regular Mensa Cats cartoon series. This is going to expand in the coming months. If you have an idea for an article you would like to contribute, please let us know.
And as always, please keep sending us your cat-and-gear pics.

So please join Sam Sam and me in celebrating twelve years of CatSynth! We look forward to sharing many more with all of you.

CatSynth 11th Blog Anniversary

Luna on iPad at 11:11

It’s been 11 years since we started CatSynth on a bit of a lark, and since then it has grown into something that we treasure, and quite seriously. But not too seriously. As always, we mark the annual milestone with a few stats.

3210 Posts
14358 Comments
4.47 Comments Per Post
1202 Cat-and-synth pics
474 Reviews and related posts

Comments and interaction on the blog has continued to decline (from an average of 4.7 to 4.47 comments per post). This is not surprising as interaction has largely moved to social media platforms.

Our most visited post this last year was our Sad Farewell to Luna, both on the blog itself and on social media. This, too, is not surprising, and we continue to be very grateful for the outpouring of emotional support we have received.

Other individual posts that were widely read and shared including our explainer on Lake Oroville, our review of James Chance and the Contortions in San Francisco, and of course our annual NAMM coverage.

Every year we share the photo that started it all on July 19, 2006. It featured Luna in the beanbag chair along with a Novation keyboard. We feel its still appropriate for this day.

Luna with Novation Keyboard

We continue to grieve for Luna, but we also welcome Sam Sam who we hope with be with us and featured on these pages for years to come.

Emphatic Sam Sam

CatSynth 8th Anniversary

Well, our eighth blog anniversary occurred this weekend. So today we celebrate that milestone as we do every year, with some statistics and a look backs.

First, as always, the photo of Luna that launched it all on July 19, 2006.

We are always happy to receive visitors from all over the world, and we do.

Our top countries are:

United States
United Kingdom
Canada
Germany
France
Australia
Switzerland
Italy
Netherlands
India

Not surprising, the largest English-speaking countries are on the list (I include India), but also a strong presence in countries of Western Europe, especially Germany and France. Beyond India, several countries an Asia were well represented, especially Japan and South Korea. Notably, China had only 6 visitors this year, perhaps we have been blocked? Our top country in the Middle East was Iran, in Africa it was South Africa, and in South America it was Brazil.

Our top ten cities were San Francisco, New York, London, Zurich, Los Angeles, Oakland, Sydney, Melbourne, and Chicago.

Our top post from this past year was Our review of new modules from Make Noise. Indeed, we saw the highest overall engagement on our NAMM coverage.

Our top commenters for the year were:

Georgia and Julie, along with the late Tillie (we miss Tillie)
meowmeowmans of Animal Shelter Volunteer Life.
Snowcatcher
Louis la Vache (of the now closed Bay Area Photo blog)
Beth F of Beth Fish Reads
Our friend “Kitty” from Canada
Gattina
Sukhmandir Kaur
Sue St. Clair
Lee County Clowder

Overall, activity on the blog itself is down, while participation via Facebook, TwitterInstagram are increasing. Our top “liked” posts via Facebook were:

Chris Broderick Farewell Bay Area Concert
Happy Gotcha Day to Luna!
CatSynth pic: Belly Rub
Cat Museum of San Francisco’s Morrissey Birthday post
CatSynth pic: Nina the Studio Kitty

Our Facebook channel has become particularly strong on its own, often with distinct posts and readers from the blog. As for the blog itself, my own activity has gone down quite a bit this year, due to a variety of work and personal issues. In particular, I’d like to get back to more of our interest posts, including more music and art reviews, “Fun with Highways”, etc. And of course more cats and synths.

And finally, thanks to everyone who has stuck with us through any or all of our channels. You are what makes this such a rewarding experience!

CatSynth 7th Anniversary!

Today we mark seven years since CatSynth first went online!

Here was the photo of Luna from that first post on July 19, 2006.

As we do every yeah, we celebrate this occasion with some stats.

2,278 posts.
12,218 comments.
538,771 visitors.
760 “cat-and-synth” posts.

Some overall stats for the past year:

Our top day for visitors was January 26, 2013. This was during NAMM.
The greatest number of visitors came from the United States, followed by the United Kingdom, Canada, and Germany.
The top cities are San Francisco and New York. The top city outside the U.S. is London.
iOS and Android are among the top five platforms used by our visitors, surpassing Linux.

Our top commenters over the past year:

Tillie and Georgia	187
meowmeowmans	142
Gattina	70
Snowcatcher	57
Kitty	56
CatSynth	53
Beth F	45
Sukhmandir Kaur	42
AVCr8teur	42
Louis la Vache	40
Sue St Clair	39
KatzTales	37
Cafe au lait	34
Marilia	33
The Chair Speaks	29
Sweet Purrfections	27
Cats of wildcat woods	25
Marg	24
Team Tabby	23
Beth @ 990 Square	22
SandyCarlson	22

It’s great to see longtime readers continue to participate over the years, and always good to see newcomers as well. Interestingly, the number of comments has gone down significantly over the past year. My conjecture is that an increasing amount of the engagement around CatSynth has migrated to our Facebook page, and to Twitter, where we have lively communities of commenters. In terms of Facebook, here are our most shared/liked posts over the past year:

The Green Wood, an opera by David Samas	64
CatSynth pic: Brian Eno Purina ad	44
Weekend Cat Blogging: Good News from PAWS	38
Pitta of the Mind, Red Thread, and Pet the Tiger at Turquoise Yantra Grotto	36
CatSynth pic: Gary Mew-man	33
CatSynth pic: Moog Little Phatty	31
Superb Owl	29
Outsound Music Summit: Fire and Energy	28
CatSynth pic: Chewie on Ensoniq EPS	26
CatSynth pic: Pinto and Moog Little Phatty	25
Jay Korber Benefit Performance, Berkeley Arts	25
The Fashion World of John Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk, De Young Museum	23
CatSynth pic: Maggie Monotron	23
Military Cats	20
CatSynth pic: Schnuffi and Modular	19

It’s gratifying to see a mixture of “cat-and-synth” posts and art/music reviews in this list. It supports my belief that mixing all the different topics together into one stream is worthwhile. I particularly enjoy our many cat enthusiasts commenting on the music reviews or highway posts.

We hope to continue this project for a long time, and hope it continues to be a valuable and worthwhile resource. And a big thank you to all our readers and fans! You make this a joy to work on.

CatSynth 6th Anniversary

Today marks our 6th anniversary! It’s amazing to think that we have been going on with this for 6 years. The past year has been a good one, in terms of quality of the post and engagement with readers here on the blog as well as via Facebook and Twitter, and we’re looking forward to an even better year ahead.

And we are celebrating as we always do, with statistics.

1933 posts.
10714 comments.
463,958 visitors.
258 reviews of art, music and technology.
621 catsynth pics and videos.

57% of posts feature cats
19% of posts feature Luna

Most frequently-cited synthesizer brands:
Korg (100)
Moog (72)
Roland (70)

Via Google Analytics, a map of where people are visiting from:

Top countries:

United States
United Kingdom
Canada
India
Germany
Australia
France
Italy
Poland
Netherlands

The non-anglophone country that sent the most visitors to CatSynth is Germany.

Our top commenters for July 2011-July 2012:

Kitty	141
Tillie and Georgia	135
meowmeowmans	132
Gattina	77
Snowcatcher	61
AVCr8teur	55
Beth F	50
Sue St Clair	46
Marg	45
Beth @ 990 Square	44
Daisy the Curly Cat	39
SandyCarlson (USA)	39
Cafe au lait	37
Judi	33
Louis la Vache	33
Mitch	32
Maria @ LSS	32
The Chair Speaks	31
caite@a lovely shore breeze	29
Indrani	29
Robin from Israel	27
Sweet Purrfections	26
Carol @ There’s Always Thyme to Cook	24
Sukhmandir Kaur	24
Katz (And Other) Tales	21
Li	19
Cats of Wildcat Woods	18
Daisy Deadhead	15
Fuzzy Tales	12

Our most commented articles this past year:

Happy Birthday Luna!	36
Happy Gotcha Day, Luna!	27
Wordless Wednesday: Green Window	26
Wordless Wednesday: Cat and Koi Street Art	24
Wordless Wednesday: Installation views of upcoming show	24
Wordless Wednesday	24
Wordless Wednesday: Portals	24
Wordless Wednesday: Blue Barrels	23
Wordless Wednesday: Oakland Maze	23
Wordless Wednesday: View from Brooklyn	23
Wordless Wednesday: Ominous Sky	22
Wordless Wednesday: Ferguson	22
Dona Nobis Pacem	22
Wordless Wednesday: Union and Octavia	22
Wordless Wednesday: Looking Upward	21
Wordless Wednesday: Quicksilver	20
Wordless Wednesday: LACMA	20
Wordless Wednesday: Jungle Cat	20
Wordless Wednesday: Doll and Fish	19
Wordless Wednesday: Mystery Sunburst from New York	19

And finally, the posts most “liked” by Facebook users.

Broadside Attractions \| Vanquished Terrains at Intersection for the Arts	40
CatSynth pic: Happy Minimoog Monday (On Tuesday)	37
CatSynth pic: Bengal Cheetah Cat on a Moog Little Phatty	22
CatSynth pic: Bessie and Korg Monotron	21
Pas Musique and Thomas/Levin duo, Luggage Store Gallery	21
CatSynth pic: Mog Moog	20
CatSynth pic: Missy and Nord	20
Paul Stapleton improvisation sets, Luggage Store Gallery	17
CatSynth pic: Mimi and Korg MS-20	16
CatSynth pic: Techno Puff (JL Cooper CS-32)	16
CatSynth pic: Binary Heap	16
CatSynth pic: VideoCat and Korg Mono/Poly	16
CatSynth pic: Video the cat with Wurlitzer and Fender	15
CatSynth pic: Steerke and Korg Mono/Poly	14
ReCardiacs Fly, Surplus 1980, PG13 at Hemlock Tavern	13
CatSynth pic: Lenny	13
Robert Reich at #OccupySF	13
CatSynth pic: I smell a rat	12
Alan Turing and Computability	12

It is quite interesting how the set of posts receiving the most blog comments and those receiving the most Facebook likes are completely disjoint. The former tends towards Wordless Wednesday and Luna, while the latter tends towards cat-and-synth pics and art/music reviews. Certainly something to reflect on as we move forward into this next year.