We start off the week with this lovely picture featuring one of the cats on Sawa Masaki’s Twitter and a DSI/Sequential Pro 2.
It is probably not a coincidence that earlier the same say, Sequential announced that they would be discontinuing the Pro 2.
The #DSIPro2 mono/4-voice paraphonic hybrid synth has officially been retired 👋 To get one while stock lasts, check with your local dealer: https://t.co/0XDpWLkwcM pic.twitter.com/bz68hZsBKl
— Sequential (@sequentialLLC) May 17, 2019
In the past 24 hours, we have heard about the passing of two of our heroes, who hailed from different walks of life and even different species. In the first of our two remembrances, we bid farewell to the beloved Tardar Sauce, aka “Grumpy Cat”, has passed away. This was posted on Grumpy Cat’s official Facebook page this morning.
Despite care from top professionals, as well as from her very loving family, Grumpy encountered complications from a recent urinary tract infection and unfortunately become too tough for her to overcome. She passed away peacefully on the morning of Tuesday, May 14, at home in the arms of her mommy, Tabatha.
Besides being our baby and a cherished member of the family, Grumpy Cat has helped millions of people smile all around the world, even when times were tough.
https://twitter.com/RealGrumpyCat/status/1129310647458467840
Tardar Sauce’s feline dwarfism gave her face a sunken appearance, that together with her markings always made her look “grumpy” and launched a great many instantly usable internet memes. Even former President Barack Obama channeled Grumpy Cat on at least one occasion.
In reality, she seemed like a very sweet and docile cat, at least in the television appearances that we saw. She became quite the celebrity and her face graced many publications and toys, including this stuffed version of Grumpy Cat that has now sat on my desk at home and three different workplaces.
It’s always sad when a family says goodbye to a beloved feline companion – it’s a pain I know well. We wish Grumpy’s human and feline family our thoughts and sincerest condolences for their loss, and will do our part to keep her memory alive.
A cat contemplates the brightness of the Novation Circuit. From Jackies Fridge on Facebook.
Thanks to an amazing seller on Facebook Marketplace, I finally have my very own Circuit! So far I really like it. The sounds are much better than I was led to expect, though I plan on digging into the synth editor soon, and I’ll probably swap out some samples.
The cat thinks the LEDs are too bright for a dim room, and she might have a point.
I have a Novation control surface, and I can vouch for the brightness of the LEDs, but it does come in handy in a darkened performance space.
A black cat in the studio, who seems rather unimpressed by the rather impressive 5U modular system. Said cat is also sitting some instrument from Oberheim.
From Eric Larsen via Facebook.
Mother’s Day (the second Sunday in May) has become a celebration of motherhood and all things maternal. I enjoy seeing my friends’ photos of and with their moms; but also of feline moms, as in the photo above. Motherhood is one of those things that truly transcends species, and especially among fellow mammals, the patterns are instantly recognizable.
Our friend Marg at Marg’s Animals has this tribute to one of the cat mothers in her care, Lil Mum. And at Sweet Perfections, Truffle and Brulee pay tribute to their moms. And of course, our friends at Animal Shelter Volunteer have a message for all the moms, human and feline.
Sadly, mother cats who come to shelters with their kittens often find themselves left behind as their kittens are adopted out. The adult moms need love, too. When looking for a new feline friend, please consider adult and senior cats, and the moms left behind.
As for me, I’m content with my status as a cat mom (now the mom of two cats). And while I do my best to distinguish between this status my friends who are mothers to their own (human) children, I have on occasion been wished a “Happy Mother’s Day” and it makes me smile.
Cats find interesting ways to sit, with or without synths. And this kitty is no exception. From Ceephax Acid Crew on Twitter.
I espy an Ensoniq DP/4 signal processor, Yamaha TX802 FM module, Korg Wavestation A/D module, and more that are left as an exercise to the reader.
We know Brian Eno loves his cat, but his cat really runs the show as we see in this interview.
Brian Eno and Angel definitely give us something to aspire to 😸🎹.
A cute cat contemplates a Casio SK-1 sampling keyboard. Seen on matrixsynth.
“My cat came to look at it (pictured, looking at speaker), when I sampled his name and ran it in demo mode.”
We at CatSynth have a soft spot for our own SK-1. I have used it in several live performances over the years.
A gorgeous house panther shows off her studio, which includes a MicroBrute and controllers from Arturia, an Elektron SidStation, and a Nintendo GameBoy. From Shaun Steven Struble on Facebook, who says this about the GameBoy:
My main composition machine. If I can write it in three voices on the gameboy and it sounds good, I know it’ll sound good when I expand it to the other synths.
We all know and love Big Merp, but he never had a “CatSynth pic”. Until now. Here we see him sitting in front of a Roland JD-Xi synthesizer.
The JD-XI is a cool little instrument, a hybrid analog-digital synth with a built-in vocoder. I haven’t had a chance to try the vocoder yet, but I’m curious how it compares to our VP-03 (also from Roland).