CATSYNTH

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Tag: cat

  • Church of the Superserge: March 2015

    Yesterday, I attended the Church of the Superserge at Robotspeak here in San Francisco. It is a monthly gathering for electronic music and synth geekery hosted by the same folks who produced the big Serge Modular 40-year Reunion Concert.

    There is always an impressive array of gear on hand. Here we see Robotspeak’s Steve Taormina warming things up before the show with a tower of modules. Also note the Prophet 2, Moog pedals and more in front.

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    This is a casual, BYOB affair, so I stopped at a bodega across the street to grab a beverage. I encountered this rather stoic cat sitting next to the door.

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    The music began with an ambient set by Clarke Robinson. There was an ever changing cloud of sound, sometimes quite tonal. There was also a bit of textural detail added by that small box in front of his modular.

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    Next up was Elise Gargalikis, performing on a very compact suitcase rig featuring Serge modules and a looper. Her performance was more abstract and detailed than the previous, and featured her captivating voice as an integral sound source for the electronics.

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    JD Northrup rouded out the afternoon with a decided techno set featuring strong patterns and arpeggios atop a four-on-the-floor beat. The rhythm remained fairly constant throughout the set (which was longer than the others), but the timbres from his setup featuring Make Noise modules along with a few others was continuously changing.

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    A few of us were compelled to dance in place at points; and eventually Robotspeak’s own disco lighting came up.

    All in all, it was a fun afternoon. I look forward to more of these events in the coming months.

  • CatSynth pic: Miles the Cat likes Alesis Micron Synth

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    Another picture featuring Miles the cat, this time with an Alesis Micron. From L.T., via matrixsynth.

    “Seems Miles the Cat is developing a keen interest in synthesizers and such.”

  • CatSynth video: Tom the Cat Playing a Moog Theremini

    CatSynth video: Tom the Cat Playing a Moog Theremini

    By timbolature on YouTube, via matrixsynth.

    “A Moog Theremini comes to visit, and finds a fan in the form of Tom the Cat. Recorded by Offspring #2.”

    Tom is playing the Theremini in way that only a cat can play 🙂

  • CatSynth pic: Modular Synths!

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    Submitted via Facebook.

  • CatSynth pic: Open Hailing Frequencies!

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    This is another one of those pictures that is awesome on many levels 🙂

    From the Facebook group Cats on Synthesizers in Space.

  • CatSynth pic: Organ Cat

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    Submitted by ⓉⒺⒸⒽℕ⌽▃ⒾⒹ●⒞⒪⒨ via Twitter.

  • CatSynth pic: Teenage Engineering Pocket Operator

    Teenage Engineering pocket operator

    Submitted by John F. Elberstein via Twitter.

    “OK, it’s just a pocket synth, but there’s a cat with it ^^ “

    Amidst the overwhelming abundance of synths at NAMM, we managed to miss this. If you have experience or opinions on the Teenage Engineering Pocket Operator series, please share.

  • CatSynth pic: Vincent and Moog

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    Submitted by AnalogKeys via Twitter.

    “Vincent the cat keeping me company in the studio #cats #StudioLife”

  • Weekend Cat Blogging with Luna: Logo Portrait

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    Luna posed quite elegantly for this impromptu portrait. As always, she seems to match the interior design. The quintessential modern city cat.

    If I can wrangle Photoshop, we might also be able to use this as Luna’s official logo portrait for our new app-development house, the CatSynth Appwerx! So far we just have CatSynth: The App, and that is all we can say at this time for a great many reasons.

  • NAMM: KOMA Eletronik, QuBit, 4ms

    Today we continue with the panoply of synth module manufactures that we say at this year’s NAMM show.

    One instrument that garnered quite a bit of attention (and deservedly) so was the new Komplex Sequencer from our friends at KOMA Eletronik.

    KOMA Komplex Sequencer

    First of all, it is sleek and beautiful. But it is also quite powerful. It features four independent 16-step sequencers supporting both MIDI and CV/Gate. The sequencers can each be set to play in one of five modes (forward, backward, ping-pong, ping-pong reversed, random); and CV can be quantized to various Western scales (for those who need such things in their music). The size of control and combined support for MIDI and CV would be a lot in itself. I am definitely looking forward to seeing this ship in the near future.

    QuBit

    Qu-bit Electronix presented some modules that are also going to be our “want” list. The Nubulae may not be new for 2015, but it seems extremely useful compositionally. It reads and renders audio files from a flash drive, but with CV-based control for speed, pitch, and granular synthesis. The NanoRand is a tiny module that packs four different randomization functions along with a bright multi-color LED (it’s that big purple light in the photo above). Switching among the four functions via a sequencer creates some very intriguing musical patterns.

    Finally, we at CatSynth were quite interested in the new Spectral Filter from 4ms. It is a spectral multi band resonant filter that can sculpt and amplify sections of a signal to create harmonic (or inharmonic) structures.

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    A unique feature was the circular control that allows one to “rotate” around the spectrum. I found myself comparing this to the newly released additive synthesis module from Make Noise (you can read about it here. They are both spectral manipulators and can some similar in particular moments, though they approach and instrument architecture is quite different.