Mr. Puff sits comfortably on top of a console next to two Oberheim 1000 synthesizers, a Roland rackmount line mixer, and a Novation Supernova ASM synthesizer.
Mr. Puff is one of the many cats living with our friend Charles Whiley in Arkansas. He does have some physical challenges, but as we can see, he is living his best “synth cat” life 😻
Our friend Mr. Maximillion poses in front of a “wall of synths”, including classic offerings from Roland, Akai, and Ensoniq. Among them is an Ensoniq ASR-10; we still have one here at CatSynth HQ.
From Charles Whiley via Facebook.
Mr. Maximillion poses with some impressive keyboards, the Ensoniq KT76 and KT88. These were keyboard-instrument synths (pianos, electric pianos, etc.) with nice key beds, at least from the perspective of a pianist.
From our friend Charles Whiley via Facebook.
The lovely Olive returns, this time with a Korg DW8000 and Yamaha MOTIF. From Charles Whiley on Facebook.
I have been fascinated for a little while with DW8000. I encountered it back in the 1980s, but it was overshadowed for me by offerings from Yamaha, Roland, and Ensoniq. It came back to my attention a few years ago, and I started looking for an EX8000 (the rack version) – ultimately, I settled on its new successor, the Korg modwave.
You can see Olive’s previous appearances via her tag.
Olive is sitting pretty in a corner of the studio with sundry synths, including some older Yamaha instruments like a TX802, MCS2, and more). We also see an E-MU Proteus-2000-era module on the rack. The remaining synthesizers are left as an exercise to the reader.
From Charles Whiley via Facebook.
Our friend Ansel poses next to a JL Cooper Synapse MIDI processor. We see one of his fellow cats hiding just below – we’re pretty sure this beautiful black cat is Zara.
From Charles Whiley via Facebook.
The JL Cooper Synapse is a MIDI router and processor which can route and merge various MIDI inputs and outputs. It’s very similar to the Digital Music Corp MX-8 that we have at HQ, but bigger. I recall seeing the JL Cooper one in brochures earlier on but it was out of my league at the time. Ansel is lucky to have found one, though.
Ansel poses handsomely on the back of a studio console. He is one of the “synth cats” that shares the studio of Charles Whiley in Arkansas. He is apparently a very sweet fellow.
You can see Ansel’s other appearances via his tag.
The lovely Olive is back, and she is giving us a scratch’n’roll behind the mixing console.
From our friend Charles Whiley via Facebook.
The handsome Ansel poses next to a Yamaha QX3 sequencer in mid-repair. From our friend Charles Whiley.
The QX3 features the distinctive Yamaha industrial design that they used for most if not all of their instruments in the mid-1980s. This look holds a special place for me as it was the time when I started exploring synthesizers and electronic music. The QX3 also has those vintage computer-style keys, which is a very nice touch. As a sequencer, it is less convenient than many hardware sequencers, but still quite powerful, especially in an era where analog sequencers with short step counts have enjoyed a renaissance.
