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 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.
Oberheim the cat is back, this time with a JP Cooper Synapse MIDI router and processor. From Charles Whiley via Facebook.
The JL Cooper routers were among the earlier MIDI devices I read about as I was understanding what is needed to go from one synthesizer to a home studio. I never did get one (not practical for me at that time in the late 1980s), but I still have the Digital Music Corp MX-8 that got later on to serve a similar purpose.
Olive sits confidently in the command chair in front of an impressive array of tabletop modules. Next to her is a rugged JL Cooper fader fox (I had one of these on loan in the 1990s and wish I still had it). We also see a Studio Electronics BoomStar, and a Yamaha 1980s item below it; a JoMox Alpha Base, a Sequential Prophet ’08, sundry rhythm machines from Boss, and much more.
Submitted by Olive’s human Charles Whiley.
