Today’s CatSynth pic features our very own Big Merp! He likes to bed down on the synthesizer desk when I’m working on the studio, and on this occasion, he seemed particularly blissed out.
One of the few bright spots amidst all the pandemic craziness is that mandatory work-from-home affords me more time to spend with my cats and my music.
Zelda the Gray returns with her friend Murphy Brown and a modular system. I see a Moog Mother-32 along with offerings from Roland, Mutable Instruments, Sputnik, Make Noise, and more, housed in a 6U Arturia Rack Brute case. From zeldagraymurphybrown on Instagram.
I was just on an airplane with my 0-Coast hooked into a battery pack with patch cables everywhere and the flight attendant was super cool with it and everything. So I jammed. I even ordered a sparkling water during the set. It was refreshing. AUM + BLEASS Reverb + Perforator + Vatanator for the steady beat. I don’t want to pay for SoundCloud pro right now so I put some psychedelic cat footage over top and I think it works. Let me know what you think!
We at CatSynth love it and are in fact inspired to do another cat-centric synth jam of our own 😸
It’s the 99th Episode of CatSynth TV, and we have a special treat for all our readers and videos. It combines many of our interests: synthesizers, cats, experimental music and film, and highways.
Video shot along Highway 99 in California from Manteca through Stockton and heading towards Sacramento. Additional video and photography at CatSynth HQ in San Francisco.
Guest appearances by Sam Sam and Big Merp.
Original experimental synthesizer music by Amanda Chaudhary, based on melodies from “99 is not 100” by Moe! Staiano.
Synthesizers used:
Minimoog
Arturia MiniBrute 2S
Big Fish Audio John Cage Prepared Piano Sample Library (Kontakt)
The signal path: Poes rings the service Bell for food, the microphone picks up the sound, which then goes through a stereo volume pedal (it’s for attenuating the chewing sounds). Make Noise Maths is used as an envelope follower, which controls the sound of the Erica Synth Black Wavetable Oscillator.
It seems to be the week of the Elektron Octatrack, as we have two or three of them in today’s pic. Also featured are the adorable cat Lucy, and a large modular synthesizer system. I recognize a Make Noise Tempi and Rene on the bottom row – we have that pair here at CatSynth, too.
Today’s photo comes to us from Lucy’s Instagram @dropzone_lucy
Purim is the “most synthesizer-y” of Jewish holidays, given that one of it’s central rituals is noisemaking. This year we created a synthesizer demo running sounds from a gragger through several modules.
The demo uses a mixture of pre-recorded gragger on the QuBit Nebulae and live sound via the Mikrophonie and Make Noise Echophon. The full list of modules used in the Purim demo is:
Make Noise Echophon
Qu-Bit Nebulae (v1)
Rossum Electro-Music Morpheus
Mikrophonie
Make Noise Maths
Make Noise Tempi
Malekko Heavy Industry Noisering
I do wish I already had a Qu-bit Nebulae v2 for this project. You can see our review of v2 from NAMM 2018 here.
Purim is a holiday that commemorates the saving of the Jewish people in the ancient Persian Empire from the king’s wicked advisor Haman, as told in the book of Esther. Traditionally, the gragger is used to mask the name of Haman when said out loud during readings.
From Andor Polgar on YouTube, via matrixsynth. Rhodes, Make Noise Morphagene and cat, what is not to love?
Things used in the video: vegan sausage for taming the cat (that’s her favorite), Make Noise Morphagene eurorack module, Rhodes Mark I electric piano, Expert Sleepers Disting mk4 for the reverb effect.
http://andor.cool
https://instagram.com/andorgram
It may be time to experiment again here at HQ with the Nord and some Make Noise modules…