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CatSynth Pic: Big Merp, Modular Synths, and the Cone of Shame

Big Merp with synths and the cone of shame

Big Merp jumps up on the ledge behind the modular synths (the main system as well as the RackBrute). Also present are the Deptronics Thunderbell, Moog Mother 32, Roland Boutique VP-03 (with owl), and the Korg Volca Beats.

Poor Merp has had to wear the cone of shame since his surgery on Friday, but as this picture shows, by Wednesday he was feeling much better and back to his regular mischievous self. So we decided to liberate him from the cone.

He seems much happier without it 😸

CatSynth Pic: Crumar Bit 99, Roland Juno 106, Korg MS-20, Metasonix, and More

White cat with a Crumar Bit 99, Roland Juno 106, Korg MS-20, and modules from Doepfer, Metasonix, and more.

A beautiful white cat sits atop a Crumar Bit 99 synthesizer, and beneath a Roland Juno 106 and Korg MS-20. We also see some Eurorack modules, including some Doepfer and a Metasonix yellow module – most likely an R-53 like the one sitting near me as I write this.

From Suren Seneviratne via Facebook.

CatSynth Pic: Eloy with Multivox and Roland

Eloy with Roland RD and Multivox MX 202

Eloy has found a nice napping spot on what appears to be a Roland RD series digital piano. Above is a vintage Multivox synth. Submitted by Brian T Geigner via our Facebook page.

Eloy deciding it’s comfy to sleep on the synth.

The Multivox synth appears to be the rare MX-202 string and bass synth from the 1970s.

The Multivox MX-202 is a string and brass ensemble keyboard. The instrument uses divide-down oscillation for its full polyphony. Multivox seemingly copied spec for spec of the Roland RS-202 string and brass instrument. However, users who have experience with both point out that the two instruments sound quite different.

https://encyclotronic.com/synthesizers/multivox/mx-202-r1344/

I don’t know much about either RS-202 or the MX-202, though I have had some experience with Roland’s string synthesizers via the VP-03. If you have played either of these, we’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

CatSynth Pic: Big Merp and Roland JD-Xi

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).

CatSynth Pic: Isosceles and Roland Sound Canvas

Meet Isosceles the cat, who sits atop a Roland Sound Canvas synth module. Submitted by Carl Peczynski via our Facebook page.

Roland Sound Canvas modules were pretty common in the 1990s. I had a Roland SC-7, which functioned as an outboard synth for my Windows PC at the time. It’s pretty still somewhere in storage at CatSynth HQ.