From ducks_cluck on Instagram
Pilar is ready to make some beats. #catsynth #volcabeats #synth #drummachine #korg
We have a Korg Volca Beats at CatSynth HQ and are quite fond of it, as it plays nice with both our modular/CV and MIDI gear as well as sounding like classic disco and house 😺
From the Facebook feed of Cats on Synthesizers in Space.
“Furbie Hancock” sent in by Paul Brocklehurst
It’s not every day that one of our greatest musical heroes is turned into a CatSynth pic 🙂
From Sean Pendleton on YouTube, via matrixsynth.
“Love Rings and Braids, need to build more of both. I can’t wait to build Clouds and Elements. Klee is controlling the Rings, Turing machine on the Braids. Drums are a Corny Rhythm controlling a Barton Analog Drum, Decaying noise, and Synthrotek DSM. Radio Music and Wogglebug are making noise in the background. Kept things simple.”
On July 19, we hit a major milestone: 10 years since our first post. And we celebrate as always with some stats:
2,982 Posts
14,031 Comments
4.7 comments per post
1088 Cat-and-synth pics, videos, etc.
430 Reviews, gig-reports, and related posts
In some ways, the blog activity has declined a bit since it’s height in the early 2010s. Much of the activity has moved over to Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. And more recently, we are looking to the future via our mobile apps – there is much more coming there in the not-too-distant future. Additionally, I find myself balancing time spent writing blog articles with an increasingly busy schedule of musical performances and such. All good things in their own way.
We are a bit late to celebrate this year due to some major personal and medical priorities on my part (all of which are going well, but also beyond the scope of this forum). It isn’t the first time our blog anniversary has gotten caught up in other things. Last year we missed the 9th anniversary entirely as we coped with Luna’s cancer diagnosis. And our first anniversary came amidst a major downtime for the site that took a week or so to fix.
As always, here is the photo of Luna that started it all on July 19, 2006.
Luna hasn’t aged all that much, retaining her youthful appearance. And that beanbag chair is still a favorite of hers. It’s where she hangs out in the studio, and over the years we have taken major photos of her with it.
The studio has certainly gotten more crowded over time.
Please join us in celebrating 10 years of CatSynth, and looking forward to many more!
From Suren Seneviratne via the Facebook group Synthesizer Freaks. This rather fastidious cat is guarding its Roland MC-505 and what appears to be another Roland drum or bass synth.
Adorable black kitten with a Moog Mother-32 synthesizer.
From our friends at Moog Music, Inc. Also via matrixsynth.
“Oscillate-purr….#mother32”
From Dennis Matana on a particularly fecund thread from the Facebook group Synthesizer Freaks. Update, Dennis Matana has informed us that the cat’s name is Miep! We leave identification of the modular system as an exercise to the reader 🙂
We’re back after a week-long break, and to symbolize the start of good things, we have a cat on an Access Virus synthesizer being launched into space. From Cats on Synthesizers in Space.
We pick up our reports from the epic musical month that was June.
On June 15, I performed a brand new solo set at Second Act in San Francisco, part of a monthly evening of experimental electronic music. It was a bringing together of my more experimental electronic work with the jazz and funk direction my music. The modular and Moog Theremini were featured heavily, but so were the Moog Sub Phatty as my “left hand” bass, and of course the Nord Stage, aka “The Big Red Keyboard”. I also used a Casio SK-1 extensively. You can hear the entire set in this video.
Amanda at Second Act June 2016 from CatSynth on Vimeo.
I thought it went quite well musically. I like how the funk bass worked with the Sub Phatty and Phonogene on the modular. The venue was full, and I got an enthusiastic response from the audience. I don’t think they were expecting this level of jazz and funk, but seemed to really appreciate it. I will definitely continue working in this direction in future solo sets.
The concert began with a noise set by Passions Nouveau, who performed with synthesizers and sundry electronics.
The set unfolded as a single continuous soundscape, with noise pads and drones, but occasional loud swells and complex details.
I was followed by bran(…)pos. It had been a few years since I shared a bill with him, but has excited to hear what he had come up with recently. As per his pervious appearances, he performed inside a tent onto which a mixture of live and processed video was projected.
And once again the performance centered around the use of his face and voice visually and sonically. But the instrumental accompaniment was a new direction, mixing sounds from the turn of the 20th century with pitched synthesizers and beats. It was a very polished and complex sound overall, bringing a tightness to his unique style of performance and presentation.
Overall, it was a great performance, and I was happy to be a part of it. Performing at Second Act is always a great time, and I would like extend my thanks to the folks who continue to make this venue and series work for the musical community.
