Gracie, LinnDrum, Oberheim SEM, dk Synergy

Gracie is ready to program her beats into the vintage LinnDrum, while standing on a dk Synergy synthesizer. Below her we see an Oberheim SEM, a PPG Wave 2.5.,… and another dk Synergy!

Gracie always gets to play the best vintage synths at Synthetic Dreamscapes 😺🎹

Gracie with Roland TR-808 and CSQ-600

Our friend Gracie of Synthetic Dreamscapes proudly shows off some vintage Roland boxes: the well-known TR-808 and the lesser-known CSQ-600 (that’s the one she’s actually standing on).

The CSQ-600 is a digital sequencer, but with analog CV and gate outputs (it predates MIDI). It allowed both step and real-time recording and had four separate sequences that could be chained or stacked. It could potentially fit as a sequencer in today’s analog modular systems.

Gracie and PPG Wave

Gracie shows proudly shows off a PPG Wave. Clearly putting her paw of approval as Quality Manager for Synthetic Dreamscapes.

Submitted via our Facebook page. You can see all of Gracie’s features on CatSynth via her tag.

With wavetable synthesis very much in vogue again, it’s a good time to look back at the PPG Wave, which was the OG for this type of synthesis using large palettes of small, carefully crafted waveforms to create rich timbres at the oscillator level, before the signal goes to any filters, amplifiers or such. Gracie is fortunate to have one of these originals to play.

Gracie and Ensoniq SQ-80

Gray and white cat looking at a keyboard synthesizer "SQ80" on a gray carpet.

The indomitable Gracie is back, this time with an Ensoniq SQ-80 waveform hybrid synthesizer. She is clearly taking her quality-control inspection duties seriously! From our friends at Synthetic Dreamscapes.

The SQ-80 allowed one to mix up to three waveforms at once (e.g., a transient and a long time), along with an analog four-pole VCF and a VCA. It was a successor to the popular ESQ-1, and paved the way for modern wavetable synths.

Arturia created the SQ-80 V virtual version of this classic, which we reviewed here at CatSynth.