Anyone heard of the Octava Cat synth?

[gsilbers]

very old, its was a arp clone, got sued by arp and went out of busness.
i think chemical brothers have one.
no midi.

cant find a price for one of these

or how t sounds

anyone have one or heard one before?

[drockfresh]

sound clips:

Octave Sounds

Virtual OCTAVE CAT SYNTHESIZER Demo

[Chuck Wool]

Well, Arp did not put them out of business. After Arp tried to sue them (did they ever get to court?) they merged with Plateau Electronics to form Octave-Plateau Electronics, and came out with the Voyager Eight -- a very advanced piece at the time. After this they became Voyetra, a name that might be more familiar to PC users. They merged with Turtle Beach, and are still in business.

Gordon Reid's SOS article:
Gordon Reid's Vintage Synths - the Octave Cat

[gsilbers]

dam what a history.

how much is one of those synth worth now? ok conditions.

difrent website gave difrent prices.

but it ranged from 250 to 500 US dolars

are they any good?

the samples sounded pretty - hmmm ok. not bad, but nothing out of thise world.

it also doesnt have midi in. so is a cv to midi converter work just like having midi or is it a pain.

[modistylee]

There was one which had been "fully serviced" that was at Main Drag in Williamsburg a few months back for $800.00. I was toying with getting it before I decided on the Little Phatty.

I played with it there through a guitar amp for a while and thought that it had some interesting tones, arp-like but a bit more moogy at the same time. I found the fact that there was a sub osc and that you could mix multiple waveforms per osc a pretty cool feature, also that it has an input to route external signals through the filter. OSC 1 also has a triangle wave, which the Arp Oddessy does not. The keys on the one I played were a bit too clicky for my taste.

There are different versions with the later models called the Cat (SRM). The earlier models share the same filter as the Prophet 5 (rev 2) but the newer ones offer duophonic mode, which can extend tonal and sound design options.

Some more specifics on the different revs can be found here.

Octave Cat Models

They also made a single OSC version called the kitten


I'd say if you could get a working Cat for under $500 its a good deal. I for one would buy it.

An interesting side note for me personally is that these were manufactured in Long Island City, which makes them true NYC synths!

[simonharris]

I used to have a CAT, to be honest even back in the day they were not very good.

[soundxplorer]

Originally Posted by simonharris

I used to have a CAT, to be honest even back in the day they were not very good.

Depends on everyone's own definition of "good" of course.
I've owned both a CAT and a Kitten and they were some of my favorite analog mono synths. Both used the SSM 2040 VCF chip, which I think was the best-sounding filter chip ever made (the SCI Prophet 5 rev. 2 also used them).
The Octave synths were more useful for weird "out there" sounds, FX type stuff and zappy electric sounds, so if that's not your thing, I wouldn't recommend one. As a typical "lead" type synth they definitely fell short compared to any Moog or even an SCI Pro-One. I've seen a few CATs on Ebay recently and in my opinion most people were asking too much for them (around the $1,200 range). I would probably say about $800 would be the most I'd pay for one right now, personally. I've seen a few go for that price on the VSE and MuffWiggler forums.

Octave later made the Voyetra 8 polyphonic rack which also featured SSM 2040 chips. I had the chance to play with one for a while, but I never owned one. I think its one of the best sounding analog polys too.

[Ohx]

Analog synths that actually sound better than software:

Octave CAT

Minimoog

Chroma Polaris

ARP 2600


Good company in my opinion.

[elijahbrown]

Originally Posted by simonharris

I used to have a CAT, to be honest even back in the day they were not very good.

You bumped a 5 year old thread to say that you disliked the synth that they were talking about?

[apres garde]

I LOVED playing with the octave cat. It was like an odyssey's weird little brother.

I had a hard time getting it to do what I wanted, but in the process of trying to do so I came out with a lot of really aggressive sounds.

[Phil Cibley]

Here's a piece of useless trivia. Eddie Layton, the Yankee Stadium organist
used one at the stadium along with his organ in the late '70s.

[simonharris]

Sorry it was actually a Kitten I had and by not very good I meant it was not something I could get any usable sound from for my dance music productions apart from sound effects.

[simonharris]

Originally Posted by elijahbrown

You bumped a 5 year old thread to say that you disliked the synth that they were talking about?

Sorry I missed the date

[simonharris]

anyway I wouldn't put it anywhere near the same class as Minimoog, IMHO

[apres garde]

Originally Posted by simonharris

anyway I wouldn't put it anywhere near the same class as Minimoog, IMHO

I don't think anyone is.

But just because Model D > Octave Cat

doesn't mean it can be a useful and fun synth with a good amount to offer.

[dr_Jezz]

Originally Posted by simonharris

Sorry it was actually a Kitten I had and by not very good I meant it was not something I could get any usable sound from for my dance music productions apart from sound effects.

Word, man - so many shit synths get masturbated over on here by people who understandably are frustrated by only reading about them because most have been scrapped, but should feel suitably recompensed by their youth whereas us old timers actually had to spend fresh money on them and only then found out they were pointless. Hey guys - you're young and confused - we're just older and wiser - so who's in the worse situation ? Us old ****ers for sure , believe me - but none the less, still believe me ... they're for enthusiasts only

[NWSooner]

I really like my Octave Cat SRM. Everybody always calls it an ARP Odyssey clone because of the features, but they sound nothing alike. I have both.

[NWSooner]

Originally Posted by dr_Jezz

Word, man - so many shit synths get masturbated over on here by people who understandably are frustrated by only reading about them because most have been scrapped, but should feel suitably recompensed by their youth whereas us old timers actually had to spend fresh money on them and only then found out they were pointless.

Seriously? An Octave Cat pointless? A "shit" synth? This has to be one of the dumbest posts I've ever read on this site.

[dr_Jezz]

Originally Posted by NWSooner

Seriously? An Octave Cat pointless? A "shit" synth? This has to be one of the dumbest posts I've ever read on this site.

Then you're deluded, IMHO So much crap is now worshipped because it's old. Maybe it's just because I was there first time and new some stuff was good - there's not a massive list of those keys, but they're pretty obvious, and there was stuff like this, jen, bit, chase and even some high end stuff which would have had it's arse kicked by an SH 101 even back in the day. Words to the wise is all,

[nebelfrau]

Originally Posted by dr_Jezz

Then you're deluded, IMHO So much crap is now worshipped because it's old. Maybe it's just because I was there first time and new some stuff was good - there's not a massive list of those keys, but they're pretty obvious, and there was stuff like this, jen, bit, chase and even some high end stuff which would have had it's arse kicked by an SH 101 even back in the day. Words to the wise is all,

To each their own. I like the Cat and I wish I had one for my quasi industrial noisescapes. Or whatever.

[dr_Jezz]

Originally Posted by nebelfrau

To each their own. I like the Cat and I wish I had one for my quasi industrial noisescapes. Or whatever.

Yeah it's just my HPO man

[NWSooner]

Originally Posted by dr_Jezz

Then you're deluded, IMHO So much crap is now worshipped because it's old. ... Words to the wise is all,

LOL!

Thanks for your "wisdom". Yes, I like it because it's old. That's exactly right.

[Teknobeam]

Originally Posted by Ohx

Analog synths that actually sound better than software:

Octave CAT

Minimoog

Chroma Polaris

ARP 2600


Good company in my opinion.

interesting that you put the Chroma Polaris on that list. I would put it there. I own a couple of them. It's my most favourite instrument. The textrues and nuances that it can produce are so organic and alive.

[apres garde]

to my ears, the cat just sounds like electricity

like, not even "warm analog"

like, zappy electricity going for your ears

love it

[dougt]

Not many synths let you FM VCO1 with VCO2 while FMing VCO2 with VCO1 while FMing the VCF with VCO1 outside of a modular... Oh and 2 sub-oscillators...