Vintage Synth Explorer

Octave • The Cat

(click to enlarge)

Octave released this analog classic - the Cat - during the era of the Minimoog and ARP Odyssey synthesizers. The Cat is actually very much like the ARP Odyssey, so much so that ARP had sued them in the late 1970's for cloning their designs. The Cat is a monophonic/duophonic analog synthesizer with 2 oscillators capable of square and sawtooth waveforms. VCO 1 also has a triangle waveform. Each of the waveforms can be played simultaneously and mixed together and there are additional sub-octave oscillators on each oscillator to blend new and interesting sounds.

The original Cats were purely monophonic, but then came the SRM update which added the duophonic (2-voice) capability. The Cat (SRM) has a 2-note sample-and-hold feature for each voice too! The Keyboard can be switched between 2-voice (poly) and 1-voice (mono) modes. In mono mode the 2 oscillators can be stacked for a rich mono-bass or mono-lead synth sound. Poly mode limits the richness of the sound because each VCO becomes a separate dedicated voice. In this mode you can create slightly more complex melodies with overlapping notes or very basic pads. The sub-osc plays at an octave below the actual note played which nicely adds some warmth or bottom to your sounds. It has been used by The Dust Brothers, Chemical Brothers, Devo, Rod Argent, David Bedford, Lyn Berger, Dave Greenslade, OMD, Loaded and Mixmaster Morris.

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Posting Rules: Please keep your comments relevant! Do not post requests for help, do not use for sales, do not post unless you have something interesting to say about this instrument, or we may delete your post.

 

phunk

Posted 70 days ago

I have both an srm cat and an SCI pro one, and although the pro one is a good sounding synth with good modulation possiblities, I have to say that the cat is the better synth, both in build quality, features and overall sound.....

techainc

Posted 98 days ago

I bought one of these in 1978 for $750 at a major Garland TX retailer. I never had any problems with tuning, my SRM was quite stable after only a couple minutes of warmup.

I would also like to refute the "Odyssey clone" meme which is prevalent but quite wrong. This thing's sound put the Arp in the dust.

Ben C

Posted 160 days ago

this synth has also been used by squarepusher. check the small picture on the cover of his 'hello everything' album. there is a pic of it in the bottom left corner. not a very big picture though, but still identifiable...

cw

Posted 233 days ago

Yes, the Cat is very much its own synth - doesnt sound like an oddyssey or pro-one. I never found the tuning any more problematic than any other synth of that era - and even MS 20's take an hour to stabilize! Very good at dense monophic lines (basses and leads), great for 2 note playing in poly mode and for FX when cross modding the VCO's. Filter chips varied somewhat but my filter is fatter than the wet ARP ones. SH prices are hiking up.

Bong

Posted 238 days ago

It's very strange that many people are referring the Cat as something
very much like a ARP Odyssey!! Infact its anything like the ARP,
internally its a completely different design then the ARP, they
have as much in common as a MiniMoog and PRO1 would have!

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