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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J Mooney

Posted 297 days ago

I used to sell those Octave Cat synths back in the late 70's. EVERYONE brought them back with the same complaint:
They wouldn't stay in tune. This was a HUGE headache because we'd send them back for some sort of factory "mod" to address this problem, and they never seemed to be fixed.
I sold one to Billy Powell of Lynyrd Skynyrd, he was a real cheapskate.
He ended up throwing the thing off the stage one night when it wouldn't tune....

G.L. Moody

Posted 308 days ago

FYI: Bernie Worrell from Parliament /Funkadelic also played the CAT...

G.L. Moody

Posted 308 days ago

I have a CAT in excellent condition that I am willing to part with but, only to a person who will treat it with the utmost care and handling.

arpman

Posted 339 days ago

Actually, ARP never sued Octave for cloning their designs. They were going to, but when Octave confronted them with the fact that nearly all of ARP's ideas were copied as well, including the duophinic capability, they backed off and were never heard from again. Plus, i know the guy who founded Octave. Carmine told me that the idea he had in mind when designing the Cat was to have an affordable synth (Only $300.00 at the time), that sounded like a Moog and an ARP. He took all the features from the synthesizers that he liked and put them into one low cost package. He also made a moduolar synthesizer for his college thesis!

Mark Duff

Posted 395 days ago

Amazing synth , super fat and super flexible. Made some amazing bass sounds and effects with it. I use it a lot in my music
myspace.com/duffkeys

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