Cherry Audio - Octave Cat

Octave Cat is Cherry Audio's emulation of The CAT, the 1976 duophonic synth from New York's Octave Electronics, developed with the original's designer, for growling basses, screaming leads and aggressive sync and cross-mod sounds in electro, techno and synth-rock.

The background

The CAT was built to give musicians a Minimoog or Odyssey-style synth at a lower price. It had two VCOs, a sub-octave, sample and hold, oscillator sync and audio-rate cross-mod, all feeding a four-pole SSM2040 filter with a resonance character all of its own.

The sound

Fat and savage. The filter gets nasty quickly as the resonance comes up, and sync and cross-mod give it a raw, ripping edge. Cherry Audio adds mono, duo and up to 16-voice poly modes, unison, a dual-channel eight-step sequencer, an effects suite with tube and fuzz distortion, phaser, flanger, delays and reverbs, plus polyphonic aftertouch and MPE. You can switch between the original Mark I look and the later SRM skin. It isn't subtle, and isn't meant to be.

Features

• CAT emulation developed with the original designer
• Two VCOs with sub octave, sync and cross-mod
• Four-pole 24dB/oct filter based on the SSM2040
• ADSR and AR envelopes, sample and hold, tempo-syncable LFO
• Mono, duo and up to 16-voice poly modes, with unison
• Dual-channel eight-step sequencer
• Distortion, phaser, flanger/chorus, delay and reverb effects
• Polyphonic aftertouch and MPE support
• Mark I and SRM skins
• Over 300 presets

System requirements

• Version: 1.0.2
• Mac: macOS 10.13 or later, native on Apple Silicon. AU, VST2, VST3, AAX and standalone (64-bit)
• Windows: Windows 7 or later, including Windows 11. VST2, VST3, AAX and standalone (64-bit)
• Quad-core CPU and 8GB RAM recommended
• Internet connection needed for activation

SOUND7 is an authorised Cherry Audio reseller. Digital delivery: licence activation code sent by email. See How to Activate Your Cherry Audio Plugins.

Demo