Cherry Audio Octave Cat is a new Synthesizer plugin that authentically emulates the iconic 2-oscillator analog CAT from 1976.
The 70s are still big celebrated today with their wealth of analog synthesizers. The Minimoog, Arp Odyssey, and many more. All legendary instruments. One of the more special ones was the Octave Cat, which was heavily inspired by the Odyssey. But significantly more affordable
Today in 2023, the CAT is still a topic for synth players. This is mainly because Behringer has replicated this analog synth for Eurorack and is currently selling it for €239. For those who prefer to have it in their DAW, Cherry Audio now has an emulation of this piece of synth history.
Cherry Audio Octave Cat
The Octave Cat is an authentic emulation of the CAT Synthesizer from 1976 for macOS and Windows. Nice, Cherry Audio has created this plugin in collaboration with Carmine Bonanno, the original designer of the hardware.
Like the original synth, it features two multi-wave oscillators, a 4-pole 24dB/oct filter, two envelopes (AR and ASDR), and a VCA. So you get the beloved howling audio-rage oscillator cross-mod, oscillator sync, and a flexible modulation engine.
But Cherry Audio didn’t stop there. Bye-bye duophony, hello polyphony. The Octave Cat expands on the original with enhancements including 16-voice polyphony, sample and hold glide, and interchangeable skins for the CAT’s Mark 1 and SRM versions.
Then, it also hosts a new dual eight-step classic-style sequencers with tempo sync, quantization, and keyboard transpose, independently assignable to pitch, cutoff, and amplitude on the second-panel view. Next to this, you can work with a new multi-effects section, including distortion with tube and fuzz, a 2/4/8/12-stage phaser, flanger/chorus, three syncable delay types, and five reverb styles.
Further, you get full MPE support, over 300 presets, and extensive MIDI mapping functions.
Bonanno notes that Octave Cat feels and sounds just like the real instrument. “Better yet,” he adds, “it goes way beyond what a hardware CAT is capable of. For instance, on a hardware CAT, you can’t save a patch, you can’t control modulation with an external MIDI controller, you don’t have full polyphony, etc.” With Cherry Audio’s enhancements, he says, “it makes the Cherry Cat incredibly more versatile than a hardware CAT.”
First Impression
At first sight an excellent emulation of a somewhat more special entry-level Synthesizer. I like the authentic GUI very much, as well as the sound quality. Great job Cherry Audio.
Cherry Audio Octave Cat is available now for an introductory price of $49 instead of $69. It runs as a VST, VST3, AU, and AAX plugin on macOS (Intel + native Apple Silicon) and Windows
More information here: Cherry Audio
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