New Moog gear on the way!

[Modularfan]

In the Moogspace interview, Amos Gaynes provides some clues as to what the next Moog product will be:

Q: What MoogerFoogers do I need to make my guitar sound like a synthesizer?
AG: ...not any of our current ones, exactly, but we are working on some surprises in that regard.

And at the end of the interview:

Q: Is there anything you can tell us about Moog’s next product?
AG: I can say it will defy expectations. It will be the most daring and boundary-defying Moog product to date!

Sounds to me like it might be some sort of 'Fooger aimed at the guitar crowd. Seems interesting, but I was really hoping for a polyphonic version of the Little Phatty.

Might still be pretty cool, though...

- MF

[Sweep]

I have a suspicion I might know what this is. If so, it's a collaboration with another company, and it should be good.

It'll be interesting to see for definite what this is, especially because guitar synth stuff has been risky in the past - as Alan Perlman would readily confirm. But if they've got something that can be used by guitarists and also by keyboard players and others - which is the brilliance of the Moogerfooger idea after all - they should be onto something good.

I wonder if they've cracked the problem of pitch tracking on guitar? I emailed them saying I have a solution to the problem, and got ignored. I should really get round to letting Roland have it instead.

[electrical_engineer_gEEk]

"have it" or "sell it"?
you should share it all with us! is it DSP based or can it be done with discrete parts?

[museslave]

Hmm.
If Moog is interested in making a lot of money on their product, I would think pursuing designs for guitarists would not be the best idea.
Sure, some guitarists might enjoy the novelty of another guitar synth... but not only are guitar synths completely out of style musically, they're just not something the body of guitar players are interested in... it's far easier for a guitar player to plunk out some notes on a synth than it is for them to suffer the trauma of pitch-tracking guitar synthesizers. ; )
My brother, who is a guitarist, really enjoys my Low Pass Moogerfooger... let's face it, it's basically the nicest Wah pedal ever made... but that is not to say he wants to get all Star Wars with his guitar. ; )
Yes, and before you say it, I'm sure there are guitarists here who would readily thrill at the prospect of a Moog guitar synth... but face it, you are the WEIRDO guitar players (read: the minority), just like most of us are the weirdo keyboard players. ; )

[Sweep]

"have it" or "sell it"?
you should share it all with us! is it DSP based or can it be done with discrete parts?

Well, yes - have it for a price.

It's actually a complete re-think on the problem.

BTW I wonder whether we're going to see another product with a stupid name? How about the Moog Fat Bastard? Any other suggestions?

[Rogue]

BTW I wonder whether we're going to see another product with a stupid name? How about the Moog Fat Bastard?

The only problem is, it would weigh one metric ton

[CTRLSHFT]

::starts clearing some rack space::

woohoo!

[sir_dss]

As far as tracking goes the Electro-Harmonix POG and HOG track perfectly. I have a Arp Avatar and a Korg X-911 and just use them for noise and expansion modules for other synths.

I wonder if this issue that EH has seemed to figure out can be used for more CV driven instruments that Moog designs?

[OysterRock]

The POG and HOG are digital. That's why they track perfectly.

[sir_dss]

Digital? That's not a bad thing in my book.

It's alright if you could use it for tracking and keep the audio signal analog for some sort of pitch to CV thing.

[OysterRock]

Digital? That's not a bad thing in my book.

I agree!

It's alright if you could use it for tracking and keep the audio signal analog for some sort of pitch to CV thing.

The problem is that there really is no "tracking" involved with a digital pitch shifter. A mathmatical function (FFT I think, the frequency of each sinusoidal harmonic component of the signal is then scaled up or down ) is performed on the signal and thats what pitches it up or down. Thats why the pitch shift is nearly instantaeously, nothing has to track to anything else so there are no slow transient issues.

There is a big difference between pitch SHIFTing (what the POG and HOG does) and frequency TRACKing (what a pitch-to-CV converter does). Even digital systems can't track a complex, harmonically rich instrument signal very well because it is hard for the computer to tell what the root note (pitch) is (something our ears are VERY good at doing).


Sweep, if you really have come up with what no one else has seemed to be able to do , a better method for frequency tracking with a musical instrument, I'd hold on to that one. You certainly could make a small fortune.

[latigid on]

Sweep, if you really have come up with what no one else has seemed to be able to do , a better method for frequency tracking with a musical instrument, I'd hold on to that one. You certainly could make a small fortune.

Hey, you could trade it with Moog for a lifetime Moogspace membership!

[Sweep]

Hey, you could trade it with Moog for a lifetime Moogspace membership!

Not much point if the forum is a small closed group that new, interested people are unlikely to join. I'll stick to publicly available forums.

[Mooger5]

AG: I can say it will defy expectations. It will be the most daring and boundary-defying Moog product to date!

Perhaps a guitar synth isn´t such a good idea. AFAIK the Avatar meant the end for Arp not only because of technical problems but also because guitarists weren´t so impressed by it. We´re not in the seventies, OK; today´s guitarists are much more open-minded to new sounds but one would think of samples and physical-modelling in the likes of Line 6 and such.
A Moog guitar synthesizer would have to be 100% analog, right? I can´t see many guitar players willing to embrace the new technologies using such an "old-fashioned" (not my personal opinion) way of sound creation.

Let´s hope Moog´s not thinking about jumping into the virtual bandwagon and will launch say, a VST Modular together with a (fawny) patchable interface a la Korg MS-20. Well, that would be daring and boundary-defying I reckon.

How about a PolyVoyager? Everybody always wished for a polyphonic Minimoog since the beginning, but the Memory didn´t sound like one and the Polymoog certainly did not either.

Cheers

[goldphinga]

wow your minds running on overdrive!

p.s. the memorymoog is a about as close to a poly minimoog as you will ever get.that from first hand experience of using both.