Moog Lev96

[Chris Turner]

Seems like this could be very interesting... thoughts?

LEV-96 | Moog Music Inc

[David Schwab]

That is interesting. Can't wait to hear what it sounds like. The Moog Guitar is pretty cool too.

[Chris Turner]

That is interesting. Can't wait to hear what it sounds like. The Moog Guitar is pretty cool too.

Yeah, dig the guitar, too. Here's a short demo of the LEV-96: Demo of the LEV-96 sensoriactuator from Moog Music - YouTube

[David Schwab]

That's wild!

[Mark Hammer]

Don't want to be a sourpuss, but the webpage is the sort of thing that drives me batty. I have no idea what they're doing, what specific challenges or problems they've attempted to successfully solve. I'm certain there is something there, but I don't know what it is. I thought the video might be helpful, but it wasn't. How much of that was the condenser mic, and how much the guitar? And what the deuce were all those little touchpad movements?

Reminds me of the Yaris ad campaign, where they had several months of ads talking about the Yaris in ways that didn't even let you know what the hell it was. Was it a candybar? was it a new Cirque de soleil show? was it a shampoo? a new age Greek synth player? It was a car. Really? a car?

I'll stay tuned, but they better damn well come up with something concrete soon, or I'm switching the channel!

[the great waldo]

Any idea what the microphones for !!!!!

Cheers
Andrew

Yeah, dig the guitar, too. Here's a short demo of the LEV-96: Demo of the LEV-96 sensoriactuator from Moog Music - YouTube

[David Schwab]

Any idea what the microphones for !!!!!

Cheers
Andrew

It's an acoustic guitar. You were hearing it via the microphone. None of those tones were electronic, it was all from the strings.

That thing looks like a pickup, but part of it is a string driver, like the other Moog guitar. So it was sensing the strings, and then exciting them by sending the signal back to the strings, getting them to vibrate. Think of an Ebow, or the Fernandez or Sustainiac sustainers.

[copperheadroads]

Don't want to be a sourpuss, but the webpage is the sort of thing that drives me batty. I have no idea what they're doing, what specific challenges or problems they've attempted to successfully solve. I'm certain there is something there, but I don't know what it is. I thought the video might be helpful, but it wasn't. How much of that was the condenser mic, and how much the guitar? And what the deuce were all those little touchpad movements?

Reminds me of the Yaris ad campaign, where they had several months of ads talking about the Yaris in ways that didn't even let you know what the hell it was. Was it a candybar? was it a new Cirque de soleil show? was it a shampoo? a new age Greek synth player? It was a car. Really? a car?


I'll stay tuned, but they better damn well come up with something concrete soon, or I'm switching the channel!

I wouldn't even call that a teaser ...WTH

[Mike Sulzer]

Don't want to be a sourpuss, but the webpage is the sort of thing that drives me batty.

It is advertising, by definition exaggeration. But I think it is a pretty good description. The YT video posted above is consistent with the description. The device senses the vibrations of the strings and then feeds back energy to produce sustain or other effects. I suppose that it could even shift the frequency, as implied. I think the mic is the sensor for the recording; the device just modifies the string vibration. It appears to be a good application of digital signal processing, but who know for sure how it is done.

[Mark Hammer]

I'm happy to accord them all the IP protection they want and deserve. My urge is to know what's being accomplished in more concrete terms. Something as simplistic as "It senses this rather than sensing only that" would suffice. If that's an accomplishment that finally overcomes an enduring challenge, then I'm happy. But I simply can't tell from the text or video just what IS being accomplished.

[David Schwab]

Have you watched any of the Moog guitar demos? Same kind of thing. The cool thing the Moog guitar can do is to stop the strings from vibrating. So you get this very short staccato tone. Exactly how they are doing it, I don't know.

[Mike Sulzer]

this [/I]rather than sensing only that" would suffice.

Maybe there will be a patent to look at some time. But what could they be doing? From the size of the device seen in the video, sense the string vibration in one or two locations, put energy back at one or two locations. The clever invention is most likely in the signal processing.

[Mike Sulzer]

Have you watched any of the Moog guitar demos? Same kind of thing. The cool thing the Moog guitar can do is to stop the strings from vibrating. So you get this very short staccato tone. Exactly how they are doing it, I don't know.

Sustain and high damping are just two sides of the same thing; that is, adding energy or subtracting it require the same hardware and just different adjustments in the software.

[David Schwab]

Sustain and high damping are just two sides of the same thing; that is, adding energy or subtracting it require the same hardware and just different adjustments in the software.

Yeah, I figured they are exciting the strings with a reverse polarity signal. But it would be interesting to know exactly what they are doing.

[madzub]

The Moog guitar sustainer as well as the Fernandez and Floyd Rose and Sustainiac sustainers all have the ability to sustain a higher harmonic at the flip of a switch, not just the fundamental. The LEV96 has the ability to pick any of 8 different harmonics per string, presumably the lowest 8 harmonics (fundamental, 1 octave up, octave plus a fifth, 2 octaves, 2 octaves plus major third, 2 octaves plus major fifths, 2 octaves plus minor seventh, 3 octaves)....

How they do this I would suspect has to do with the phase of the signal fed back electromagnetically to the string... Altering the phase would shift the harmonic resonance. How they choose a specific harmonic is more puzzling; perhaps a specific degree of phase induces a specific overtone.... My guess is that a 180 degree phase shift in the feedback signal is what causes the moog guitar to do it's muted banjo sound, and perhaps a 90 degree shift causes an octave harmonic to resonate.

My other guess involves the fact that there are 4 circular sensor-thingys per string on the Lev96. Assuming that 1 of these is an input sensor (a pickup) and the other 3 are feedback drivers (inducing vibration in the string), then perhaps by altering the relative phases and/or intensities of the 3 different drivers they are able to induce specific harmonics to resonate.

just my guess!