Paul Vo / Moog Lev-96 PolyPhonic Sustainer

Started by vanceg, October 21, 2012, 01:51:40 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

vanceg

THIS looks really, really interesting to me!!!

http://www.moogmusic.com/lev96

It seems that Moog has decided to take the electromagnetic sustainer concept to the next level.  And the approach they are taking is pretty compelling.
It looks like what they are doing is creating a 'sustainer' system which is designed to enhance, reinforce and amplify specific harmonics on each guitar string.  By touching little button pads on this sustainer device, the player can enhance or sustain specific harmonics of the string, thus changing the timber of the instrument.
Right now they are working on the first version of this product which will be for acoustic guitar (!).  No mention if they are working on a version for electric, but a person I know at Moog says that the concept should work for electric.... and doesn't seem to want to say any more...and that makes sense because they are just in beta test on the acoustic version.

In any case, I find this potentially the most interesteing development in electric guitar in quite a while.

audiotrax

I've had a Polyphonic infinite sustain guitar since getting a Roland GR500 that was made in the mid 70's!  Same principle with the electromagnetic driver.  The PolyEnsemble section controls different ranges of harmonics.
Owner of: VG-88, GI-10, Cubase 5, Kontakt, SampleTank, var VSTI's, Roland JV1080.  Strat with GK-2A, two Roland GR500 analog guitar synths

vanceg

Quote from: audiotrax on October 26, 2012, 09:20:46 PM
I've had a Polyphonic infinite sustain guitar since getting a Roland GR500 that was made in the mid 70's!  Same principle with the electromagnetic driver.  The PolyEnsemble section controls different ranges of harmonics.


Absolutely. If you are into the sound of the GR500 - That's a great way to go. I prefer the natural string sounds.

Now_And_Then


That's a very interesting page, and what makes it particularly interesting is how little actual information they give about the product. *I* can't make heads or tails out of it, except that their description makes me think of Roland's VG-xx HRM (Harmonic Restructuring Mode). Sure hope it works with less glitches, though, as I find HRM to be very tricky to use. So tricky to use, in fact, that I never use it.

And I hope that they also don't take the E-1 route and find ways to make it as expensive as possible because that's what they sure did with the E-1. 'Cause if they didn't, I might have one, in spite of the (according to the reviews which I've read) noisy-and-thin-sounding pickups that make the whole thing a tremendous gamble for anyone what doesn't have money to "flush down the toilet". (Incidentally, I had the idea of starting a thread on the futureguitar subforum for the E-1 entitled "Moog E-1 - Mistake Or Failure?".  But, well, my natural laziness prevented me...)

vanceg

Yep - I suspect they are being deliberately vague: The guitar product market is a notoriously conservative one - "classics" typically sell much better than innovative products.  And they did apparently have a bit of a hard time displaying to guitarists why and how polyphonic sustain would be of use.

I am most positively sure that this product will have little to nothing in common with HRM. 

I'm not sure what you mean by making the E-1 as expensive as possible.  The E-1 was the "budget" version of the more expensive Paul Vo designed instrument. And isn't pricing products at the top of where the market will pay exactly what is 'supposed' to happen in market capitalism?  That said - I don't own an E-1 now, but might if I find one at a price that is right for me on the used market.  I suppose I agree with you that they priced it out of my range. 

This new Lev-96 looks related, but decidedly different - and seems to indicate an approach and promise a set of potential capabilities that really interests me.  The idea of shifting the harmonic content of vibrating strings, while controlling their sustain seems really compelling to me.  I personally look forward to hearing what this product can do.


Now_And_Then

Quote from: vanceg on October 30, 2012, 04:37:19 PM
The idea of shifting the harmonic content of vibrating strings, while controlling their sustain seems really compelling to me.  [...] .

That's the part that reminds me of Roland's Harmonic Restructuring: as the Moog website says, it "...controls naturally-occurring harmonics and resonant frequencies..."

Quote from: vanceg on October 30, 2012, 04:37:19 PM
I'm not sure what you mean by making the E-1 as expensive as possible.  The E-1 was the "budget" version of the more expensive Paul Vo designed instrument. And isn't pricing products at the top of where the market will pay exactly what is 'supposed' to happen in market capitalism?  That said - I don't own an E-1 now, but might if I find one at a price that is right for me on the used market.  I suppose I agree with you that they priced it out of my range. 

If they can knock off $1500 for a B-stock blemished example, it seems very apparent that the guitar's finish and cosmetics account for a *very* hefty portion of the total price of the guitar. That's an incredible number by the way: even after the $1500 B-stock reduction, the cost of the guitar is still $2000. They could have chosen a less opulent finish so as to sell the E-1 for, let's say, $1000 less than it goes for now, and sell more of them. To say that Moog designed the product for people for whom price is no object seems to me to be reasonably close to the truth. I do not think that the cost of the E-1 relative to the cost of the original Paul Vo instrument makes the E-1 any less of a very up-market product.

(As for "pricing products at the top of where the market will pay" being "exactly what is 'supposed' to happen in market capitalism"; well, your point is metaphysical. I have no idea what the market is "supposed to do". I do know, however what it *usually* does and in that respect your point is often more or less correct. However, the business owner has the ability to price and market his products however he sees fit. There are many cases in which maximizing profit per unit is a poor strategy; as in a case where relatively high profits serve as an incentive for new competitors to enter the market and compete with the incumbent. Related to this is "predatory pricing" in which an enterprise with a monopoly position decides to forego higher rates of profit and will accept lower rates of profit in return for assuring a steady return on their invested capital while at the same time making entry into the market unattractive for potential competitors. Additional long-term or short-term considerations could also effect market strategies in ways which further complicate the situation.)

Quote from: vanceg on October 30, 2012, 04:37:19 PM
  I personally look forward to hearing what this product can do.
Me too!

vanceg

Quote from: Now_And_Then on November 03, 2012, 09:52:22 AM
That's the part that reminds me of Roland's Harmonic Restructuring: as the Moog website says, it "...controls naturally-occurring harmonics and resonant frequencies..."

The cool thing with the Moog product - It's trying to do this by moving the strings...not by signal processing.

I totally agree with you that the Moog guitar was priced above what most anyone I know could afford.  It is sometimes wiser to sell more units at a lower price, than a few units at a high price.  That's clearly not the way Moog chose to go with the E-1 and Paul Vo. 

Now_And_Then

Quote from: vanceg on November 03, 2012, 11:19:36 AM
The cool thing with the Moog product - It's trying to do this by moving the strings...not by signal processing.

I have been hoping for a successor to The Gizmo for years and years. Since the webpage notes that the Lev96 is a "sensor/actuator that activates and controls naturally occurring harmonics and resonant frequencies" then perhaps we are looking at a combination of The Gizmo and Roland's HRM. I would be very happy if this were the case. The more so, in fact, as the Lev96, unlike The Gizmo, does not require physical contact with the strings.

The fact that it can be fitted to an acoustic guitar is also very interesting both in that it would seem to indicate that the installation is completely reversible; but also because it kind of seems like it won't fit on an electric guitar, judging by the geometry of the device pictured on the webpage.

As an apartment dweller who keeps eccentric and peculiar hours, then, depending on how thick it is and how much of the Lev96 is accommodated through the soundhole and within the body of the guitar, I could imagine mounting it on a Yamaha or Sajing Silent Guitar, let's say, so as to be able to bang away on it at any hour of the day or night and not having my roomie stick her head in the door and complain, thereby insuring continued domestic tranquility...

Humorously, or maybe not so humorously, the device pictured on the webpage might also fit on a 1st generation Variax because it had no pickup. It might also fit on a certain jazz guitars - ones that have only a single pickup in the neck position leaving lots of open space to accommodate the Lev96 near the bridge. Or a Gibson Howard Roberts Fusion; I have in mind the early models with the round soundhole. These are thoughts worth keeping in mind...

oddguitar

I too was interested in the Moog guitar when it first came out, but price, early build-quality issues, reports of thin-sounding pickups, and having to use proprietary Moog strings for the best results have prevented me from taking the plunge.  What happens if Moog pulls the plug on making the strings?.....I'd hate to end up s.o.l. on a multi-thousand dollar instrument (just ask Floyd Rose Speedloader owners how they are enjoying not being able to get strings anymore).

Being an innovative guitar fan, experience has taught me to be very wary of products that require proprietary add-ons/accessories to work.  Just think what will happen when Line6 brings out Variax version 3 and they stop making the proprietary battery for the JTV.  Regular, off-the-shelf rechargeable or standard batteries would have been a better choice for the long-term, despite the better performance of the proprietary batteries.

Another example is the Gibson Robot series of guitars.....good luck getting spare parts.  I have to order double-ball strings for my Klein electric online from specialty string retailers (thank goodness I have a string adapter as a fall-back should string manufacturers ever decide to stop making double-ball strings).

I think if Moog can design a retrofit Lev96 for electric guitars, then they are onto something.

-oddguitar

vanceg

I, too, have been wanting something that acted a little like the Gizmotron for quite a while.  Basically a hexaphonic sustainer. The Moog guitar seemed to be the only answer. 

The Lev 96 now seems to be a great idea/solution!  It does so much more than a Gizmo or even the original Moog Guitar. (or it would SEEM to...we are in the initial phases).

I SUSPECT that why they chose to put the LEV-96 on an acoustic first was two fold:
1) They can now show that "we aren't dong and signal processing to the guitar -what you hear are the guitar strings harmonics being effected by the magnetics of the LEV-96 system - this is NOT synthesis".

2) If you try to add a magnetic pickup (such as a standard electric guitar pickup, or a Roland GK-3 type divided pickup) to either of the Moog guitars - you will experience a great deal of electromagnetic interference from the Moog pickups.  My experience trying to add a GK-3 to a Moog guitar was a total wash. After weeks and weeks of trying I finally gave up - the noise associated with the moog sustainer pickups was just getting in the way of the GK-3.  I heard similar stories from someone I know who was working on adding a standard magnetic pickup to a Moog guitar.  So it MAY be that starting on an acoustic guitar product is a way to work on the core (VERY VERY VERY COOL) technology without having to address a potential engineering hurdle of "how do we get standard magnetic pickups to play nice with our sustainer pickups".  But this is PURE SPECULATION (based on some educated guesses).

I'm seriously interested in trying to install a LEV-96 on an electric...and just not put any pickups in there other than a GK-3. And if that doesn't work, I use a piezo system like the Graphtech Ghost and get my hex signal for my VG-99 thorough that.   Done. 

Now all I need is a Lev-96 to experiment with.  Hello NAMM show ;-)

Quote from: Now_And_Then on November 04, 2012, 01:12:18 AM
I have been hoping for a successor to The Gizmo for years and years. Since the webpage notes that the Lev96 is a "sensor/actuator that activates and controls naturally occurring harmonics and resonant frequencies" then perhaps we are looking at a combination of The Gizmo and Roland's HRM. I would be very happy if this were the case. The more so, in fact, as the Lev96, unlike The Gizmo, does not require physical contact with the strings.

The fact that it can be fitted to an acoustic guitar is also very interesting both in that it would seem to indicate that the installation is completely reversible; but also because it kind of seems like it won't fit on an electric guitar, judging by the geometry of the device pictured on the webpage.

As an apartment dweller who keeps eccentric and peculiar hours, then, depending on how thick it is and how much of the Lev96 is accommodated through the soundhole and within the body of the guitar, I could imagine mounting it on a Yamaha or Sajing Silent Guitar, let's say, so as to be able to bang away on it at any hour of the day or night and not having my roomie stick her head in the door and complain, thereby insuring continued domestic tranquility...

Humorously, or maybe not so humorously, the device pictured on the webpage might also fit on a 1st generation Variax because it had no pickup. It might also fit on a certain jazz guitars - ones that have only a single pickup in the neck position leaving lots of open space to accommodate the Lev96 near the bridge. Or a Gibson Howard Roberts Fusion; I have in mind the early models with the round soundhole. These are thoughts worth keeping in mind...

drjoness2001

Quote from: audiotrax on October 26, 2012, 09:20:46 PM
I've had a Polyphonic infinite sustain guitar since getting a Roland GR500 that was made in the mid 70's!  Same principle with the electromagnetic driver.  The PolyEnsemble section controls different ranges of harmonics.

Just so there is no confusion about how the GR-500 and GS-500 work, the GS/GR-500 sustainer is contained entirely in the guitar, and controls on the GR-500 do not effect the behavior of the sustainer in the guitar, which is a bit different from the Moog Lev 96 system. I have a detailed explanation here:

http://www.joness.com/gr300/GS-500.html#sustainer

The new Moog guitar seems to stimulate (drive) the guitar strings at different frequencies/harmonics. The GS-500 (GR-500) does not have this ability.

I also have a Fernandes Sustainer system.

The Fernandes Sustainer has two modes, natural sustain, and a harmonic mode. Apparently the harmonic mode is created by inverting the phase of the signal used to drive the sustain, though I have not studied the Fernendes circuit to verify this. I am guessing that this is similar to the principle used in the new Moog system to create harmonics at natural nodes on the guitar strings.

In the GR-500, the polyphonic ensemble has several sliders to shape the sound of the polyensemble, labeled "F, L, M and H". Moving these sliders changes the tonal content of the polyensemble section, but these are more like equalizer controls, they do not effect how the strings in the guitar are vibrating. I have the service manual online as well:

http://www.joness.com/gr300/service/GR-500_GS-500_SERVICE_NOTES.pdf

If you go to page seven, you can see the operation of these sliders, and note that these are equalizer/tone controls. One way to better understand how the system works is to turn up the volume controls on the guitar for the polyensemble and master volume, but turn down the actual output of your amplifier. The GS-500 is designed so that if you are not playing the guitar, or have the volume down, the sustainer does not endlessly sustain. In any case, with the amplifier off, you should still be able to hear the natural sound of the strings on the GS-500 sustaining, and will note that moving the polyensemble faders does not effect the pitch or harmonic quality of the sustaining strings on the guitar.

This video clip details the operation of the sustainer/polyensemble section:


vanceg

Hear Here (sic).  Thank you for the clear description of how the GR-500 works. 

While it may be really wonderful and cool - It's not at all doing the same thing that the LEV-96 or even the polyphonic sustainer on the Moog guitars is doing. 

drjoness2001


Now_And_Then

#13

That's a very interesting video. A few quick thoughts:

1) The Lev sound is pretty heavily layered on the acoustic guitars normal sound. It requires some effort to separate the two sounds and hear what the Lev itself is doing.

2) There seems to be a  piezo pickup on the guitar in addition to the Lev. And there was a also room mike. Which were we hearing at any given moment? Is it possible to record only the Lev output without the acoustic guitar's natural sound? I think so but I am not sure and then again, I kind of think that it might be impossible to record an acoustic-guitar Lev without recording the natural acoustic guitar sound along with it. And actually, I am not sure that the Lev even has an output. An inability to separate the Lev sounds from the acoustic guitar sounds will be very problematical to say the least. Possibly the problem could be alleviated or attenuated by mounting the device on a solid-body guitar with a piezo pickup.

3) The sounds which the Lev produces seems to be divided into 2 categories: firstly: "space sounds" that are not musically useful and which are more suitable as ambiance, atmosphere, and effects, and secondly: organ sounds with a very Mellotron-ish flavour. Further demos might reveal a more expansive palette of sounds.

4) The Lev would have to be able to create a pretty powerful magnetic field in order to actuate the strings. It is not impossible that the Lev is simply incompatible with magnetic pickups on a guitar.   

More study is needed. (And I hope that their demo videos are not as useless as the videos for the E-1.)

aliensporebomb

Wow, very interesting.  I'd love to try one of those out.
My music projects online at http://www.aliensporebomb.com/

GK Devices:  Roland VG-99, Boss GP-10, Boss SY-1000.

drjoness2001

I was a bit underwhelmed.

I wonder if any of those folks got to take one home for a week to learn how to use it.

It reminds me of the first time I saw the Moog guitar at the NAMM show. No one knew quite how to use it to do something meaningful in a musical context.

If someone handed me a violin, I'm sure the results would convince folks that the violin would never be useful as a musical instrument. Maybe the Lev 96 needs more study.

I'm still waiting for the Moog guitar demo that blows my mind in the same way Bill's VG-99 demos did.

Now_And_Then

Quote from: oddguitar on November 06, 2012, 08:13:28 AM
I too was interested in the Moog guitar when it first came out, but price, early build-quality issues, reports of thin-sounding pickups, and having to use proprietary Moog strings for the best results have prevented me from taking the plunge.  What happens if Moog pulls the plug on making the strings?.....I'd hate to end up s.o.l. on a multi-thousand dollar instrument (just ask Floyd Rose Speedloader owners how they are enjoying not being able to get strings anymore).

Being an innovative guitar fan, experience has taught me to be very wary of products that require proprietary add-ons/accessories to work.  Just think what will happen when Line6 brings out Variax version 3 and they stop making the proprietary battery for the JTV.  Regular, off-the-shelf rechargeable or standard batteries would have been a better choice for the long-term, despite the better performance of the proprietary batteries.

Another example is the Gibson Robot series of guitars.....good luck getting spare parts.  I have to order double-ball strings for my Klein electric online from specialty string retailers (thank goodness I have a string adapter as a fall-back should string manufacturers ever decide to stop making double-ball strings).

I think if Moog can design a retrofit Lev96 for electric guitars, then they are onto something.

-oddguitar

This is a really good post. I was hesitant to buy an original, first-generation Steinberger because it required double-ball strings and I instinctively thought of the nightmare it would be should those strings no longer be manufactured. (Eventually I bought a YouRock v1 and found its headlessness to be unacceptable: there are a variety of open chords that I use for which I need to be able to brace my hand against part of the headstock; the Steinberger's headlessness would have made it a poor purchase for me. The YouRock proved a poor purchase for other reasons too.)

Now that you remind me of the fact, I do recall that the E-1 requires special proprietary strings and how that fact also warned me off a purchase. And now I am willing to wager that the Lev will also require those very same strings. I don't know anything about the mechanics and physics of either the E-1's ability to sustain or how the Lev works, but I have a feeling that what Moog has done is managed to extract the sustainer from the rest of the electronics and put it in a standalone package. I am not sure but I believe that this is what required mounting the Lev on a acoustic as opposed to electric guitar.


aliensporebomb

Quote from: drjoness2001 on November 14, 2012, 07:33:55 PM
I was a bit underwhelmed.

I wonder if any of those folks got to take one home for a week to learn how to use it.

It reminds me of the first time I saw the Moog guitar at the NAMM show. No one knew quite how to use it to do something meaningful in a musical context.

If someone handed me a violin, I'm sure the results would convince folks that the violin would never be useful as a musical instrument. Maybe the Lev 96 needs more study.

I'm still waiting for the Moog guitar demo that blows my mind in the same way Bill's VG-99 demos did.

Well if you gave Bill a Moog guitar, I'm sure the result would be cool.  So the fact remains: it's the player not the gear. 

But bringing in people like Katy Perry's guitar player to try something out and film the result might not give you the results you were hoping for.

   
My music projects online at http://www.aliensporebomb.com/

GK Devices:  Roland VG-99, Boss GP-10, Boss SY-1000.

Now_And_Then

#18
Quote from: aliensporebomb on November 15, 2012, 09:10:03 AM
Well if you gave Bill a Moog guitar, I'm sure the result would be cool.  So the fact remains: it's the player not the gear. 

But bringing in people like Katy Perry's guitar player to try something out and film the result might not give you the results you were hoping for.



I have no idea who Katy Perry's guitar player is (or even who the **** Kate Perry is, to be honest) but the fact that he plays for someone or other is really not a good basis for assuming that he doesn't do very interesting things in his free time. I've seen videos of Steve Vai playing in a corporate crap-rock band, yet it would be a mistake to think that crap-rock is all he can do.

To your main point, it might or might not be the player not the gear, but maybe it isn't the player. You could look at any piece of gear and say, X or Y could really do interesting things with that, but, unless you actually hear X or Y doing it, you don't really *know*, now do you - especially if it seems that X or Y didn't actually bother to actually buy the (very costly) piece of gear that is under discussion in the first place. It'd be much better to actually hear someone - anyone - doing interesting things with an E-1 instead of having to, first, imagine it, and then, secondly, to spend the money based on a few not-terribly-well-founded hopes. 

And, of course, if it requires Bill Ruppert to get something useful out of it, then it's not a piece of gear that I ought to get because I am not a very technically-proficient guitarist. If the very talented guitarists in the currently-and-actually-existing E-1 demos could not do anything really impressive with it, it's probably the E-1's fault, and not the players'. Bill Ruppert, after all, does those Effectology videos: he's very very good at working with stuff like that. If you need to have his talent for using effects in order to get useful sounds out of the E-1, that's pretty much a warning sign for everyone else, isn't it?


mbenigni


Now_And_Then

Quote from: mbenigni on November 15, 2012, 10:30:08 AM
Who is this "Steve Vai"?  Can he play?  ;)

I was just kidding, there's no such person!

germanicus

This looks like a very early phase of a developing technology.

Not to sound like a grinch but......

It sounds like someone doodling on a 1980's era casio keyboard behind them while they play.

I really dont care HOW the sounds are made (as 99.999999% of the time, neither does the audience), but rather how they work in a musical context. I judge any piece of gear as a tool, and look upon its potential to move me musically. Im sure one can do cool things with it, and am hesistant to judge it prematurely. That said, I do think companies and some players get wrapped up a bit much in the tech aspect (ie 'im playing a guitar string generated synth, not a waveform generated synth!'). Is this going to allow people to create new things, or make it easier to create? If so, fantastic. If its just another way to get a sound thats been around for 30 years, except developed from a guitar string vibrating instead of a sampled waveform ... meh.

Some gear immediately excites me with possibilities. This may very well be my own limitations, but this has not :(
My albums done with modeling/guitar synth at http://music.steamtheory.com

JTV69/59P/Godin LGXT/Multiac ACS/Variax 700 AC
Helix/FTP/GP10/VG99/SY1000
Traynor k4

thebrushwithin

Hello...I have a lot of experience using a Moog E1-M, live gigging averaging 30 hrs. per week, and it has been both great and a real nightmare!!! When I received it, there was a lot of buzzing on the lower strings, and my tech had no luck getting rid of it. Moog said to give it time, as it was set up perfectly, and shipping to a different climate, blah, blah, blah. I was stupid to not send it back until they got it right. The weird thing is that the buzzing NEVER affected synth tracking, with glitching, etc. which is why i kept it. I used many different strings and gauges and stainless steel strings work pretty well, although after some use of a set, you get a strange phasing. On their forum, a guy from Britain found Rotosound strings to remedy this, and he thought it was because the ends were wrapped. So, I went back to a light set of Moog strings, and had another tech set it up. All this time, I was having serious problems, which I assumed was my Roland cable, and would have to reset the plug during songs!!! However, I have a Fernandes Dragonfly, which was customized with the same Ghost system, and when using the same cable...NO problems! Obviously, I was quite frustrated, as my warranty was over, and I could not reconcile this problem. Then I had an odd stroke of luck. One day my Fernandes had 2 strings not triggering, and for some odd reason, I raised the saddle, just a bit, on the affected strings, and voila!
They started to trigger again! Crazy to me, but I then raised the affected strings on my Moog, and sure as hell, the problems went away on it. So, I am left to assume this is a Ghost system oddity. None of my LR Baggs equipped Godins EVER had any problems, nor my RMC equipped guitars. Thankfully, I am beginning to really enjoy the Moog. I never use the guitar's pickup sounds, just the COSM models, so I don't really care about how thin they might be. I talked a good friend into buying a Moog lap steel, and when he received it, believe it or not, the tuners and the bridge didn't even match, gold and chrome! There was also a horrible finish blemish, and it was NOT B stock. When he complained, they offered to refund a couple of hundred bucks, and of course, he sent it back, demanding quality. They fixed all of the problems though, and he is very happy with it now. SO.... I see this LEV 96, and the first thing that jumps out at me is the design. With the touch controls on the upper part of the guitar, it is completely useless for me, as my arm would rest on the controls, because I pick near the neck. I offered this opinion to them, but have heard nothing back. For my use, controls for any guitar should be on the traditional lower guitar body. All that said, I must say Moog deserves kudos for trying to further the electric guitar!!! I feel they need more expertise from guitarists, on the R&D end of things, and their quality control is terrible, in my opinion. I recently bought a used Breedlove acoustic, from a guy in Portland, OR, and when I received it, it was PERFECT!!! So much for Moog's answer to their string buzz, and shipping, humidity, etc. I hope they improve their execution of true innovations for the guitar. When you pay $3000 for a guitar, it should have 0 issues.

tekrytor

#23
I think I'm with Germanicus and the good DrJones on this one, not too impressed :(, especially for the astronomical price :( :( :(. I could buy a VG-99, GR-55, modest amps, cables, etc, ALL OF THAT for the price of one MOOG E1-M unit. I do appreciate Robert Moog's keyboards and synthesis work immensely, but the guitar implementation is not making it in this form and price for me. It's also not very musical from what I hear so far, considering the videos here and elsewhere on the web, etc. My first guitar synth was the GR-700 back in the early 1980's and I've always used a GR since up through my GR-55 now, so I'm definitely a guitar synth enthusiast. I'm certain it has possibilities though and if anyone has the history and experience to make it happen, MOOG should be in the running. I would rather see it work on a cheap First Act guitar than on something I cannot afford. I heard a lot of similar comments about my GR-700 back in its day, so MOOG is possibly now learning what Roland went through back then.

AND, I'm sure Katie Perry can afford an excellent guitarist...not a fanboy, but I do enjoy her little space-girly 50's retro-pop video ;D Sorry, I don't even know the name of the song, but who cares if there's a guitar on it! She looks great in the video when she flies away on that little rocket ;D Woosh!
SY-300/BeatBuddy/VoiceLive 3/GR-55(v1.50)/33/1/50/700/VGA-7/V-Bass, Yam-G10, GPK-4, DIY X-Bee HighlyLiquidCPU "Cozy-Lil-Footie", FCB-1010, other MIDI stuff, Godin Freeway SA and various other GK equipped controllers, Sonar X1, Audacity, KXstudio, Misc devices

vanceg

Well, the LEV96 IS just a proof of concept/prototype device. There is not a final product announced. 

I just want a viable polyphonic sustainer that I can put into guitars I design...and I hope someday something that has evolved from the LEV96 will allow this to happen.  I do love the idea of it being able to excite different harmonics, though I agree what I heard in these videos was a little underwhelming musically. THen again - Give them all a break: They were handed a brand new device and told to play around with it for a while...and someone filmed them... is suspect I wouldn't quite know how to play this thing the first time I got a hold of it either.   Hopefully they'll have one sitting in a back room at NAMM.... not sure about that yet, though.  It does sound like they will NOT be showing it as a "soon to be released" product this year.