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Posts Tagged ‘energy’

Instrument o’ the Week: The Moog Guitar

Ok, so first impression is that this is a gimmick guitar. Wrong. It’s ok, I thought that too. Remember that this is Moog so you know it’s going to be something at least really cool. Well they didn’t disappoint. Here’s what’s so cool about it from the website:

What makes this guitar so special?

The Moog Guitar Electronics add an unparalleled range of expression to the Moog Guitar:

FULL SUSTAIN MODE - like no other sustainer; infinite sustain on every string, at every fret position and at any volume. You may have heard sustain before but not with this power (we call it “Vo Power”) and clarity.

CONTROLLED SUSTAIN MODE - allows you to play sustained single or polyphonic lines without muting technique. The Moog Guitar sustains the notes you are playing while actively muting the strings you are not playing.

MUTE MODE - removes energy from the strings, resulting in a variety of staccato articulations. The mute mode has never been heard on any other guitar; the Vo Power stops the strings with the same intensity that it sustains them. You feel the instrument transform in your hands.

HARMONIC BLENDS – use the included foot pedal to shift the positive energy of Vo Power in Sustain mode and the subtractive force of Vo Power in Mute mode between the bridge and neck pick-ups to pull both subtle and dramatic harmonics from the strings.

MOOG FILTER - control the frequency of the built-in, resonant Moog ladder filter using the foot pedal or a CV Input.

Moog Guitar Controls

There are five knobs:

Vo Power- this is the amount of coherent power that is applied to the strings to either sustain or mute them.

Piezo Blend- blends the piezo output with the Moog pick-ups.

Harmonic Balance- shifts the Vo Power (sustain/mute) power between the neck and bridge pick-up. In the center position the power is balanced between the neck and bridge.

Master Volume- controls overall volume including both the Moog Pick-up output as well as the piezos.

Tone/Filter- controls both tone and the resonance of the Moog ladder filter dependent upon the position of the Filter Mode Toggle switch.

There are three switches:

Moog Guitar Mode determines the application of the Vo Power. There are three positions: Sustain, Controlled Sustain, and Mute

Filter Mode Toggle with three positions: Standard Guitar Tone, an articulated Moog filter (e.g similar to an auto-wah), and classic Moog Ladder filter

Five Position Pick-up Selector Switch: Piezo, Bridge only, Out of Phase, In Phase, Neck only.

Ok, blah blah blah with the tech specs. Watch the video. You’ll get it. Sadly, they’re not coming to North America yet.

 

Battlestar Galactica - S4 =Single most important thing to happen in the last year

Have you ever had to pee because you were really really nervous, or excited? For thousands of Battlestar Galactica fans, the degree of anticpation has reached the " need to pee or fight someone" level. After three seasons of brilliant, TV syndicated science fiction, this masterpiece of a show left off with a cliff hanging, nail-biting, stare at your TV for 10 minutes at after the show - season finale, with the promise that Season four would be right around the corner.

So almost exactly one year ago I turned my computer off and told myself, "Just sit back and be patient. October/November isn’t that far away." I tried not to think about it. I tried to reinvest some time and energy into creating a social life and completing homework assignments. But when October rolled around with no closure to my increasing impatience, I eventuallycrawled back to reruns of BSG, and spent several months attempting to download the movie special "Razor" (intended to give more story background and keep fans somewhat satisfied before the launch of the fourth and final season). For some reason "Razor" was damn near impossible to download completely prior to last week. I watched the same first 15 minutes over and over before finally getting to see the end. I found a collection of episodes from the original 80’s version of Battlestar Galactica, and went through all of them in about two weeks.

For those of you who don’t know anything about the show, BSG was originally aired in the early 80’s (I think) along the vein of the original Star Trek series. The general plot goes something like this: