Asheville inventor of ‘acoustic synthesizer’ gets rave reviews, seeks funding

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Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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acoustic_synthesizerInventor Paul Vo of Asheville worked with Moog Music to help it create new instruments, including the Moog guitar. Now it looks like he’s striking out with his Vo-96 acoustic synthesizer. He’s launched a Kickstarter asking the public for $50,000 to get his project off the ground, and he’s more than halfway home.

Check out the videos to see the amazing invention, including this one featuring Tyler Ramsey of Asheville. Ramsey is a member of the Band of Horses.

Here’s what Gizmodo said about the Vo-96:

Inventor Paul Vo has developed an entirely new way to modify the sound of instruments. Stringed instruments for now, at least. Before I twist your brain into knots trying to explain how it works, take a moment to listen to the Vo-96 acoustic synthesizer in the video above. Moog teased this concept as the LEV-96 back in November, but this is our first really comprehensive look at what it sounds like.

It sounds like some sort of modulation effect is being applied to the guitars in the video but there are no analog effects or digital processing. That is the real sound of instrument. It actually works similarly to one of Vo’s other inventions, the (electric) Moog Guitar.

The Vo-96 is the little battery-powered contraption between the guitar’s sound hole and bridge in the image below. It changes the way that an instrument actually sounds rather than changing the sound that an instrument has already made. Vo calls it “vibration control technology,” because, well, it physically alters the way the strings vibrate.

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Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

  • 1

2 Comments

  1. Jtroop April 12, 2013

    AWESOME!!

    Reply

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