I think I figured it out:
MoogerFooger Frequency Shifter - like the old Bode/Moog Freq Shifter but in a MoogerFooger footprint. That would explain why there are no oscillators or pitch following (which will probably never be improved), but still osc. sync-type sounds. I hope that’s it, could be very useful and unique.
Now Moog, how about a single power supply to power all the Moogers, CP, VX at the same time with no whine?
I realize why modern technology makes me sad, and why it really doesn’t matter what Moog comes out with…
We’re all listening to that sound… and while it is interesting, it’s not something that couldn’t be done with something else… or any number of other things.
Times was that when a new synthesizer came out, it was amazing because it did things that no other synthesizer did, or it had its own sound that could not be duplicated (yet) by other synthesizers.
Digital technology and powerful software has essentially made it so that when you hear a sound, it is not amazing, it’s merely a sound made by a digital synthesizer. You may like the sound, may desire it, and seek to recreate it… but there is no longer any amazement at what could have made it, or how it was made.
So, then you’re left with: Why buy something that makes sounds that can be made by something else?
My answer to that is that I desire hardware things that make sounds in a hardware way… and that is why Moog is valuable to me. Othewise, I could buy any number of types of software or powerful digital synthesizers and make all of the sounds I could imagine, could hear, etc.
I still say anything synthesis-related that is made for guitarists is a very big gamble.
I don’t particularly like that MURF pedal, but it seems to be really popular.
In this sence, Moog has been very successful in re-packagaing and re-reconfiguring modular synth technologies for guitarists and a new generation of electronics players.
It seems to me, that alot of electronic “players” must like effects/instruments that almost make the music for them. Like alot of the “groove” type drum machines and so on, and to a certain extent, the MURF.
I’m guessing that Moog, after the popularity of their MURF, has decided to take the next step in this direction.
There aren’t any Moog products that can sequence rhythms like the one we hear in this recording. So, it would seem that this new product must be providing the sequencing here.
Plus, Amos already suggested that it is a guitar synth.
So, it seems pretty interesting, I just hope the patterns aren’t pre-programmed as they are on the MURF.
Eric
Amos only said that guitar players ask how to make their guitars sound more like synthesizers. As soon as you add a pitch to voltage conversion step, the unique and direct human aspects of playing a guitar are removed, or at least severly quantized, and Moog is about enhancing human interface, not obscuring it.
A frequency shifter reads many aspects of the actual input tone. I think that’s why in the example clip there is lots of irregular harmonic motion, because it’s not being controlled by a pedal or translated from a pitch, its a frequency shifter tracking the moment to moment changes in a decaying guitar string vibration.
There are too many variables to consider in making a pitch follower, and even Fairlight didn’t succeed with their state-of-the-art Voicetracker, which included a synthesizer (ok it was a horrible dco synth) and a stunning array of cv i/o in a Mooger sized package.
Moog wouldn’t make a product dedicated only to guitarists anyway, that’s not their core market. A frequency shifter can be used in an interesting way and equally well on any audio source, and it makes a guitar sound like a synthesizer as well.
i don’t know
i still think there is an unlimited amount of crazy sounds out there, and that you can make them with lots of different things, it’s just way more fun doing it on moog gear as it’s designed specifically for sonic exploration rather than recreation
i’m not a guitarist and i love the idea of the foogers, modules that can be used on their own with any audio gear and can be controlled to a level that most modulars won’t allow (CV over resonance for example) but yeah the line does need some serious crazy new additions, well… i mean it’s a pretty darn cool line up already but to rival a modular. hopefully this new fooger will be such a thing.
i was reading this statement again:
Last question: Is there anything you can tell us about Moog’s next product?
I can say it will defy expectations. It will be the most daring and boundary-defying Moog product to date!
i think it’s a bit of a bold claim, when you think of the fact that moog invented the synthesizer! i mean that’s pretty much as boundary-defying a moog product can get, isn’t it? hope it lives up to this claim!
yeah, you know what would be cool?
a superMuRF that has another row of sliders to control each of the bandpass filters’ freq! then you could create any seq imaginable from the pre-programmed patterns
Re: sequencing -
If you listen carefully to the clip you can tell it’s performed live and the tempos are not sequenced. I think it’s just a multi-tracked guitar playing all the parts separately with different settings on the new pedal.
I don’t suppose there is a loop function . . .
Yeah, that would make sense too.
Personnally, I’d love and much rather see a Frequency Shifter Moogerfooger. I’ve never been willing to spend the money on this extremely expensive effect, so I don’t know exactly what it even sounds like… but I know I want one. ha ha
But, those synth stabs at the begininng of the track do sound sequenced to me, and the track overall suggests (to me anyway) the kind of rhythmic accompaniment that a guitar-groove-box would provide.
The Encore Electronics Frequence Shifter is like $389. Just put a pre amp in infront of it and go…
There used to be a really cool sample of Wendy Carlos (I think) talking run through a Bode Frequency Shifter floating around on the internet. I can’t seem to find it anymore though, but its well worth searching for.
Trust me, it sounds awesome. 
Very pricey because a fully analog FS requires a lot of precisely tuned circuitry to implement properly. The Encore uses a microprocessor to generate the quadrature modulating waveforms and this dramatically simplifies the circuit. I don’t think the new mf will be a frequency shifter (though I’d love for it to be). Its an damn neat effect, but hardly “daring” or “boundry-defying”.
No, I think we have something much more interesting in store for us!
Wow, that Encore sounds great. But it has a RISC processor and DAC, so it’s not as strictly analog as I would guess the Moog would be. But the audio samples do more to confirm a Mooger Freq Shifter than deny.
Don’t know who Amos was addressing with his marketing comments, but a Frequency Shifter is pretty daring as it can really screw around with the audio. A Guitar Synthesizer or Pitch Tracker are much less daring than a Frequency Shifter too, and the former target a much smaller potential user base.
Also, Moog could call it the Mooger Super Freak or something to match the Lil Phatty type name.
Found the Wendy Carlos thing. It is very cool.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/henry01/frequency_shifter/frequency_shifter_mp3s/carlos_shifted1_filt.htm
The Carlos sample is pretty danged cool… but it wouldn’t be very long until you had to search pretty hard to find ways to implement that sound… especially if you were involved with tonal music.
But, I guess it’s the same as with a ring modulator… it’s a cool sound with limited use, but people still seem to love them. : ) Hell, I do.
I’d even be pretty thrilled about a frequency shifter, provided you had a little more control over it than it sounds like this sample does. It’s a little like a filter with a sinewave controlling the cutoff point… it’s much more exciting if you can do things like variable waveforms, sample and hold, CV control, etc. than just that sinewave going up and down. So, perhaps… if Moog is making a frequency shifter, it’s one that allows a variety of cool controls over the effect.
I don’t think you could physically fit a fully analog FS in a moogerfooger case, they require a LOT of circuitry.
The digitally generated oscillators aren’t such a bad thing in this case and certainly are the best solution for reducing cost, size and complexity.
Yeah, I’ve thought about this Encore module for my modular (that I’m currently building). But like people have said here, it seems like kind of a compromise…
Incidentally, Club of the Knobs is running a special on their Bode FS clone module right now (it’s still nearly $1000):
www.cluboftheknobs.com
I don’t know how Moog could make a FS at a MoogerFooger price, when they cost well over $1000 from every other manufacturer. Plus, I don’t know why a FS should be marketed as a specifically guitar-synth-like effect (no more or less than a ring mod or env filter anyway). But it would be very cool if they do.
Maybe “boundary-defying” means genius-engineered to be reasonably priced. Didn’t Dr. Moog say the circuits spoke to him, so who knows what they told him toward the end.
The “Club of the Knobs” Bode FS looks like it would fit a Mooger footprint, doesn’t it?
And did I miss something? Is there someplace the new Fooger is being marketed as a Guitar Synthesizer? I have the Roland GR300, SPV355 and other pitch followers triggering Moogs and they don’t sound anything like the teaser audio file.
I’ve laid eyes on the guts of a Bode/Moog frequency shifter.
If the COTK module is a direct clone, it will NOT fit in a moogerfooger case.
The Encore FS might fit, because the RISC/DAC solution reduces a LOT of precision tuned circuitry.
LOL, sounds like someone spilled coffee on a DX7…
sounds like a guitar synth to me, with sync functionality available. lots of ring mod sounds going on too.. wonder whats driving it, and if this demo may be including other foogers into the equation.
i really hope it’s controllable via cv / gate inputs so it can work as a modular osc / env component as well. it definitely has something envelope related just based on the attack of the sounds.
can’t wait to see, regardless!!! 
CTRLSHFT
Can you tell me what guitar synthesizer you’ve heard that sounds like this? I just don’t hear it at all, outside of the obvious use of a guitar as source.
I just doesn’t make sense to me that Moog would make a guitar synthesizer, it’s not in their experience/knowledge base.
didn’t say i’ve heard one that sounds like this before, but the way the guitar is mixed and how the raw osc sound is following the guitar, i’m pretty sure this is it. an env generator syncable to the pitch of the osc could be part of the sound.
maybe a dedicated osc or lfo AND an octave divider used to follow pitch of an external source?
Moog is catering to guitarists in a huge way. i think this is the next logical step to fusing the synth and guitar worlds together a bit. the whole moogerfooger line exudes this confidence. why else would they have made individualized units, shaped like stomp boxes?
i think this machine will double as both a p-v controllable osc (or lfo), and a guitar synth via an octave divider, based on the sounds i’m hearing.
just a guess! jan 17th will reveal all..