Digital Controllers & Synths, MOOG's Geert Bevin | Superbooth 2024

video upload by Anthony Marinelli Music

"Join Geert Bevin and me as we discuss the current state of expression for both digital and analog instruments. Geert is a multi-instrumentalist and master of gestural control for synthesizers with decades of experience designing many different types of controllers.

I set out to hear what Geert had to say about Digital Instruments vs Analog Instruments, and the discussion kept coming back to controllers. I soon realized that Geert really cares about music and that performers being able to have an expressive experience with their instruments is more important to him than whether or not the tone is generated digitally or not. In this information-packed discussion, we'll cover topics such as: why digital struggles with attack transients, the difference between generating a sound digitally and processing a sound digitally, digital distortion vs analog distortion, how to create scarcity in the digital realm, and how humans compensate for different instruments.

Geert Bevin worked with Eigenlabs developing the Eigenharp, collaborated with Roger Linn by writing firmware for the LinnStrument, worked on the Ultraleap - Leap Motion Controller that detects your hand position with infrared cameras to convert conductor-like gestures to shape sound, and recently designed a Bluetooth MIDI controller for the Apple Watch. He's currently creating experiences on software synths for Moog Music that go beyond the sound itself, exploring MPE as a common language to connect musicians with expressive controllers, painstakingly working to make digital knob turns feel as good as analog knob turns, and determining the future of both analog and digital electronic instruments.

00:00 Introduction
00:40 Moog's Software Mission
24:30 Moog Model 15 App
34:09 Why does digital have trouble with attack transients?
48:30 Logo (theme music)"