We are accustomed to seeing something weird, unusual, something brilliant coming out of Gamechanger Audio. This is the company that housed a Bigbsy-inspired polyphonic pitch-shifter in a stompbox. But it has just launched a synth pedal that is up there among its most out-there designs.
It is called the Motor Pedal, and it’s not so much a synth pedal as it is a synth-in-a-pedal. Just listen to the demo video below. This is a performance friendly synth pedal (just wait till you here what’s going with that treadle pedal) in which, under the hood, there’s an actual electromechanical synthesizer that takes the signal from, say, an electric guitar, tracks it and renders it as a synth sound.
“You can use it as a drone element that doubles your lines, or use it as a ring-mod or x-mod engine for your signal,” says Gamechanger.
If it walks like a synth, sounds like a synth, then that is because it is one. At the heart of the design is a “precision-controlled” brushed DC motor.
“As the motor’s coils spin, their physical motion is captured by a carefully calibrated electromagnetic inductor – just like a guitar pickup, but instead of strings, the signal comes from pure rotational energy,” explains Gamechanger.
It sounds wild. It quite possibly is. If all this sound familiar then that’s because some of the technology Gamechanger Audio is deploying here is adapted from its MusicRadar-approved Motor Synth II, which marked a dramatic evolution of what was once the world’s first electro-mechanical synth.
Our verdict? “…a bastion of ingenuity. It’s noisy and expensive, but so much fun. There’s nothing quite like it”. Presumably, the Motor Pedal will do something similar for guitar.
Now to that mini-treadle pedal. This is described as a multi-modal “gas pedal” and, accordingly, it can be used to control pitch-shifting or accelerate the motor.
It can also be used as a brake, a downward pitch-shifter or as a means to bring the mechanical synth to a crashing hault. Use it in Clutch mode to disconnect the motor from the pitch-shifting, allowing you to use it as a drone. There are also Volume modes for creating swells and Drift mode, in which it behaves a little like a vibrato arm.
The mechanical nature of its build invites the question as to its durability and how well this would hold up on a touring pedalboard.
But the good news is that the lifespan of the brushed DC motor inside the unit is 8,000 hours of continuous use, which is almost a year (333 days), and the motor is easily replaceable. A spare should cost under $30 and is as easy as changing a tube in your guitar amp.
The Motor Pedal works with guitar, bass guitar or microphone. The inputs are all found on the top of the unit. There is MIDI and USB connectivity.
The Motor Pedal is currently available to pre-order. If you order before 30 April you can get it in a choice or Redline Red or Blue Viper racing striped colourways, or in standard black with racing stripe, and it will come hand-signed with your name on it.
Pre-order promo price is $299 and the unit ships in June 2025. Thereafter it will be $379. For more details, head over to Gamechanger Audio.
