Xploration • Curation • Recommendation
Gamechanger Audio releases limited smart RECODER Phrase Sampler / Modifier / Looper for Black Friday, order window lasts until 10th December
This release came in very quick and hard! It’s happening more and more that pedal brands release limited special editions just for Black Friday. Originally those were just unique artwork variants - while latterly we’re getting entirely new and unique secret project circuits / pedals.
I love most everything Gamechanger does - while not every pedal necessarily fits in practically within my own usage requirements and preferences. Traditionally Gamechanger devices have all been rather oversized - where the Plasma Distortion variants are the only ones approaching a pedalboard-friendly form factor.
This new RECODER pedal is more of that mould, and a completely digital offering this time around - which records / samples up to 12 second phrases - which you can then modify / transform via 4 scroll wheels, 3 x Slider Switches and Dual Footswitches - before you playback and loop that phrase in various states of transformation and sequencing - some more manual, and others a little more automatically randomised and organic!
Controls - Resolution : Low / Medium / High, Select Color Layer To Edit - White / Amber / Red, Modifier Wheel 1 : Tone / Slice / Amplitude, Modifier Wheel 2 : Pitch / Repeats / Attack, Save, Load, 2 Segment VDU, Modifier Wheel 3 : Timbre / Resonance / Damage, Playback Modes : Loop / Step / Live Playback, Modifier Wheel 4 : Decay / Distance / Stretch. Left Footswitch : Hold to Record. Right Footswitch : Engage / Hold to Retime.
Ports : In TRS, Rec In TRS, 9V DC [-] 500mA, Rec Out TRS, Out TRS.
You have Preset slots for 234 Phrases - each up to a maximum of 12 seconds. Shorter / Micro Phrases act more like spectral / timbral filters!
Layer Groups
The Scroll Wheel Effects are grouped in 3 colour-coded categories :
WHITE LAYER - Dry Signal Character
AMPLITUDE
Turn left ← it subtracts the most active frequencies (a soft, pulsating tremolo that follows the phrase’s rhythm).
Turn right → it boosts those active bands, acting like a living multi-band booster — and if pushed too far, it becomes a phrase-driven multi-band distortion.
TIMBRE
Turn Left ← vocoder-style imprint (grainy, glassy, responsive)
Turn Right → Additive resynthesis (cleaner, harmonic, melodic)
ATACK & DECAY
ATTACK : how quickly the Recoder reacts to your playing
DECAY : how long it “holds onto” the phrase’s energy before morphing to the next moment.
YELLOW LAYER - Additional Moving Layer of Sound
SLICES
Turn Right → adds overlapping, sympathetic spectral content from the recorded Phrase – harmonically aligned with what you are currently playing – Melodic, vowel-like, responsive. Knob position determines the amount of signal added.
Turn Left ← slices become unpredictable, dissonant, metallic, glitchy, broken, alien — based on the differences between your playing and the phrase.
RESONANCE
Turn Left ← the resonances follow what you’re currently playing, but shaped by the phrase’s tonal DNA.
Turn Right → the resonances are locked inside the phrase, regardless of what note you’re playing – creating strange harmonic overlays that sometimes agree, sometimes fight you — sometimes sound like your instrument is being haunted.
REPEATS & DISTANCE – Time-based mutation of those slices and resonances.
REPEATS
How many times those fragments are repeated — from one single blink to long, blooming, feedbacking tails. Invert the Knob to activate the Sound on Sound mode – thus stacking the delays.
DISTANCE
Turn Left ← millisecond range where you can make granular washes that sound like a spectral freeze or a grainy reverb
Turn Right → normal range that goes all the way up to 10 seconds – this is the ultimate playground for evolving textures.
RED LAYER - Alter the Recorded Phrase Itself
TONE
Tilt EQ
DAMAGE
Turn Left ← bit reduction, digital degradation, crunchy broken beauty.
Turn Right → full-on wavefolding – shredding the phrase into aggressive, harmonic-dense chaos.
PITCH
Turn the Pitch knob to drop or lift the entire recorded phrase by up to 4 octaves – but here’s the twist : the timing doesn’t change.
STRETCH
This is a time-stretching engine that is completely decoupled from pitch — take a 50-millisecond sample and stretch it into a grainy, long texture and enjoy the trip. Or, alternatively, you can record the intro to thunderstruck and speed it up so it sounds like a swarm of bumblebees.
PLAY MODES
Loop Mode / Step Mode / Live Mode
LOOP Mode: Circular Playback
This is the default mode – the one we’ve focused on in all previous sections, and the mode that inspired the RECODER idea initially!
In LOOP mode, the recorded phrase is constantly spinning inside the engine — like a circular buffer. The playhead continuously cycles through the phrase, over and over again.
STEP Mode: Dynamic Playhead
RECODER analyzes the recorded phrase and splits it into segments based on transients and pitch changes — like tiny “phrase markers” or event points. The playhead only advances when you trigger it with your playing. Each time you strike a note or hit a transient — the engine jumps to the next slice, segment, or pitch zone in the recorded phrase.
This is the ideal mode for breaking out of a set rhythmical pattern, and for introducing a sense of responsivity – where all changes in the RECODER’s spectrum come directly from you!
LIVE Mode: Real-time side-CODING
Instead of relying on saved phrases as the signal source — the RECODER uses your live input as the spectral donor – essentially becoming a real-time spectral resynthesis and cross-morphing machine.
You can still record a phrase and RECODE through it – but as soon as you unlatch the REC Footswitch – you can go right back to the LIVE input as the modulation source.
The Recoder is only available for a limited order window on the Gamechanger Webstore - up to the 10th of December. It goes for €207.50 and equivalent, I paid £205, including £18 delivery charge to the UK!
I'm very much looking forward to getting my hands on mine - in early January!
Launch Promo!
