Gamechanger Audio's new Electro-Mechanical Motor Synth Pedal is super appealing with a tonne of different flavours and features onboard

I have long admired Gamechanger Audio - they are proper pioneers of the scene, while not all their pedals have been practically usable for me for a variety reasons - but mostly to do with size. The one pedal I have to-date is the limited yellow edition of Jack White’s Plasma Coils Distortion / Fuzzstortion - which sounds amazing - and runs just a little over-sized - while by a country mile the smallest of the Gamechanger pedals so far. Most of the Gamechanger pedals are just way too big to be practically usable - where pedalboard real-estate is a key consideration nowadays!

I kind of liked the Modular Synth nature of the recent MOD series - while for me it only made sense if you acquired all 3 and kind of interlaced them - which I just didn’t have space for on my pedalboard.

I was initially a little concerned about the size of this Motor Pedal when I first clocked it - but it’s really not too bad - at 180mm x 100mm x 80mm - and I do actually have the perfect slot on the board for it - but I need to reveal that other pedal on said slot first before I get into details - and that one hasn’t launched yet!

The Motor Pedal follows on from Gamechanger’s Motor Synth - which uses 8 x Brushed DC Electro-Motors as the Oscillator core of the synth. Synths are mostly composed of oscillators and filters - and then vary in the degree of additional modulations.

The Motor Pedal is a reduction of the Motor Synth - and uses just 1 of those Oscillator Motors - but to superb effect. You get some genuine grit and buzz with said motor - which rotates as fast as 450 Revolutions Per Second - to deliver 1.35kHz at maximum speed. Essentially ramping up 3Hz per rotation - and 450 RPS is incredibly fast!

Some key stats for you on the Oscillator Brushed Electrical Motor :

You get 3Hz per rotation, rotations are typically measured Per Second - as follows :

• 37 RPS = 110Hz
• 147 RPS = 440Hz
• 293 RPS = 880Hz
• 450 RPS = 1.35kHz [MAX!]

Similar to how Gamechanger extended the functionality of the Spring Tank - here they deliver maximum potency from that one electro-mechanical LFO engine. Typical lifespan of said engine (electrical engines do ’burn’ out eventually) is between 3000 and 8000 Hours of continuous use. And the motor is slotted into the device in such a way that it can be quickly and easily replaced when you come to the end of the life of said individual engine.

Gamechanger have done a superb overview video now (as at the foot of this article) - which fully gels this concept together for me - and this pedal of course goes straight onto the priority the wishlist / acquisitions list - but since I have 29 pedals landed and incoming for this month - which is already too many - the Motor Pedal will have to wait until at least next month.

The best way to warm up to the provess of the Motor Pedal - is to review the control topology first :

(PS - I hope you like my racing inspired visual - I thought it particularly apt!)

Controls - Vibrato / Glide (Oscillation and % Portamento Curve), SHIFT : -OCT / -5TH / -4TH / 0 / +4TH / +5TH / +OCT (Intervals), Modulation (X-MOD Cross-Modulation), ENGINE MODE : MOTOR (raw / growling) / MXD (cross-modulation) / M-Wave (Multitimbral Synth) / Coil (AC Coil Injection [vs DC]) / Vocoder (24-Band), Release (Envelope : Short > Long), Clean (Dry Level), Motor (Output), Tone (Tilt EQ), Drive (Analog Distortion), PEDAL FUNCTION : Accelerator (Pitch Up) / Brake (Pitch Down / Stall) / Clutch (Drone Sounds) / Drift (Vibrato / Wipeout) / Volume (Swells), Main Engage / Bypass Footswitch, Car Pedal Spring-loaded secondary Momentary Function.

Ports - Track In TS, In Ts, MIDI In (DIN), 9-12V DC [-] 500mA, USB-C, Track Out TS, Out TS.

I will further define the key Modes below, and clarify what some of the controls do - it mostly seems very intuitive - with a great informatic display too!

So - as mentioned - the core of the Motor Pedal is the Oscillator Engine, which is cocnnecred to a real-time pitch tracker - which helps define the nature of note-delivery and overall output.

"A carefully calibrated inductor captures the real-world motion of the motor’s spinning coils - Transforming Mechanical Energy into a Raw, Electric Audio Signal."

You have an Envelope control labelled Relase (Short > Long), and 2 Volume Controls - one for Clean / Dry signal and one for the Motor’s Output.

The Tone Controls is a Tilt EQ, and the Modulation control specifically sets the Cross-Modulation interaction! Everything else feels rather self-explanatory - bar the ENGINE MODES, and PEDAL MODES - which are further defined below.