Gamechanger Audio has launched a crowdfunding campaign to fund production of the Motor Synth, a new instrument that uses a unique approach to synthesis.
Motor Synth is described as “the world’s first electro-mechanical desktop synthesizer”. It generates sounds by accelerating and decelerating eight electromotors to precise RPMs (revolutions per minute), which correspond to specific musical notes. Each electromotor is fitted with a magnetic pickup/inductor and an infrared photosensor that reads a spinning optical disc with printed sine, sawtooth, and square wave-shapes.
“Nowadays we can find so many synthesizers on the market more or less based on the same system,” says Jean-Michel Jarre, who tried out the Motor Synth at Superbooth 2019. “I’ve been really blown away by MOTOR Synth. It’s very cool…..and the sound is quite extraordinary.”
Here’s an in-depth look from Gamechanger Audio’s Ilya Krumins, who explained the details of the Motor Synth and gave us an in-depth demo of how it works:
Pricing and Availability
Motor Synth is available to pre-order via an IndieGogo campaign, starting at US $749. After that, the MSRP is expected to be US $1,299.
‘Gamechanger Audio’…ugh…really? Didn’t know you can just use a name that stupid.
PS: buy my eurorack modules at CyberSuper Exxxtreme Sounds!
You sound like a cool guy. Love your intelligent and carefully executed review. You should start your own YouTube channel with more content just like this. I’ll bet it would be a huge success
Company names matter to more people than you can imagine in personal, niche hobbies. People can dismiss that comment above, but it is valid.
No it isn’t. They’ve literally released several products that create and manipulate sound using methods that hitherto were completely unavailable commercially. They have, as their name suggests, taken a game (the guitar pedal/synth maker industry) and changed it by developing new and unique instruments that operate under a different paradigm. Fair enough you may not like it, I myself don’t particularly see the use for it. But the name is suitable. And they’re Plasma pedals and Erica Euro module are completely awesome
The name forces them to push the boundaries, or suffer harsher criticisms.
They raised three times their funding goal on the first day, making it one of the top synth projects ever on IndieGoGo.
Successful companies ignore people that make mediocre requests.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that if you’re actually ‘changing the game’, you can just do it and people will point out that you’re kicking out game changing stuff. Hyperbole looks dumb in branding like that…to me. It’s like ‘A1 Quality Roofing’ – I’ll be the judge of that.
It is an interesting gadget though, I will say.
A1 Steak Sauce is actually my least favorite steak sauce (I am vegan but I still like and use steak sauce)
If you’ve never used A1 steak sauce with steak, then you literally have no idea that it serves well as a steak sauce. The only thing you do know about it is that it doesn’t make a good vegetable sauce. For steak, it could literally be transformative experience you’ll never know
I use to not be a vegan. Meat is my favorite food group, I just wont take part in it anymore. I even was a burger snob.
you were a snob?
NO WAY I TOTALLY DONT BELIVE THAT!! NEVER YOU!! OMG
Cocker: You needn’t be a animal eater to enjoy steak sauce! I’ve been a vegan for more than 20 years, I enjoy a good steak sauce on a variety of vegan plant based proteins products, including vegan steak!
Try evolving sometime.
How often do you need to change the brushes?
Can you draw your own custom waveforms on the cylinders?
how many of the $750 and $800 preorders pop up on ebay day 1 for a cool rack?
will it blend?
“the world’s first electro-mechanical desktop synthesizer”
I would rather go for a Hammond A-100 ….
The Hammond A100 was hardly a desktop synth, to be fair. Still, it would be nice if they’d discuss the history of the tonewheel a bit more
This doesn’t really have much or any similarity to tonewheel organs, which were based on primitive additive synthesis.
This is an analog subtractive synth with an unusual oscillator design.
The oscillator design is closer to an Optigan, but on an Optigan, the disk captured a longer sample, vs a wavetable.
its optical but also has electromechanical elements via the pickups/inductors, which is something ive not heard of ever before
and in that case i wonder if it can do “starved power” or variable electrical effects with the voltage and/or mechanical pieces… or if its possible for the synths parameters to use those aspects of the oscillators outside their intended “musical” ranges
also .. did you already preorder or what
Innovative and cool.
So many synths, so little money. If I could afford to get this I would back this campaign in an instant!
I don’t know, I love the fact its going in a new direction, but this synth sounds bizarre.
In the demos from Superbooth, everything is on the ‘edgy’, distorted side.
I’d be interested to hear this used in a more subtle manner, to understand better what sort of range it has.
Quite interesting product, with modulation there was some potentially cool sounds, like the portamento. But did not fancy the raw waveforms so much, sounded like a mix between a circle saw and a sewing macine in the overview video part 1 on their youtube channel.
love the comment section