Gamechanger Audio has announced that their Light Pedal Optical Spring Reverb is now available.
The Light Pedal uses an optical spring reverb system that they say opens doors to some new analog effects, like optical reverb tremolo, optical reverb modulation, feedback and optical harmonic shimmer.
According to the company, the Light Pedal is the first analog optical spring reverb system that uses infra-red optical sensors. It uses sensitive optical sensors directed at different points of the spring. The optical sensors detect very subtle movements on the spring’s surface, as sound-waves travel through it.
They say that this method picks up a much wider range of frequencies, overtones and textures that are otherwise lost in the mechanical reverberation process. The optical sensors also open the door to effects that are new to spring reverbs, such as tremolo, modulation, feedback and added harmonics.
Here’s an interview with engineer Teodors Kerimovs, who talks in detail about the development process of the Light Pedal:
Pricing and Availability
The Light Pedal is available now for $349 USD.
Interesting take on reverb, and love that they used Eddie Hazel’s Maggot Brain for their demo. 🙂
Always make obstipation faces when playing guitar. ^^
Interesting concepts and about the worst name for an audio equipment maker.
I have a feeling the company name is something lost in translation so to speak. E.g. what sounds cliche to us natives may sound innovative to someone who has not been raised speaking English. They seem to have the engineering chops and at least are pushing the boundaries, so maybe it is deserved. I think this pedal with a 901 oscillator and some filtering could sound amazing. They may finally get my money on this one. The 2kV plasma pedal always scared me.
Their engineering prowess is not in question, and this will sound terrible, yet having worked with Eastern Europeans, Hungarian and Latvian Engineers, (Gamechanger is a Latvian outfit) the ‘machismo’ mentality is a cultural norm thus I am not entirely surprised by the name. That said, generally, their command of the English language is strong with a good understanding of colloquial idioms.
Well with a name like Gamechanger you can’t exactly release anything run of the mill. Machismo or trite maybe, but it probably serves an internal purpose as well for their products to always include some degree of innovation, which seems to be the case.