MOTOR SYNTH

SPIKE the Percussionist · Post by **SPIKE the Percussionist** » Thu May 09, 2019 4:18 pm

this falls into weird interest category!

https://www.gamechangeraudio.com/motor-synth/

[video][/video]

Dave Peck · Post by **Dave Peck** » Thu May 09, 2019 7:28 pm

It's all fun and games until some hipster gets his beard caught in the thing.

onthebandwagon · Post by **onthebandwagon** » Thu May 09, 2019 7:33 pm

not sure what that guy is on but I think he needs a xanex and I might need one after watching that video

commodorejohn · Post by **commodorejohn** » Thu May 09, 2019 8:39 pm

"Nothing like this has ever been built before?"

Laurens Hammond might like a word with them...

Rex Coil 7 · Post by **Rex Coil 7** » Thu May 09, 2019 8:47 pm

commodorejohn wrote:"Nothing like this has ever been built before?"

Laurens Hammond might like a word with them...

That's no joke! And I wonder if this motor thing will last over 65 years like the 1952 Hammond M3 that belongs to my wife. Or for that matter her 1955 M3, or my 1962 C3.

I spent less than $30 bucks on repairs of my '62 C3 (pre-amp power caps).

starthief · Post by **starthief** » Fri May 10, 2019 6:54 am

Weighs a lot less than a Hammond though

JohnLRice · Post by **JohnLRice** » Fri May 10, 2019 7:24 am

Dave Peck wrote:It's all fun and games until some hipster gets his beard caught in the thing.

Blingley · Post by **Blingley** » Fri May 10, 2019 8:32 am

This looks like a streamlined version of the motor piano they showed at NAMM (Thread)

[video][/video]

I still very much want one, only now it looks like it might be affordable.

crowleywaltz · Post by **crowleywaltz** » Fri May 10, 2019 9:15 am

It looks cool/weird but listening to that little demo I'm not hearing much that couldn't be done with any other synth, although it does seem to have a mild fuzzy overdrive thing going on. Curious what the 'accelerate' knobs do

Blingley · Post by **Blingley** » Fri May 10, 2019 9:18 am

crowleywaltz wrote:It looks cool/weird but listening to that little demo I'm not hearing much that couldn't be done with any other synth, although it does seem to have a mild fuzzy overdrive thing going on. Curious what the 'accelerate' knobs do

Essentially slew/portamento as far as I understand - it controls how fast the motors accelerate, I.E how fast they go up to a given pitch.

calaveras · Post by **calaveras** » Fri May 10, 2019 9:32 am

so it's a Hammond B3?

starthief · Post by **starthief** » Fri May 10, 2019 10:20 am

[video][/video]

1200 euros apparently. For me it's gone from object of moderate curiosity to hard pass.

crowleywaltz · Post by **crowleywaltz** » Fri May 10, 2019 10:26 am

starthief wrote:
1200 euros apparently. For me it's gone from object of moderate curiosity to hard pass.

Oh wow I was expecting half that. The motors do sound pretty cool now that I can actually hear them but that price....

Blingley · Post by **Blingley** » Fri May 10, 2019 2:34 pm

calaveras wrote:so it's a Hammond B3?

Hammonds work with a motor that goes at "fixed" speed spinning a bar that has a number of tonewheels. The sounds are then generated by mixing different tonewheels together, like you would pipes on an organ. Essentially the different tonewheels are multiples of the base frequency of the motor.

This works by having individual motors that accelerate/decelerate, with just a few "tonewheels" each - one for each octave. This allows for things like detuning two motors slightly for beating/"thickness", other non-fixed ratios, and gliding pitch. In addition, optical disks that reflect infrared light are not exactly tonewheels.

Moerdertheke · Post by **Moerdertheke** » Sat May 11, 2019 10:48 am

I hope they still realise the original pedal idea that you can see in the NAMM video. Kind of makes me think of optical tremolos with fixed discs etc. Also wondering how long these discs will ultimately last / what you have to do to keep them running over time.

calaveras · Post by **calaveras** » Sat May 11, 2019 11:50 am

Blingley wrote:
calaveras wrote:so it's a Hammond B3?
Hammonds work with a motor that goes at "fixed" speed spinning a bar that has a number of tonewheels. The sounds are then generated by mixing different tonewheels together, like you would pipes on an organ. Essentially the different tonewheels are multiples of the base frequency of the motor.

This works by having individual motors that accelerate/decelerate, with just a few "tonewheels" each - one for each octave. This allows for things like detuning two motors slightly for beating/"thickness", other non-fixed ratios, and gliding pitch. In addition, optical disks that reflect infrared light are not exactly tonewheels.

Yeah I know how tonewheels work. I actually found an off brand tonewheel organ in pieces down the street a few months ago. Had all the bits except the keys. Had to give myself a stern talking to about not taking more junk home to tinker with.

The cool thing about the Hammond design is that it's basically like a guitar pickup. The tonewheel has little ridges that vary as they pass through the pickup's field.

You could in theory make a tonewheel organ that is entirely passive, with the wheels spun by foot or coal fired steam whatever.

This product is pretty neat, but yeah the price is a bit above my interest level.

MARK27 · Post by **MARK27** » Thu Jun 27, 2019 12:50 pm

I finally broke down and joined the indiegogo. The Motorsynth is just so unique and speaks to me in a way that very few things do.

I'm just paranoid as my one other experience with crowdfunding turned out to be a rip-off. I promised myself I would never do it again.

But Gamechanger has a proven track record releasing the products they said they would. And hundreds of others have also taken the risk with this investment.

The risk here is relatively small, right?

Synth Con Meo · Post by **Synth Con Meo** » Fri Jun 28, 2019 1:29 pm

Well stupid or not I also jumped on the band wagon with only an hour or so to go on the Indiegogo campaign. I am just so intrigued about the whole mechanical technology of the thing which is why I am interested in it. Might go well running along side my Lyra-8 (and maybe Pulsar 23 if I buy one of those).

kumarsan · Post by **kumarsan** » Mon Aug 19, 2019 4:57 am

Wow this is cool!! I have heard it 1st time.

muddy ranks · Post by **muddy ranks** » Fri Nov 01, 2019 6:51 am

I was curious if there's been any news since the end of the campaign. Happy to see that, sure enough, there were two updates detailing further design and production progress. Looks like they've been busy! (from the Indigogo site)

Gamechanger Audio wrote: MOTOR SYNTH UPDATED VERSION
(Sep 3, 2019)
Hey, Folks!

Thank you for your patience, hope you’ve had a great summer!

Our summer here at GCA has been extremely productive - we’ve spent this time developing the MOTOR Synth’s various aspects. Here are some of the biggest improvements :

1) Hardware:

Improvements to the MOTOR Synth’s casing.
Improved Optical disks with higher resolution for the Optical waveshapes.
Re-engineered the MOTOR drivers and improved power-supply system to ensure maximum torque, and stability at even extremely slow speeds.
Redesigned CV input panel - now moved to the MOTOR Synth’s back panel;
the CVs are now going to be assignable, thus you will be able to customize the MOTOR Synth to your exact needs.
Headphone out jack added

2) Interface & Functionality

Overhauled Sequencer module with expanded playback and recording options
KEYTRACK added for the Filter section
Expanded modulation section - phase control for each voice, added modulation shapes (with waveshaping control), extra filter modulation modes
Improved Filter Drive circuit
Additional instrument play modes - Chord mode, Split mode, 8-note poly mode, Vocoder mode
Standalone LATCH button that works in all play modes

The first few Improved MOTOR SYNTH Prototypes will be ready by the end of September, and we will post new materials showcasing all the new features as soon as possible.

In terms of manufacturing -

We’ve already started some of the big parts orders, such as Motors, knobs, displays, buttons, and we hope to have the first small batch of MOTOR Synth shipped in December.

Gamechanger Audio wrote: MOTOR SYNTH UPDATED VERSION
(Oct 14, 2019)
Hey, Folks!

As usual, the Autumn months have proven to be a wonderful and productive time of the year!

In the last 6 weeks we have succesfully solved almost all of the Hardware-related issues, and have successfuly placed orders for custom made Motors, Keycaps, Knobs, fully redesigned Optical disks and many other crucial elements - we are very pleased with the sourced parts and we're happy to say that MOTOR Synth is going to be a Beautiful and Sturdy machine.

As mentioned in the previous update, we did a partial redesign of the MOTOR Synth's knob and button layout - mostly to ensure expanded functionality and to support more playing modes.

The updated prototypes are going to be ready very soon, and we will be posting the new photos and videos here and on our socials by the end of October, so keep an eye out for more updates soon!

We are still on track to start shipping the first MOTOR Synths in the end of December, and hopefully by the end of March all MOTOR Synth pre-orders will be shipped.

Thank you for your patience, and for your support - we are still very hyped about this crazy MOTORIZED musical instrument, and literally can't wait to hear the music that YOU will create!

Best Regards.

3hands · Post by **3hands** » Fri Nov 01, 2019 4:18 pm

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telharmonium

Thaddeus Cahill is giggling somewhere.

Blingley · Post by **Blingley** » Sat Nov 02, 2019 10:48 am

3hands wrote:https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telharmonium

Thaddeus Cahill is giggling somewhere.

Cahill is giggling somewhere every time a synthesizer is mentioned, being the originator of the term. That being said, the functional principle of Telharmonium is rather different from the motor synth: rather than having a lot of differently toothed wheels on a single bar with a fixed speed and then combining these tones like Cahill (and later Hammond organs) did, the idea here is to have a motor that speeds up and down.

The concept of having a toothed device that is then somehow read as audio goes well beyond Cahill though. Music boxes, for instance, and even before them Ratchets.

commodorejohn · Post by **commodorejohn** » Sat Nov 02, 2019 1:21 pm

A music box doesn't encode audio data in mechanical form, though; it encodes music notation that way. It's more like a primitive sequencer.

Blingley · Post by **Blingley** » Sat Nov 02, 2019 2:30 pm

commodorejohn wrote:A music box doesn't encode audio data in mechanical form, though; it encodes music notation that way. It's more like a primitive sequencer.

The basic principle is the same for any kind of data, and any kind of data read at correct rate will be in audio range. A lot of tonewheel organs, or ratchets, don't as much have audio data as any kind of repeated deformation, from which pitch is derived based on the turning speed. Pitch and tempo are not all that different, really.

Music boxes frequently contain a ratchet lever that is used to turn the cylinder, so from an engineering standpoint it's like Ratchet+

Either way, I suppose the Savart Wheel is the closest analogy.

commodorejohn · Post by **commodorejohn** » Sat Nov 02, 2019 3:01 pm

No, it's still a fundamentally different design. The one encodes audio data directly in the variations of the physical object; the other encodes control sequences which are applied to a different object which actually produces the audio.

MUFF WIGGLER

MUFF WIGGLER

MOTOR SYNTH

MOTOR SYNTH

motor synth