Gamechanger Audio Light

The Gamechanger Audio Light is a spring reverb pedal built around a real spring tank, but with a twist: instead of only picking up the springs with the usual electromagnetic transducer, it also reads them with multiple sets of infrared optical sensors aimed at different points along the springs. Gamechanger Audio calls it the world's first analog optical spring reverb system¹. The result, in the maker's words, is "a wide variety of reverb sounds ranging from classic to experimental to pure magic"¹.

The idea came from Teodors Kerimovs, the head development engineer of the Light Pedal and the inventor of the optical reverb system². The claim behind the design is that traditional spring reverbs lose much of the audio signal's harmonic nuance when converting audio into mechanical energy, while the Light's optical pairs capture a considerably wider range of frequencies, harmonics, overtones and textures³. The pedal was first shown at NAMM 2020, where MusicRadar named it a winner in the innovation category⁴, and it went on sale in March 2021⁴⁵.

A real spring tank read by infrared sensors

Inside the Light Pedal is a traditional spring reverb tank: an input transducer (the spring exciter), the springs themselves, and an output transducer (the pickup). What makes it different is the multiple sets of infrared optical sensors that act as photoelectric pickups directed at different points on the spring¹. Guitar.com described the arrangement as infra-red optical sensors placed at intervals along the springs that measure and record the frequencies of the reverb tank, resulting in a greater amount of harmonics and overtones in the signal¹⁰.

The tank is a three-spring type, 100 mm long¹, and the springs sit in the open, visible through a viewing window on top of the enclosure. Guitar.com's reverb buying guide noted the "real springs, proudly on show through a viewing window on the top of the pedal enclosure"¹¹. The open-spring tank design was carried through to the final production version, as Guitar World reported at release⁷.

The optical sensors also open doors to effects that are new to spring reverbs, such as tremolo, modulation, feedback and added harmonics¹. Delicious Audio's spring reverb buying guide listed these as Optical Reverb Tremolo, Optical Reverb Modulation and Optical Harmonic Shimmer, calling the Light the first "analog optical spring reverb"¹².

The controls

The front panel is built around a 6-way effect selector knob and a handful of knobs with primary and secondary functions¹.

The six effect modes work like this¹:

• optics lets you choose a specific combination of optical sensors, each with a slightly different texture and timbral quality. There is also an optics calibration mode in which the CTRL knob scrolls between different combinations of optical sensor pairs².
• sweep is a modulation mode that rhythmically scrolls back and forth through the different optical sensor pairs.
• trem is a tremolo effect produced by rhythmically switching the optical sensors on and off; it can be applied to the spring output together with the optical signal or separately.
• reflect is a lo-fi delay that sends the instrument's signal back into the reverb tank several times; long delay times can create powerful, lengthy reverb decays.
• feedback sets the spring tank into self-oscillation, letting you produce drones and wall-of-sound-type pads.
• harmonic adds harmonics to the signal.

The first three effects (optics, sweep, trem) can be stacked with one of the remaining three effects¹. The pedal also has an assignable expression pedal input⁷ that accepts 1/4" TS and TRS jacks, works with all expression pedal types, and also accepts a CV signal with an active range to 3.3 V¹.

Analog or digital, mono or stereo

Gamechanger Audio describes the Light Pedal as a true analog mono reverb system², but the full picture is more specific: it is an analog device that uses digital signal processing on a few effect modes, namely the reflect, feedback and harmonic modes⁶. The core spring sound and the optical reading of the springs stay analog.

It is a mono pedal with a 1/4" jack input and output¹. Input impedance is 1 MΩ with a maximum input level of +6.8 dBu, and output impedance is 100 Ω with a maximum output level of +6.8 dBu¹. The pedal was designed with guitar, bass and synth players in mind, operating across the full EQ spectrum⁶.

Can you stomp on the spring tank?

The open springs invite the classic spring-reverb trick of kicking the tank for a crash, and the pedal is built with that in mind. MusicRadar reported at NAMM 2020 that users can "put the sensor switch to 'Hard' and stomp it all day long with no harmful consequences"³.

Where it came from

The Light Pedal was first talked about at NAMM 2020, where it won MusicRadar's innovation award⁴ and appeared in Guitar.com's roundup of the best effects pedals of the show⁴⁵. At that point the plan was a launch in autumn of 2020¹³, but development took an extra year¹³. The final production version arrived in March 2021, priced at £319/$349⁸, with the first batch of one thousand units distributed to the backers who supported the preorder campaign¹⁴. Gearnews noted it could be ordered directly from the Gamechanger Audio site⁵. The pedal is made in Latvia, as Guitar.com's review records¹⁵.

What reviewers said

The LIGHT Pedal has been described as a multi-mode spring reverb pedal made in Latvia¹⁵. A published review listed "genius concept, great range of immersive sounds" among its pros¹². The pedal was first talked about at NAMM 2020, a year before it went on sale⁵¹⁴, with the first batch of one thousand units distributed to preorder backers⁵¹⁴.

MusicRadar's Alex Lynham took a more measured view:

That split, between reviewers who prize its new sounds and those who find it specialized, is the honest summary of where the Light Pedal sits: a real spring tank with an optical reading system that no other pedal replicates, at the cost of a 500 mA power demand and a sound that leans experimental⁹¹²¹.

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