My Impressions of the Gamechanger at Namm

[dmarotta]

At Namm yesterday , I got a personal tour of the Gamechanger by Sterling, then Dudley, and then spoke with Tony Levin and Dave Larue who both have spent a lot of time with it. Here are my impressions.
Obviously the most exciting aspect of the Gamechanger is the ability to unlock the capabilities of these incredible Musicman Basses we all own and love.
Not to downplay our wonderful instruments but we have been using 500 horsepower basses and using maybe 100 horsepower of its capabilities.
Now, for you old school guys that say "I just use two or three sounds" and I'm not a technical guy, here comes the most exciting part to me. The Gamechanger website that will be hosted by Musicman will give us the opportunity to share sounds that we create with the software on the website.
Imagine downloading sounds created by Tony Levin, Dave Larue , Craig Young and everyone else who posts their sounds on the community website onto your bass with the click of a mouse.Each of us will get personal space on the website to create and post our sounds.
The data base that already exits is huge and I found at least 50 sounds that I instantly fell in love with in the 30 minutes I spent with Sterling.
Who knows, maybe Craig or Tony may even download one of your sounds and use it on the next Lady Antebellum or Peter Gabriel record.
( Maybe we should set up a royalty program)Just KIDDING!!
Sterling and his team are continuing to push the envelope and we are fortunate to be the first ones to reap the benefits of their forward thinking.
So... I suggest you all keep an open mind and check out the Gamechanger and the website.

 

[Holdsg]

Happy for you (and jealous at the same time). Thanks for sharing your impressions.

 

[MrMusashi]

you dont have to ask us knuckleheads to be open minded

just the fact that coil 1 first in series with coil 3 doesnt sound like coil 3 first in series with coil 1 is mindblowing!

i bet a lot of peeps in here already have a gc on their todo list
i know i have!!

MrM

 

[drTStingray]

thanks for posting. This all becomes more amazing by the minute i hadnt realised the potential use of the web site as a tone bank. Awesome stuff.

 

[Jim C]

Perhaps I should be more open minded than just being super content with 2 or 3 different tones from my SR; hmmm

 

[Basswave]

I'm not a knob tweaker persay myself.

I was sent a POD pro for a review back in the day and I was like...ok sure there are lot of sound in here...but most of them are not very good or novelty like.

The GC is a completely different animal and that being said I'm actually looking forward to it. I think its one hell of tool for a guy that could benefit to using a number of sounds.

Just a theory on us bassists for a minute.
I think the majority of us have gotten accustomed to finding the 1 or 2 best sounds on out perspective instruments and said 'ok this is what I'm going to use'.

I just wish is was available as a Stingray.

 

[projectapollo]

At Namm yesterday , I got a personal tour of the Gamechanger by Sterling, then Dudley, and then spoke with Tony Levin and Dave Larue who both have spent a lot of time with it.

Jealous, here. Invite Tony to start posting here!!! Like Craig.

 

[drTStingray]

I think the majority of us have gotten accustomed to finding the 1 or 2 best sounds on out perspective instruments

I just wish is was available as a Stingray.

+1 but i can see this being a fantastic tool to get far more out of the instrument so im v positive about it. Btw i can imagine the guitar version being potential guitard nirvana!

 

[projectapollo]

Imagine downloading sounds created by Tony Levin, Dave Larue , Craig Young and everyone else who posts their sounds on the community website onto your bass with the click of a mouse.

The world just keeps getting smaller and smaller. Like a social web site for players. I love it when people come up with uses for the web that were just never thought of before. Game Changing ideas.... This is just way too cool.

 

[Powman]

And here I thought my Big Al was enough of a Game Changer. Guess I will have to start saving my Shekels again for yet another bass...

 

[TheAntMan]

Perhaps I should be more open minded than just being super content with 2 or 3 different tones from my SR; hmmm

Nope. I am always working on various tones for various songs but if you've found the 2 tones that work for your needs, then, no need to change.

In my musical world, I try to shape the tone a lot more. I am a firm believer in having more than I need since I may end up needing more at some point.

The Game Changer is the BOMB as far as I am concerned!

--Ant

 

[TheAntMan]

( Maybe we should set up a royalty program)

Nope. This turns each of our instruments into a contributor to an Open Source type musical community. We share and improve for the betterment of the community. That is a real change in the game!

Awesome!!!

--Ant

 

[dkassenbrock]

Tony even mentioned that if and when Peter records his next album, he will archive Gamechanger settings so that anyone will be able to copy the exact sound from the record. Yet another reason to own one.

 

[dmarotta]

Nope. This turns each of our instruments into a contributor to an Open Source type musical community. We share and improve for the betterment of the community. That is a real change in the game!

Awesome!!!

--Ant

The royalty suggestion was a joke

 

[bovinehost]

Jealous, here. Invite Tony to start posting here!!! Like Craig.

We talked about this a little bit. I think it would be great; Tony has such a rich musical experience and is so articulate about that experience...but he does stay busy.

 

[keko]

Yeah, this GC "thing" is really big surprise on the market, congrats to the EBMM development team, I'd never make such an idea, ...I'm more old school sound engineer, still dreaming about my "electronically controlled magnetic field super pickup" patent , but this GC is step forward!

Great patent!

One more time, congrats to Your engineers BP!

 

[Powman]

Tony even mentioned that if and when Peter records his next album, he will archive Gamechanger settings so that anyone will be able to copy the exact sound from the record. Yet another reason to own one.

Thats very cool, but I do have a bit of a sobering question. Would you also need to have the same amp rig as Tony (or whoever) and amp settings in order to match the tone?

 

[Big Poppa]

actually you would if you wanted to sound like hima nd you would have to have his feel and touch also. But you can go to the Tony Levin bank and scroll over a note icon and get his description of the tone with eq settings. In all profiles both artist and the general public you have the opportunity to leave a short note on the setting. Tony likes it because he does so many sessions that he likes to be reminded when he goes back to the setting.

 

[strummer]

I'd like the Marotta Taxman sound please

 

[Powman]

actually you would if you wanted to sound like hima nd you would have to have his feel and touch also. But you can go to the Tony Levin bank and scroll over a note icon and get his description of the tone with eq settings. In all profiles both artist and the general public you have the opportunity to leave a short note on the setting. Tony likes it because he does so many sessions that he likes to be reminded when he goes back to the setting.

Thanks BP for the reply. Its still an absolutely brilliant idea. Luckily for us bass players, much more of our tone comes from the instrument (and playing technique) and a bit less from our amps. Bass amps are much more high fidelity than guitar amps, more faithful to the original signal. Therefore, having a bass that can quickly call up a setting is awesome.