yeah the TB thing will be a turn off
UNLESS
it has a buffer that does pleasant stuff to the signal when bypassed.
but yeah, there are already a bazillion great drive pedals out there.
Waiting for Elektron’s elektrik guitar
I’d be all over a guitar with a p-lockable fretboard, myself.
wonder would it work well on roland tb 03 or avalon bassline?
Don’t see why not? No different from other distortions really, just more of em in one box…
Plenty of expensive boutique pedals that are around $150 for one analog distortion sound. To be seen (or heard rather) whether or not the sounds that come out of this pedal are guitar-friendly but I’d consider buying it.
Haven’t been following mono guitar drive pedals in over 20 years but I could imagine there are a million alternatives to this in the wild?
The Heat being stereo with a few bells and whistles is at least rather unique.
Hopefully this thing has a place out there? Rock on I guess
I wondered if they might offer something like this: a simplified version of the Heat in a pedal form. I might bite. The world needs more original distortion circuits for guitar. We don’t need any more clones or variations of big muffs, fuzz faces and the like.
According to the specs it has a high impedance guitar input only. No switch for line level unfortunately. Every guitar overdrive/distortion pedal that I ever tried was completely worthless on synths. I wish this one would cover both territories but I doubt it.
Why they didn’t call it the “Little Heat” is beyond me.
…i don’t like that. looks cheap.
they would be the coolest brand if they had decided to put a midi/footcontroller/switch inside the Analog Heat box.
like EHX does with the 45000 looper.
I love that they’re giving us options though. I’m glad that the AH is a tabletop unit and this is a guitar/(bass?) pedal. I really liked spacetravelmadeeasy’s mockup, but I’d never buy a stompbox that had buttons like that and a screen that big. I’d be afraid of damaging it with my stomps. Proper tabletop for that use, proper stompbox for stomping.
Here’s my off the cuff response (I’ve read about half the above thread but not all of it):
Synth players are generally infatuated with vintage gear or gear that emulates vintage gear (thus the Roland Boutique series; the Moog mystique commanding higher prices, the Korg Arp sub-brand, etc…).
Guitar players are like this times five. Everything is about emulating vintage amps, or even, these days, vintage pedals (all the various mini Fuzz Faces comes to mind… heck I own two of them!).
This is where this interesting unit may have a hard time finding an audience with guitar players – the first impression (which is admittedly all I have at this point) is of generic distortion types, whereas most of the distortion boxes that entice are playing on my fetish for authentic historical amp emulations. E.g, the Bogner La Grange, which is not far removed in price from the new Elektron pedal ($250ish), emulates in great detail an overdriven Marshall amp, down to the nuance of a “browned out” amp running on lower-than-expected electrical voltage (this technique was made famous by Eddie Van Halen). While it doesn’t have 8 flavors of distortion, it actually provides far more sounds than that if you do that math on all the various switches and settings on that particular stomp box.
This isn’t to say that the Analog Drive isn’t as good or better – it’s just selling itself in a manner to guitarists that is blind to the sub-culture of guitar-distortion aficionados. I saw someone earlier in the thread ask, “So, do they have a guitar player on staff now?” and I think the answer is probably “no”.
EDIT: the best thing the Analog Drive has going for it are the 100 user presets… I personally have never seen an analog distortion pedal with presets, so this could be a great selling point for gigging musicians who want a bunch of specific sounds at the ready. I haven’t ever thought of distortion in that way – presets – so it’s a bit of a paradigm shift that I’m not sure works for me.
If you look in the manual or the online examples, several of the distortion types in the Analog Drive are mentioned as mimicking vintage equipment. “famous green pedal” etc.
from a marketing perspective they need to be a little more explicit – the names of the distortions are like a parody of bad guitar marketing – why not call it “Green” distortion instead of “Mid Drive” (just guessing)?
Just names, doesn’t really matter right? I was pretty hyped on this yesterday. Presets and 8 stomps in one box. Less so today tho. Like a few others have mentioned, it’s basically just another distortion box. Which is cool but I’m OK with what I have for now. I’d def consider this if I was genuinely in the market for a distortion pedal tho and not being motivated primarily by GAS. Obvs depending on how it sounds/reviews. Hearing thaf it doesn’t take synth level input is a shame tho…
You should try the Minifoogers. The MF Drive is beauty and anger in one tweakable package.