Elektron’s Analog Drive: Hot, slick and pricey

Elektron Analog Drive pedal  ·  Source: https://www.elektron.se/products/analog-drive/

Elektron Analog Drive pedal with plenty of control via MIDI and CV  ·  Source: https://www.elektron.se/products/analog-drive/

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Elektron’s new Analog Drive pedal comes hot on the heels of their Analog Heat unit, which was announced only recently. The Swedish company certainly know how to come up with some slick marketing, but will the steep price tag put off potential buyers?

Hot stuff

It would appear that Elektron is chasing the ultimate distorted tone this year. After the Analog Heat distortion effect, now we have an analogue distortion pedal, with this stomp box aimed at both guitarists and synth players. Elektron have aimed to let you use this on your mono synth or your Stratocaster.

It contains eight different analogue distortion circuits: Clean Boost, Mid Drive, Dirty Drive, Big Dist, Focussed Dist, Harmonic Fuzz, High Gain and Thick Gain. They can all be tweaked via the onboard three-band EQ. There is even a sweepable frequency on the mid band of the EQ, which might come in very handy when sculpting your own tones.

MIDI and CV

The Analog Drive features MIDI in and out for more control, and can als0 send MIDI program changes itself. The pedal features a high impedance input (for synths) and has two inputs for an expression pedal, and even supports CV. Cool.

You also get 100 user banks to save your presets. With all that control and eight distortion sounds to choose from, this will probably cover a lot of bases.

Elektron Analog Drive pedal with plenty of control via MIDI and CV

And it should do. Because the only problem here might be the price: the Analog Drive weighs in at a hefty £349, which isn’t exactly cheap for a drive pedal. I think that the sound will be what sells this pedal. Try out the neat little interactive demo of on the Elektron website for an idea of what to expect.

I use overdrive pedals on my guitars, synths and drum machines all the time. But I wouldn’t pay this amount for a dirt box without trying it out in the real world first.

RRP GBP £349 available now

Full specifications and interactive demo available here

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