Analog Heat vs Analog Drive. Main difference

Hi!

I’m about to buy the Analog Heat or the Analog Drive.
What are the main differences between them? Is it worth the money to get the Heat instead of the Drive?

Stereo vs Mono
Filter vs no filter
LFO etc vs no LFO etc

I think there are some differences in the distortion circuits and EQs too IIRC and probably other stuff…

Heat seems worth the extra $ for creative flexibility etc.

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Heat also has(or will have) overbridge while Drive does not, so you’re missing a whole ITB angle for that sound.

I didn’t know about the mono aspect of the Drive…ugh

Also it’s missing the wet/dry possibility. Definitely worth the extra money if you like that sound.

Ok. Thanks for the info :slight_smile:

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Yupp, unless you specifically need guitar pedal impedance, there is very little point in not getting the heat instead of the drive. The drive lacks alot of the goodies of the heat IMO.

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My preference would be to buy the Heat, because I use Analog Heat and Rytm, but am primarily a guitar player. I was wondering if the circuits are the same on the Drive as far as distortion. I would prefer the Heat if it provides the same overdrive sounds for guitar.

I believe they should be identical, just the drive is more the essence of the sound. The heat is the Elektron-ified version of it(you know, those special little additions that elektron provides)

FWIW, I can confirm that the heat sounds amazing between a guitar and an amp. Would make for an expensive (and fragile!) dirt solution on a guitar pedal board…but it would be amazing! Especially with a midi foot controller.

Is there enough input gain in the Heat to use it with a guitar or would I need a preamp boost first?

I only tried one time and that was with my jazzmaster which has fairly hot pickups. But yes, with the input sensitivity turned up a bit, plenty of gain. I was surprised!

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The drive names are different on the 2, although I have no idea if they are actually different circuits or just named different. If you want one for guitar then save the money and get the drive imo. Then get the heat for your synths :wink:

Think I want to buy only one, and then save the remainder for the Digitakt :wink:. Actuall I just bought the Heat, so we will see how it performs with guitar. I might put my EP-Boost in front of it, as well as try it without at normal gain. We will see. Looks much more approachable than the Rytm or Four/Keys. Think overbridge will be important with this one over time…

The analog drive is a bit expensive IMO if you compare what you get with a heat. Not only you get two channels, but you get a USB interface, balanced i/o etc

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go for the heat

you can always treat yourself to a footswitch a bit later on

Hey everyone,

I was kind of exited about the analogue heat but it’s pretty expensive… And as a musician, I don’t earn that much with music :’(

Anyway, I wanted to know if the analogue drive is a kind of cheapear version of the heat work more for "guitare"and not gonna sound as good as the heat with synth and drum machine. ???

Thanks in advance.

Cacique

You’re going to want the Heat over the drive, most likely. All the Elektron magic is Heat-exclusive. The dry/wet, the filter, lfo, OB(if you’re into that), envelopes. Also the Drive isn’t Stereo.

I’m excited about the Heat, too

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Heat’s on my ‘to get’ list. Drive looks OK but it’s a lot more focused on guitar (mono vs stereo for instance) and misses a lot of the fun/hands on/weirdness of the heat functionality (filter, envelope follower, lfo etc). The distortion circuits are different too if I’ve understood correctly. I’d save and grab the Heat if possible…

Main differences:

Heat is stereo, Drive mono
Heat has wet/dry control, Drive doesn’t
Heat has multimode filter, LFO and deep modulation possibilities
Heat has Overbridge
Not sure if the distortion circuits are different or the same with different names

If you just want a killer distortion pedal for guitar, Drive looks great

For me, it was worth the extra for the Heat - I think the Heat is a much better option for drum machines, synths and shaping whole stereo mixes - in other words, worth waiting and saving up for - I can already see that I’ll never sell mine

Hope that’s useful

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Analog Drive as a MID EQ and a knob to select MID frequency.
In this regard, for guitar use only, it offers more as is (supposing you already have a wah)

Wet/Dry knob is mandatory for bass guitar ⇒ Heat !

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