I’ve never had a hardware overdrive.
Is it worth buying one in 2024?
Or is good software indistinguishable at this point?
I’d say software is good enough these days. Depends on your setup and what you’re trying to do.
Ableton’s drive effects and Arturia’s Coldfire should be able to cover a LOT of ground.
Analog does have a certain magic to it but it depends if you really value that last 1% of magic (enough to offset the inconvenience of a hardware pedal).
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I’m a pretty big proponent of analog OD but you also have to be practical, like if you want to send a stereo signal in and get a stereo signal out then you need a pedal or OD unit that will accommodate you. A lot of commercially available (and reasonably priced) analog overdrive/distortion pedals have a mono signal path.
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I like ableton amp distortion enough to not buy an external overdrive.
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I use both but prefer analog drive when recording hardware. It’s not really worth routing out of the box and back in for me though so I process software synths itb.
Having good analog saturation has made my life a lot easier when it comes to getting my drums sounding how I want. There are also so many options that you can really make your own sound just by how you curate your pedals.
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I’ve picked up some fantastic ODrive pedals lately, 29 pedals FLWR for guitar and a Dark Glass alpha Omega for bass and synth. Definitely adds a ton of character. They are pedals too so way faster to dial something in quickly rather than having to mouse about. Print it to the track and move on with life! 
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It depends on what you’re putting into it…
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Just imagine asking this same question on a guitar forum… 
Anyway, from a guitar perspective I’d say: Yes, OD pedals all the way and you can’t have enough of 'em.
But as others have said: For synths/drum machines and specifically stereo signal paths, digital daw/plugin OD does the job well enough. I still swear by NI’s Driver and Live’s Roar is pretty amazing as well.
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Aren’t a lot of the pedals just software in a pedal though?
I meant like a proper decent hardware tube overdrive.
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Certainly not. There’s a lot more to analog overdrive than just tubes… I’m not an electronics engineer by any means but capacitors, resistors diodes, opamps, transistors etc. do exist 
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You aren’t wrong, many modern pedals, particularly reverb and delay, are just software at your feet. That’s one reason you’ll often see a delay pedal referred to as “BBD” for bucket brigade device when it’s got an analog signal path due to the type of integrated circuit used inside. That is just one type of analog delay though, and many modern digital delays are more like a computer processor running software than old school digital delay based on a circuit, so there are multiple unique types.
Very few pedals use a tube pre-amp section, although there are some for sure. I used to have a Matchless Hotbox pedal which was crazy heavy and got so hot you wouldn’t believe it, and it did indeed have a tube pre-amp with probably a single 12AX7 tube.
Most overdrive pedals with an analog design are a combination of circuit board components like oxenholme calls out
These are the fundamental components of most analog OD pedals, so while you can find some with tubes and that’s a unique type of overdrive in itself since tubes have a different harmonic spectrum (I think it’s called high order harmonics, where the overdrive shows smooth, even, stepped exponential growth when graphed). Basically, it’s believed to be the reason for the smooth creamy character of tube overdrive, but not everyone is looking for that.
Look at something like a big muff or the similar rat pedal, they have a really nasty sizzling fizzy overdrive (technically “fuzz”) sound, characterized by a tone knob that is a low pass filter on one side and a high pass filter on the other. Some pedals like the ibanez tube screamer are analog but the name is a bit misleading as it refers to making your tubes (in your amp) scream, as opposed to having tubes in the pedal.
I got my first guitar in the early 90’s and I’ve been enamored with overdrive since probably before then, it’s a pretty deep topic but with all that said, people are right that for most applications software is just easier for them. I’m not super into software and I get nostalgic about hardware so I appreciate it for what it is, as a unique sonic component.
At the end of the day, like most of this other crap, it really comes down to how much money you have to spend on it. I don’t have the kind of wealth to have an incredible set up so I really try to make the money I spend on hardware count. My ears are also very particular to what they hear and a lot of times in a mix, you stop hearing what you originally disliked… BUT, I figure if you have (abstractly) 10 sound components, and 5 of them have something which you need in a mix to not hear what you dislike, think about how much better that mix would sound if you liked all of them on their own and then make them sit well together. Surely that can’t be a bad thing?
Anyway, just my 9 dollars and some change worth of opinion on the subject 
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Some are, many are not.
Whether or not they are worth the price in some cases is a different question. I have a few (Sunn O))), BD2w, HM2w, some walrus pedals). You can absolutely find hardware (that is, real clipping) pedals but that world gets crazy boutique fast because that stuff sells.
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fuck yeah it does, those isle of tone pedals are going for like 1500 to 6000 USD depending on the edition and who’s selling it. boutique pedal market is huge, and the enclosures just keep getting (physically) bigger! lol
On top of that they’re hard to get, so they immediately increase in value and you don’t always see the same ones for sale because the number out there isn’t very great in comparison to normal pedals.
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Don’t overlook preamp pedals for some saturation and coloring. DOD preamp 250 and the new Boss Waza Preamp are two that I love to thicken and warm up digital synths. As well as organ and EP sounds. Also, the Metal Zone is extremely versatile due to it extremely tunable EQ. Also, the Warm Saturation on the SP-404 MK2 is delightful.
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HM2 has been used by many a synth player. Highly recommend. The EH Hell Melter is a rad take on the HM2 that doesn’t go for boutique prices.
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JFC, that’s fucking nuts.
(I mean, a $400 RAT clone is nuts, too, and I have one of those…)
Also, three or four of those pedals would almost buy you a house in Guthrie, OK.
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Or half of a moog one.
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Thanks.
The box I was looking at is the Singular Audio Tubedrve
It uses 4 tubes running at 240volts.
Here is someone using it in some kicks…
What I like about it in that video is that lovely airy distortion/break up. It isn’t harsh or buzzy at all (I want to avoid anything like that). It’s like a gentle beautiful disintegration than a buzz/noise.
Reminds me of the tones that Empty Set make, which is the sort of thing I want to use it for…
It is £700 for the unit and I don’t have any API500 stuff so I’d have to get a 2U enclosure too which is another £250!
That’s quite expensive for my budget, but I haven’t heard anything else with that kind of sound in software or hardware.
Is there anything else cheaper that can give that sound, in software or in a pedal format that doesn’t require API500 case etc?
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That does look like a pretty awesome module but I would note that the guy in the video is using 2 of them along with an envelope module afterwords to tighten up the sound. If you wanted some guarantee that you’d achieve similar results, then in addition to the thousand you’re already aware of, you’d probably be adding another 800-900 on top of it to get to that point.
I’m sure a single one by itself still sounds great though. As far as tube overdrive pedals I can’t think of one with a stereo signal path but I’ll have to to take a look and see what I can track down. I think that to be perfectly honest, your money might be better spent on an analog heat mkII which has quite a few overdrive settings between clean boost, saturation and overdrive. It’s also a desktop multimode filter with LFOs, can also be sequenced and controlled by midi. While it’s not tube, the distortion signal path is fully analog, and most of all it’s self contained, easy to combine with other gear, and has usb audio interface capability which expands your options of what you send to it and how it’s processed.
Just being able to process audio through it from your other gear via computer without 1/4 inch cables (if you wanted to do that) should probably be useful, and it saves you from. That expensive dip into modular if you aren’t currently prepared for that. Anyways, might be worth taking a second look because a used analog heat mkII would definitely be less expensive (although not inexpensive, just less expensive).
Later, I’ll take a look for something pedal based with tubes and stereo channels and see what I can come up with.
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Thanks. I think it is a 2u 2 channel stereo unit. I’d just use it as standalone and do the rest in software.
Good suggestion on the Heat. Can it get similar tones? Is it any better than the OD built into other Elektron boxes? I’ll look into it.