Xotic Soul Driven Overdrive Pedal Reviews

Sure, you can use this pedal gently to introduce a nice creamy tube sound and clean boost to your rig. But this beauty really wants you to take it for a hard drive down downright nasty Over Dr. From a bluesy snarl to a full out metal distortion, this pedal does it in spades, with tone by the bucketload!

I can't say enough good about Sweetwater. On to the pedal. Although advertised as a 'low-gain' pedal, my ears might disagree with that assessment(HA). No, seriously; this pedal has more than enough gain. Even at 9 o'clock on the gain knob through a Michael Landau DeVille(another Sweetwater purchase), this pedal is cranking. And the Landau can get really loud and clean. The headroom on the Soul Driven is bigger, wider, than your typical 'TS' OD. The tone knob is very useable, not too spiky, even at the end of its range. The midrange control is the function that really sets this pedal apart from a lot of other pedals. Once again, very useable, no matter where you set it.
I've found that XOTIC pedals in general, are very refined and subtle, so they take a little more time to dial them in.
But the sound!!!
Listen to Allen Hinds' reviews of the Soul Driven.
Thank you to Sweetwater and XOTIC.

First off, shoutout to Andrew from Sweetwater for turning me onto this pedal. I've been tirelessly searching for an overdrive pedal and a quick call to Andrew saved the day.

Now, as for the pedal... So far it is exactly what I was after. The tone is fantastic with a great range of gain. You can turn up the gain without it feeling muddy and turn it down without feeling weak. The tone knob and mid boost knob are actually incredibly useful and provide great tone shaping options. Everything at noon is already perfect too. I could go on and on but I won't bore you. Highly highly recommend overall.

ONE IMPORTANT NOTE:

I was afraid at first because it was noisy, and I mean LOUD noisy. By chance I realized this pedal came with a battery inside and the battery plus my power supply was creating the issue. Removed the battery and it works like a charm. Just in case anyone else has that same issue.

Absolutely love the tone this adds to my amp.Really defines the notes and adds a great sound to my leads.Best od for me to date and ive been playing 30 years in the style of YJM /Joe Stump.Will buy more from this manufacturer.

This is one of the best transparent over drives, the built is of very high quality, looks beautiful, creamy fat tone, i connected it to 18V and it gives a noticeable increase in head room.
If you are looking for an overdrive for blues, rock or hard rock, then this is your best choice

I have an obsession with drive pedals. Of the recent pedals I have been using, the mxr customs shop Timmy, the sugar drive and the tumnus and this is by far the best. I love that this pedal has a knob for adjusting the mids along with a tone knob. I use this a lot with a fender blues jr With a red white and blues speaker (another great Sweetwater purchase) But it feels like it is lacking in the mids sometimes. This allows me to fill that gap. On top of that this puppy goes from edge of break up to full on growl.

After putting this to the test during a rehearsal, I ended up choosing this pedal over both the Boss BD-2 and the BD-2w pedals. It just has a more airy/open sound and responds well to pick attack. For my needs/taste, I only need to run the gain control around 9 - 10 O'clock position and that is plenty of gain to give me that vintage overdrive sound. Also, when this pedal is on and you strike a note, it rings on nicely for a while as compared to the note just disappearing after a couple seconds with other pedals - better sustain. It's about $... higher than a Boss BD-2w waza craft pedal but well worth the difference IMHO. I have test drove several overdrive pedals recently and my Fav's are the Soul Driven, Boss OD-1x,
EHX Crayon and the Boss DA-2 (Adaptive Distortion) pedals. Hey, I fell in love with it when I saw the Blue on Chrome design before I ever even got to hear it and the Blue ON indicator LED is a nice touch and will have NO trouble being able to tell if it is ON or OFF like other pedals. Love it! Try one today!

This is my 1st experience with the Xotic brand of pedals. Very impressed with build quality, LQQKS and more importantly the sound of this pedal. The Soul Driven is very responsive to pick attack and sounds so sweet IMO. Due to Covid-19, I have not been able to try it out in a live setting but the way this thing sounds, I can't wait til things get back to normal again so I can. For the music that I play ( country and classic rock) it has more than enough gain and I feel that the pedal is pretty quiet compared to other pedals out there on the market - no hum, hiss or static sounding noise. It is a keeper in my book and I won't be returning this one! IMHO, it brings out the best in my guitar and amp.

Kudos' to Xotic and to Sweetwater! Try one today! I mean, what else have you got better to do?

Oh, I almost forgot, the blue on chrome looks AWESOME together! Sounds as good as it looks!

This is probably my fav voiced drive of all time. Man, if you need more low end clicking on the internal DIPs will crack the wall. As it is just lower gain settings are amazing and being able to bring in more mids just too cool. It can be very mild, warm, very tube amp breakup sounding but not harsh and tinny or brash high end distortion. You can also crank it but it never becomes a harsh sounding gain structure.
Very cool pedal indeed, the 4th Xotic now on my board. It sounds extremely good by itself but into my high gains just sent them into orbit with enhanced harmonic and depth range. The Chrome is just marvelous, why, oh why can't we have more Chrome or just black/white pedals?? I am so sick of the weird paint jobs and awful colors making my board look like a clown got sick. Anyway, Xotic just might be the best pedal line, certainly in my book, I dig their designs and look. The Soul Driven is a superior pedal.

This is my 4th Xotic pedal on my current board, with two, the EP3 (flatEQ before delay/rev) and the SuperClean (buffer always on,front, after wah) being must have, always on, pedals for me.
Just a fan of this pedal line everything I get from them just does so well. also ones I have never been able to bump off the board. The XW Wah is just an amazing, outstanding full optioned wah, and now I finally got the cool Soul Driven, still working on the tweaking. I ended up keeping the internal bass boost off and dialing in the controls for not so gainy, warmer, mid focused drive to hit my higher gains and also in front of my Origin Drive which is just a touch of heaven.
I think I have found the ever illusive drive pedal to suit my rig and wants. Plus have to say the Chrome enclosure is a real treat after the constant color scheme of other stuff. Man give me more pro looking
chrome, basic black or white, god I hate weird colored pedals and the weird board they make. This puppy looks as good as it sounds. Xotic is my fav pedal line, never a disappointment.

I happened to be taking a trip to Sweetwater in Ft. Wayne when this pedal was introduced and figured I'd give it a try while I was there looking for guitars. I ended up not settling on a guitar, but I did buy this. I've had it for about a year now and I'm still just as impressed as I was on day one. Best drive pedal for my needs and taste and I've tried quite a few. It's smooth, thick, and creamy and sounds great everywhere on the gain dial. Goes from transparent overdrive to full on lead tone! On my board, I stack it with a Pork Loin and an OCD in front and they sound very solid together. However, if I had to have just one drive pedal, this is it.

I really don't have words to describe how incredible this pedal sounds.

- HUGE, full drive sound.
- Extremely Transparent.
- The drive is purely tube amp like. It sounds like hitting the front end of an amp hard.
- The sound is never harsh.
- Gain from clean to scream.
- Tone and Mid Boost Controls are completely usable throughout the entire range.

I prefer this the Soul Driven to the Klon, Tube Screamer, OCD, or any drive for that matter.

I think a good word for this pedal is "luminous." It adds a brilliance to the sound, both top and bottom end (and mid if you want it). And while it can generate a lot of drive, I run the drive very low, about 8:00-8:30 to add overtones and extremely responsive dirt ... depending on how hard you hit it. Principally used by me to add a little grit, it's also great for gain staging other overdrives as it brings out the the overtones.

This is great sounding pedal once you learn to dial it in. I've found that to clean it up, both the gain and the tone have to be dialed down while the mids has to be tuned up. The opposite is true of the higher gain settings: the gain and tone need to be up while the mids down--and one of internal bass boost DIP switches engaged. In other words, the controls are interactive, which can be confusing at first. With everything up, which is the setting we all first do once we get a new pedal, it can sound fizzy or bass heavy as another reviewer said, but dialed in as I mentioned it's not.

What I really like about this pedal is that it cleans with the volume knob on the guitar and it's also affected dramatically by tone pot manipulations. None of my other dirt pedals are as reactive with guitar vol/tone manipulations, except my fuzz pedal. Speaking of that, this cranked up sounds surprisingly close to a Dunlop silicon mini fuzz, of course with less hair but with way better EQ'ing and better tightness. I wouldn't buy this to just be a fuzz, but it can cop decent fuzz sounds with the right settings. One other thing I should mention, is that it stacks well with my Tubescreamer into it but not into the Tubescreamer.
All in all, a very flexible and good sounding pedal.

I have few other Xotic pedals and they're all great. Top notch gear for fair prices.

Pros: wide range of sound, "alive" sounding & very responsive, looks cool
Cons: can be noisy with single coils, tricky to dial in (at first)

No regrets buying this pedal

Not the best stand alone pedal into a clean amp. Sounds best into an middy overdriven amp or stacked with another pedal into a clean amp. Personally, I think it's best with a Tubescreamer in front because this pedal has such a hyped bottom end, sizzily high end, and scooped mid. Frankly, neither this nor the TS sound great alone, but together they make a nice combo since the Tubscreamer compensates this pedal's qualities perfectly. Incidentally, my stock TS-9 sounds better than my boutique 808 into this.

I agree with the other reviewer who says there's not much output here. It's true. When compared to other pedals, this simply doesn't have enough volume output. It only just barely gets there, and there's no more after that. If you set the gain lower, the volume output is not acceptable. If you need a solid output boost to rise above the band when soloing, this pedal doesn't nail it. The tone is good, but not exceptional in any way, it's really just another overdrive tone, not much different from other pedals. My Gain Changer is better.

Considering I already have three or four overdrive pedals I can't say this one did anything different It sure is pretty on the pedalboard though. At least it didn't do enough where I wanted to keep it. I also read a few reviews in which players said it was heavy on the bass end. I must say that I completely agree that it is bass heavy. I feel like the mids aren't as manipulative as I would have liked. I put myself in the group of people who like a Strat and a bit of overdrive so that's the sound I am looking for if that helps. Of course this is just my opinion. Yours may be different. Make sure you read what other's think also.