SnapDrive: Modular Effects Pedals Made Up Of 'Building Blocks'

Turn your distortion pedal into an overdrive pedal in two seconds   02-Mar-15

Introducing SnapDrive - a modular effects pedal system made up of 'blocks'.

Inventors Emil Kirilov and George Kirtchev have developed a way of confining individual parts of a pedal circuit into 'blocks'/modules, which can be solderlessly plugged into the circuit board.

You can use the modules to build up your own circuit, and obviously this allows for experimentation with the order of the modules.

You can put an overdrive module before a distortion, after a distortion, before/after a boost, etc.

I spoke to Emil Kirilov to ask him about his plans for the SnapDrive, and he told me:

"I plan to sell a platform - a board that is a host for such blocks. The blocks should be with equal size and smaller than showed in the video.

"They should use magnetic connectors and should snap like fridge magnets. This will provide easy change and stability. The blocks will sell separately and there will be some kits as well like "starter", "advanced", "expert", etc.

"The the moment we are doing research on the final design and what functionality is desired. But basically we plan to release the following blocks:

STAGE I:

Overdrive

Distortion (diode clipping)

Distortion (FET)

Tone control

3-band EQ

Level booster

Effects loop (usually used for wah wah)

STAGE II:

Solo booster

Compressor

Noise gate

Parametric EQ

Bass booster

Mid booster

Tremolo

"For stage II there will be more advanced host board with additional solo/function foot switch. All the modules will be compatible, so people should not buy new ones."

Written by Richard Beech.

Twitter: @BeechardRich.