Xotic Effects Soul Driven OD

The Xotic Effects Soul Driven OD is a compact overdrive and boost pedal from Xotic, first released in 2016 as a limited signature model and offered as a standard version from 2017. Xotic describes it as a tone shaping tool that produces creamy boost and overdriven tones with what the maker calls "just the right amount of compression," enhancing harmonics while keeping the transparency of your guitar and amp¹²³. It can be set up two ways: driving a clean amp channel, or pushing an already dirty channel harder⁴.

What it does

Xotic positions the Soul Driven as a boost/overdrive that "enhances harmonics while retaining transparency"². In practice that means it adds drive and sustain on top of your existing tone rather than replacing it, the approach associated with transparent overdrives. The maker says the tone circuit can be used to tighten up the low end or get your highs cutting through³.

The pedal works into either kind of amp setup. Xotic says it "can be set for Driving your Clean Channel or Overdriving your Dirty Channel"⁴, so a player with a clean platform can use it as their main dirt source, while a player already running amp breakup can use it as a lead push.

On the inside, the Soul Driven is a discrete FET design⁴. Aion FX's circuit trace found that the back half of the circuit, everything after the first stage, "is lifted almost verbatim from the BOSS BD-2 Blues Driver"⁵. That gives it a documented family resemblance to the Blues Driver, one of the most widely used overdrive circuits, while the front end and the bass switching are where Xotic made it their own.

Construction details from the Aion FX teardown include a top-side DC jack, PCB-mount pots, through-hole components, space for a battery, and high-end Switchcraft input and output jacks⁵.

The controls and interior dip switches

The Soul Driven keeps the control set simple, with four knobs on top of the enclosure⁸³⁹.

The Mid Boost knob is the control that separates the Soul Driven from a basic four-knob drive. Delicious Audio's demo describes it as a knob that "pushes the mid-range frequencies creating rich dynamics"¹⁰, and MusicRadar noted when covering the original AH edition that "its mid boost knob can add clarity in a band mix"². For a player whose tone disappears behind a band, that is the knob to reach for.

The internal bass boost dip switches

Inside the pedal, behind the back plate, are two dip switches that set the amount of bass boost at 125 Hz¹⁶. Xotic's product page describes the feature as a way to "cut through the mix by adding up to +6dB @ 125Hz for fatter boost and overdriven tones"¹.

Because the switches live inside the enclosure, this is a set-and-forget adjustment: you take the back plate off, pick a setting, and leave it. Aion FX's trace adds technical context: the bass resistor that is fixed in the Boss BD-2 is replaced in the Soul Driven with four selectable values (18k, 28k, 33k, 43k), which means even the lowest boost setting gives more low end than a stock BD-2⁵.

The Allen Hinds edition circuit

The Soul Driven began life as a collaboration with guitarist Allen Hinds¹¹. The original, the Soul Driven AH, was released in 2016 as a limited-edition signature model in a blue enclosure⁵, limited to a run of 1,500 units and available from late November 2016 for $210². Guitar World's launch coverage listed it at $210 MSRP with a $168 street price⁹.

The standard Soul Driven that Xotic introduced in 2017 is based on that limited Allen Hinds signature pedal³. Whether anything changed between the two beyond the enclosure is not settled: gearnews noted at launch that "Xotic have not yet made any clear distinction between that model and this new one"³, and Aion FX later wrote that "it's not known whether the 'AH' version differs at all on the inside or if it's just cosmetic"⁵.

At the 2017 launch, the standard version carried a $210 MSRP and $168 street price⁷, with an introductory offer of $189 through the Xotic webstore before returning to $210³. By 2023, press listed the pedal at $225⁶.

What reviewers said

Guitar Pedal X reviewed the Soul Driven in May 2023 alongside Xotic's RC Booster V2 and BB Preamp MB, calling it "a fantastically textured Transparent and Creamy Overdrive," and noting it sounds quite different from the BB Preamp MB⁶. The same review confirmed the pedal was still available from the Xotic webstore and at dealers⁶.

Earlier, at the 2017 launch, gearnews' writer felt the official promo video gave only a glimpse of the pedal and "would have liked to have seen and heard a bit more"³.

Aion FX found the circuit interesting enough to trace in full in 2019 and to release their own DIY project based on it, the Thulcandra Boost/Overdrive, which swaps the internal bass dip switches for a potentiometer⁵.

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