David Rainger from Rainger FX is constantly looking for excuses to add more (mind-melting) controls to his guitar pedals (although the recent Minibar is the exception to the rule). But there are only so many knobs you can add to a pedal for guitar, while… a drum-machine-pedal would open new knob-ridden horizons: enter the Snare Trap, a stompbox featuring 16 controls!!!
This is an analog/digital hybrid circuit that creates the percussive sound through synthesis, rather than samples.
The approach to machine drumming here is rather peculiar – but unexpected quirks are what makes the pedal from Rainger FX so intriguing:
The main snare drum is always on the ‘2’ and the ‘4’, but the delay effect moves ghost snare beats wherever you want. There’s wet or dry options, plus the shape of the snare hit can be adjusted – adding a handclap-like effect. Snare fills (and white noise bursts) can be added live with the main pad.
…and…
The first bass drum is always on the ‘1’ (the most important accent – as Bootsy says!), while the second (there are two) can be moved anywhere. The snare Trap can do any kind of swing feel you want.
There are a lot more things you can do with this creative drum machine, we’ll mention the internal delay, tap tempo functionality and LFO and filter section. For a better idea of how it sounds, check out the videos of the Rainger FX Snare Trap below.
The Snare Trap is a drum machine you play guitar or synth/keyboards through! It’s designed to be used either on the desktop – by hand – or on the floor – by foot. The drum sounds are bass drum, snare, and hi-hat, and these can be individually triggered externally by a CV – so it’s very useful for modular synthesists.
It has handy shortcuts to get a beat going quickly, plus a bunch of inspiring features and effects, including delay, low-pass filter (manual or LFO-controlled), side-chaining and correctible tap tempo. There’s a pad for adding drumfills and white noise effects, which also doubles up for inputting a tempo.
Sounds
The Snare Trap is an analogue/digital hybrid, and creates the sounds itself internally – no pre-recorded samples. With the tap tempo, delay, and the white noise part of the snare and hi-hat all being digital, the bass drum, shaping of the snare and hi-hat, the low-pass filter and side-chain circuit are all analogue.
The main snare drum is always on the ‘2’ and the ‘4’, but the delay effect moves ghost snare beats wherever you want. There’s wet or dry options, plus the shape of the snare hit can be adjusted – adding a handclap-like effect. Snare fills (and white noise bursts) can be added live with the main pad.
The first bass drum is always on the ‘1’ (the most important accent – as Bootsy says!), while the second (there are two) can be moved anywhere. The snare Trap can do any kind of swing feel you want.
The hi-hat is either 8-to-the-bar, or 4, but on the offbeat.
The tap tempo
The tap tempo is correctible (the same as the one used in the Deep Space Pulsar), which means that with one or more correcting taps on the main pad the tempo can be adjusted to sync with other tracks or instruments for long periods.
The Snare Trap is fantastic for any electric instrumentalist who plays to a beat, where live drums aren’t convenient. The beat and your instrument are blended together – so the Snare Trap is great for single-input amplifiers. There’s a ‘hi/lo’ input switch to cope with the higher signal levels from active instruments and keyboards. It runs off a regular 9v pedal power supply.
