The Five: Source Audio’s Roger K. Smith
Welcome to The Five! – a new feature here at What’s That Dude Play? where we take five simple questions and put them to the men and/or women that make the pedals we all GAS for. First up is Source Audio’s Roger K Smith. We had a chance to meet Roger and his crew at Summer NAMM in June and got a first hand demo of the company’s innovated Soundblox stomps and uber-cool Hot Hand motion control device. If you haven’t seen this thing in action, you should hop over to their site and check it out. The verdict – good people… sweet effects. Enough of my yaking… over to Roger after the jump!
WTDP?: When and why did you start making effects pedals?
Roger: Two of us worked at Analog Devices designing and marketing audio chips. Analog Devices also makes an accelerometer chip used in the Nintendo Wii and Apple iPhone. It was there that we though of using the accelerometer chip to control audio effects. We then left ADI to patent and commercialize this idea.
WTDP?: At what point did you realize ‘Hey, I might be able to make a little money doing this.’?
Roger: Does anyone actually make money in this business?
WTDP?: Is there a stomp out there you wish you had made?
Roger: Boss DS-1. It must be the best selling pedal of all time.
WTDP?: What’s on your workbench right now?
RKS: The Hot Hand MIDI-EXP and the Multiwave Bass Distortion.
WTDP?: You’ve got free reign to assemble your dream trio. If you’re on guitar, who’s playing bass and drums (alive or dead)?
RKS: Derek Smalls on bass and whoever happens to be unlucky on the drums.
None more black, indeed! Thanks Roger!
