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Darkglass alpha omega ultra

#123
Hey did you get yours yet @andrew?? Looking forward to hearing your review.


I’ll be getting one eventually. Probably later then I expected. I was hoping to have one by now but it’ll be here. Not soon enough!!! Diggin all your guys’ demos and opinions on it so far though. Great job everyone!!! This thing sounds killer.
 
#126
First impressions:

Build quality: 10/10. Everything from the look to the feel of the switches just ooze quality. This is a premium preamp for sure. The LED lights are of extremely good brightness.

Sound: 10/10. Sound without distortion engaged is already very good. Full, punchy and clear. Full range with amazing EQ section. The distortion circuits add everything from slight grit to full on crazy. Extremely versatile.

Now to what I believe is the best feature, unexpectedly; IR!

So I played the pedal for a solid 2.5 hours through my Philips Fidelio X2s (which are great for bass, incidentally). After downloading the suite, I started trying out the different IR settings. Bam! Suddenly, on the Dave's MD441, I find my tone. Perfect midrange clarity and punch.

What amazed me though, is the sense of space and room it brought to the sound through headphones. It actually sounded and felt like playing next to an amp and cab on stage. This is a game changer feature.

Overall: obvious 10/10 is obvious.
I had EXTREMELY high expectations on this unit, and it overdelivered something fierce. I was on the fence about the IR since most demos I'd heard used them with heavy distortion (I use mild to medium myself), but I'm blown away by what they add to the sound - to clean as well as distorted sounds.

My hat's off to @Darkglass for creating an amazing product. I can't wait to start gigging and recording with it. I can't imagine a situation where it wouldn't work well.
 

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#127
What is the durability of this pedal like? Darkglass products seem pretty well built, and built to last, but between the sliders and some of the digital components I worry if this pedal can take some death metal-level abuse. Are we talking "just another pedal" and treat it as you would any other, or a more precision piece of machinery that can use a little bit of extra care?
 
#128
Being and Bass said:
What is the durability of this pedal like? Darkglass products seem pretty well built, and built to last, but between the sliders and some of the digital components I worry if this pedal can take some death metal-level abuse. Are we talking "just another pedal" and treat it as you would any other, or a more precision piece of machinery that can use a little bit of extra care?
Click to expand...

We protected the sliders quite thoroughly, so I don’t see a reason why this model would be any less reliable that our other models.
Our failure rate is 0.8%, which is, last time I checked at lest, less than a third of the industry standard (2.5%).
 
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#129
Darkglass said:
We protected the sliders quite thoroughly, so I don’t see a reason why this model would be any less reliable that our other models.
Our failure rate is 0.8%, which is, last time I checked at lest, less than a third of the industry standard (2.5%).
Click to expand...
That's what I needed to know. Some of the other slider-based pedals leave a lot to desire, but you guys don't cut any corners. :)
 
#130
I love the looks of this pedal. Sound is also killer. I was considering selling my beloved OCSD in favor of this one but the OCSD’s ability to run on batteries and the Ultra’s inability put the stop to that. I love being able to take the OCSD with me anywhere and be able to play. Still would love to give this a run through though.
 
#131
willsellout said:
I love the looks of this pedal. Sound is also killer. I was considering selling my beloved OCSD in favor of this one but the OCSD’s ability to run on batteries and the Ultra’s inability put the stop to that. I love being able to take the OCSD with me anywhere and be able to play. Still would love to give this a run through though.
Click to expand...
Perhaps you need something like this? https://www.amazon.ca/Battery-Connector-Power-Adapter-Arduino/dp/B01KXV6QPS

Would allow you to stick with Darkglass but still use a 9v when portability is needed!
 
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#134
Hey all. I just received my AOU & was wondering if someone could confirm if an issue is unique to mine or I got a 0.8%. Please plug from the XLR output into your favourite desk/interface. Play with the pedal bypassed & cab sim off, monitoring through your desk/interface, then turn the cab sim on (pedal still bypassed). Does the noise floor increase dramatically? I'm talking white noise generator noisy (white noise shaped by the IR that is).

I haven't connected it to the pc yet, just used the IR it shipped with.

Cheers all!
 
#135
rugrat said:
Not a happy camper. Sitting here with 2 straight out of the box, broken AOU’s. Both have broken bypass switches. Is there a number I can call? I’ve already sent an email.
Click to expand...

Hey man, sorry about this issue. I just took over your case personally from our support tickets and should have an email from me on your inbox.

Kind regards,
 
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#136
Ba55Man1ac said:
Hey all. I just received my AOU & was wondering if someone could confirm if an issue is unique to mine or I got a 0.8%. Please plug from the XLR output into your favourite desk/interface. Play with the pedal bypassed & cab sim off, monitoring through your desk/interface, then turn the cab sim on (pedal still bypassed). Does the noise floor increase dramatically? I'm talking white noise generator noisy (white noise shaped by the IR that is).

I haven't connected it to the pc yet, just used the IR it shipped with.

Cheers all!
Click to expand...

Hi! The SNR on the cabsim is 88dB.
Did you check that the cab sim Bain was set to unity on the Suite? Boosting it will inherently result in higher noise floor.

If you have further questions, both me and our CTO constantly monitor our support inbox, you can send us an email there and we can go a bit more in depth as well.

Kind regards,
D.
 
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#137
Darkglass said:
Hi! The SNR on the cabsim is 88dB.
Did you check that the cab sim Bain was set to unity on the Suite? Boosting it will inherently result in higher noise floor.

If you have further questions, both me and our CTO constantly monitor our support inbox, you can send us an email there and we can go a bit more in depth as well.

Kind regards,
D.
Click to expand...
Is the default setting unity gain?
 
#138
The_Owl said:
Is the default setting unity gain?
Click to expand...

It is extremely hard to guarantee exact unity gain across all IRs and configurations.

Default setting should result on usable levels without the need of Suite tweaking, but if you really want to measure SNR performance, proper level matching is advisable.
 
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#140
I’ve always liked the idea of the Darkglass pedals, but I never use the typical djent tone you hear in almost all the videos. This pedal seems like it can do more “mainstream” (for lack of a better term) tones. I just want to fatten up the tone a bit.
 
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