Darkglass Anagram Multi FX Announced

[muse]

Hello everyone,
I don't write too often(almost never) but I've been following the Anagram and this thread from the beginning and would like to share my opinion. I currently use a Fender TMP, which while killer in the feel and sound department, it definitely isn't bass oriented.
But it has a great advantage, flawless bluetooth control via the app. This makes editing presets so much easier, I have my phone on a mic holder(when standing up) or on my lap when sitting, and I can make edits wherever in the room I like. How does one preset sound from the position I'm playing? How does it sound from the position of the drummer? So easy to make adjustments, without having to kneel over. Everything just in arms reach.
The Anagram is definitely in my plans, just not decided on it yet, but such a feature would be for me one of the greatest upgrades functionality wise, and in my opinion a game changer for existing users.

 

[Mojo34]

Modelers will simulate the specific amplifier and how it interacts with the signal going into it's different stages.

Whichever cabinet you chose to pair with an amp or use by itself will have been modeled in a controlled environment specifically for the purpose of replicating it as close as possible or as desired by the person capturing it.

You hear your teachers bass amp the way it's acoustics interact with the specific room's acoustics you're in and into your ears, which are your biological microphones and have their own sound signature or frequency response. So you are hearing your teachers combo being EQ'd by the room and your ears.

When you choose a bass cab/IR in the Anagram, you will hear how that specific cabinet interacted with the specific room it was recorded in, the microphone it was recorded with, the microphone's own sound signature, then the speaker system it is being reproduced through which has its frequency response, and into your ears.

So, to your question, using an amp and cab modeler through a flat active speaker will reproduce the sound the same way you hear a record reproduced through a sound system. How it was recorded in the studio and through the speaker. Not as if you were in the studio room in front of the cabinet.


Feeling is another thing entirely. Your Sansamp emulates a tube amp with it's cabinet and your two note pedals do their own thing too.

Your explanations have haunted me all week! So clear and enlightening. If I understand correctly: amps are programmatically modeled and simulated ; speaker cabinets are (microphone) captured and simulated. Therefore, the amps provided in Anagram are complete simulations and not just a snapshot. Is this true with QC? Are the amps complete simulations as well, or neural captures (which I don't fully grasp yet either...)?

 

[JesseMalaska]

Your explanations have haunted me all week! So clear and enlightening. If I understand correctly: amps are programmatically modeled and simulated ; speaker cabinets are (microphone) captured and simulated. Therefore, the amps provided in Anagram are complete simulations and not just a snapshot. Is this true with QC? Are the amps complete simulations as well, or neural captures (which I don't fully grasp yet either...)?

All the amps in Anagram are full models that represent the real amp. No snapshots or snapshots coupled with some standard eq after it. These behave and work just like the real counterparts

 

[makanudo]

Your explanations have haunted me all week! So clear and enlightening. If I understand correctly: amps are programmatically modeled and simulated ; speaker cabinets are (microphone) captured and simulated. Therefore, the amps provided in Anagram are complete simulations and not just a snapshot. Is this true with QC? Are the amps complete simulations as well, or neural captures (which I don't fully grasp yet either...)?

All the amps in Anagram are full models that represent the real amp. No snapshots or snapshots coupled with some standard eq after it. These behave and work just like the real counterparts

Yup!

 

[Derek Williams]

Your explanations have haunted me all week! So clear and enlightening. If I understand correctly: amps are programmatically modeled and simulated ; speaker cabinets are (microphone) captured and simulated. Therefore, the amps provided in Anagram are complete simulations and not just a snapshot. Is this true with QC? Are the amps complete simulations as well, or neural captures (which I don't fully grasp yet either...)?

Amps output an electric signal into a cable. That is something that can be replicated and reused without the weirdness of requiring a microphone with a cab. So the Anagram, QC, and pretty much any other modeler has their amp sim representing an actual amp. Differences will be if the model includes the power amp simulation or not. A simulation of a power amp doesn't include the higher power output to drive a cab of course, so you end up with the issue of running a power amp simulation through another power amp. Luckily enough, this usually doesn't colour the sound as much as a cab does (all powered speakers include their own power amp built in, so you are still running it through that additional amp when you playback to speakers, but they should be designed to be transparent).

 

[javi_bassist]

Yesterday I was trying to get a more overdriven Ampeg sound. I was using the Peggy bass with a Peggy 4x10 cab. In my preset I have splitted the signal, one goes to the Noble preamp and the other one to the amp and cab sim. I was not happy. After so many tests, I just changed the cab to a Peggy 8x10 and the sound I was looking for was there. Simpler than I thought.

While you are absolutely right about that, i have to say, for me personally, i am happy to not be trapped in this constant lookout for new, other, better sounds.
I have found my desired sound and haven't even done the last two updates.

I love modelers and I have been using the Anagram for 4 months. I also have the HX Stomp and I had the Boss GT1000 Core. All great units. However, I am always trapped in complex paths and sounds. I think that sometimes I tried to make a more complex preset than it should be. I sometimes also take an analog pedalboard and love the simplicity, but I love more to have the same sounds everytime and not worrying about knobs. But the chase of the best sounds always hunts me hahaha

 

[Scott McArron]

Yesterday I was trying to get a more overdriven Ampeg sound. I was using the Peggy bass with a Peggy 4x10 cab. In my preset I have splitted the signal, one goes to the Noble preamp and the other one to the amp and cab sim. I was not happy. After so many tests, I just changed the cab to a Peggy 8x10 and the sound I was looking for was there. Simpler than I thought.


I love modelers and I have been using the Anagram for 4 months. I also have the HX Stomp and I had the Boss GT1000 Core. All great units. However, I am always trapped in complex paths and sounds. I think that sometimes I tried to make a more complex preset than it should be. I sometimes also take an analog pedalboard and love the simplicity, but I love more to have the same sounds everytime and not worrying about knobs. But the chase of the best sounds always hunts me hahaha

One of the reasons Parallax on QCm works so well for me. All of the base tones I need are there in a single block: super clean, clean and fat, aggressively clean, slightly gritty, proggy metal (eg. Jacob Umansky), aggressively distorted, ear blistering raging distortion, and full on fuzz.

It just works, it’s simple, and there are no complex paths that overcomplicate the signal chain.

I was hoping Entropia would do the same for me and it’s what ultimately led to my purchase. I’ve been toying with it for more than a dozen hours a week for the last 4 months and while I’ve been able to get many of these tones I haven’t been able to dial them all in to my liking. And the solutions become fairly complex for what ends up being just an overdriven tone with clean compressed bass.

YMMV. Just my experience so far. Since getting the QCm, it’s just been such a delight to get what I’m after so easily. Both are great platforms though.

 

[Gogoplata1980]

Don’t disagree! I’ve been using it side-by-side with my QCm and the difference is night and day. Anagram has a ways to go.

Besides the need for physical interaction refinement, CPU metering, and I/O control (both preset and Entropia), it could also use a workflow that doesn’t require a computer connection.

What I mean by that is with QC, I can browse Cortex Control for presets on my phone that look interesting and simply select them, and then I open up the downloads on my QC and they automagically appear. It’s really nice. No need to go to the home office (bedroom), get my laptop, find a USB cable, connect everything, power it on, open the app, wait to load, and finally start selecting presets while tethered with a cable. It’s clunky and cumbersome. And away from home, I don’t have my computer with me as an option at all.

Well said. And others have mentioned, it is a great device. I take nothing away from it. But it does need further physical interaction refinement as you said.

 

[BrianVengeance]

Don’t disagree! I’ve been using it side-by-side with my QCm and the difference is night and day. Anagram has a ways to go.

YMMV. Just my experience so far. Since getting the QCm, it’s just been such a delight to get what I’m after so easily. Both are great platforms though.

I’ve been sorely tempted to get a QCm since it was announced. IMO the Anagram sounds great, but the ecosystem is still incredibly young and there are a lot of room for tooling improvement. It doesn’t help that one of my guitarists has one and his answer to all things bass is “Parallax + Arc Reactor”… and he’s not entirely wrong.

Given a choice between one or the other, which one would you keep and why? Are concerns around guitar centricity warranted or overblown? What about availability of non-Parallax amp and cab models?

 

[Scott McArron]

I’ve been sorely tempted to get a QCm since it was announced. IMO the Anagram sounds great, but the ecosystem is still incredibly young and there are a lot of room for tooling improvement. It doesn’t help that one of my guitarists has one and his answer to all things bass is “Parallax + Arc Reactor”… and he’s not entirely wrong.

Given a choice between one or the other, which one would you keep and why? Are concerns around guitar centricity warranted or overblown? What about availability of non-Parallax amp and cab models?

Oh man, don’t put me on the spot like that

Your guitarist isn’t entirely wrong though I like my custom presets better than Arc Reactor for my goals

Concerns around guitar-centricity are not overblown with some caveats.
- Amp and cab sims are few but if they’re the ones you need then you should be fine, as is the case for me (eg. SVT, 800RB, B15…Ampeg 810, DG 212/210, etc.). Full list: Quad Cortex device list
- If you don’t mind using captures, there are a ton of captures available like DB751, Aggie TH, and so many more to expand what’s there
- You can get/purchase many more CAB IRs as well
- Compressors are kinda meh, and their defaults are not tuned well to bass OOB and require tweaking, unlike Anagram, so if you don’t mind that…
- If you don’t mind using the Parametric EQ as the Graphic EQs don’t have the best frequency centers for bass. For example, none have anything at 80, 100, 800, 1.5, or 3k, which are some of the more common for bass guitar, IME.

For Parallax fans, like me, nothing quite replaces it. And having the ability to run the same plugin in your DAW, or your friend’s DAW when you don’t have your device with you, as on your device live with all your presets is hard to beat.

In the end, I’ll go with the standard answer: both have the strengths and weaknesses. You need to go with what suits you and your current needs best.

For me, no longer playing in cover bands and sticking to the modern metal genre before I get so old it’s embarrassing (too late!), I’m leaning toward QCm primarily for Parallax but also platform maturity. Bear in mind my needs are very scoped these days and specific to my active musical genre. Anagram is no slouch and is also amazing though!

 

[BrianVengeance]

Oh man, don’t put me on the spot like that

Your guitarist isn’t entirely wrong though I like my custom presets better than Arc Reactor for my goals

Concerns around guitar-centricity are not overblown with some caveats.
- Amp and cab sims are few but if they’re the ones you need then you should be fine, as is the case for me (eg. SVT, 800RB, B15…Ampeg 810, DG 212/210, etc.). Full list: Quad Cortex device list
- If you don’t mind using captures, there are a ton of captures available like DB751, Aggie TH, and so many more to expand what’s there
- You can get/purchase many more CAB IRs as well
- Compressors are kinda meh, and their defaults are not tuned well to bass OOB and require tweaking, unlike Anagram, so if you don’t mind that…
- If you don’t mind using the Parametric EQ as the Graphic EQs don’t have the best frequency centers for bass. For example, none have anything at 80, 100, 800, 1.5, or 3k, which are some of the more common for bass guitar, IME.

For Parallax fans, like me, nothing quite replaces it. And having the ability to run the same plugin in your DAW, or your friend’s DAW when you don’t have your device with you, as on your device live with all your presets is hard to beat.

In the end, I’ll go with the standard answer: both have the strengths and weaknesses. You need to go with what suits you and your current needs best.

For me, no longer playing in cover bands and sticking to the modern metal genre before I get so old it’s embarrassing (too late!), I’m leaning toward QCm primarily for Parallax but also platform maturity. Bear in mind my needs are very scoped these days and specific to my active musical genre. Anagram is no slouch and is also amazing though!

Lol, thanks for being a good sport! Definitely putting you in the spot a bit, and appreciate the first hand accounts. There’s nothing wrong with being an aging metal guy! It’s not so bad… you get issued your multi-scale and get to pick a small multi-effects unit….

The device list is definitely thin for bass, but Parallax and OwnHammer IRs really do go a long way. The live / FOH / DAW consistency is definitely a perk. I’m sure the community captures also have some gems, and the phone and app control features are super enticing.

And agree wholeheartedly, the Anagram is great… but the temptation is real. I’ve offered my guitarist a challenge to dial up something and I’ll play through his QC next practice.

 

[TaySte_2000]

Don’t disagree! I’ve been using it side-by-side with my QCm and the difference is night and day. Anagram has a ways to go.

Besides the need for physical interaction refinement, CPU metering, and I/O control (both preset and Entropia), it could also use a workflow that doesn’t require a computer connection.

What I mean by that is with QC, I can browse Cortex Control for presets on my phone that look interesting and simply select them, and then I open up the downloads on my QC and they automagically appear. It’s really nice. No need to go to the home office (bedroom), get my laptop, find a USB cable, connect everything, power it on, open the app, wait to load, and finally start selecting presets while tethered with a cable. It’s clunky and cumbersome. And away from home, I don’t have my computer with me as an option at all.

Agreed, the Cloud Cortex app is a huge draw to me trying the QC again.

I’m quite comfortable editing on the Anagram but I’d love to be able to update it from my phone.

 

[Chace90]

Experimenting with the Morningstar MC4 Pro and the Anagram today. Already discovered a bug, I think?

In Stomp mode, I've got MIDI CC toggles set up for A, B & C. For both A&C, when toggled on and back off again via MIDI, the footswitch LEDs on the Anagram don't turn back to dim. Footswitch B does toggle correctly (specifically the LED behavior), no matter what. But the other two don't. Doesn't matter if the screen view is set for Bindings, Name, or Chain.

The LEDs function as expected when toggled on the Anagram footswitches. But if I toggle from the MIDI controller, the only way I've seen thus far to reset the LEDs is to either toggle the corresponding Anagram footswitch, or to quickly switch the screen view.

Changing MIDI Toggle Logic to "Value" or "Toggle" doesn't change the behavior.

Bumping this up. Any other Anagram MIDI users observe this behavior?

 

[BrianVengeance]

Bumping this up. Any other Anagram MIDI users observe this behavior?

I want to say that I observed that when using the MC6 Pro when toggling stomp macros, but I also ended up at a point where I’m using the Anagram in stomp mode for the macros and the MC6 for single pedals and other functions.

 

[Grahams Groove]

Bumping this up. Any other Anagram MIDI users observe this behavior?

I have my MC6 Pro setup just to toggle the quick-knob bindings, but I can do a test and see if I get the same thing when I use MIDI to control the footswitch bindings.

 

[Pep]

This may sound simple but since I'm new to the Anagram so here goes.

I have a harmonic booster, preamp, eq, cab, compressor, envelope filter, octave, flanger, reverb, HPF, and noise suppressor. I want to send just the effects to my effects loop on my amp and send everything to FOH. That way I have the sound I want to go to the FOH and what I want to.hear from my amp. If someone could guide me through this I would be eternally grateful. Thanks so much.

 

[Chace90]

I have my MC6 Pro setup just to toggle the quick-knob bindings, but I can do a test and see if I get the same thing when I use MIDI to control the footswitch bindings.

Yeah I don't know that I'm gonna end up using the MC4 to control the footswitch bindings, though I can easily see them being toggled via MIDI by something else external, like forScore. If only for a fail safe, it would be nice if the LEDs turn off accordingly!

 

[silky smoove]

I have a harmonic booster, preamp, eq, cab, compressor, envelope filter, octave, flanger, reverb, HPF, and noise suppressor. What I want to do is use all of that for the FOH. I want to send just the effects to my effects loop on my amp. I want to send everything to FOH. That way I have the sound I want to go to the FOH and what I want to. hear from my amp. HELP.

If I were setting up that chain I would do it like this:

1. Noise Suppressor
2. HPF
3. Compressor
4. Octave
5. Envelope Filter
6. Flanger
7. Reverb
8. ***Add an output block here that splits off 1/4" output 3 for use with your amp***
9. Harmonic Booster
10. Preamp
11. EQ
12. Cab

That would get everything before the output block to your amp via 1/4" output 3, and then everything before and after the output to the FOH via XLR output 1 or 2.

 

[Pep]

If I were setting up that chain I would do it like this:

1. Noise Suppressor
2. HPF
3. Compressor
4. Octave
5. Envelope Filter
6. Flanger
7. Reverb
8. ***Add an output block here that splits off 1/4" output 3 for use with your amp***
9. Harmonic Booster
10. Preamp
11. EQ
12. Cab

That would get everything before the output block to your amp via 1/4" output 3, and then everything before and after the output to the FOH via XLR output 1 or 2.

I have some questions.
1). So I have 12 items in my chain which is a full line. There's no way to assign anything to the end of that line as I'm out of blocks and I need assign another output block.???

2). I loaded the macOS 11 Darkglass Suite. I also updatedsthe Anagram with the last update. I assume that update includes all of the previous ones, correct? I have all of the current listed amps, preamps, cabs, effects & utilities.

3). I visited the Tone 3000 site, installed the NAM Plugin, located tones and downloaded a bunch of them. How do I get them into the Anagram?

Thanks again!

 

[BrianVengeance]

I have some questions.
1). So I have 12 items in my chain which is a full line. There's no way to assign anything to the end of that line as I'm out of blocks and I need assign another output block.???

A split block will let you drop down to the second lane.

2). I loaded the macOS 11 Darkglass Suite. I also updatedsthe Anagram with the last update. I assume that update includes all of the previous ones, correct? I have all of the current listed amps, preamps, cabs, effects & utilities.

Correct, they are cumulative.

3). I visited the Tone 3000 site, installed the NAM Plugin, located tones and downloaded a bunch of them. How do I get them into the Anagram?

You’ll need to go to the Assets Loader section of the Darkglass Suite. From there you will see tabs for IRs and NAM files.

Thanks again!

Of course!