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Darkglass Anagram Multi FX Announced

At first glance it seems like the price point is way off when for a few hundred more you can get a quad cortex. It would be nice to see actual list or at least clear photos of the effects available.

Interesting though, small form factor and the 2 xlrs out is nice.
I think the price is spot on being 2/3 of a QC. That is what i would expect a bass only QC to cost. If you count in the implemented case, even better.

Not sure what some folks where expecting the price to be.
 
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I think the price is spot on being 2/3 of a QC. That is what i would expect a bass only QC to cost. If you count in the implemented case, even better.

Not sure what some folks where expecting the price to be.
If I had to choose between the QC or Anagram for the same price I would choose the later because more compact yet powerful, great UI and NAM compatibility.
 
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It appears that it has some things that have been awaited on the QC, but not there yet, like a bass synth.

I believe NDSP has been denying that there is much work crossover between DG and NDSP, but the design and construction of this unit is so close to the QC I have a hard time believing that. Sometimes companies separate out working groups (etc hardware electronic design) as different companies so they can take on outside work easier.

I'm super intrigued in this unit, but I have a QC and am VERY happy with it. I am constantly amazed at the quality of the sounds I get out of it. You can get buried in all the options though, and sometimes you have to be thoughtful in gain staging and managing all the options. It's not for people who really do not want to sweat the details. Lotta virtual knobs to manage.

I imagine this DG box is somewhat easier to manage...DG probably knew bass player culture is a little more "I just wanna plug in and go" and the magic (if any, if they were successful) is making it do that but still give the options you expect for the $.

See, I’m thinking the same thing. If this unit has things like neural capture, you can’t tell me they don’t have some crossover happening. And maybe I’m wrong, but there’s some effects I’m already hearing and seeing that I’m unsure why they aren’t in the QC….. I’m just hoping the QC “catches up” in some ways this summer. A synth would be huge as well as some new pitch shifting options like a POG style model. I know there is a whammy and an OC2 style octave. But I still have yet to see a good POG style effect in a modeler.

I think the anagram looks pretty awesome. But because I already have a QC as well as all my helix stuff, I’m not overly interested in getting an anagram. We’ll see. I’ve been known to say things like this in the past and ended up with whatever 6 months later haha I just hope this pushes neural in its the next couple updates to catch up with a couple things.
 
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So having watched all the videos and slept on it, ultimately I’m quite excited for this.

I recently bought a Quad Cortex, I got an open box deal from Thomann and it cost me £1240 ($1650), generally new price in the UK on a QC is between £1350 ($1795) and £1450 ($1928).

So at £900 (Basically $1200) this is between 30% and 40% less than the QC. Those comparing second hand prices, it’s unfair, as these will of course be cheaper once a few of us gear nuts start buying and selling them.

For further reference a new HX Stomp is £535 ($715).

So thats my little rant about the cost and people complaining about that. Sure it’s expensive but it’s firmly targeting Bassists with or considering a Quad Cortex.

I spent a month in Serbia with nothing to do but muse and dream of getting the Quad Cortex, it was going to solve all my issues, I was going to sell all my gear and only ever buy new esoteric drives to capture them and have this magic library of tone to carry around. I said to myself if it does this I can deal with the weight, I can deal with the price, I can deal with the size, I can deal with some fairly specific power requirements.

It must be so amazing, all the pro’s are using it. I would have easily been able to sell $3000 worth of pedals and saved myself thousands more in the future with things I wouldn’t need to buy.

So it arrived and within minutes I was heart broken. I travel a lot and my main use case is home practice (as in 8+ hours a week) vs gigging where I only clock in a few hours a month and studio sessions where I clock in a few hours every few months. So not a bedroom musician but honest about my usage.

I had a terrible noise on the headphone out. A bunch of research led me to it potentially being an earthing issue, power supply issue (with official power supply) and a fairly common complaint on various forums and facebook posts. I asked a few friends about theirs and one had used the headphone out, most couldn’t find their original power supply to see if that was the issue. I ended up just using it with a DG Element, which I’d recently loaded with a JHS punchline IR, created a few other patches with the LPF and HPF at pretty extreme settings.

I did a shootout in the studio recently and the Element DI (all processing bypassed) had no discernible difference to my Countryman Type 10 (video coming soon).

So at that point I’m thinking, well this little silver box is doing all my core tones, can be an audio interface, can be a live IEM mixer, practice amp, has bluetooth for audio that the QC didn’t have (I was running an Airfly in the fx loop to get round this) etc etc. So now the QC is just a big fx processor, for occasional stuff I might use and like to experiment with. I may as well just have a Zoom MS60b+ or HX Stomp.

Even the captures didn’t blow me away, I know I could get a workable sound out of it, but if the headphone out is always going to be an issue (one of my use cases is for a live IEM mixer) what’s the point.

Because for the size and the cost it didn’t justify itself if I still had to add on ancillary pieces.

This is everything I needed the QC to do, in a smaller cheaper package, already comes with a case for travel, powers over USB C, will have bluetooth, has all the routing options I can dream of, has those Kaamos octavers (and come on guys, I believe the HX stomp octaver now is good but not great and the QC octaver is usable, but these are stunning). I’m not a fan at all of the Darkglass drive sound but it’s got others and I can load NAM profiles which I’m sure will be “fine”.

I’ve not gone down the route of the HX because I know I’ll get annoyed with the menu diving and only having 3 knobs to adjust things, and I’ll still have to travel with DI’s and a power supply.

Price of admission is easy for me, I can sell a JF Capo and a Strymon Deco and pretty much be there (neither are core to my sound and neither sit on my main board). If I sold everything it would/could replace I’d be in a great place financially 😅. If it’s just going to be one of many many pedals on a pedalboard then probably it doesn’t justify itself.

So assuming they get the audio over bluetooth sorted soon, get the phone app working with all the features on it and it doesn’t have any weird headphone noises (which the element doesn’t so I’m hopeful) I’m pretty sold on it.

I don’t need 10 chorus’s, I just need one good one. The number of fx doesn’t bother me, as long as it has something in each category and they are good quality and usable.

Separately I’m really excited for the Amos Heller demo of it.



God that’s a long post….. sorry
Long yes, but you make some really thoughtful points.
 
I believe NDSP has been denying that there is much work crossover between DG and NDSP, but the design and construction of this unit is so close to the QC I have a hard time believing that. Sometimes companies separate out working groups (etc hardware electronic design) as different companies so they can take on outside work easier.

See, I’m thinking the same thing. If this unit has things like neural capture, you can’t tell me they don’t have some crossover happening. And maybe I’m wrong, but there’s some effects I’m already hearing and seeing that I’m unsure why they aren’t in the QC…..
The cortex looks like a DG device, not the other way around. Because back then it was designed by the guys working at DG.
The neural capturing in the Anagram has nothing to do with what's used in the Cortex. In the Anagram, they simply implemented existing open source software. Anyone can do that without issues. Just recently the Ampero product line got a software update that enables it to do the same.
The Anagram doesn't do any capturing itself, it's "just" a loader for the NAM files.


DG and NDSP aren't even under the same parent company anymore, so I wouldn't hold my breath for things to be ported from one to the other. Especially given NDSPs track record of delivering on promised software updates, and this one isn't even promised but solely user speculation.
 
Can we all take a moment to appreciate out of the box we won’t have to scroll through 57 different Marshall and Mesa modelled amps and someone made something for our little corner of the world 😂
I can't lie. That's a big part of why I'm all in on this. I have been literally waiting decades for a manufacturer to embrace us bass players like this.
 
Not gonna watch a half hour video.
Is there a list printed of what blocks it has?
I see it has XLR output, that’s terrific
Only other two complaints about the helix…
Is there some kind of on screen level monitoring, to help set gain and compression?
Can you easily get to useful synth bass sounds?

Worth the watch, it doesn’t drag on and answers your questions and has synth sound examples.

There are a few block lists floating around, but fairly well aligned with the Exponent is a good start. There is on screen level monitoring for your signal chain, as well as a RTA feature under the global EQ.
 
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Not gonna watch a half hour video.
Is there a list printed of what blocks it has?
I see it has XLR output, that’s terrific
Only other two complaints about the helix…
Is there some kind of on screen level monitoring, to help set gain and compression?
Can you easily get to useful synth bass sounds?
If you don't want to spend time, don't.
 
I almost forgot about pitch shifting. I do need that. I used to have a Drop but I sold it when I bought my Stomp. Lately, I've had the feeling that I should've kept it. If the Anagram has decent pitch shifitng (a whole step is enough for me) and an iPad app (which it presumably will have -> DG Suite) and adjustable incoming USB audio volume, then I am in.

@tim0391, @DenisLM, may we ask you to test pitch shifting and post about it when you get hold of your units?
IF I can remember - I certainly will.

My unit is due to arrive on Friday... that is also my non-working day.... DEEP DIVE INCOMING and my Wife will see me Sunday!! :bassist:
 
My favorite Youtube video so far:



I really like the explanations:
- By bassists for bassists
- Intuitive UI
- Open to external plugins (needs Darkglass team collaboration). Can become a player for any DAW plugin if the developer wants.

Could you imagine if Universal Audio worked with Darkglass on this; 1176's, SSL EQ's; Neve 1073's on the floor?? Wow.