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Darkglass Anagram Multi FX Announced

#1,201
I got my Anagram 4 week ago and I'm really liking it. Great interface and sounds, just what I wanted. I've used it at a number of home practice sessions, rehearsals and gigs and it worked flawlessly until last night......o_O

I was playing a local beer festival with a multi band line up, so minimal change over times. I only needed to take my bass, wireless and Anagram everything else was provided. As usual I'd checked all my gear at home. Got to the festival, set up and tried tuning up via the Anagram.....didn't respond or tune like it had at previous gigs so no problem I just borrowed a tuner. I then plugged into the supplied Eden amp and it had a bit-crusher and high pitched wine coming through it! Arrrgh, some very quick fault finding, checked my bass, cables, wireless, amp....all OK. Last thing was the Anagram....starting to panic a bit as I use some some significant effects on certain songs......rebooted it......fingers crossed.....all OK and worked for the remainder of the evening. No idea why this happened and glad it was such an easy fix. 😌

Also I've been struggling to get one of my Anagram home made presets to Export from the Darkglass Suite (back-up) to my PC. I'd named it "Comp/Lim/HPF" on the Anagram with no issues, Darkglass Suite would load it and only when I tried to Export it I had a problem. It appears that using "/" in a name won't allow you to Export it. I changed the preset name to "Comp-Lim-HPF" and all worked fine. :)

Just been onto the Public Presets hub and seen my preset for Hysteria is the most downloaded at the moment......a whopping 18 times!!! :laugh::laugh:
 
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#1,202
Acebassmusic said:
I got my Anagram 4 week ago and I'm really liking it. Great interface and sounds, just what I wanted. I've used it at a number of home practice sessions, rehearsals and gigs and it worked flawlessly until last night......o_O

I was playing a local beer festival with a multi band line up, so minimal change over times. I only needed to take my bass, wireless and Anagram everything else was provided. As usual I'd checked all my gear at home. Got to the festival, set up and tried tuning up via the Anagram.....didn't respond or tune like it had at previous gigs so no problem I just borrowed a tuner. I then plugged into the supplied Eden amp and it had a bit-crusher and high pitched wine coming through it! Arrrgh, some very quick fault finding, checked my bass, cables, wireless, amp....all OK. Last thing was the Anagram....starting to panic a bit as I use some some significant effects on certain songs......rebooted it......fingers crossed.....all OK and worked for the remainder of the evening. No idea why this happened and glad it was such an easy fix. 😌

Also I've been struggling to get one of my Anagram home made presets to Export from the Darkglass Suite (back-up) to my PC. I'd named it "Comp/Lim/HPF" on the Anagram with no issues, Darkglass Suite would load it and only when I tried to Export it I had a problem. It appears that using "/" in a name won't allow you to Export it. I changed the preset name to "Comp-Lim-HPF" and all worked fine. :)

Just been onto the Public Presets hub and seen my preset for Hysteria is the most downloaded at the moment......a whopping 18 times!!! :laugh::laugh:
Click to expand...
You’re Darkglass famous
 
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#1,203
chiphaleonbass said:
Want to report back about using the Anagram on my gig last night! I play in a 90’s/2000’s country group (Alan Jackson, George Strait, Kenny Chesney etc..) and we run a predominantly silent stage with a band that can be as small as a 4 piece and as big as 7 pieces depending on venue etc. We run stereo IEMs from a Behringer racked x32; G7 transmitters all around. I use KZ IEMs and have for a couple of years now and enjoy how they sound live. Last night we were a 6 piece band with acoustic rhythm, electric lead, fiddle/mandolin, keys, bass and drums. Typically I have a Mono Lite board with all of my processing (tuner, Cali76, RC Bass Boost or ParaEQ, Nobles ODR-1 and DI which has been Sushi Box in the past or as of late an RNDI-m) I have also been bringing a B15 styled amp with Captor X to “mic” it and giving FOH the option to blend the two signals, direct and amp. While I love the way this sounds it’s quite a bit to setup, two bass channels and my mic channel and I’m also responsible for mic’ing the kit nightly. Last night in lieu of my usual setup all I brought was the Anagram. Put it on the floor with a towel underneath to keep it from moving and as not to scratch the back and plugged the two XLR’s out of the back and to our various stage boxes and used the provided power supply. My signal chain was fairly simple last night but similar to what I’d bring on a normal gig. Used the Harmonic Booster much like I would the RC, Compressor/limiter on a pretty subtle setting 4:1 slow attack fast release as my Cali76, the Vintage Microtubes to kind of do the ODR-1 sound and a Graphic EQ to get some boost. Threw the mint chorus in there for fun on a bass run that I have to do on “God Blessed Texas” which I think sounded okay got a chuckle out of the bandmates which is always a good sign. My DI signal had the gentle Amp (Noble DI) a high and low pass filter and the noise suppressor which does exactly what it’s supposed to do without imparting any sort of sound into your tone which I appreciate. The amp side was a Neural Capture of the B-15, high pass filter and noise suppressor. I monitored the amp all night and at the end of the evening asked the FOH engineer which signal they used, which their reply was that both signals sounded great and a blend of the two was pumped through to the house.

Overall thoughts!

The Pros: I enjoyed how my signal sounded quite a bit. Having gigged the Fliptop a bunch I love the response I get from it and I felt like I was getting something similar from the Neural Capture. I felt like my tone sat exactly as it should and the little bit of saturation from the Vintage Microtubes when I used it helped beef up the bass in a nice way and added a nice subtle grit to an already edge of breakup sound on the Fliptop. The setup/breakdown could not be easier; I picked up the pedal put it back in the carry case and was essentially done and ready to head out; which from someone who’s done this for a long time it was nice to have it all be that simple. I thought all of the different sounds I try to achieve live were translated nicely as I play a Yamaha BB435 with a Lollar Precision pickup and I modded the bridge pickup to be a Bartolini Quad Coil soapbar which is fat and full and more similar to a Musicman than Jazz bass. Everyone in the band said the tone sounded as if I ran my usual DI/Amp combo and no complaints all around on whether or not bass was cutting or being a nuisance to anyone’s mix. All positives essentially. I did need to use the ground lift and while a button on the outside of the pedal would be nice, it was easy enough to open the settings menu to engage it and it worked instantly so plus there as well.

The negatives: It’s really tough to criticize the pedal in regards to how it performed on stage. All of my sounds worked, bandmates were happy, FOH was happy and so was I. My main gripe with the Anagram will probably be fixed in the coming years as the pedal continues to develop. Darkglass plans to continue to add to the available blocks and encourage 3rd parties to contribute to the platform and this should be really exciting for bass players. Personally I’ve never been a fan of Darkglass drive pedals and I was able to make the Vintage Microtubes work for me, however; it still wasn’t quite what I’m used to/was looking for. A quick capture of my ODR-1 would definitely do the trick and I’d be happy with that which is yet another pro for the Anagram; the ability to incorporate three pieces of gear from your analog drive/amp/eq collection into presets. The chorus and other effects I’ve tried really leave something to be desired in my opinion. The chorus doesn’t offer a ton of flexibility like say the 70’s chorus in the HX world. It was ok; but for the price of the unit I’d expect great going forward. Would love to see a company like Walrus or even Boss (although doubtful) build blocks for the Anagram of their pedals to incorporate into the unit. Would make for a stellar piece of kit. Admittedly before the Anagram I’ve never gone through a gig with just a modeler where I really felt my sound was a good as it could be; and I’ll say that outside of the drive not quite being right for me and the chorus being lackluster I never felt I was taken out of the moment by the Anagram because of my sound. It delivers and will continue to do so as it continues to just get better over time.

I’ll have a decision to make here soon about whether or not to hold on to this unit as I really enjoyed the ease of use, but knowing I’ll have to part with a lot of pedals to justify owning it. Overall though I’d say if you’re looking for something new to potentially be your rig going forward the future of modeling is here and I hope it’ll only keep getting better as this thing can replace everything if you want it to
Click to expand...
Wow, gonna have to use AI to summarize this novel 😃😂🤣
 
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#1,204
Acebassmusic said:
I got my Anagram 4 week ago and I'm really liking it. Great interface and sounds, just what I wanted. I've used it at a number of home practice sessions, rehearsals and gigs and it worked flawlessly until last night......o_O

I was playing a local beer festival with a multi band line up, so minimal change over times. I only needed to take my bass, wireless and Anagram everything else was provided. As usual I'd checked all my gear at home. Got to the festival, set up and tried tuning up via the Anagram.....didn't respond or tune like it had at previous gigs so no problem I just borrowed a tuner. I then plugged into the supplied Eden amp and it had a bit-crusher and high pitched wine coming through it! Arrrgh, some very quick fault finding, checked my bass, cables, wireless, amp....all OK. Last thing was the Anagram....starting to panic a bit as I use some some significant effects on certain songs......rebooted it......fingers crossed.....all OK and worked for the remainder of the evening. No idea why this happened and glad it was such an easy fix. 😌

Also I've been struggling to get one of my Anagram home made presets to Export from the Darkglass Suite (back-up) to my PC. I'd named it "Comp/Lim/HPF" on the Anagram with no issues, Darkglass Suite would load it and only when I tried to Export it I had a problem. It appears that using "/" in a name won't allow you to Export it. I changed the preset name to "Comp-Lim-HPF" and all worked fine. :)

Just been onto the Public Presets hub and seen my preset for Hysteria is the most downloaded at the moment......a whopping 18 times!!! :laugh::laugh:
Click to expand...
Ah thank you for your hysteria preset, it's perfect... for Starlight 😂👍 I especially discovered your way of keeping bass with the split and the crossover... Well I looked quickly. Maybe I'm saying something stupid.
 
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#1,206
Gig report from last night: Electric upright in a quasi-acoustic setting. NS NXT into the Anagram on my EUB preset (noise gate, high pass filter, gain block, Bus compressor, split at 800hz, light room reverb on frequencies above 800hz none on those below 800hz, merge, an instance of the generic EQ block to tailor for the room at different points than my amp), and then into my Trickfish rig (B1K and TF212V). No bass in the PA. It was a small’ish room with a wimpy PA, so I opted to just push my bass rig.

Anagram worked great. It got warmer to the touch than I expected but never showed signs of that being an issue. It sat on my amp rather than on the floor. The lack of rubber or foot pads on the bottom is a little concerning, and I’ll probably add some since there’s a bit of room in the case to accommodate them.

First gig was a success but admittedly a very light test of Anagram’s capabilities. I really enjoyed the small case at load in/out compared to my usual large analog board. I’ve got a handful of more demanding gigs in July that will really put it through its paces.

IMG_3656.jpeg

IMG_3666.png
 
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#1,209
First rehearsal with mine last night. I only had a few hours to make some presets for a few basses and tones the day before, so I things sounding where I wanted on headphones and then made adjustments on the fly at rehearsal. This was one of my major complaints with my previous HX stomp based setup, the stomp was just such a pain to modify on the fly, and running it into an amp in the room was always a gamble. If all of my bands/use cases were DI/IEM maybe not a problem, but that’s not the case.

Anywho, pretty happy with the anagram so far. Most of the heavier/dirty presets are built around the chinchilla since I mainly used a rat or other mid-forward drive. I’ve not liked the DG style distortions when I’ve tried them in the past. Maybe with more blending and routing options in the future I’ll find uses for them in the anagram.

Still have to figure out the rest of my board and what’s going/what’s staying, but might slim it down to just a comp and the anagram, or keep a few pedals on the board I already have.

NVDdOB2.jpeg
 
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#1,210
So 45 days are just about up. When are all the open box sales starting. The want is strong the need not so much. But looking for a new compressor and dirt pedal so we start to getting half way there with 2 or 3 pedals. Oh the itch you shouldn’t scratch
 
#1,211
SBL just dropped a video about the Anagram. I left a comment regarding the Hyper Luminal not providing any gain reduction. Hopefully Scott or Ian see it and as a result one of the Darkglass contacts is notified so the issue can be resolved. Please like or reply to my comment so it’s visibility increases so the chances of it making it to Darkglass are higher.

EDIT: Aaaaaannnndddd now my comment appears to have been removed 😂
 
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#1,214
coreyfyfe said:
This was one of my major complaints with my previous HX stomp based setup, the stomp was just such a pain to modify on the fly
Click to expand...
Glad to hear you say this. I didn’t last long with an HX Stomp and this was why.
silky smoove said:
I linked to this thread in my comment
Click to expand...
I’ve learned this too many times. Could have been deleted automatically. Content creators (and probably YouTube itself) really don’t want you linking off the channel. Anyways I’m sure DG has already seen your outstanding analysis and will fix the compressor 🤙
 
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#1,218
silky smoove said:
SBL just dropped a video about the Anagram. I left a comment regarding the Hyper Luminal not providing any gain reduction. Hopefully Scott or Ian see it and as a result one of the Darkglass contacts is notified so the issue can be resolved. Please like or reply to my comment so it’s visibility increases so the chances of it making it to Darkglass are higher.

EDIT: Aaaaaannnndddd now my comment appears to have been removed 😂
Click to expand...
A guy off Basschat has been in touch with Darkglass about the compressor and got the following reply so they are aware of the problem and working on it. :thumbsup:

"Hey,
Thank you for contacting us and we hope you are doing well.
This issue was brought to our attention and we are currently investigating the situation.
As soon as we have further information on this matter, rest assured we will provide an update as soon as possible.
We appreciate your patience.""

This is a major thing I like about Darkglass....they respond! I have been a Headrush user for a couple of years and they are renowned for their silence on issues / user requests / updates etc. I like the Headrush product but the Anagram along with the support just blows it out of the water for me.
 
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#1,219
silky smoove said:
SBL just dropped a video about the Anagram. I left a comment regarding the Hyper Luminal not providing any gain reduction. Hopefully Scott or Ian see it and as a result one of the Darkglass contacts is notified so the issue can be resolved. Please like or reply to my comment so it’s visibility increases so the chances of it making it to Darkglass are higher.

EDIT: Aaaaaannnndddd now my comment appears to have been removed 😂
Click to expand...
Hey guys,
Apologies for the silence on this topic.

As of this Monday, we’ve resumed debugging the FET (one of our main DSP engineers was on holiday). Interestingly, our findings with the APX so far differ from what was initially posted here, but we will continue to investigate.

We’ve just launched a new beta testing channel for existing Anagram users. In this space, we’ll test upcoming software versions, bugs, new features, gather feedback, debug release candidates, and engage directly with the design team.
(USB audio for example, is being tested now)
I think this would be the ideal place to submit direct feedback, which we can test right away.

This is the first time this link has been made public, and I thought here was the best place to share it.

forms.gle

Anagram Beta Tester Application

Participate in the improvement of Anagram by testing new firmware and features before release. Please fill out the form below. In the email field, please use the same address you have used at mypedal.darkglass.com
forms.gle forms.gle

Looking forward to your thoughts!

Thanks again!
 
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