Darkglass Anagram Multi FX Announced

[silky smoove]

Interesting... I was thinking of this: I use the pitch shifter on pretty much all my custom presets... I have a suspicion that's the cause for a lot of the crashes.

I never use the pitch shifter. I wanted to have it available for a band that does a tune in Eb and I don’t want to switch basses or tune down mid set, but to me the pitch shifter sounds bad. Unusably bad. I felt the same about the one in the HX Stomp too.

 

[chiphaleonbass]

If it's from west coast pedalboard, BE CAREFUL. I got one from them as well, and it was not powering in. Checked the polarity, and it was center positive....

So they called me and confirmed with me that I wanted a Center Negative plug! I also asked for a foot long cable instead of the stock 3 footer because the Anagram will be living on a Mono Lite board

 

[Spblat]

Interesting... I was thinking of this: I use the pitch shifter on pretty much all my custom presets... I have a suspicion that's the cause for a lot of the crashes.

Pitch shifter is always loaded in any patch I’m using. No crashes here.

 

[hitman9696]

I never use the pitch shifter. I wanted to have it available for a band that does a tune in Eb and I don’t want to switch basses or tune down mid set, but to me the pitch shifter sounds bad. Unusably bad. I felt the same about the one in the HX Stomp too.

Weird how we differ in our experiences. To me, this has been the best pitch shifter I've ever used. Before, my standard was the DigiTech Drop... Colored the sound noticeably... The HX Stomp version had lots of tracking issues, and used way too much DSP... Honestly, the Anagram's has been perfect for my needs.

 

[TJBasser]

wanted to ask all you brave folks who are already using the Anagram for live work ... what are you running your signal into ?
just FOH with monitors ?
bass amp/cab and FOH ?
IEM and FOH ?
???

1. Out 2 (Split before Cabsim) -> return of my GK 1001RB-II -> 2x15" on stage
2. DI-Out 1 (full chain) -> our monitor Mixer-> back to my IEM and FOH

 

[hitman9696]

Pitch shifter is always loaded in any patch I’m using. No crashes here.

I really want to nail down a pattern how my crashes are happening... Any time I'm editing blocks, moving them around, jumping to presets, my heart jumps that it's gonna crash (and needing a reboot) any moment... happens enough that it keeps me on my toes.

 

[ShaunNecro]

So they called me and confirmed with me that I wanted a Center Negative plug! I also asked for a foot long cable instead of the stock 3 footer because the Anagram will be living on a Mono Lite board

Yeah, they called me after I left a review. I talked to them a bit, and they made me a new one that's now center negative. They said that they now are going to put up more options on the website to prevent anything like that happening again. Gotta give it to them for fixing the problem quickly.

 

[chiphaleonbass]

Yeah, they called me after I left a review. I talked to them a bit, and they made me a new one that's now center negative. They said that they now are going to put up more options on the website to prevent anything like that happening again. Gotta give it to them for fixing the problem quickly.

Well maybe because of you they gave me the call! So far so good working with them

 

[silky smoove]

wanted to ask all you brave folks who are already using the Anagram for live work ... what are you running your signal into ?
just FOH with monitors ?
bass amp/cab and FOH ?
IEM and FOH ?
???

I’ve used Anagram in three bands thus far. One of them uses different presets depending on if I’m playing a bass guitar or an electric upright. Two of the bands are Anagram to an amp.

One band is Anagram set to output 3 (1/4”) to an amp with no amp or cab sim, then after that output the chain continues to an EQ block, an amp block and a cab block. The whole chain goes to the XLR outs and then to our IEM/FOH split. When I’m at home rehearsing through an amp I used output 3 and the last three blocks aren’t heard. When I’m on a gig we use no amps so the entire chain is heard and output 3 does nothing. It all works perfectly.

 

[Chace90]

Yeah, I've used mine for at least 4 gigs now. Hasn't crashed once. Granted I'd say I'm not really pushing it from a DSP standpoint. But it's been stable.

 

[Barticus]

Interesting... I was thinking of this: I use the pitch shifter on pretty much all my custom presets... I have a suspicion that's the cause for a lot of the crashes.

I also use the pitch shifter on several presets but only engage it when needed. I’ve also not experienced issues thus far.

 

[Cruizer8]

I'm curious regarding your use of the Sweet Foot PSU and the Anagram. Are you running a number of blocks in your presets? Does it feel stable? Any other questions I should be asking?
FWIW, I'm running a Line 6 HXFX now, looking for a new power supply but want to be sure it will be adequate when I upgrade to an Anagram in the not so distant future.
thanks

The preset I use the most has about 10 blocks in it - pitch shifter, a few diff boosts and drives, some EQ and amp/cab sims. It has been stable for me without any restarts or crashes across 3 gigs and 5 rehearsals so far. I have also messed around with other complicated patches without issue, but never more than 20-30 min, so I'm not sure about long term use. The only issue I have had with the Sweet Foot is due to the MarkBass Compressore. I had the builder add a 12V/1A port for it, but the compressor has an inrush current greater than 1A, so it can be a bit finicky at times.

 

[Cruizer8]

wanted to ask all you brave folks who are already using the Anagram for live work ... what are you running your signal into ?
just FOH with monitors ?
bass amp/cab and FOH ?
IEM and FOH ?
???

This would apply to any modeler really. I'm guessing that after you set up a solid working block in the Anagram, where it goes from there would have a meaningful impact on the final sound. Straight into FOH with monitors will probable be different than running into an amp & cab with its inherent tone shaping. I can imagine that the Anagram (and other modelers) would be outstanding for pure IEM gigs with great FOH support.

anyway, still very interested and wanted to know what you all are doing for the full live sound.

I split my signal in the Anagram so that the 1/4 out goes to my Orange OB1-500/OBC112 before the amp/cab/EQ and then a full signal including the amp/cab/EQ goes from the XLR to our IEM rack. I have a capture of my onstage amp inside the Anagram, so doing it this way just lets me have a backup stage monitor in case something goes wrong with the IEM's. As a bonus, it makes it easy to practice with a different amp without turning off a bunch of blocks.

And looking at a bunch of other replies, sounds like it's a common way to route with these. When I had the HX stomp, I wanted to do the same thing, but I always had trouble getting it to work the way I wanted. The routing options on the Anagram were what pushed me over the edge to try one.

 

[bruno40gr]

The preset I use the most has about 10 blocks in it - pitch shifter, a few diff boosts and drives, some EQ and amp/cab sims.

How do you distribute your block combinations across 3 scenes?
Having that issue and I'm finding it rather limiting.

 

[Spblat]

Weird how we differ in our experiences. To me, this has been the best pitch shifter I've ever used. Before, my standard was the DigiTech Drop... Colored the sound noticeably... The HX Stomp version had lots of tracking issues, and used way too much DSP... Honestly, the Anagram's has been perfect for my needs.

Yeah same here, I’m coming from Digitech Drop too. Funny thing happened the other day while my iPad and iPhone were melting in the sun. When I moved my iPad stand closer to shade, it dragged an XLR cable across one of my anagram’s knobs. I didn’t know it at the time but it changed my (always active) pitch shifter from 0 to -4 semitones.

Then we started the next tune. I got weird looks for a few bars before I figured out what had happened and started transposing. But the *sound* was great

 

[hitman9696]

Yeah same here, I’m coming from Digitech Drop too. Funny thing happened the other day while my iPad and iPhone were melting in the sun. When I moved my iPad stand closer to shade, it dragged an XLR cable across one of my anagram’s knobs. I didn’t know it at the time but it changed my (always active) pitch shifter from 0 to -4 semitones.

Then we started the next tune. I got weird looks for a few bars before I figured out what had happened and started transposing. But the *sound* was great

Happens to me all the time! Playing live, we're changing tuning regularly. Despite my best efforts to concentrate and remember to adjust the pitch after a song, I get carried away and forget, and experience the same looks from the band...

I programed banks on the Anagram to each represent a specific tuning. Maybe because it was new and I was still tinkering with it, I didn't screw up a song start once lol

What a great time we're living in technologically that we have access to these little miracle machines. The pitch shifter alone has been a game changer. No more messing with tunings, carrying extra instruments, pedals, etc. Fantastic innovation.

 

[gtirard]

For those of you who don't follow the NAM thread, but are interested in NAM bass content for your Anagram, I've just posted the captures of my bass amps, preamps and pedal on Tone3000.

 

[SquareWaveSymph]

Is anybody using the mono to stereo FX loop and can answer me a quick question? I kind of expected the fx loop block to behave like the split block, when set to mono send stereo return, and open up a second row of blocks where I can put a second amp etc., but it doesn‘t seem to do that. Do I have to put a seperate split block after the FX loop? Or does the Anagram sum the stereo signal from the FX loop back to mono? Someone please enlighten me.

I was planning to put my pedalboard in the loop and split to stereo from there, which only makes sense if I can use different signal chains after the return.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Cruizer8]

How do you distribute your block combinations across 3 scenes?
Having that issue and I'm finding it rather limiting.

Right now I am not actually using scenes, I mostly use it in stomp mode. So far I don't have more than 3 or 4 blocks that I need to engage/disengage and I can add 2 blocks to one footswitch to toggle between 2 of them if needed. I also don't think I need more than that during a single song, so I would probably just create a new preset then.

The only quirk is that with the pitch shifter if I want to drop by more than a half step I need to bend over and twist the knob to what I need. It has worked fine so far, but at some point I may end up with a midi switch to make it easier.

 

[gustobassman]

Finally got the ship notice on mine. Will be in my hands tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing what this can do in person and not on a video.