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Microtubes X
- Thread starter Frank_Raider
- Start date
- Dec 10, 2008
- 2,341
- 5,822
- Disclosures
- Douglas Castro, Founder: darkglass.com
Hi, I answered similar questions on a separate thread, so I hope you don’t mind some modded copy/pasting to save some time:
For your first question: It’s important to clarify that both LPF sand HPF ranges overlap on most of the mid range, so it is entirely possible to dial in many sounds where there’s an actual crossover, that being said: should you pick cut-off frequencies that might result in a mid scoop, we have active mid controls on both pedals, so you can dial back some of the register you might miss by dialing the HPF and LPF to give you the right amount of grind/definition and fatness (respectively).
2) It’s actually a great question and a lot will depend on your preference.
The X series have the highest amount of gain on tap out of any pedal we’ve ever made, so stacking might not be necessary to those who want to see the world burn.
Like with many things there won’t be any right or wrong order other than what works best for you.
As for your bonus question: the X series probably cover the most ground, and they can be tweaked into resembling most of our pedals (the Omega side on the Alpha Omega is still a tough one to mimic without that specific circuitry).
But you can probably dial it to approach most of our Microtubes pedals/Alpha sounds, but IMO it excels at being its own thing altogether.
I’m as eager as you guys to get these out onto your hands and see what you can do with it.
The Darkglass Factory is working at full speed, we are aiming to start shipping to distributors on Monday.
The MBD1 low-passes the clean blend (at around 1kHz, I think?), which blends clean lows/mids with the distorted signal, however the distortion section is full range, so there's no way to isolate distortion on the mids/highs: the lows will be distorted too. The Darkglass X pedals are true multiband: the lows will remain completely clean, no matter how much dirt you put on the highs.
The X filters allow you to determine the highest frequency of the clean lows and the lowest frequency of the dirty highs. Instead of a single crossover point, you get one for each band: this allows you to leave a gap between lows and highs, or have them overlap. Or you could set the filters to the same frequency, of course.
Don't know anything about COG.
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I see now. I was assuming the "X" series might be along the lines of a crossover preamp rather than a full on distortion pedal. I'm not sure now where the X would fit unless I played for bands like Meshuggah, lol. It'll still be interesting to check out the demos to learn more
Well, "highest gain on tap..." doesn't necessarily imply that it starts at 11 and goes up from there! But I understand your concern. Can't wait to take mine for a spin once it arrives.
Well, "highest gain on tap..." doesn't necessarily imply that it starts at 11 and goes up from there! But I understand your concern. Can't wait to take mine for a spin once it arrives.
Haha Fuzzbass sir you're a bad influence! I've been trying to talk myself out of it, for now. But, you're usually right... "GAS-X" is starting to take on a different meaning
I'm curious if Doug tried to use the A/O distortion circuit in this as well, and/or decided the Cmos fit better, or whatever.
Just for curiosities' sake
@Darkglass
Just for curiosities' sake
@Darkglass
I have recently fallen head over heels in love with the Vintage Microtubes. The only thing that could pry open the walls of my heart is a Vintage X-over.
The two brief demos I heard in this thread put the X much more in the modern/high-gain territory. While you say it can adapt, I remain skeptical that it has the warmer, more subtle DNA of the Vintage.
So, any thoughts or plans to make a VµTX, ideally in the smaller form factor?
I wouldn't trust those demos as the only tone, or even close to it.
Oh well ... all this biamp in a pedal talk has got me interested. I have a custom Dunwich in the works and even though I’ve been resisting, now this.
All the Alpha Omega demos that I remember featured higher gain crunch, but the AO will do gentle overdrive and some users said they love to run it that way.
The idea behind the X is what I love most about my Laser Cannon HD. Ever since I've been able to isolate the band I want to distort and mix back in my clean, my bass overdrive needs have been over. To my ears, there is no better way to do it. A lot of circuits with clean blends have global eq's which affect the clean signal as well as the distorted. To me this is the wrong approach. Weirdly enough, ever since I've been able to split frquencies, I find I only distort the upper end of the high frequencies only and leave the rest clean. This is I think how the new Dug works also. I'll probably skip on the DG because the laser cannon is so much more flexible, but I'm glad to see more of us coming to the realization that frequency splitting is the way forward with bass distortion/overdrive.
Curious about the Laser Cannon HD. What makes you say it's "so much more flexible"? Looks like a super versatile distortion for sure, but the tone shaping options on the MTX look like they give the user more control and finesse over blending of the signals and where to apply the distortion on the frequency spectrum. After watching a demo, I will say I'm a fan of the seemingly throaty/grunty breakup on the LCHD. Super interested to hear some user reviews once the MTX hits the market...
The use of the term "so much more flexible" was a mistake. I have never played an X, but from what I can see the LCHD seems more feature rich. It has LP/BP/HP filter for the distortion sound with full sweep of each, and it also has three clipping diode options. The clean sound is unaffected by the controls so you really are dialing in a perfect distortion sound to lay on top of your clean. so I think it has the ability to just simply get more tones. Now whether you like the tones are another thing entirely.
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This is where I jump off the trolley. I've not been thrilled with layering distortion on dry/clean tones, unless the dry/clean tone has some EQ altering it.
I've not played either device, so I can't speak to any real-world differences.
I have played with trying to make a distortion crossover with an IE Divaricator (I mentioned this earlier), and I wasn't thrilled with the result. Part of the problem was that creating a split signal (crossover) is that it resulted in a gain reduction for the signal hitting the distortion pedal in the loop (since you are cutting off the low frequency content), which made the distortion respond differently/oddly.
Edit - I'm assuming the DG design (and other pedals with internal crossovers) account for this in the gain structure and EQ.
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Does anyone have any experience with Riff City Guitar?
They have preorders on the X as well, and I want to use Affirm, which they have.
They have preorders on the X as well, and I want to use Affirm, which they have.
