Darkglass Anagram

[juice]

I feel too invested in the line 6 architecture to change I think. I keep looking at the quad cortex but can’t justify the investment of cash or time tbh. Bought a darkglass adam this week and having patched that into the Helix LT I don’t feel I’m missing out at the moment  (and I have a dual purpose expression pedal). Will keep an eye on everyone’s reactions in this forum and 6month/12month in reviews once the hypes died down….

[Greg Edwards69]

1 hour ago, juice said:

I feel too invested in the line 6 architecture to change I think. I keep looking at the quad cortex but can’t justify the investment of cash or time tbh. Bought a darkglass adam this week and having patched that into the Helix LT I don’t feel I’m missing out at the moment  (and I have a dual purpose expression pedal). Will keep an eye on everyone’s reactions in this forum and 6month/12month in reviews once the hypes died down….

Im thinking along similar lines. I tend not t be an early adopter and wait for things to mature a bit more. That said, for a v1 device and firmware, this seems pretty mature as it is. 
 

I’m still enjoying my helix LT and will continue to for the time being, but it is a bigger device than I’d ideally like, however. 

[joel406]

2 hours ago, Kev said:

Looking forward to some unbiased thoughts!

 

Still working through the deep dive video, mega impressed with the bloke doing it, probably the clearest explanation of a complex device i've heard in a while, thorough but easy to listen to.  It's a really interesting device, on the face of it i probably would have bought it over the Quad Cortex, but it'll take a hell of a lot to make me want to bother changing.  Still, if Neural keep ignoring bassists, its going to be tempting if its as good as it seems!

Well, I have 2 Quad Cortex. I recommend it for bass. Theres plenty in there. I use a few external pedals I prefer like a compressor, Chorus, envelope and the Pog III. The other QC runs all that and a Pog II. I have way too many boards now. If they all didn't sound so f'n great I'd stick with just one. But hey! Where's the fun in that?

[joel406]

Sorry fellow low enders. I seem to have bought the last Anagram Sweetwater had. I suspect most here order from a more European based distributor. Don't know how their stock is doing. But I consider myself lucky. Yes, I have a tracking number.

[Russ]

5 hours ago, juice said:

I feel too invested in the line 6 architecture to change I think. I keep looking at the quad cortex but can’t justify the investment of cash or time tbh. Bought a darkglass adam this week and having patched that into the Helix LT I don’t feel I’m missing out at the moment  (and I have a dual purpose expression pedal). Will keep an eye on everyone’s reactions in this forum and 6month/12month in reviews once the hypes died down….

Line 6 haven't updated the Helix hardware in years. It's starting to look a bit... tired. I thought they'd be chomping at the bit to release an upgraded version after the Quad Cortex took off, but no. 

 

I want to see an upgraded version of the POD Go - just stuff the guts of the HX Stomp in there and you've got a solid, compact single-box gigging solution, complete with expression pedal and built-in wireless. The current POD Go is a bit underpowered compared to the Helix or even the HX Stomp. A few more bass-oriented models wouldn't go amiss either, especially preamps. 

[tayste_2000]

6 hours ago, Russ said:

Line 6 haven't updated the Helix hardware in years. It's starting to look a bit... tired. I thought they'd be chomping at the bit to release an upgraded version after the Quad Cortex took off, but no. 

 

I want to see an upgraded version of the POD Go - just stuff the guts of the HX Stomp in there and you've got a solid, compact single-box gigging solution, complete with expression pedal and built-in wireless. The current POD Go is a bit underpowered compared to the Helix or even the HX Stomp. A few more bass-oriented models wouldn't go amiss either, especially preamps. 

 

Isn’t that the HX One?

 

For me where Line 6 went wrong with that is not making it like the Zoom MS series, where you can have a few fx in a chain and simple turn the chain on and off. I understand why they didn’t, it would make the HX one too much of a value proposition to the Stomp.

 

After that, as most of the market is guitar focused, they just don’t seem to care about XLR outs.

[krispn]

New update to the nano cortex - 2.0 software which might draw some more bassists who just need a few essentials in a gig bag friendly package with iPad interface. Looks good. 

[Greg Edwards69]

7 hours ago, Russ said:

Line 6 haven't updated the Helix hardware in years. It's starting to look a bit... tired. I thought they'd be chomping at the bit to release an upgraded version after the Quad Cortex took off, but no. 

 

I want to see an upgraded version of the POD Go - just stuff the guts of the HX Stomp in there and you've got a solid, compact single-box gigging solution, complete with expression pedal and built-in wireless. The current POD Go is a bit underpowered compared to the Helix or even the HX Stomp. A few more bass-oriented models wouldn't go amiss either, especially preamps. 

IIRC, Line 6 said they planned for the Helix platform to last around 10 years before being succeeded by the next generation. Since then, they have been great with firmware updates and have added some fantastic features and models. I'm quite grateful for that sort of roadmap, as I don't want to have to replace my hardware every other year to get new features. Quite a brave move for a hardware company. And let's not forget, the prices of new units are the same as they were 10 years ago.

 

That 10-year estimate expires this year, so I expect to see something new from them soon. I suspect they have not been sitting on their laurels and will have a few exciting things for Helix 2.0.

Edited 8 hours ago by Greg Edwards69

[LukeFRC]

2 hours ago, Greg Edwards69 said:

IIRC, Line 6 said they planned for the Helix platform to last around 10 years before being succeeded by the next generation. Since then, they have been great with firmware updates and have added some fantastic features and models. I'm quite grateful for that sort of roadmap, as I don't want to have to replace my hardware every other year to get new features. Quite a brave move for a hardware company. And let's not forget, the prices of new units are the same as they were 10 years ago.

 

That 10-year estimate expires this year, so I expect to see something new from them soon. I suspect they have not been sitting on their laurels and will have a few exciting things for Helix 2.0.

+1 

I would rather a bit of hardware with a roadmap of updates and long life than reactive bringing out the next big thing every year or so. 

[BEADist]

2 hours ago, Greg Edwards69 said:

IIRC, Line 6 said they planned for the Helix platform to last around 10 years before being succeeded by the next generation. Since then, they have been great with firmware updates and have added some fantastic features and models. I'm quite grateful for that sort of roadmap, as I don't want to have to replace my hardware every other year to get new features. Quite a brave move for a hardware company.

...

 

The Darkglass really did disappoint with their digital products so far. They released the same device three times, just with different colors and different software. It would have been nice if you were able to load the 'Infinity' software into the 'Adam' device , even if you would have to pay for the extra software.

[fretmeister]

9 hours ago, Russ said:

Line 6 haven't updated the Helix hardware in years. It's starting to look a bit... tired. I thought they'd be chomping at the bit to release an upgraded version after the Quad Cortex took off, but no. 

 

I want to see an upgraded version of the POD Go - just stuff the guts of the HX Stomp in there and you've got a solid, compact single-box gigging solution, complete with expression pedal and built-in wireless. The current POD Go is a bit underpowered compared to the Helix or even the HX Stomp. A few more bass-oriented models wouldn't go amiss either, especially preamps. 

 

Kemper have never upgraded their hardware (unless you count the power amp version) and it's significantly older than the Helix and still sells well.

I suppose they'll do it when the sales numbers drop enough.

 

New hardware usually just means more DSP rather than new physical features. 

[Greg Edwards69]

1 hour ago, BEADist said:

 

The Darkglass really did disappoint with their digital products so far. They released the same device three times, just with different colors and different software. It would have been nice if you were able to load the 'Infinity' software into the 'Adam' device , even if you would have to pay for the extra software.

I don't know enough about Darkglass' products, especially their digital devices, to make an informed comment, but as a totally new platform, one would hope they will work on developing and supporting it well.

 

That said, on paper, it appears to be capable of doing everything my Helix LT does, but in a more compact form factor, which is very welcome. I have considered downsizing to an HX Stomp previously, but I would struggle with the limited block count for some specific situations.

[fretmeister]

15 minutes ago, Greg Edwards69 said:

I don't know enough about Darkglass' products, especially their digital devices, to make an informed comment, but as a totally new platform, one would hope they will work on developing and supporting it well.

 

That said, on paper, it appears to be capable of doing everything my Helix LT does, but in a more compact form factor, which is very welcome. I have considered downsizing to an HX Stomp previously, but I would struggle with the limited block count for some specific situations.

 

I recently got a Stomp to go with my Helix rack and I'm quite enjoying the challenge of making my bigger patches work with a single path on the stomp. It takes some effort, but I feel I'm getting to know the HX system all over again.

[BEADist]

Depending on the use-case the 8 blocks on the Stomp are not that many. For example if you want to replicate a DG X7 you need:

 

1. compressor

2. LPF

3. HPF

4. a distortion

5. EQ

 

If you then want a noise-gate,  a volume-pedal and some amp/cab thingy for FOH you are already on its limits.

 

To me the biggest drawback of such a 'replication' is, you have to surf 5 different block menus and their pages to fine-tune it. Not a nice thing to do at a rehearsal (I did this with a HX Effects that has a superior UI compared to the Stomp, still not nice).

 

The Anagram is MUCH better with such tasks having the configurable rotaries!

[Acebassmusic]

Oooh....this Anagram looks to be a very interesting new toy....er I mean specific tool I need to find out more about. 🤣

 

The basic information I can find eludes to it being a very flexible and powerful pedal with many, many IR / amp / mic / effects. However I cannot seem to find a full list of what effects / IR / amps etc. it has onboard or what can be uploaded onto it from the Darkglass suite. Anybody know where this info is?

 

I downloaded the "Darkglass Suite for Windows (5.5.8) - Anagram Support" to see if it gave any info. Once installed it asks to plug in my Darkglass product (which I dont own) or select from the dropdown Simulator options....which doesn't contain anything about the Anagram.

 

I'm a bit reluctant to splash out a lot of dosh on a piece of equipment that I'm not sure what it can actually do for me. Anyone got any idea?

 

Edited 3 hours ago by Acebassmusic

[fretmeister]

1 hour ago, BEADist said:

Depending on the use-case the 8 blocks on the Stomp are not that many. For example if you want to replicate a DG X7 you need:

 

1. compressor

2. LPF

3. HPF

4. a distortion

5. EQ

 

If you then want a noise-gate,  a volume-pedal and some amp/cab thingy for FOH you are already on its limits.

 

To me the biggest drawback of such a 'replication' is, you have to surf 5 different block menus and their pages to fine-tune it. Not a nice thing to do at a rehearsal (I did this with a HX Effects that has a superior UI compared to the Stomp, still not nice).

 

The Anagram is MUCH better with such tasks having the configurable rotaries!

 

 

You've used too many blocks. The LPF and HPF are in a single block. But I take your point.

[Greg Edwards69]

This might help as far as what effect and amp blocks it has. I don't think it's a complete list, though. I hope in time the Anagram will be added as demo in the app so prospective owners can see what it can do before buying.

[BEADist]

33 minutes ago, fretmeister said:

 

 

You've used too many blocks. The LPF and HPF are in a single block. But I take your point.

 

No, the LPF must be on the clean and compressor path, the HPF must be on the distortion path if you want to replicate the DG X7. But indeed it was just an example.

[joeabass]

22 hours ago, joel406 said:

Wanna hear something funny. I just saw this. Like 30 minutes ago. Read like the first 3 post. Ordered it. It arrives tomorrow. So... pedal board number 6?

Bought one too, just arrived 

[tayste_2000]

12 minutes ago, joeabass said:

Bought one too, just arrived 

Exciting