Darkglass Anagram Is The Ultimate, NAM-Loading Bass Multi-Effect Pedal
Competition for Kemper, Line 6, IKM, and NeuralDSP!
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Darkglass Anagram Is The Ultimate, NAM-Loading Bass Multi-Effect Pedal · Source: Darkglass
It plays NAM profiles, loads up to 24 effects, and comes with a touchscreen. The Darkglass Anagram is here! Is this the ultimate bass platform?
Darkglass Anagram: Powerful Bass Multi-Effect with NAM Loader
Darkglass amps and pedals are among the best in the bass world in terms of quality and advanced features. But with the Darkglass Anagram, even by Darkglass standards, they’re taking several steps into the future. Because this multi-effects pedal can do much more than load a virtual effects chain.
There’s a powerful NAM loader inside. NAM is the free amp profiling format that has been giving Tonex, Kemper, and Quad Cortex a run for their money with its realistic modeling and rapidly growing community. This is by no means the first pedal to feature NAM; the Dimehead has been offering NAM (Neural Amp Modeling) profile loading as a hardware solution for some time now – just without effects and a touchscreen.
More affordable brands such as Valeton, Nux, and Hotone also increasingly offer multi-effect pedals that can load NAM profiles. However, if you look at reviews and forum discussions, there seem to be considerable differences in quality. This is because playing NAM profiles on hardware as realistically as they sound in software solutions, such as the NAM plugin, requires a lot of CPU power. Like the Dimehead, the Anagram comes with a processor that can handle this.
NAM Profiles – What Is is All About?
If you haven’t come across NAM (not to be confused with NAMM) in the world of amp profiling yet, make sure to check it out! The plugin for your DAW is free, open-source, and the community and available captures are rapidly growing. Second, in many cases, the modeling quality is at least on par with Kemper and NeuralDSP.
The Darkglass Anagram was developed in collaboration with the specialists at MOD Audio, known for the MOD Dwarf. This multi-effect also features a NAM Loader, which can load standard NAM and AIDA-X profiles as well as impulse responses for cabs.
A six-core DSP chip enables extremely realistic processing of NAM profiles—and up to 24 effects in a single preset, with 12 parallel effects!
Amps, Cabs, Effects, And A Looper
But the Anagram is much more than “just” a high-quality NAM loader. The pedal contains a whole range of amps, effects, and cabs. These can be combined in two signal paths to form powerful multi-effect chains in the pedal—including the NAM Loader. Important for such an all-in-one solution: a tuner is also included, which you can activate by holding down footswitch A.
Footswitch B offers similar functionality. Here, you can activate the integrated looper. Unlike other Darkglass pedals, this feature alone makes the pedal appealing to more than just bassists. Live looping is just as popular among guitarists and vocalists!
As for the integrated effects, i.e. emulations of Darkglass’ own amps and cabs, various overdrives, distortion pedals, EQs, compressors, and filters, everything is primarily aimed at bassists, as you would expect from Darkglass. The modulation effects (chorus and flanger), delays, reverbs, and utilities are also geared more towards the low-frequency string section.
Connectivity
The Darkglass Anagram offers three footswitches for switching between presets and six multifunction dials for adjusting the settings of individual effects and amp profiles. To do this, you navigate through the menus and select parameters using the high-resolution 7-inch touchscreen display.
In terms of connectivity, all located on the top panel, the Anagram offers a 6.3 mm jack input, two jack and two XLR outputs, a send/return pair for an FX loop, a 3.5 mm headphone output, and MIDI in and MIDI out, also via 3.5 mm jack (TRS Type A). Connecting it to a computer is done via USB-C.
There, you can make further settings and load new NAM captures via the Darkglass Suite app. Incidentally, the FX loop can be switched between mono and stereo as desired, with the send output also serving as an optional connection for an expression pedal. The Anagram can also be powered via the USB-C port when using a power bank on the go. The pedal can also be an audio interface when connected to a computer.
How Much Does The Darkglass Anagram Cost?
You can order the Darkglass Anagram now from Thomann* for 1,079 euros.
More On The New Pedal From Darkglass
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