Darkglass Anagram - NAM profile player & multieffects unit

[laxu]

I think it´s difficult for a product like this to succeed.

If it´s just a NAM loader with effects, Well... it´s VERY expensive.

If it´s offering plugin functionality... eeehhhmm... danger. To the date, I´ve known no unit with that capability that has been REALLY useful. MOD devices were cool, but actually were not too useful live, honestly (and plugins were just Linux ones, which isn´t bad per se, however it´s very limiting). Web based editor was very cool... but it´s far from being a good "on-the-fly" editor for tweaking in a live situation.

Then, that Paint Audio CE-1, which I always said it wasn´t to even launch properly, is more or less disappeared (maybe I´m wrong).

It´s also that mini-PC based one (don´t remember the name), but I don´t know... for me, all those units are more or less the same as using a laptop, with some pros (a couple) and cons (a lot). They are not a dedicated unit by any means.

I agree it's hard to beat the laptop in that scenario because making plugin UIs designed for desktops/laptops work on a touchscreen is difficult without being the manufacturer of the plugin. You'd end up with a modest power computer and audio interface slapped together with a touchscreen and footswitches.

Even if the Darkglass can run plugins, I don't really see how it gets around the UI issue other than requiring you to use a computer to configure it, maybe exposing a few controls on the UI like you can get in a DAW with a generic UI.

Quad Cortex, as We all know, is drowning in the task of making it plugin capable, even limiting it to their own plugins.

It's not the same thing as they are basically replicating their plugins' gear as QC components, rather than making actual plugins run on the QC.

 

[BenIfin]

Maybe they feel that the bass multifx unit market is underrepresented (which it is) while the guitar counterpart is quite crowded? So make a bit more niche product for the bass players, see how it does on the market.

Darkglass is after all primarily known as a bass gear brand.

I don't know much about the Bass market, but I would imagine that even in the Bass market, the demand for unit like this would be very niche ?

Which kind of begs the question, if it is (?) Bass only, they will presumably have to sell a lot of these to warrant its development from Day 1 ..... that seems like a very tall order to me ?

It would be incredulous to me, if a unit like this was not both, Bass and Guitar. find out soon enough.

Running plugins ... no chance ... unless they are paid for proprietary plugins built by Darkglass specifically and only for this unit.

 

[Lysander]

I think you're all way too focused on the NAM & guitar angle, folks Darkglass makes bass products, and this is a bass multi-FX.

Sure, $1000+ sounds a bit steep, but i'm sure such a device could become popular among bassists, who are normally a bit neglected in this market. Doesn't hurt that Darkglass stuff is usually pretty great sounding, too.

 

[DLC86]

EDIT: it seems they made the video private just after I shared it... but I was able to watch it and it's a 24min long german review made on bass where they don't even mention NAM

 

[Orvillain]

It would be funny if the NAM thing was just total bullshit

 

[Lysander]

It would be funny if the NAM thing was just total bullshit

Now that i think of it, the only NAM reference was a passing comment by Leo Gibson...

 

[Audio Transformer]

Now that i think of it, the only NAM reference was a passing comment by Leo Gibson...

In fact every hype bricks came from Leo’s tease.
His video was featuring the whole product, in a guitar environment, and mentioned NAM.
So maybe Darkglass is making a Guitar/Bass unit, that would be logical if they start making nam related stuff at this price. Most nam are models of guitar amps, and guitar pedals (gain)
Of course if it’s only a bass unit with only bass oriented fx, Dimehead NAM player would still be a cheaper/better solution, with an HX Stomp

 

[Orvillain]

The thing is... Leo isn't a bassist.... so why would they want him to demo this unit or leak it or whatever???

Nothing makes sense actually.

 

[BenIfin]

Yep. If he's spent 2+ weeks teasing a Box that is also a Nam Player and it -isnt- a Nam Player that's going to be a pretty massive hit for his YT channel and his YT credibility

 

[DLC86]

A few screenshots from the video, these are the amp models (all seem to be bass amps), cabs (those 4 icons represent 4 categories: bass cabs, guitar cabs, artist cabs and user cabs) and the last one seems to be the nam player... even if the reviewer doesn't mention it

 

[DLC86]

The bass cabs category contains quite a few cab models where you can select different mics and 8 positions for each

Here are delays and reverbs

Here are drive models, hard to read but all seem to be bass specific... there's another nam loader listed here as well though

Eq and filters

And modulations

Blocks' parameters on screen map to the physical knobs and you can go thru pages by swiping left/right

 

[Orvillain]

Looks pretty cool actually

 

[Sascha Franck]

Looks pretty cool actually

Yeah. I absolutely like that there's 6 knobs on what is a pretty small unit. In case they mapped the most relevant parameters to the first page, editing should be amazingly fast.

 

[BenIfin]

I'll go out on a limb - there is a dedicated Bass Unit and a separate dedicated Guitar Unit - guitar unit is Silver - Bass Unit is a darker Gun Metal Gray

 

[laxu]

Yeah that's a cool and unique design. My concern is how quick it is to swap between what blocks you edit - a thing that always annoys me about most modelers. Select-Exit-Select-Exit etc is kinda annoying when you just want to edit the next or previous block or go back and forth between a few.

I'm always happy to see more physical knobs. Not sure how well it works in practice, but one issue could be that your hand is covering what you see on screen when the knobs are above the display instead of under it?

 

[2dor]

I'll go out on a limb - there is a dedicated Bass Unit and a separate dedicated Guitar Unit - guitar unit is Silver - Bass Unit is a darker Gun Metal Gray

Wouldn't make too much sense from an upkeep / financial POV. It's most likely a bass unit with:
- some effects that may work for guitar (reverb, delay, chorus, comp)
- IR loading
- NAM profile loading

 

[Sascha Franck]

Select-Exit-Select-Exit etc is kinda annoying when you just want to edit the next or previous block or go back and forth between a few.

Yeah, this. One of the reasons why you can still edit the HX Floor almost as fast as a touchscreen device (and maybe even faster) as soon as you've mapped your block's bypass to the switches. Touch, edit, touch next and edit. Very elegant, really, they pretty much nailed it regarding that aspect.

 

[BenIfin]

Wouldn't make too much sense from an upkeep / financial POV. It's most likely a bass unit with:
- some effects that may work for guitar (reverb, delay, chorus, comp)
- IR loading
- NAM profile loading

Just speculating - if its mainly a Bass box .... meaning Amps are mainly Bass, the Drives are Bass focused, the EQ Ranges are Bass Focused and perhaps even the Comps are Bass focused .... that means its going to be a very f*cking expensive box just to run one or two NAM Captures.

And on a very important note .... mulit-fx units these days need regular FW updates / fixes / additions etc.. [for free] to keep up to date ... do Darkglass / Korg have any history / form - good or bad - with this ?

 

[laxu]

Yeah, this. One of the reasons why you can still edit the HX Floor almost as fast as a touchscreen device (and maybe even faster) as soon as you've mapped your block's bypass to the switches. Touch, edit, touch next and edit. Very elegant, really, they pretty much nailed it regarding that aspect.

Yeah I love the capacitive switches for that. I really liked the Helix Floor user experience, just not the sheer size of it as I wanted a more desk-friendly device and Helix is just not it in any of its forms.

 

[Audio Transformer]

OFFICIAL :

« ANAGRAM is the new workstation developed by Darkglass to offer an advanced DSP platform, fully modular and specifically designed for managing the sound of electric bass in a professional context.

The device combines multi-effects, digital mixer, IR loader, and multichannel audio interface, with a customizable DSP block structure. Each preset (up to 126) allows the insertion of 12 blocks in series and 12 in parallel. The high-resolution touchscreen enables real-time drag-and-drop editing.

Compatibility with Neural Amp Modeler (NAM), support for user IRs, the three operating modes (Preset, Scene, Stomp), the integrated looper with waveform display, chromatic tuner, and global EQ make ANAGRAM a complete and flexible tool for the professional musician.

Connections include stereo input, two jack outputs, two balanced XLR PRE/POST, effects loops, MIDI In/Out, a USB-C port compatible with multichannel audio interfaces, and a headphone output. Everything is housed in a compact anodized aluminum chassis.

That’s the most frustrating thing that could happen to guitarist