Darkglass Anagram - NAM profile player & multieffects unit

16:13 in Leo's video.... DLC incoming

"This could be considered as a hardware platform which can be used both for bass or guitar and this is especially true if there is going to be in the future a sort of marketplace where other manufacturers could add effects for the anagram as Darkglass told me should happen in the future"
 
I feel the same frustration I felt for teenage engineering OP-1 release. Nice product, nice design, high quality, but for a niche market. Very limited use for my case. I mean a nice box that can load NAM for 1100€ when ToneX pedal can do the same for much less. And let’s face it, while NAM is unarguably better and accurate by a small margin compared to ToneX modeling, ToneX cloud (tonet) is a gold mine. I find at least 2-3 great new tones per day. Not the case on tz3000 for now, and you have to download the nam, then dezip it, then load into you nam plugin (searching in downloads file system) and trying them. If it’s ok, don’t forget to put them into a new folder that will contain 1 model for many cases)
I mean I have the strange feel that this ecosystem will slowly die when ToneX 2 will be released with more accurate capture/ and or other trusted companies like NDSP. No doubt they’ll fight back with a more powerful device, and more accurate capture tech. And it’s even not mentioning Kemper we all feel it’s sleeping but they probably working on something.

So purchasing the anagram for what it could be in the next 3-4 years is a bet K will let others do, for now.

Of course they can figure it out, and ask MOD audio to bring a guitar oriented version that could easily do the job
 
Audio Transformer said:
Not the case on tz3000 for now, and you have to download the nam, then dezip it, then load into you nam plugin (searching in downloads file system) and trying them.
Click to expand...
That's not true - you can actually audition models in Tone3000 online; even if a pack has several models inside, you can audition them all from the browser.
 
Audio Transformer said:
I feel the same frustration I felt for teenage engineering OP-1 release. Nice product, nice design, high quality, but for a niche market. Very limited use for my case. I mean a nice box that can load NAM for 1100€ when ToneX pedal can do the same for much less. And let’s face it, while NAM is unarguably better and accurate by a small margin compared to ToneX modeling, ToneX cloud (tonet) is a gold mine. I find at least 2-3 great new tones per day. Not the case on tz3000 for now, and you have to download the nam, then dezip it, then load into you nam plugin (searching in downloads file system) and trying them. If it’s ok, don’t forget to put them into a new folder that will contain 1 model for many cases)
I mean I have the strange feel that this ecosystem will slowly die when ToneX 2 will be released with more accurate capture/ and or other trusted companies like NDSP. No doubt they’ll fight back with a more powerful device, and more accurate capture tech. And it’s even not mentioning Kemper we all feel it’s sleeping but they probably working on something.
Click to expand...
To me Tonex's Tone.net is filled with so much crap content. Poor captures, captures of other modelers (often not marked as such either)...it's the same as Kemper where you are wading through a sea of crap to find something, or you buy some paid captures.

Of course, Tonezone3000 for NAM is going to have that same problem, it's just not as prolific yet because NAM is more "techy" so the people who just want to spam the system full of crap are not so easily in the game.

I don't think the accuracy differences are a major driver for which platform to choose, cost is the biggest factor and Tonex is winning big time on that.

The biggest benefit for NAM is its cross-platform compatibility - at least in theory. The more devices there are that can load NAM captures and run them accurately, the better because it means you don't have to abandon your captures just because you want a different device with a different feature set.

Audio Transformer said:
So purchasing the anagram for what it could be in the next 3-4 years is a bet K will let others do, for now.
Click to expand...
Totally agree with that. I don't think the price is unreasonable, but as a guitarist who plays a bit of bass it's not a product that is interesting to me in its current form.
 


This confirms what I said earlier: They believe that aiming it for bassists is a good idea due to the lack of bass-specific multifx options. We'll see how that works out.

In terms of UI, there's a lot to like:
  • Quick params for each block in the preset view. I don't think these can be assigned with the current fw, but should be sensible choices.
  • Easy reset to default for each param by clicking the knob in block edit view. Fractal Audio, I asked for this shit years ago!
  • You can even save your own default state for the params.
  • Fast access to global settings by holding the last knob button. Good mixer for all ins/outs, and a decent global EQ with a realtime analyzer.
  • There's a "Bindings view" that is like Fractal's Perform pages. You can assign up to 6 params from any block into it for quick access. While I think 6 is pretty low, it's still better than nothing. If I were Darkglass, I'd promptly add more pages to that.
  • Routing and output options seem pretty capable, though not necessarily intuitive because they lack indicators for what e.g the Output block is doing without opening it.
Some of the bad stuff:
  • Amps and cabs together is a bit cluttered and will mean scrolling around to find what you want. I think those views could benefit from both horizontal and vertical scrolling. E.g scroll vertically between amps and cabs, then horizontally to choose the model.
  • Cabs seem to be pretty basic. I can see on the stock cabs you can pick a cab, mic and position from a list, but this is about the same level as the cab block on my Hotone Ampero 2 Stomp.
  • IR loader doesn't seem to have low/high cut features.
  • Scenes can't change NAM captures or IRs within a block so you will need a copy of the block for a different sound.
  • It seems you can only see the name of a model by scrolling it into view. You'll have to rely a lot on the icons to remember what is what - especially a problem on cabs that can look somewhat similar.
  • There seems to be no way to distinguish two of the same block. E.g NAM block 1, 2 and 3 all look the same. That always sucks, hopefully Darkglass fixes that in an update.
Overall, it has a lot of the pros and cons of other devices on the market. I like that it's at least a different form factor and despite the long and narrow screen, seems to work fairly well.

Being able to run 3 NAM captures at once is pretty impressive.

I could see this being popular for bassists who want to build complex signal chains. How significant portion of bassists that is...I have no idea.
 
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Has been said already, but I also think that this is too expensive for a 3 button unit. And if I was a bass player, I'd possibly do the same as many guitar players and just get an HX Stomp (unless they have some seriously ass kicking bass FX on this one).
And as far as myself and captures are concerned, as long as nobody comes up with a capturing block featuring similar things as the one in Genome (which is just most excellent IMO), I'm out of all of the capturing biz anyway.
 
ragingplatypi said:
Maybe the price just reflects the smaller market.
Click to expand...

This. People at Darkglass are not stupid.

I still feel most are angry at the Anagram for not being what they expected it to be. If i were a bassist, i'd be all over this device.
 
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Sascha Franck said:
And if I was a bass player, I'd possibly do the same as many guitar players and just get an HX Stomp
Click to expand...

^ Bingo ^

As of today @ Sweetwater.

-> HX Stomp $699 pp
-> Anagram $1,199 pp
-> Morningstar MC6 MK2 $229 [direct from maker]

-> Anagram - as best I can tell - has 6 x Different Bass Amps [maybe 7 (?) ]
-> HX Stomp has 12 x Different Bass Amps with 16 x Different Amp Channels - they are:-

Ampeg B-15NF - Based on: Ampeg® B-15NF Portaflex®
Ampeg SVT Nrm - Based on: Ampeg® SVT®
Ampeg SVT Brt - Based on: Ampeg® SVT®
Ampeg SVT-4 PRO - Based on: Ampeg® SVT-4 Pro
US Dripman Norm - Based on: Fender Bassman (Silverface)
Woody Blue - Based on: Acoustic® 360
Agua 51 - Based on: Aguilar® DB751
Mandarin Bass200 - Based on: Orange AD200 MkIII
Cali Bass - Based on: MESA/Boogie® M9 Carbine
Cali 400 Ch1 - Based on: MESA/Boogie® Bass 400+
Cali 400 Ch2 - Based on: MESA/Boogie® Bass 400+
Gall Cougar 800 - Based on: Gallien-Krueger® GK 800RB
Del Sol 300 - Based on: Sunn® Coliseum 300
Busy One Ch1 - Based on: Pearce BC-1
Busy One Ch2 - Based on: Pearce BC-1
Busy One Jump - Based on: Pearce BC-1

-> HX Stomp - Massive Effects list / Cab List / Mic List.... everything component modeled - very rich/mature/up to date modeling

You could buy the HX Stomp + MC6 MK 2 and have a very, very compact 9 x FSW Rig [not 3 x FSW] for $928 and still have $271 in your pocket.

The more I look at this product at this price point, the less it makes sense for Bass players.

And who the f*ck knows how long it will take the Anagram to be FW developed, bug-fixed and added too as deeply and maturely as the HX Stomp (?) ... and frankly, there is no guarantee it will

Musician Rule 1 - Always buy your gear for what it does today - not what you think or hope or expect it *might* one day do
Alternate "Music Gear Forums" Rule 1 - " .... but it can run static NAM Captures .... "

Sometimes, its just too easy ;)

Time to take some more tablets .....
 
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