Darkglass Anagram

[markbunney]

Great, looking forward to seeing the video

[MrDinsdale]

11 minutes ago, Dood said:

 

As much as it would be nice to play along and say its because they know me, its for ma job; I'm going to give Anagram a thorough review and video for y'all!

 

 

 

 

 

 

but yeah, they know me 😂

Very excited to hear your thoughts.

 

I'm pretty confident ill be switching from the QC to the anagram, mostly for the smaller footprint.

 

It'd be interesting to hear how you find the capture process if you do delve in. I'm really not a fan of DG drives and was pretty underwhelmed at how few captures are available on tone3000. I’ve been spoilt by the Cortex Cloud and almost always being able to find captures of the thing I want or at least something very similar. 

[Killerfridge]

@Dood I'm keen to understand if the rumors about not being able to get a "driven" sound out of the SVT amp model is true

[Dood]

10 minutes ago, MrDinsdale said:

Very excited to hear your thoughts.

 

I'm pretty confident ill be switching from the QC to the anagram, mostly for the smaller footprint.

 

It'd be interesting to hear how you find the capture process if you do delve in. I'm really not a fan of DG drives and was pretty underwhelmed at how few captures are available on tone3000. I’ve been spoilt by the Cortex Cloud and almost always being able to find captures of the thing I want or at least something very similar. 

 

I've had Steve Atkinson's Neural Amp Modeller in my studio since it's early versions and it has been pretty impressive, though I've not captured any of my gear using the trainer yet! With the QC on the desk, it has just been easier to grab that. I'm still waiting to review ToneX too, so I must reconnect with my contact at IK soon. N.A.M's capture process requires more steps obviously as QC has everything in one box. I'm pretty sure that from a software point of view, Anagram could be capable of hosting the capture process as well as the Neural Amp Modeller, time will tell as more features are rolled out. 

[Dood]

17 minutes ago, Killerfridge said:

@Dood I'm keen to understand if the rumors about not being able to get a "driven" sound out of the SVT amp model is true

 

I'll keep an eye on this thread and add it to my To Do list.

 

 

Edited Thursday at 09:35 by Dood

[tauzero]

6 hours ago, LukeFRC said:

It’s Dood- he the kind of guy who doesn’t queue to get in a club…

 

The Phil and Holly of the bass world.

[bassmayhem]

Ooops! It is smaller than I expected...  My compressor as comparison...

[Hellzero]

9 hours ago, bassmayhem said:

Ooops! It is smaller than I expected...

Yep, and it's often the case with everything as these items seem to be reviewed by small people for that reason, to make you think they are bigger than expected. 😉

 

Enjoy your new toy. 😊

[Dood]

8 hours ago, Hellzero said:

Yep, and it's often the case with everything as these items seem to be reviewed by small people for that reason, to make you think they are bigger than expected. 😉

 

Enjoy your new toy. 😊

 

I'm 6'3" and sadly far from the bean-pole I used to me as a kid. The pedal in that case will look tiny.

[Dood]

On 15/05/2025 at 14:54, tauzero said:

 

The Phil and Holly of the bass world.

 

I had no idea it is viewed that I offer so little to the bass world. I am the 'daytime tv' of the low end, the Diet Coke, the low-fat spread, the slimmer-world shake, the 'Jaco only needed', the Turra to the Ostro.  

[bassmayhem]

On 15/05/2025 at 11:18, Killerfridge said:

@Dood I'm keen to understand if the rumors about not being able to get a "driven" sound out of the SVT amp model is true

The SVT amp model is clean, but with all the SVT's tonal DNA. The remedy is to put one of the overdrive blocks in front of the amp block and just hotten things up a bit. There is also a gain stage block, but I haven't tried that to drive the SVT block. Anyway, it sounds way better than all SVT modeling devices I've tried so far. I also downloaded and installed the free IR's from ShiftLine; their B15 cab simulation is my favourite so far. It gives that creamy tone I associate to old school cabs. I used it on the Quad Cortex and HX Stomp too. I sold them; one was too complicated for a guy like me, the other was a bit outdated and felt like a modeler. This one feels and sounds like the real deal.

 

So far I have made six presets (with scenes) based on the Noble preamp, the SVT and Gallien Krueger modelings. The poly octaver and envelope sound very good; all different octavers track very well. Chorus and flanger too. Better than on the other modelers I've used.

 

Also I try to tweak all presets to unity level. I set a bus compressor at the end of the dynamic blocks, only leaving the delay/reverb and speaker sim's after.

[MrDinsdale]

28 minutes ago, bassmayhem said:

The SVT amp model is clean, but with all the SVT's tonal DNA. The remedy is to put one of the overdrive blocks in front of the amp block and just hotten things up a bit. There is also a gain stage block, but I haven't tried that to drive the SVT block. Anyway, it sounds way better than all SVT modeling devices I've tried so far. I also downloaded and installed the free IR's from ShiftLine; their B15 cab simulation is my favourite so far. It gives that creamy tone I associate to old school cabs. I used it on the Quad Cortex and HX Stomp too. I sold them; one was too complicated for a guy like me, the other was a bit outdated and felt like a modeler. This one feels and sounds like the real deal.

 

So far I have made six presets (with scenes) based on the Noble preamp, the SVT and Gallien Krueger modelings. The poly octaver and envelope sound very good; all different octavers track very well. Chorus and flanger too. Better than on the other modelers I've used.

 

Also I try to tweak all presets to unity level. I set a bus compressor at the end of the dynamic blocks, only leaving the delay/reverb and speaker sim's after.

It'd be interesting to hear how you get on with overdriving the SVT, the post I read was that the model didn't distort like the real amp and just clipped. 

[bassmayhem]

28 minutes ago, MrDinsdale said:

It'd be interesting to hear how you get on with overdriving the SVT, the post I read was that the model didn't distort like the real amp and just clipped. 

Well, I do not drive it extremely, just to get it creamy. I don't fancy distorted bass that much. Just a bit of attitude.  

[MrDinsdale]

11 minutes ago, bassmayhem said:

Well, I do not drive it extremely, just to get it creamy. I don't fancy distorted bass that much. Just a bit of attitude.  

I think what they were saying though is that the model has infinite headroom so no matter how much you push the input it will just get louder until digital clipping which isn't fun. Are you sure its the SVT that is getting creamy or is it the overdrive?

 

Not meaning to be pedantic, just genuinely curious as I do tend to like a little more grit!

[LukeFRC]

6 hours ago, MrDinsdale said:

I think what they were saying though is that the model has infinite headroom so no matter how much you push the input it will just get louder until digital clipping which isn't fun. Are you sure its the SVT that is getting creamy or is it the overdrive?

 

Not meaning to be pedantic, just genuinely curious as I do tend to like a little more grit!

Isn’t that the nature of captures vs models? 
captures the SVT again with the gain up a load to have a more gainy version? 

[MrDinsdale]

15 minutes ago, LukeFRC said:

Isn’t that the nature of captures vs models? 
captures the SVT again with the gain up a load to have a more gainy version? 

This is the onboard model of the SVT, same with the GK. It could just be a capture under the hood though I suppose.

[MrDinsdale]

Although tbf you'd expect a capture to respond much more like the real thing when you push the input in most cases. 

[Killerfridge]

Yeah I mean if you compare it to the Quad Cortex models and captures:

 

Model: has "input" and "master" controls that both introduce distortion in slightly different ways (master sounds more wooly, like the power tubes overdriving). They are essentially simulations of the underlying circuits, so they simulate the effects of the preamp tubes and the power tubes

 

Capture: has a generic "input" that sounds very similar to the input control on the model, like changing the volume control on the instrument going into an amp set at a certain level. I can use it to clean up a "driven" SVT capture, or drive a "clean" capture. I imagine the NAM captures do the same thing/something very similar

[LukeFRC]

5 hours ago, MrDinsdale said:

Although tbf you'd expect a capture to respond much more like the real thing when you push the input in most cases. 

Depends how much gain the capturing thing has surely? Like it can capture from its full gain down - which might be an amp sweet spot you want to capture, but if you cranked the power amp and then captured it it would be from that gain level down so grainier? 

[joeabass]

9 hours ago, MrDinsdale said:

Although tbf you'd expect a capture to respond much more like the real thing when you push the input in most cases. 

Captures are a still image of how the gear was set at the time. If you wanted a capture to be distorted you’d be best capturing it in that state. Most captures come with multiple versions which are the gear in different states. 
 

the drives sound great in the anagram though I’d just use the SVT model and drive it with pedal models/NAM captures. 

[Killerfridge]

45 minutes ago, joeabass said:

Captures are a still image of how the gear was set at the time. If you wanted a capture to be distorted you’d be best capturing it in that state. Most captures come with multiple versions which are the gear in different states. 
 

the drives sound great in the anagram though I’d just use the SVT model and drive it with pedal models/NAM captures. 

I don't doubt it sounds great. It just feels like a bit of an oversight that you can't get a model known for it's driven sound to "drive" without additional models or using captured.

 

It's like they added a SansAmp BDDI pedal model, but it didn't have the drive knob. In that case, I don't think "Well, the clean sounds are great, and you could just a distortion pedal before it/capture of a BDDI if you want a driven sound" would be considered an acceptable answer.

 

It feels to me like a mistake rather than an actual design choice

Edited 5 hours ago by Killerfridge

[krispn]

All these things can be worked out in updates etc. There’s many things folk want to see implemented day one and they possible should have been but look at the potential. 
 

Not gonna convince everyone but if feels like a strong start that will get better.

[MrDinsdale]

Yeah, I wasn't implying model vs capture was better or even that the SVT on the Anagram was lacking.

 

I’ve heard that the SVT and GK had infinite headroom and couldn't be made to break up, people have also said they've boosted the signal to push the models to break up and get some saturation. Just curious which is true.

 

I’ve not heard a single comment implying the models sound bad though so they've got that bit nailed 👌

[MrDinsdale]

1 hour ago, joeabass said:

Captures are a still image of how the gear was set at the time. If you wanted a capture to be distorted you’d be best capturing it in that state. Most captures come with multiple versions which are the gear in different states. 
 

the drives sound great in the anagram though I’d just use the SVT model and drive it with pedal models/NAM captures. 

Not arguing with that at all, I’ve captured most of my stuff at a variety of settings to get the widest range of useful captures.

 

Again not questioning the quality of the model, purely pointing out that Id expect a capture to have at least some breakup when pushed. Possibly depends on what input signal was used to train it I guess though. 

[Killerfridge]

30 minutes ago, krispn said:

All these things can be worked out in updates etc. There’s many things folk want to see implemented day one and they possible should have been but look at the potential. 
 

Not gonna convince everyone but if feels like a strong start that will get better.

This is what I mean by "mistake" - as in, not working as intended. It feels like such an obvious omission that it can't be intended