Guitar Gear Forum

A month or so ago I picked up a Darkglass Infinity. It's an experiment that's turned out pretty good.

Rather than modelling an amp, it's basically modelling a bass recording chain... it splits the signal into two, high passes the mids, adds distortion and filters it with a cab IR. The low pass stays clean and gets compressed. The two are then blended back together, then fed to FOH.

I mostly hear my rig through my IEM, however I have the IR shut off on one of the Infinity's outputs, which feeds the blended distortion into my stage amp, which is a real bass rig.

Bass has been doing this for decades. This is basically a more hi-fi version of what a SansAmp BDDI has successfully been doing since the early 90s, only it gives me more control over what's happening at various stages.

Bass for some reason has gotten a lot more attention recently. Instead of a guitar pedal with a blend knob it's been getting dedicated products designed for it. As such, there's been more emphasis on retaining and controlling the low end while enabling processing of the midrange, and I don't need a small wall of amplifiers to accomplish it.

Normally you only see this level of complexity in a bigger pro level rig, however I was about a half step away from doing this using an all analogue path when I figured I'd experiment with doing it digitally first. I have to say, this is a big step up. That I can do it all in the box for a fraction of the expense is alluring, as is only having one XLR to hand the soundman.

This is more a hybrid setup isn't it? Microtube distortion with digital programming and IRs?

Not hybrid, fully digital. It's uses a model of the B3K distortion.

Neural DSP grew out of Darkglass Electronics, and some of the R&D from the Quad Cortex was folded back into Darkglass.

Interestingly, Tech21 put out their own version of this idea a few weeks ago, and I'm pretty sure there's is fully analogue.

https://www.tech21nyc.com/products/sansamp/xb-driver/

Darkglass has an analogue version of the Infinity, but it's single channel/not programmable, and it doesn't use the B3K style distortion (uses something else that is apparently brighter or something)




Either way, it's cool that there's a few different companies that are all competing on producing this sort of product.

Very interesting. I might look into one for Kimmi. I love the Darkglass tone.

Thats pretty sweet man. I almost feel that would have been a better purchase for me vs the dark glass microtubes 900v2 I got now. I got the amp for lots of reasons but liked that it had IRs built in and were swapable etc for home recording or direct. But having the full chain sounds more ideal for how Ive actually been using my amp.

i have that microtubes X, definitely a cool piece

Guitarbilly wrote: ↑Mon May 13, 2024 1:29 am Very interesting. I might look into one for Kimmi. I love the Darkglass tone.

I love it with humbuckers. I find they lend themselves towards a more modern bass sound, which Darkglass has on lockdown.

WIth P and J, I still have a preference for a BDDI. For me, Spector PJ + BDDI is Alice in Chains in a box.

RaceU4her wrote: ↑Mon May 13, 2024 3:19 pm i have that microtubes X, definitely a cool piece

Have you compared it to a B7K? I'm told the distortion is different on an X? Brighter?

So... in an odd sort of reversal I'm going back to a BDDI. I don't normally have honeymoon periods with gear, I usually love it or hate it right away. In this case I think the Infinity sounds great, but it's not the right sound for me. I'm more into the Ampeg thing, which the BDDI does better.

I also prefer the sound of a B7K pushing a BDDI more than I like it pushing the Infinity. The Alpha/Omega on the other hand sounded great into either one, but the A/O + Infinity tended to get buried in the mix (it didn't disappear, but would basically sound clean once the guitars kicked in). A/O + BDDI on the other hand sounds like a chunky ass distortion that cuts.

Anyway, back to your regularly scheduled programming.