Darkglass Aggressively Distorting Advanced Machine Distortion Pedal Reviews

The pedal was always good, but the latest updates really sent it over the top.

The people complaining about "too much drive" likely haven't set up the app. The drive has a slider to set the min and max allowing for a lower drive minimum. The app also has settings for active and passive bass, defaulting to passive, so anyone with high output active pickups will be getting too much drive as well unless they switch over to the active setting.

That being said, when I bought the pedal it didn't have 2 of my favorite features. The latest update added a chorus engine pedal and a second EQ before the distortion (allowing that EQ to shape the character of the distortion, while the 2nd GEQ allows for general tone shaping). These 2 additions have quickly become my favorite features. Fuzz too fuzzy? Cut some lows before the distortion. Classic Rock tone too percussive while still disappearing in the mix? Boost some rich mids before the drive to compress the clanks via saturation without affecting the rest of the tone. Want to play Schism, Tom Sawyer, or Stranglehold? Turn on the chorus.

I was kind of on the fence about how I felt with this pedal, great for bass distortion yet very lacking compared to my Quad Cortex (understandably), but after the last update I love it.

This pedal can output a wide range of pristine tones. Amazingly practical with more than enough options to inspire.

I'm a guitar player. Someone gave me a bass so you know I had to have a amp to go with it which you know I needed some affect's to go with. I'm really frugal so bought some cheap stuff which only made me want some better stuff. I bought the after shock. What a turd. It left me feeling half full. My full bore metal kicked it butt. Still wasn't enough. So I pulled the trigger and ordered the ADAM. This thing is the only pedal you will ever need for your bass. It is so evil sounding that my neighbors think that we are being nuked. Just the sustain alone with move the house off the foundation. There is a lot to this pedal and I'm just country hick so I will never know the full capability to this beast. This is the first and only pedal you will ever need.

After watching many demos of this device I had to try it for myself . This pedal isn't just your average stomp box , it is all you need for any recording session to add life to your bass tracks . The compressor alone fattens the tone while remaining transparent . A dash of drive and character allows one to cut thru any mix without losing low end content blend and eq to taste and you got yourself a one stop solution to recording all your bass track needs . I was able to summon the best tones I've ever had within 5 minutes ! This thing even has an app for those who like to dive deep into the tides .
I can't wait to try this out at my local church .

This pedal is a superb sound design tool for bass guitar. It allows to dial in anything from classic clean stuff to huge variety of slightly over-driven kinds of tone to even heavily distorted and fuzz tones. For me the sweet spot mostly lives in-between, when a little bit of distortion is blended with the clean path and the Character (tone) knob is set to taste. It's all about the saturation, and this pedal gives you tremendous amount of options of how to add it and make you bass sound tastier and clearly heard in the mix. Each position of each know changes the sound a lot bringing endless sonic variations and individuality to the sound.

It also works great with other pedals. For example, I use Strymon Deco just after it to bring some tape saturation and/or sound doubling which are also great effects to have.

With latest update it's now also got a great noise gate.

Please let the "review" saying it's only dirty fuzz not fool you (have has it even passed the moderation?), it's totally not that, as besides 2 fuzz distortion models you have 3 more lighter ones which, with the Drive, Character and Blend knobs, give you anything you want. And even in fuzz mode, if you blend it slightly, you can get "normal" clean tones with a bit of character on top.

This is the best Darkglass pedal for me, which effectively makes most of their other pedals legacy.

It is no surprise that this is the best bass pedal ever designed. It functions as an audio interface, a tuner, and overall just an awesome distortion pedal. Would rate 6 stars if I could

Any review that starts with it's too distorted means YOU bought the wrong pedal. It's a distortion pedal!!!! Yes with eq and a ton of other features. If you want a clean sound you bought the wrong pedal. Super happy with this unit absolutely crushing distortion and the cab sim and Darkglass Suite is amazing.

Darkglass Aggressively Distorting Advanced Machine + Bass = Everything you need. You are better off relying on your ears than you are on the built-in tuner. I used this for tracking bass on an Ibanez SDGR with Nordstrand Audio pickups and it grinds. It instantly sits well in the mix, just adjust your fader anywhere between -6 to -12db so you can get it to reinforce/highlight the guitar parts.

Greetings! This pedal is killer, but do not judge the sound outside of a mix! This isn't designed to sound good alone. Check out my full review over on youtube. I go into a bunch of detail on my thoughts over there and include soundclips (no dingwall lol) and I think you might be surprised at what this pedal can do. It ain't perfect, but it's great and possibly the beginning of a cool trend of pedal.

After purchasing this pedal the first thing that comes to mind is it's the closest I've ever been to a real amp in box it sounds great clean and has different channels but it's not the only thing you need the cab sim is my first issue with this unit it sounds like a blanket was put over it even with a third party ir it still sounds like that it's very dull sounding. My second issue is the eq it could be more flexible having that said if you own a eq pedal to go with this you can get great sound out of it also if you use a different cab sim of some type this really opens this up for more than just metal or doom sounds. This thing is great with help with the hx stomp put this in the loop and use the cab sim from the hx stomp with some eq and your good to go as far as sounds go this really is the closet to a real amp sound you can get with a pedal. It's really easy to put together with bare minimum work. Just those issues make this pedal not sing like it should. I can see darkglass giving a good update to this pedal to fix issues like that I know this is a sig pedal for Adam nolly but those little things can make this pedal one of the best out there. Being able to turn the distortion off is a great thing on this update it really opens up the sounds and options of this. If darkglass doesn't update these issues the next best thing they come out with on this level of things I will be getting and selling this pedal.

I have had this pedal since it came out. Playing just through the pedal with headphones or as a DI sounds awesome and I can get a wide range of nasty tones. When I tried it on my board with the cab sim off, it was so noisy in any preset that it's basically unusable. I don't have a need for it anymore and will never get much for it now that the new price is the same as the used price. I love all my other Dark Glass products, especially my Mircotubes X7. I'm really curious about the Mircotubes Infinity, but I'm afraid to risk buying another "pedal" that doesn't actually work as a pedal.

Borrowed the ADAM from a friend and put it through the paces. First of all, it has great features and I like that a tuner is included. Very easy to operate. Sound wise however I think the unit has one major flaw. Even with the distortion set to "zero" it produces significant distortion and I am not plugging the strings very hard. A more heavy handed bass player will hate this pedal unless he wants to compete with the gain levels of a guitar player. IMHO this unit can pass only as an effects distortion unit for someone who loves massive bass distortion, but as a stand-alone bass preamp pedal it doesn't cut it at all. I would give it a higher rating if you could run it without any distortion and have a more gradual (and less) distortion character.

Too fuzzy not enough of that signature darkglass clank. It eats the tone of my dingwall and the fuzz kills the attack and definition in between notes. I'll stick with a B7K. Big fan of Nolly but this pedal is a bust for me.