Darkglass Alpha·Omega Photon

I bought this thing out of necessity, I was looking for a setup that allows me to play live without an amplifier (travelling light is priceless) and this pedal does it all.
At this price you have a tuner, DI, Cabsim with IR, Compressor, 2 sets of Eq and ofc a distorsion.
The most exciting part for me is not the distortion itself but the Cabsim section that allows you to use your own IR.
The option to move the cabsim before or after the blend drastically changes your bass tone creating a huge amount of combinations even without distortion.
At first I didn't like the compression but once I've got into the app, I changed the attack and release of it from 7 (maximum) to somewhere around 3-4 and now sounds great!
I won't spend many words on the distortion but don't judge it just from the internets' videos, it can be way less extreme than you think!

The Darkglass Alpha Omega Photon is an incredible piece of kit. It's easily worth the money for me as it replaces around 3 pedals on my board and adds a lot of functionality besides.

Handling
This is probably the worst bit about the pedal. I've run into minor Bluetooth connection issues and the Darkglass app is a bit opaque when you first open it, but when you get the hang of it there's a lot of functionality there, such as the noise gate which is only accessible in the app.

The touchscreens for the EQ section are usually responsive but I ran into an issue, maybe connected to calluses on my fingers, where the responsiveness dropped a bit.

Features
The feature suite is extensive and everything is very good.

In the app you can set a noise gate and switch between guitar and bass mode. I think this is to calibrate between input resistances.

EQ controls with two separate preset curves give a lot of control and can help blend your sound with difficult rooms and work with a variety of instrumentation.

The compressor is way better than my old Boss Compressor/sustainer, but I don't have a lot of comparisons there and can't offer much in the way of a review, just sounds good.

The distortion channels are very distinct and the ability to blend between them gives a lot of control over your tone, although I usually keep the signal undistorted.

The pedal allows for a distorted channel to add 'growl', add 'bite', add both and also to split the signal so you get the frequencies below 200hz undistorted as to not lose the bottom end when you distort the signal. I would like to be able to split the signal without doing the boosts, but it sounds good regardless.

The tuner is a bit jittery and I have run into issues tuning a low B on mine. Not sure if the issue is with my unit in particular or if it is general.

In addition the impulse response settings are great and can emulate mic'd cabinets of various configurations with various mics.

Aside from the sound features, the pedal also has a DI out with ground lift when needed as well as two separate mono channels which can be configured separately to bypass the pedal if you want an untouched pass-thru signal

If all this wasn't enough, you can also play tracks through the unit via Bluetooth and there's a headphone output for home practice.

Sound

Sounds incredible. No hiss or hum that I've encountered and is just great. No notes.

Quality

The unit is robust and the fit and finish are great. Bluetooth connectivity is sometimes spotty, but there could be other reasons for that, and I havehad no problems when practicing with the headphone output.

All in all a great product, well worth the money and could potentially replace tuner, eq, distortion, compression and DI on your board.

Die Kiste selber ist ein Knüller, ich werde vermutlich nicht lange genug leben, um alle Sounds, die möglich sind, da raus zu holen. Nach 3 Wochen intensiven Bastelns bin ich jedenfalls nicht mal bis zu 1/4 der Fahnenstange gekommen. Wenn überhaupt.

Schlechte Sounds konnte ich trotz böser Absicht nicht so recht erzeugen, das Ding klingt echt gut, egal ob mit 5Saiter, 4Saiter-Shortscale oder Fretless (alle mit nicht den tollsten Pickups).

Die Bedienung scheint kniffelig -- ist sie aber nicht, nach 2mal ist das Prinzip klar, geht schnell von der Hand, allit schick (am Rande: Der EQ wird von Pos -12 gesteuert, nicht von 0).

Die Verarbeitung ist grundsätzlich grandios -- wären da nicht die Potis mit Rotationsfunktion. Im Prinzip ein toller Gedanke, aber die guten Stücke wackeln leider stark. Ein Bauteil, auf dem ich mit Füßen rumtrampele. Hmmm. Da müssen die (hoffentlich) Jahre zeigen, ob das taugt.
Da der Rest aber Panzer-Qualität hat, da bin ich trotz Wackelns zuversichtlich.


2 Absätze und tiefes Durchatmen später: Aaaaaaaaber
Die Apps (sowohl Desktop als auch Mobil) sind jenseits von katastrophal!
Überhaupt keine erkennbare Struktur, Speichern klappt manchmal, meistens nicht.
Ziemlich mies, wenn man 2 Nächte lang Sounds für 3 unterschiedliche Bässe bastelt, und die gespeicherten Einstellungen tags drauf weg sind.
Manchmal sind aber auch welche da. Hä?!
Liebe Freunde von Darkglass -- in Sachen Usability müsst ihr ganz fett nachlegen! Zumal die Kiste selber in der Hinsicht ja große Klasse ist! Berliner Wort mit "F"? Fahstehicknich ...