Neural DSP has just expanded its plugin range with the Darkglass Ultimate, a comprehensive in-the-box solution for bass guitar players based around a pair of the Finnish bass amp brand’s most-famous preamps and complemented by a bewildering array of effects and features.
For your contemporary bass sound, super-aggro, with “controlled low end and clear articulation”, we have a digital version of the Darklgass Microtubes series B7K Ultra preamp/distortion pedal.
Modern rock and metal bassists will have a field day with that. And for a more old-school analogue tube amp sound, there is the Vintage Ultra, which, if you remember the hardware pedal, you’ll recognise for its “warmer, more rounded” and a sound that had full-throated thump and growl.
Neural DSP has digitalised these Darkglass Electronics preamp pedals before. Remember its “algorithmically perfect” Darkglass Ultra plugin?
Well, there’s good news for anyone who owns that – the Darkglass Ultimate plugin is available as a free update. But the Darkglass Ultimate is a little different. This time Neural DSP is promising everything you need in one package, effects, cab sims, et cetera, all with bassists in full control over their entire signal chain.
“With Darkglass Ultimate, we’re expanding the Darkglass sound into something more comprehensive,” says François Barrillon, lead product manager of plugins at Neural DSP. “For many players, that sound has been a reliable starting point – something they shape around and build on. This release brings more of that process into the same place, so you can experiment, refine, and carry a sound further without stepping outside of it – while preserving the clarity, power, and character that define Darkglass.”
Those two preamp/distortions are joined by a quartet of pre-effects: compressor, auto-wah, octaver, and fuzz. You can had chorus and delay pedals in post.
And this being a Neural DSP production you’ve got ample EQing options courtesy of a 9-band graphic equalizer voiced for bass guitar.
There is the DG210C 2x10 and DG810ES 8x10 cabinet simulations, complete with free microphone placement tools, plus all kinds of tools, metronome, tuner, transposer, and presets to get your started.
“Darkglass Ultimate represents how we continue to build on what players already know and love,” says Douglas Castro, CEO and co-founder of Neural DSP. “We’ve taken the core Darkglass tones and expanded them into a more complete setup, bringing more of the signal chain within a single environment and making the process of shaping and developing a sound more fluid – so players can spend less time managing their tone and more time creating with it.”
Darkglass Ultimate is available now at a sale price of €59.50 (rising to regular price €119 after 6 May), and remember it’s a free update for Darkglass Ultra users.
See Neural DSP for more details.
