Review: Neural DSP Darkglass Ultimate

Some time ago – well, a long time ago really – I was playing bass in a touring “pub rock” covers band. Some of you know what I mean. We smashed out all the old favourites, occasionally confused the punters with an original song, and spent most of the gig money on petrol, beer and cigarettes. At one point, I considered buying some kind of bass effects pedal since everyone else had toys to play with and I was missing out. It wasn’t a new idea, but not common either. The likes of Chris Squire and Geddy Lee were doing innovative stuff, however in general, bass rigs didn’t have a lot of external effects. Then a sound engineer friend offered the advice that because everyone else was using effects, it might be best if someone stayed sonically clean and uncomplicated.

That advice stuck with me, and I’ve never been a bass effects kind of guy. But these days it’s all the rage with virtuoso players like Billy Sheehan (Mr Big) and John Myung (Dream Theatre) deploying multi-FX pedal boards bigger than the band bus. Arguably, bass effects do seem more a thing for the prog rock and metal genres (I’m Porcupine Tree’s No 1 fan), and I won’t be surprised if many readers have no idea who I’m talking about. Still, the sounds created and the musicianship it inspires is seriously impressive.

So, I put my hand up to review Neural DSP’s Darkglass Ultimate bass plug-in, promising an open mind to the effects concept and aware the plug-in offers the best of both worlds.

DARK WHO?

Darkglass Electronics is a Finnish company that specialises in high-end, boutique bass amplifiers, cabinets and effects. In other words, serious gear – and yes, comparatively expensive but with good reason. Neural DSP released Darkglass Ultra back in 2018, and Darkglass Ultimate is essentially a significant update. The plug-in is based around two Darkglass preamps, the B7K Ultra and the Vintage Ultra, and two cabinets which are a 2 X 10-inch design or a monster 8 X 10-inch which gives you a sore back just looking at it on your screen. You can freely swap between all the possible configurations. Add to this a pre-amp (Compressor, Octaver, Auto-wah and Fuzz) and post-amp (Chorus and Delay) choice of effects, and a global nine-band EQ. The virtual microphone setup is stereo with eight mics to choose from separately for each side, and a variable position. The usual utilities of tuner, gate and metronome are available, plus MIDI control and a real-time Transpose effect.

WALKING BASS BEFORE YOU CAN RUN

Darkglass Ultimate can work in standalone mode. I opened the plug-in, easily adjusted the audio settings, and determined to find a clean patch before frightening myself with something more adventurous. There are presets aplenty contributed by a long list of artists, again total strangers even to me, plus patches created by Neural.

My first impression took only a few seconds. Immediately, there was a depth and quality to the patch sound that is way superior to any other bass amp modelling I’ve heard. Usually, guitar amp plug-ins have a kind of two-dimensional flat sound, and you can go down a rabbit hole of IR’s and reverbs to try and fix it. Darkglass Ultimate sounds truly three-dimensional as if there is a bass rig in the studio, and microphones placed in front of it. That sold me straight away.

The pedal effects are likewise of high quality and offer countless options to the final sound that actually add something creative instead of just smearing the patch with a poor effect. As always – or maybe it’s just me – I found that a little went a long way and that cranking the effects soon got a bit silly. Returning to something more studio-related, swapping out the virtual microphones and the positions is subtle and useful for that final tweak, as is the nine-band EQ.

MIND THE NEIGHBOURS

With that pedigree of prog and metal inspiration, it’s not surprising that many of the presets have an element of distortion that can get a little same-same. It’s a predominant theme. Both the preamps have a Drive circuit and there’s that Fuzz pedal. If you’re trying to check out a preset patch and want to remove the grunge, you might have to go looking for where it’s coming from. It’s worth doing because hiding underneath the dirt in many presets is a cool sound.

If distortion is your thing, Darkglass Ultimate has plenty to annoy your neighbours and probably break your studio monitors. Beware launching a preset without volumes set at a prudent level.

MORE NEURAL DSP PLEASE

I was so impressed with Darkglass Ultimate that I asked Neural for a six-string plug-in for comparison. Neural has the Archetype X series (“X” denoting a recent upgrade across the range) of plug-ins created by musicians who are legends in their own genres, but mostly unknown outside of them. Each plug-in is a bespoke design of custom amplifiers and effects (note that the effects are unique too and not standardised through the series, except perhaps the dual delay). Again, the emphasis is on heavier, metal sounds, but that’s deceiving. Every Archetype X is well capable of crystal-clean patches.

However, maybe because of this perception, Neural commissioned a plug-in by Cory Wong who is famed for clean guitar playing, and before you say, “What? I don’t need no freakin’ clean sounds…” I can tell you that some of the patches are beautifully crafted with soaring, chime-like sounds. And don’t worry, there is a distortion pedal anyway.

The latest release is designed by John Mayer (finally a name we know) and re-creates his blues and rock tones from his best-known songs. Well worth a listen.

TRIAL & TEST

We normally consider trial periods – in this case a 14-day term – as a bit of a trap to get us to buy. Once you have something, you don’t want to give it back, right? With Neural DSP plug-ins, it’s essential you take advantage of the offer because they are individual suites of amp simulations and effects, and they have a lot to discover and experiment with. You’ll probably find just one will do the job, or perhaps two. Try them out, dig deep and hear what’s possible. Most of them cover a lot of bases (or basses in Darkglass Ultimate) that aren’t evident with what’s written on the tin.

Two more important notes; increasingly the Archetype X plug-ins can be imported into Neural DSP’s hardware multi-FX pedals, the Quad Cortex and the Quad Cortex Mini. More compatibility is being added regularly. This means if you create a patch you want to use live, or maybe at another studio, it’s easy if you own the hardware. The other sneaky benefit is that if you’re in the market for a high-end hardware unit, the Archetype X plug-ins are a great way to hear what the Quad Cortex units can do. You won’t be disappointed.

Finally, pricing of the plug-ins isn’t exactly cheap, but it’s worth remembering you’re getting a lot more than just a single amp plug-in. Each Neural DSP plug-in is on a par with, say, Guitar Rig 7 or Amplitube without all the more esoteric effects. Plus, like many software developers, Neural DSP frequently runs promotions and discounts, so I suggest you sign on for its newsletter and keep an eye out for a bargain.

I can’t honestly say whether Neural’s amp modelling is “authentic” or not – do they faithfully re-create some vintage design or not? Are they even supposed to? Who cares? If it’s tone and depth, and quality effects that interest you, either old-school clean or frightening the cat grunge, try them out.

Neural DSP plug-ins webpage.