Boutique pedal company Darkglass have solved how to balance attack, tightness and fat bass guitar distortion with the Microtubes X7.
They’ve found a unique way to solve the usual dilemma of sacrificing either high or low-end for a punchy sound. The Microtubes X7 multiband pedal makes it easy to obtain a great modern tone in a pedalboard-conscious format.
Features
Two variable low and high-pass filters at the beginning of the signal chain split the audio signal. Most mids and treble frequencies are distorted using common CMOS circuitry. This grants complete control over the richness, attack and crunch.
The lows are completely passed through, so they remain undistorted and free from tinny fuzz. You’re able to add huge weight to your tone whilst keeping it tight.
Compression and EQ
The Microtubes X7 takes tone control even further. A four-band EQ lets you sculpt your sound with absolute precision.
In-built compression adds another parameter to the mix. The clean low frequencies are fed into the compressor for extensive bass shaping. This leaves high frequencies full of natural harmonics.
Specifications
- High-pass frequency: Controls the cutoff frequency to be distorted, ranging from 100Hz (for thicker, fuzzier saturation) or 1kHz for ultra-sharp definition
- High Drive: Sets the amount of distortion for the high pass side
- High Level: Sets the output volume of the distorted high-pass signal
- Low-pass frequency: controls the cutoff frequency to be mixed back to the high-pass side. Ranging from 50Hz (for only sub-bass) and 500Hz to preserve some clean mids
- Low Comp: Sets the amount of compression for the low-pass signal
- Low Signal: Sets the output volume of the low-pass signal
- Master Slider: Sets the overall volume of the unit
- Low-shelf Slider: +-12dB @ 80Hz
- 500 Hz Slider: +-12dB
- 1 kHz Slider: +-12dB
- High-shelf Slider: +-12dB @ 5 kHz
- Input: 6.5mm / ¼” Jack
- Main Output: 6.5mm / ¼” Jack
- Parallel Output: 6.5mm / ¼” Jack - hard-wired copy of the input
- Direct Output: Balanced output via XLR connector – with switchable ground lift
- Output impedance: 1k Ohm
- Powered by optional 9V PSU
