i would say it’s far closer to zoom than DG. its also far closer in price to zoom than DG.
edit: you know what, this got me thinking. if you blindfolded me, could i really tell the dif between, lets say, a zoom and my HX stomp. probably not. does that mean don’t buy something like a stomp? i mean that’s your choice. it’s much more powerful. i like the interface. i like the build quality. it’s got more sounds in it, so more flexibility. so for me i find value in it.
@Koldunya they added a new Brit tube amp to the E500 firmware update. They also updated the Suite with some user-friendly changes. The bluetooth to speaker output is kinda cool too.
thanks. I saw the Suite update and it said making it compatible with Element firmware 1.4, kinda looked around to see what changed (Darkglass doesn’t really talk about it or update their manuals…) and then promptly forgot about it. I might have to check that out, I guess it’s the Marshall bass amp Lemmy used or liked or something.
So at the end I bought the Element (my first pedal!) and received it today, just had few hours playing with it.
First impressions:
This thing sounds amazing!! It will surely become my “turn on to sound good” kind of box.
I briefly played a bit with the various cabs sims, I’m liking a lot the sounds out of the Neo 4x10 with the Dynamic 112 or the Blend, the Forrester also sounds great, so many options.
Didn’t play around much with the amp sim yet, same for the noise gate (never used one). Happy to hear what you use on your Element!
The touch control on the main button is a PITA. Once you realize you need more pressure than expected, it works decently okay to go through the presets but the “hold for pairing” was driving me crazy. Playing with the touch sensitivity settings did not improve anything. Luckily you do it once for each device and that’s it. Now both my phone and laptop directly see the Element as bluetooth speaker once I simply turn it on, super easy to stream content over bluetooth. The touch sliders work much better.
The app on the phone is meh, plus the fact that you need to pair it every time you want to make changes is very cumbersome. When trying out the cabs I connected it to my laptop with the USB C cable and it was a breeze to change things with DG Suite software. Much much much easier imho. I plan to find few presets that I’m happy with and that’s it.
The tuner is…okay. Surprisingly it had issues with the E string, the LEDs were jumping all over the place. But I tuned with it and then double checked it with my Korg TM-60 and I was perfectly in tune, so yeah it works but it’s not the easiest or most trust-inspiring tuner I would say.
So the first verdict is overall positive, it’s probably an overkill as of now as a first pedal but it does what I need it to do. Bluetooth streaming is awesome, sounds quality is great, if I decide to put together a pedalboard it will definitely have its place at the end of the signal chain so I’m happy with that.
The only real complain is that touch button, so unnecessary 
Knobs are still cool DG!
Fully agree, The touch sliders are okay imo. Enjoy your new pedal!
Thank you! I agree on the touch sliders, they can stay 
Yeah, the Element is good but with some bad features @LucaM - The button sensitivity can be adjusted iirc, but it’s just… I wish it was something else lol. The power amp sim is useful for sure, I think the Element is intended to be paired with a Darkglass preamp pedal that doesn’t necessarily feature a cab sim, so you get a preamp, power amp, and cabsim all going at once. But that’s just my opinion/thoughts on that. It’s a cool pedal and a handy backup to have around, and makes for a useful DI/XLR out, too.
The good folks at Darkglass are teasing a new launch on Sept 8. There’s a short vid on Instagram with an infinity sign.
i really really hate those gimmicky touch sensitive knobs on DG pedals. people are always telling me that it can be adjusted, that you just have to get a feel for it, etc. yeaaahhhh, it’s a knob. you shouldn’t need to do anything to use it properly.
LoL! 
For real
This is probably the microtubes infinity that was leaked couple of weeks ago. Saw it on TalkBass
Yes please!
That’s a lot of thouse touch sliders no one likes.
I didn’t mind the the sliders. It was the touch sensitive center button on the Element that was a PITA.
Not sure what it is but looks like an EQ in the middle, but then why a tone knob?
Maybe its a distortion shaper?
Yeah I guess so. The infinity should be the combo of B3K, vintage and X microtubes, so I think that knob is to shape the different distortions.
All it needs is an A/O too and it’s perfect
For whatever reason Darkglass never seems to include the AO but almost always includes the VMT and BK series together. I guess the topology is similar enough.
They should make an Exponent pedal in the ADAM format. It’d have the BK, VMT, and AO all in one place.
I just bought a couple of used ‘old-school’ DG pedals (no touch sliders) - the X Ultra and the smallest Vintage Microtubes, with the plan to A/B them and sell whichever seems less useful. (Or be naughty and keep both, but I really shouldn’t 
)
Not used them in a band setting yet but the X Ultra just has an incredible array of sounds with the various combinations of LPF>Comp>Level and HPF>Drive>Level even before you get to the 6-band EQ. I’m so impressed. The VMT is much more subtle (I mean it’s obviously less powerful as it’s half the price with half the controls) - it does fatten up the sound quite nicely into the X, but my cheapie TC Spark booster does a similar job to be honest, so unless the VMT really shines when up against drums and a pair of guitars, I think that’ll be the one I sell on.
I loved my Microtubes X. That said, I would not describe the VMT as less powerful - just different. Of course if one is an Ultra and the other isn’t, one has more EQ options and other options; still, both are among the best bass tone pedals you can buy.
