Darkglass Electronics Microtubes X7

Microtubes X7

Distorting bass has always been a very challenging engineering endeavor: in order to achieve a punchy, and aggressive distortion that is also full and fat-sounding you need to reconcile two contradicting conditions:

The tightness comes from attenuating bass frequencies before saturation, which will also result in a very thin signal. But boosting the lows will result in additional, unwanted fuzz. To solve this paradox, audio engineers have been using multiband distortions in the studio for a few decades now.

The Microtubes X7 is our solution to that problem in a very compact, yet flexible form: The signal is split by two variable low pass and high pass filters at the very very beginning. The high pass signal (mostly mids and treble) is distorted with a CMOS chip, just like our older Microtubes pedals. The low-pass signal (all bass) is left clean and then compressed.

Letting the high side be all crunch, attack, and rich harmonics while mixing back the compressed lows to add gargantuan size to the overall mix. The result is some remarkable, almost unlimited fullness, size, aggression, and definition, regardless of how old the strings, and boomy or thin instruments.

The Microtubes X7 offers all of this plus a 4-band graphic equalizer with perfectly tailored mid controls for maximum flexibility, with unbalanced parallel, affected and direct outputs.

Controls / High Side
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 Level: Sets the output volume of the low-pass signal.

Controls / Sliders
Master: Sets the overall volume of the unit. Low shelf: +-12dB @ 80 Hz
500 Hz: +-12dB
1 kHz: +-12dB
High shelf: +-12dB @ 5 kHz

Input: 1/4" connector for the instrument.
Input Impedance: 1MΩ impedance.
Parallel Output: hard-wired copy of the input via 1/4" connector. Output: 1/4" connector for the amplifier or next effect in the chain. Direct Output: Balanced output via XLR connector. When the pedal is engaged it features a low pass filter to perfectly sculpt the distorted signal for direct applications.
Output Impedance: 1kΩ.
9VDC: Center negative, regulated 9VDC only.
Current Consumption: 70mA