OWNER’S MANUAL

QUICK START GUIDE 3 BASIC OPERATION 8

EDITING AND SAVING PRESETS 8
CONNECTIONS 3 TUNER 8
INPUT 3 BYPASS 9
AUX IN 3 PERFORMANCE LOCK 9
HEADPHONE OUTPUT 3
BALANCED OUTPUTS 3 BLUETOOTH PAIRING 9
DIRECT OUTPUT 4
MIDI IN 4 ADAM AS A USB AUDIO INTERFACE 10
USB 4 SETTING UP THE DRIVERS 10
USB AUDIO SIGNAL ROUTING 10
SIGNAL CHAIN 4
BLOCK DIAGRAM 4 DARKGLASS IR LIBRARY 10
COMPRESSOR 5
DISTORTION 5 TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS 10
CABINET SIMULATION 5
MULTIBAND COMPRESSOR 5
BLEND 5
EQ 5

CONTROLS 6
SMART POTENTIOMETERS 6
TOUCH SENSITIVE SLIDERS 7
ROTARY FOOTSWITCH ENCODERS 7
QUICK START GUIDE CONNECTIONS
Connect your instrument into the 1/4” INPUT. INPUT
This is the primary instrument input on ADAM.
Connect a compatible power supply (9V center Connect your instrument or output from your pedal
negative, min. 500 mA) to the power connector. board to the 1/4” mono jack.

Connect at least one of the following: AUX IN

· Headphones into the headphone jack The stereo input of ADAM enables the playback
· USB-C cable between the USB connector and your of backing tracks while practicing or recording.
computer* Connect your mobile phone, laptop etc. to the 1/8”
· Instrument cable between one of the balanced 1/4” stereo jack.
outputs and your amplifier’s input
· XLR cable between DIRECT OUTPUT and your HEADPHONE OUTPUT
mixing desk or audio interface The headphone output can handle headphones with
an impedance of 16 - 600 ohms.
ADAM is pre-programmed with three presets, Connect your headphones to the 1/8” stereo jack
A, B, and C that are selectable via the dedicated and set the desired level from the dedicated
footswitches. Press and hold one of the footswitches potentiometer next to the jack.
for two seconds to save your changes into a preset.
Adjust the level (and headphone volume, if applicable) BALANCED OUTPUTS
to your liking and start playing! The two balanced outputs add routing versatility and
the option of using ADAM as a fully equipped audio
*Using ADAM as an audio interface may require interface.
some extra steps depending on your operating
system
Connect your studio monitors, amplifier or other
effects to the 1/4” balanced jacks using a TRS
SIGNAL CHAIN
connector (Tip +, Ring -, Sleeve GND). If you feed
an unbalanced input from these outputs, use an BLOCK DIAGRAM
instrument cable with a mono 1/4” plug.
Input
DIRECT OUTPUT
An XLR output with a ground lift switch provides a
reliable standard connection to a mixing desk or an
external audio interface for a guaranteed low-noise Compressor
signal.

MIDI IN
A standard 1/8” TRS jack allows connecting an Distortion
external MIDI controller to ADAM for even more Multiband
flexibility. Read more about the MIDI capabilities at Compressor
https://www.darkglass.com/creations/adam/ Cabsim

USB
The USB-C port unlocks ADAM’s USB audio interface
capabilities and enables interaction with the Blend
Darkglass Suite desktop app, allowing for software
updates and access to the Darkglass IR library,
EQ
containing hundreds of cabinet simulations.

Output
COMPRESSOR MULTIBAND COMPRESSOR
This control allows setting the input In the clean sidechain you will find a fixed multiband
gain of the compressor that will compressor. This multiband compressor incorporates
translate into how much the signal Nolly’s personal settings that have been developed
is compressed while our intelligent with years of experience in the studio. There are no
make-up gain algorithm keeps the controls for the multiband compressor.
output of the compressor at usable
levels. The compressor has 5 ratios BLEND
available: 4:1, 8:1, 12:1, 20:1 and ALL IN. The blend control allows you to mix the distorted
signal with the clean sidechain signal.
DISTORTION
At the heart of the distortion circuit is EQ
an accurate model of Nolly’s favorite Last in the signal chain is a programmable 6-band
vintage distortion unit. In collaboration graphic equalizer that allows you to tailor your sound
with Darkglass, he used that as a even further. The full description of this functionality
platform for developing 5 distinctive can be found in the “Controls” section of the manual.
distortion modes ranging from mild
and very articulate distortion to synth-
like fuzz sounds.

CABINET SIMULATION
ADAM supports Impulse Response
(IR) cabinet simulations and has 5
cabinet slots on board. The default IRs
have been captured by Nolly himself.
New IRs can be assigned to the 5 slots
using the Darkglass Suite (desktop or
mobile).
 The Blend potentiometer mixes between the
CONTROLS distortion signal and the clean sidechain signal.

SMART POTENTIOMETERS
On ADAM, you will find five smart potentiometers: The Level potentiometer controls the master volume
Compression, Drive, Character, Blend, and Level. of ADAM.
These potentiometers are the main interface for
sculpting the signal chain and your overall sound on
The smart potentiometers allow for their positions
ADAM.
to be stored in each preset, with the stored position
indicated by the ring of LEDs surrounding each
The Compression potentiometer is the one-knob- potentiometer.
solution for compression on ADAM. This controls
the amount of input gain to the compressor and
With this, you can get a glance at your signal chain
intelligently applies the correct amount of makeup
settings when changing presets, regardless of the
gain so that your signal is always driven at the
physical potentiometer setting.
appropriate level, no matter how much compression
is applied.
TOUCH SENSITIVE SLIDERS
The Drive potentiometer adds distortion and drive to At the center of ADAM are the touch-sensitive sliders
your signal. Crank this knob to apply Nolly’s favorite that control the 6-band graphic EQ at the end of the
vintage distortion to the distorted part of the signal signal chain.
chain.
Each slider has a -12 dB to 12 dB range. From left to
The Character potentiometer changes the tone of right, the frequency bands for each slider correspond
the distortion, adding brightness to the distortion to a low shelf, 250 Hz, 500 Hz, 1.5 kHz, 3 kHz, and a
signal. high shelf.
Controlling the touch sliders is easy - swipe upwards · Rotating A allows you to change the compressor
to boost a frequency band or swipe downwards to ratio or bypass the compressor.
cut a frequency band.
· Rotating B allows you to change the distortion
When swiping, the position of the slider is also mode or bypass the distortion.
reflected on the potentiometer LEDs. Double-tap
the slider to reset the band back to 0 dB. · Rotating C allows you to change the active IR in
the signal chain or bypass the IR.

Hint: The sliders respond to the direction of your

swipe on any part of the slider, so you can make When none of the five LEDs are lit, the respective
small adjustments without your finger covering the compressor/distortion/IR is bypassed.
actual position of the slider.

ROTARY FOOTSWITCH ENCODERS

Below the touch sliders are three rotary footswitch
encoders A, B, and C, which can be pressed or
rotated. These footswitch encoders enable many of
ADAM’s functions. Simply press A, B, or C to switch to
the preset stored in that footswitch.

The rotational position of each encoder is displayed

on the five LEDs under each encoder. Additionally,
when rotating, the position is shown on the
potentiometer LEDs - this is a visual aid that does not
affect the potentiometer configuration.
 For instructional videos on editing and saving the
BASIC OPERATION presets, please visit https://www.darkglass.com/
creations/adam/
EDITING AND SAVING PRESETS
Editing and saving presets on ADAM is remarkably TUNER
easy. If any of the parameters are changed (i.e. To enter the tuner, press B and C simultaneously.
potentiometers, sliders, encoder rotation), the color To exit the tuner, press B and C simultaneously or
LED of your current preset will gently breathe, one of the footswitch presets. ADAM will always
indicating that the edit or audition mode is active. return to the last active preset. ADAM will not output
any audio when tuning.
Auditions are an easy way to try new sounds and
settings, which can be either saved or discarded. ADAM features a five-octave chromatic tuner, which
When you find a sound that you would like to save, can tune any note between B0 and A#5, allowing you
the audition can be saved into any of the three to dial in any guitar or bass tuning that you desire.
presets by pressing and holding one of the preset The tuning is derived from A4 = 440 Hz. Only one
footswitches for two seconds. All LEDs on ADAM will note can be tuned at a time.
flash rapidly a few times indicating that your edits
have been saved into a preset. When the tuner mode is entered and there is no
input signal, two red LEDs on the two rightmost
A new audition is always entered when changing any sliders are shown by default. When an input signal
parameter from an unedited/saved preset. This will is received, the left section of sliders will update to
overwrite any previous unsaved auditions/edits. show the note that you are tuning.

During an edit/audition, you can change to any of A small indicator is displayed to the top right of the
the three saved presets by pressing the footswitch note if it is a sharp note.
associated with that preset. After changing to a
preset, pressing the footswitch again will swap
between that preset and your active editing session.
When tuning, the two rightmost sliders will update This mode prevents any accidental parameter
to show how close your tuning is from the note’s changes or edits to your presets. You can still change
perfect pitch. Distance below the center line between the saved presets A, B, and C, and enter the
indicates that the note is tuned flat, and distance tuner or bypass modes, but potentiometer updates,
above the center line indicates that the note is tuned slider touches, or encoder rotations will not respond
sharp. The red LEDs will transition to green as you to any changes.
approach the perfect pitch, and the slider and preset
LEDs will fully illuminate in green when you are on Tip: Enter the performance mode after the
perfect pitch. soundcheck while playing live gigs.

BYPASS
To enter the bypass mode, press A and B BLUETOOTH PAIRING
simultaneously.
To exit the bypass mode, press A and B simultaneously To begin Bluetooth pairing with ADAM, press and
or one of the footswitch presets. hold an encoder while simultaneously rotating the
encoder. The five LEDs under each encoder will
In this mode, ADAM does not perform any processing illuminate one-by-one, and pairing will begin when
on the input signal, and passes the unprocessed all five are lit. Look for “ADAM” on your list of available
input signal through to the outputs. All LEDs are bluetooth devices.
turned off during bypass mode.

PERFORMANCE LOCK
To enter or exit the performance lock, press A and C
simultaneously.

In this mode, all LEDs will gently breathe on ADAM to

indicate that it has been locked.
ADAM AS A USB AUDIO available, among others. Darkglass artists (including
Nolly) have also contributed to the library.
INTERFACE
Whatever your DAW of choice is, it’s compatible with
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
ADAM. You can record your processed signal to one
Input impedance: 1 MΩ
track and simultaneously record an unprocessed
Output impedance: 220 Ω
copy to another track. Recording a stereo track at the
Current consumption: ~500mA
same time from the Aux input is also possible.
Voltage: 9VDC (center negative)
SETTING UP THE DRIVERS
If you are using a Mac, no additional drivers are
required to use ADAM as an audio interface.

If you are using Windows, please download the latest

USB audio drivers from https://www.darkglass.com/
suite/.

Please refer to the Darkglass website for more details

regarding USB audio.

DARKGLASS IR LIBRARY
The Darkglass Suite software currently comes with
an extensive library of IR files and hundreds more will
be added in the near future. The library consists of
both bass and guitar cabinets. Captures of Darkglass
Elite Series and Neodymium Series cabinets are