Infinity Combo 500 Manual

Before plugging in your combo, please ensure that the voltage selector on the back of the unit is set to the correct mains voltage.

• Use an appropriate load and cables
• The external speaker output has a minimum load of 8 Ω.
• The external speaker power handling should be at least 250 W.
• Never use the speaker output with an instrument cable.

• Use a 7-pin MIDI cable only with the Darkglass MIDI footswitch.
• Use a 5-pin MIDI cable with other MIDI equipment.

Input Jack: Use this jack to connect your instrument via a standard ¼” mono cable.

Headphone Output: Connect your Headphones and enjoy an IR emulating your cabinet sound.

• By default, if headphones are connected, the speakers are automatically muted. Automatic speaker mute can be disabled on the Configuration tab of the Darkglass Suite by disabling the option “Mute speaker when using headphones”. When the option is disabled, headphone connection has no effect on the speaker output.

Preset selector: Push to toggle between presets 1-5 and bypass.
Hold to save an edited preset until the light flickers. Unsaved changes are indicated by the current preset’s LED breathing.

Input: Input gain (input clipping indicated by red LEDs on the 7-LED strip).
Push to Activate / Deactivate the Effect loop:

• The Effect loop is placed at the end of the signal chain before the Preset vol and Speaker out / IR

Comp: Compression amount (make-up gain adjusted automatically).
Push: OFF / Comp pre-drive / Comp post-drive.

Drive: Drive amount / Noise Gate threshold.
Push: OFF (LEDs off)/ Leo Bass (Yellow) / Vintage Microtubes (Blue) / Microtubes B3K® (Red) / Alpha·Omega (Purple)
Hold: Change to Noise Gate threshold control (White). Push to return to Drive control

Level: Level of the drive block before the blend.
Push: Tweeter attenuation control (Tweeter indicator LED ON). Neutral at MAX = No attenuation

Tone: Drive tone / Octaver filter.
Push: Toggle between Drive mode tone (follows Drive colour) and Octaver filter (turquoise).

Blend: Drive blend / Octaver blend.
Push: Toggle between Drive mode blend (follows drive colour) and Octaver blend (turquoise).

• • Drive mode blend: Blend between clean and the selected drive mode
  • Octaver blend: Blend between clean and the Octaver
    • If the Octaver is active (blend more than zero), the first LED of the Blend will show the Octaver turquoise colour even when controlling Drive blend, indicating the Octaver is active even though the settings are hidden
  • Note
    By pushing either Tone or Blend, both pots will toggle between corresponding Drive mode and Octaver setting

• Note
  Pushing Tone and Blend together toggles the Octaver on/off. When Octaver is off, it can be turned on also by turning the Blend fully counterclockwise to zero and then clockwise to the desired Blend position.

Preset vol: Preset volume control.
Push: Toggle through the 7 IR slots and IR bypass.

• The first push shows the currently selected IR slot and consecutive pushes (while the IR slot is shown) change the slot. After 2 seconds of the last push of Preset vol, the LED goes back to showing other functions.
• The selected slot is indicated on the 7-LED Strip when the pot is pushed. When no LED is lit after pushing the pot, the IR is bypassed.
• IR is fed to Headphones and Post DI Out only

GEQ:

• Preset specific Darkglass GEQ.
  • ± 12 dB @ Low shelf / 250 Hz / 500 Hz / 1,5 kHz / 3 kHz / High shelf
• If the slider position does NOT represent the current value, the LED on the slider is RED. Move the slider until the LED turns blue, which signals that the slider represents the value and can be used to change it

7-LED Strip: The multifunctional 7-LED Strip shows:

• Input clipping: all LEDs blinking red > Lower the input gain
• Output clipping: all LEDs blinking purple
  • The signal may be clipping in either the effects loop SEND, LINE OUT, POST DI OUT or headphones.
  • Lower the Master volume to see if the clipping occurs only on headphones
  • If lowering the Master volume doesn’t remove the clipping, lower the Preset volume to prevent clipping in LINE OUT, POST DI OUT and headphones
  • If lowering the Master volume or Preset volume doesn’t remove the clipping, the clipping is occurring in SEND. Lower the Drive level or the EQ (if it is set to boost / above midpoint) to lower the signal sent to SEND
• Level meter
  • Shown if the Compressor is OFF (and not in bypass or mute)
  • The higher the input level (after Input gain control), the more LEDs are lit from left to right.
  • The rightmost red LED signifies that the peaks of the input level are within 3 dB of the input clipping level.
  • The second to rightmost yellow LED signifies that the peaks of the input level are within 6 dB of the input clipping level.
• Gain reduction of the compressor
  • Shown if the Compressor is ON (and not in bypass or mute)
  • Each white LED from right to left signifies 1 dB of gain reduction in the Compressor.
• IR slot selection
  • Each LED signifies one IR slot and all LEDs off signify IR bypass.
  • Shown only with the push of the Preset vol pot. See the section on Preset vol for more information.
• Tuner
  • Shown in bypass and mute modes. See below for details.

Master: Master volume for the speaker and the headphones.
Push: Mute (all pot LEDs are OFF)
Hold: Bluetooth pairing

• The mute affects all other outputs except the Send. The Send is fed with bypassed signal, allowing the use of outboard tuners, etc. even when the device is muted.

Tuner: Active when the master is muted or the device is on bypass

• The GEQ slider LEDs represent the standard 6-string bass tuning (A4=440 Hz): 

B – E – A – D – G – C. The tuner is not octave-specific and can be used to tune these six notes in any octave from A0 to A5.

• The 7-LED Strip will show if the string is in tune
  • Red LEDs on the left: Flat & distance from note
  • All LEDs green: In tune
  • Red on the right: Sharp & distance from note
• Note: Tuner has a major update in firmware 1.2. Update the factory firmware to 1.2 for best Tuner experience.

Note
In case the Bluetooth disconnects, it needs to be manually reconnected from the other device.

Presets include all the parameter values, on/off and mode switches accessible from the top panel except for the analog Input gain, Master volume and Mute.

Preset selector LEDs show the currently selected preset slot (1-5). Bypass is shown with all the 5 LEDs dimly lit. Use the Preset selector button to switch between presets, including bypass.

If the LED of the current preset is breathing, some unsaved changes have been made to the preset. To save the changes and save the current state to the current preset slot, hold the Preset selector until the 5 LEDs flicker to indicate that the preset was saved. Moving to another preset discards the unsaved changes.

The LEDs around each potentiometer indicate the current value of the parameter that the potentiometer is currently controlling. If the potentiometer is at a different location from the LEDs, move the potentiometer to the value indicated by the LEDs to “grab” the current value and make changes. If all the LEDs are off, turn the pot all the way counterclockwise to “grab” the parameter from 0.

The LEDs on the EQ sliders indicate whether the slider location represents the current EQ setting or not. If the slider LED is blue, the slider is at the position of the current EQ setting and moving it will instantly make a change in that EQ band. If the LED is red, the slider is not in the position of the setting. Move the slider until it turns blue to “grab” the parameter and to make changes to the frequency band.

AC Power ON/OFF: Power ON the combo beast.

AC Socket: Use this connector to feed electric power to the amplifier. 100 – 230 VAC, 50-60Hz. Set the voltage selector switch to the correct position before turning on the amplifier!

MIDI In: Standard DIN connector. Use the 7-pin MIDI connector only with the Darkglass MIDI footswitch, and use a 5-pin connector with other MIDI equipment.

USB: The USB-C port unlocks Combo’s USB audio interface capabilities and allows connection to the Darkglass Suite. USB MIDI In/Out is also supported.

Post DI Output: Use this connector to send your signal to the console, mic preamp, interface, etc. This output provides the processed signal with or without the IR.

Ground Lift: Use this control to lift the ground of the XLR outputs. If you are experiencing ground noise in your DI signal, try changing this control.

Pre DI Out: Use this connector to send your signal to the console, mic preamp, interface, etc. This output provides the unprocessed signal.

Line Out: Use this connector to send your signal to line input of a console, interface, etc. This output provides the processed signal without the IR. You can also link several combos together using this output!

Line In: This input accepts +4 dBu line level signals from an amp modeler, keyboard, etc. Use this input when linking Darkglass Combos.

Send: Use this output to send the signal to your outboard gear.

Return: Use this input to receive the signal from your outboard gear.

External Speaker: Use this connector to connect the amplifier to an external speaker cabinet. The SpeakON Combo jack allows for SpeakON or ¼” speaker cable operation. The minimum load impedance is 8 Ω. The minimum power rating must be 250 W.

WARNING: Do not use an instrument cable with this jack. Using an instrument cable can damage your amplifier.

Connect to your computer using the USB-C port on the Infinity Combo and open the Darkglass Suite.

For connecting to the iOS or Android version of the Suite (coming soon): Long-press the Master pot to start Bluetooth pairing. Open the Darkglass Suite and press Pair. After a short moment, you should be connected.

On the mobile version, the main navigation is at the bottom of the screen, and Device Configuration can be found in the Home tab.

On the desktop version, the main navigation is always at the far left of the screen.

You can mute all output from the Digital Combo by tapping or clicking on the Global mute button. On the mobile version, it is placed at the top left corner of the screen. On the desktop version, it is on the top right corner of the screen. 

The DSP chain is the main overview of your signal chain where you can construct your presets. Only one preset can be shown at a time. There are a total of 5 available preset slots for you to edit the signal chain to your liking. Navigate between each preset by clicking on the preset number on the preset slots tab.

The presets on Infinity 500 Combo include the effect settings, Tweeter and Preset levels, FX loop and IR slot used by the preset. The Master volume level, mute, the IRs saved in each of the 7 IR slots as well as additional configuration settings are global on Infinity 500 Combo and not part of the preset data.

Functionalities / Function bar available always in the DSP chain view:

• Bypass channel: to bypass or un-bypass your preset channel
• Switch preset: Use this to assign a different preset from Factory, or your Downloaded and User’s preset in the Preset Hub to the currently selected preset channel.
• Save changes: Save changes to the preset on the device, not saving it into the Suite or the cloud.
• Store preset: Store this preset as a new preset in your User’s preset folder in Preset Hub.
• Refetch data: to refresh your DSP chain displayed in the Suite, when you have made physical changes on the top panel of the Infinity 500 Combo. The Infinity 500 Digital Combo does not support a 2-way communication between the device and the app. Any changes made on the device will not automatically sync to the app UI.

Mobile version

Navigate between the presets by tapping on the numbered circles below the header section of the DSP Chain.

The functionalities are wrapped in a Function bar, which is placed at the bottom of the screen, above the Main Navigation section. Within the function bar, from left to right, the functionalities are: Bypass channel, Switch preset, Save changes, Store preset, Refetch data

Tap on any of the effect blocks on the signal chain to view and edit their parameters.

Desktop version

The functionalities are presented at the top right corner of the screen. Each functionality is displayed as a button with icons and labels for ease of use.

In the Presets Manager, the left side panel is always the DSP chain, and the right side panel is where you can edit each of any effect blocks on the chain. Simply click on an effect on the DSP chain and its parameters will show up on the right side panel for you to edit. Change the parameter by dragging up or down the preferred knob on the effect pedal on the right side panel. To bypass an effect on the DSP chain, click on the footswitch on the effect block on the right panel, or click on the bypass icon button under the preferred effect.

In the DSP chain view, you can only select one of seven IR slots that have been defined in the IRs Manager. To make changes to the IRs slots, click on the IR Manager tab in the Main Navigation panel to the far left of the screen.

In the IR Manager, you can edit the seven IR slots or upload your own custom IR files and assign them to any of the slots. One slot can be used by multiple presets in the Preset Manager. The “Used by” section shows which presets contain the selected IR slot, and also shows from which preset the sound is coming out from.

Mobile version

Select one of the seven IR slots, located under the header section, to edit to your liking. Select a different mic or change its position by tapping on the edit mic button.

To change the cabsim, scroll through the carousel, located underneath the main cabsim section. Tap on the preferred cabinet from the carousel to continue selecting the mic before assigning it to the IR slot.

Desktop version

Edit an IR slot by clicking on the preferred slot displayed on the left side panel of the IRs Manager view. The left side panel should then display detailed information on which preset is using the IR slot, the cabsim, and the mic and its position.

Click on edit mic’s properties to change the mic’s position or to select a different mic. Your favorite IRs and custom IRs are saved into the User’s IR list, which you can select from and assign to an IR slot.

To upload your custom IR files, click on Custom IR under the User’s IR lists section, then click on “Upload custom IR files” on the top right corner of the right panel.

The Preset Hub is a preset cloud sharing platform of Darkglass where users can upload or download different presets. The Preset Hub has six sub-tabs: 

• Featured presets: the top 5 presets with most downloaded, most likes, and most views are displayed in this sub-tab.
• Artist presets: presets created by artists are displayed in this sub-tab.
• Global presets: this sub-tab shows all presets that have been set as “public” by all Darkglass users.
• Factory presets: out of the box presets of the device are saved here.
• User’s presets: presets that you have stored are saved in this sub-tab. You can also set the status of the preset as “Public” or “Private” here.
• Downloaded presets: presets that were downloaded from Featured, Artists, or Global presets are in this sub-tab.

You can preview a DSP signal chain by clicking on the preset card. To view the parameters of any of the effect blocks, click on the block to view. 

You can find the general settings for your Infinity 500 Combo device in this tab.

• Device name: Give your Infinity 500 Combo a custom name by editing the Name field. Infinity Combo must be powered off and on for the name change to take effect.
• MIDI mapping: See section MIDI
• Firmware: See section Firmware updates
• Speaker and Audio:
  • Mute speaker when using headphones: See section Top Panel Controls for details
  • Send Bluetooth audio to speaker: See section Bluetooth audio
• Direct monitoring: See section USB audio interface

Mobile version

The configuration screen on the mobile version is a tab which can be selected from the Home tab.

Desktop version

On the desktop version, the configuration page can be accessed from the main navigation panel located at the far left of the app screen

Editing the signal chain

On both the mobile and desktop of the DG Suite, tap on the desired effect to change the parameters. Most of the effect blocks on the signal chain can be bypassed, by clicking or tapping on the bypass button underneath the effect block. The EQ, preset volume, and the tweeter block cannot be bypassed.

The order of the compressor and the drive block can be swapped. On the mobile version, tap on the compressor block to change its position. On the desktop version, you can change them by clicking on the switch button on the signal chain, or selecting the compressor position from the compressor effect view.

Changes made in the Suite are updated in real-time on the Infinity 500 Combo device.

Storing presets

While the Infinity 500 Combo only has five preset channels, you can store as many presets as you like in the Darkglass Suite. Those presets are saved in the Preset Hub, under the User presets tab.

From the DSP Presets screen, click or tap on the store preset button.

• On the mobile version, the store preset icon button can be found on the function bar, located under the signal chain
• On the desktop version, it is located at the top right corner of the screen.

The effect settings, tweeter, preset levels, Fx loop and the IR slot used by the preset are stored in the preset.

Sharing presets

Presets can be shared with other users via the Preset Hub, which is a cloud base preset sharing platform in the Darkglass Suite. To share your preset, from the User’s preset tab, click or tap on the preset card, go to Information, then click or tap on the “Public” toggle underneath the description field.

In the Information preview tab, you can also share the preset offline by clicking or tapping on the Copy link button, which will automatically be saved to your clipboard.

Preset sharing codes also work as offline backups.

Previewing a preset

From the Preset Hub, click or tap on the preset card to open the Preset Preview. This allows you to preview the preset’s signal chain and its effect blocks’ parameters. You can change the preset name, author’s name, and its description of presets stored by you in the User’s Preset tab.

Loading presets

You can only load presets to your signal chain from User’s presets or Downloaded presets. Simply go to the User or Downloaded tab, and click or tap on the Load preset button under the preset that you want to load.

You can then choose the preset slot to load the preset onto and whether to load the IR to the preset’s IR slot. Loading a preset overwrites the previous preset saved in that slot. If you don’t want to lose any presets saved on the device, use Store preset button for all of them in the DSP Presets view before loading any presets. Note that loading an IR with a preset may have an effect on other presets on the device using the same IR slot.

From the signal chain view, to load a preset that you have downloaded or stored in your Preset Hub, click or tap on the switch preset button. On the mobile version, the switch preset button can be found on the function bar. On the desktop version, it can be found in the top right corner of the screen.

Importing presets

Import presets via preset sharing codes using the Import button in the Presets view. When the preset sharing code is on your clipboard, press Paste preset code to enter the code. The name and author of the preset is shown after pasting.

Press Import to open the Preset Preview. You can preview the preset’s name and author and signal chain.

Store the preset in your preset list by pressing the Store button.

The preset is now stored in your list of presets under the User tab in the Preset Hub.

The MIDI switch type determines how MIDI CC messages for switch-type settings are interpreted.

Per-value: CC value increment sets the next switch position. For two-way toggles, like bypasses, FX loop and Compressor position, this means that every other CC value is ON and every other is OFF. For Drive mode, this means that CC’s 0-3 are the four different Drive modes, and again 4-7 in the same order and so on. For the IR slot, CC 0 is the IR bypass, 1-7 are the 7 slots, 8 is bypass and so on.

Full-range: the entire CC value range (0 to 127) is directly translated to the switch position. For two-way toggles, like bypasses, FX loop and Compressor position, this means that values 0-63 are OFF and values 64-127 are ON. For Drive mode, this means that CC’s 0-31 are for Leo Bass, 32-63 for Vintage Microtubes, 64-95 for Microtubes B3K® and 96-127 for Alpha·Omega. For the IR slot, CC’s 0-15 are bypass, 16-32 for IR slot 1 etc.

Please note that MIDI message for FX loop is an OFF/ON switch in that order and effect bypasses are BYPASS OFF/ON in that order, in other words EFFECT ON/OFF.

MIDI mapping of the device includes the MIDI channel the device uses to receive MIDI messages, the switch type and the PC and CC message numbers for each control accessible through MIDI. The default MIDI mapping (showing also all the available controls using MIDI) is the following:

• Fully digital audio processing
• 500 watt amplifier, voltage selector for 100-120 /200-240 VAC, 50-60 Hz
  • ¼” instrument input
  • Input impedance: 1 MΩ
  • Maximum input level at minimum gain before clipping: 19.4 dBu (7.25 Vrms)
• Input gain potentiometer
  • 40 dB of gain
• Eight digitally read push-pots
• Six digitally read sliders
• USB-C
  • Audio interface
    • 4 input channels and 6 output channels
    • 48 kHz or 44.1 kHz sample rate
  • MIDI in
• Bluetooth (BLE and A2DP)
• MIDI input
  • 7-pin DIN connector only with Darkglass MIDI footswitch
  • 5-pin DIN connector with other MIDI equipment
• Effects loop
  • Maximum send level before clipping: 12.8 dBu (3.4 Vrms)
  • Maximum return level before clipping: 13.3 dBu (3.6 Vrms)
• Headphone output
  • Maximum output level before clipping:
    • 33 Ω load: 4.5 dBu (1.3 Vrms)
    • 120 Ω load: 12.6 dBu (3.3 Vrms)
  • Output impedance: <1 Ω
• Speaker output
  • speakON / ¼” combo jack
  • Minimum load impedance: 8 Ω
• Two XLR direct outs, unaffected by master volume
  • Maximum output level before clipping: 3.0 dBu (1.1 Vrms)
• Line in
  • Maximum input level before clipping: 20.3 dBu (8 Vrms)
• Line out, unaffected by master volume
  • Maximum output level before clipping: 20.5 dBu (8.2 Vrms)
• 6-string bass tuner, notes B, E, A, D, G and C between A0 and A#5
• Fan cooling, 1600 to 3800 RPM
• Woofers: Custom Design Eminence® Speaker
• Horn: WGS-410
• Power Rating RMS: 500 Watts

Infinity 500 Combo 210

Width: 46.4 cm / 18.2″
Height: 61.1 cm / 24″
Depth: 39.5 cm / 15.5″
Weight: 17.3 kg / 38.13 lb

Infinity 500 Combo 112

Width: 43.0 cm / 16.9″
Height: 49.3 cm / 19.4″
Depth: 43.2 cm / 17″
Weight: 14.5 kg / 32 lb