TC Electronic DARK MATTER DISTORTION Phenomenal Distortion Pedal with Extreme Dynamic Range, Two-Band EQ and Voicing Switch

I can honestly say that this is one of the greatest pedals I own. Though there may have been a couple of moments where I wrestled with the sound, "there is a particular recording I did where I wasn't very pleased with the tone I got out that made me forget the pedal for a bit," I nevertheless came back to this dirt box and rediscovered what I loved about it in the first place. This pedal sounds more than descent at first glance or try, one will perceive a warm growling rock tone with all the knobs set to 12 and minimal effort "just play a couple of power chords". That is just the beginning though!! This black box of mayhem begins to really shine when you experiment with it: When you Mess with the pedal's knobs "The bass knob in particular", experiment with picking dynamics, use doublestops, alternate between staccato and legato phrasing etc... This pedal, for the price, is like an initial course into guitar tone, meant for those who are more serious about tone than playing a very specific genre. This pedal responds to your dynamics the same way that a tube screamer does but with a more marshall plexi bite, a sound more akin to tube like distortion. So this might not be the right pedal if you're into metal riffs where consistency in every note is required and compression keeps everything smooth. If you are very specific about the style of music you play and predictability is what you seek by all means buy a more expensive pedal that caters to that musical genre in particular. If however you want versatility and a bit of unpredictability in your playing without hurting your bank account, this pedal is perfect!!. TC electronic does describe this pedal as more for tone aficionados, so this a great pedal. My only concerns regarding the Dark Matter are that the pedal is not built as tough as say an MXR pedal or even a BOSS Pedal for the road's wear and tear. and that yeah single coil guitars beware !! this pedal can produce a very annoying hiss when using your strat or tele specially if you have wiring issues in your pedal board. Those things are minor however and they are sins that can be forgiven for a pedal that is so damn cheap. For a distortion that has been used by the likes of Vernon Reed and Andy Summers this little gadget is truly remarkable.

I got the T.C. Electronic Dark Matter pedal because it was listed as one of the top 10 pedals for metal, I love my other T.C. Electronic pedal, and the price point is really affordable. I wanted to replace a giant, old, bulky hughes and kettner warp pedal that sounds amazing for high-gain down-tuned metal, but takes up too much room on my pedalboard. If you haven't seen the warp pedal, it is round and almost as big as a dinner plate - not a good design for a pedalboard.The Dark Matter did NOT cut it for high-gain downtuned metal. BUT... it has super sparkly amazing metal tones for playing Vai or Satriani or even Marty Friedman-like leads, and it can pull off a pretty good Kill 'em All sound with the voice switch.If you are looking for a pedal that has rich harmonics, excellent clarity and sparkly leads, look no further. If you want something with ultra-high gain for djent or death metal, you might be disappointed.Since I play lots of styles i ended up just squeezing it onto my board and keeping the Warp Pedal.I am SUPER happy with this pedal and I think it sounds great! I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a great distortion pedal that doesn't need an insane amount of gain.

I was pretty excited to get this pedal and try it out. The price is great for sure. For 50 dollars you get a well built, solid guitar pedal. TC's switches are noteworthy since they are one of the only companies that uses a quiet plunger style click switch. Having owned many cheaper pedals over the years with the louder and stiffer click switches, the TC switches are effortless. Granted they are not as quiet and smooth as a Boss pedal. The footprint of this pedal is basically the same size as a Boss pedal if you are trying to figure out how much room you need on your pedal board. I was very pleased to see that I did not need to modify my Boss BCB-30 pedal board to accommodate the pedal. The sound is quite nice except that I fear it may have "in store" or "demo" appeal in that it sounds great when practicing by yourself, but it may not cut it in a live situation. I compared it to a Boss drive box through a tube amp at just below performance volume. The TC had a very nice wide and open distortion sound that had a lot of range in the level of distortion. Even with the gain all of the way up, it was still not doomy or metal sounding. The Boss when activated just had more punch and mid growl. I have played enough gear and done live sound enough to know that certain frequencies cut through a mix even though they may not sound high end or boutique on their own. This pedal would probably be great to have as another color if you are the only guitar player in a band or you play in a group with lots of sonic space. It also seemed like having the level knob at 12 o'clock was not really unity gain. That is a bit annoying. I felt like the voice switch did not do anything noticeable to the tone.