A Misunderstood Masterpiece

If a pedal is a distortion pedal, that doesn't mean it's a high gain metal monster. The TC Electronic Dark Matter Distortion could easily be mistaken for a high gain metal monster, but that isn't its purpose. The true purpose of this pedal is to emulate the tone and feel of a cranked 1970s Plexi. Just by turning the gain knob, you can go from borderline clean to a fair amount of dirt. You may think that the pedal would be heavily compressed and have no dynamics, but even with a fair amount of gain, you still have a touch sensitive tone that maintains clarity; In the studio, it cuts through nicely, and doesn't need any EQ. This pedal is designed to sound like a cranked Plexi. The dynamics and clarity are present, but there's a two band equalizer; not just any, but a very usable one. Turn back the bass for a tighter tone, or turn it up for a warmer tone. Turn back the treble for more warmth, or turn it up for a more glassy tone. I feel this pedal is misunderstood by many. It's meant to be a low to medium gain Marshall style pedal, not a modern metal monster. For me, this pedal performs best in blues-based rock music, so if that's what you play, go ahead and get it. If you're looking for a metal pedal, this is not for you. Overall, I recommend this pedal. If you get the chance, try it out, I bet you'll be impressed.

flat dull and pretty boring

it just doesnt sound interesting to me. however it makes a solid overdrive at low drive (gain) so its not THAT bad and its pretty cheap.

Versatile and great

Great, classic distortion sounds with extra tweakability thanks to both Bass and Treble controls.

Using with a Vox AC15HW set clean, I think the best sound is achieved with Bass off, and both Gain and Treble maxed. Seems to be the closest to a Marshall type distortion sound. Its my heaviest gain stage and stacks great with a reasonably low gain OD (Wampler Euphoria) in front of it.

Easily one of the best affordable distortions out there

Maybe I'm a little biased because it was one of my very first pedals, but as everything else on my board has slowly been upgraded I haven't had the heart to change this one. The gain and level knobs are so responsive that you have perfect volume control over your dirt. It's a pretty aggressive distortion, but very dark in tone so it doesn't sound too in your face or obnoxious. I recommend it for guitar personally but I have used it on bass and it certainly holds up (I would do this with a guitar amp however). Great to run parallel with a clean amp or as a grungy, ratty distortion on its own.

$50? FOR THIS!?!?!?!?!?!?

Dude. Lady.

Stop reading this and go buy a TC Dark Matter. Right now. It's worth it.

Whether you want an easy and simple lo-gain for post time-effect creaminess, or you want to front load your amp with an array of dark and throat lows all the way up to shrieking and squawking hi's. Get this. It's not a metal pedal, so don't fool yourself into thinking you're going to gain town, but this rock-minded distortion will carry you through any classic song on its own, or can be used with other friends to build great shoe-gazey goodness. It's a fully responsive, dynamic, and powerful distortion pedal. Keep the level above noon for unity or boost, or cut your volume down to size and get gainy after some other great effect. This pedal sounds great all over the board, and it's ridiculously cheap for the effect contained within.

Do not expect something DARK

This pedal sounds more like an Overdrive. Of course you have a distortion, but you can clean the sound almost 100%! We never have that with Distortion pedals, only with Overdrive pedals. I trusted some videos on the YouTube, but when I tried by myself, I only got to those great tones using a little bit of crunch on the amp, so the pedal was pushing the sound. The pedal alone has a lot of low-end, and when you try to get rid of it turning down the BASS knob, you will end up with no body at all, just a skinny sound. I think you need to try it before buying. It ended up as a medium drive option to me, so I still use my Mooer Rage Machine to high-gain distortion. Maybe when I get an Overdrive pedal to push the Dark Matter, than I can stop using my Mooer.

Worth the money!

I was very surprised finding this quality for such a price. The Dark Matter might be a digital pedal (which I'm usually not a very big fan of), but it has a wide range of sounds. It varies from a light overdrive type of sound to a heavy crunching sound. I also like the bass and treble knobs. But please TC Electronics: Get better on/off switches on your pedals, because they are very fragile!

A good pedal, but some drawbacks

This pedal is, well, a distortion pedal, and the only real reason I bought it was to hear the difference between overdrive and distortion (my amp has built-in overdrive). It's a good pedal, but it adds a lot of midrange, which is not what I look for in a distorted song (I love midrange, don't get me wrong). There's also this "voice" switch that doesn't really do anything, as far as I can tell

Wonderful Distortion

This picks up right where the MojoMojo leaves of, so I use them together. I often mix a little bit from this, with more tone from the Mojo. There are endless things you can do with the 2 pedals without introducing a lot of noise into the signal path.

Achieve powerful, musical distortion with ease

Dark Matter Distortion aims to give you that powerful, super-musical roar of an early plexi - a sound that will satisfy even the pickiest players out there. We are confident we have achieved just that, and this is one of those pedals you have to try to believe what it can actually do for your distorted sounds.