Darkglass Alpha·Omega Photon

The Darkglass Alpha·Omega Photon is a bass preamp and multi-effects pedal with a built-in USB audio interface, made by Darkglass. At its core is a digital model of the company's Alpha·Omega parallel distortion circuit, developed in collaboration with bassist Jon Stockman, wrapped together with a compressor, a 6-band graphic EQ, IR cabinet simulation, Bluetooth and a headphone output. Darkglass describes it as combining the Alpha·Omega parallel distortion with the versatile format of its Aggressively Distorting Advanced Machine¹.

As of late October 2026 the Photon is listed as sold out on Darkglass's own product page¹, as are the earlier Alpha·Omega and Alpha·Omega Ultra pedals in the range.

The distortion: Alpha, Omega, Growl and Bite

The Photon's distortion section is an accurate model of the Alpha·Omega distortion, developed in collaboration with Jon Stockman, offering two distinct distortions that can be blended². In Darkglass's own description of the two circuits, "Alpha is punchy, tight with a lot of definition, whereas Omega is simply brutal and raw"³.

The familiar Growl and Bite boost functions carry over from the original pedal for adding more low end and/or high end sparkle². On the original Alpha·Omega, the Bite control boosts high mids at 2.8 kHz for additional presence and definition⁴. The Photon selects its character through encoder B, which offers five distortion modes²¹:

The original Alpha·Omega pedal, co-designed with Stockman, put the two circuits on a Mod knob that could select or blend them⁵. Guitar.com reported at the time that the pedal was co-developed with Jon Stockman from Australian rock band Karnivool⁶.

Compressor and 6-band graphic EQ

Before the distortion, the Photon has a compressor with a single Compression potentiometer. Darkglass says it controls the amount of input gain to the compressor and intelligently applies the correct amount of make-up gain, keeping the output at usable levels³. Five ratios are available: 4:1, 8:1, 12:1, 20:1 and ALL IN².

The EQ is a 6-band graphic equalizer controlled by touch-sensitive sliders, each with a -12 dB to 12 dB range³². The default band frequencies are²:

• Low shelf
• 250 Hz
• 500 Hz
• 1.5 kHz
• 3 kHz
• High shelf

Those bands can be changed to 100 Hz, 200 Hz, 400 Hz, 800 Hz, 1.6 kHz and 3.2 kHz in the Darkglass Suite².

Presets, footswitches, tuner and bypass

Below the touch sliders are three rotary footswitch encoders, A, B and C, which can be pressed or rotated. Pressing one switches to the preset stored in that footswitch². The pedal comes pre-programmed with three presets, A, B and C, selectable via the dedicated footswitches, and three additional presets are available via MIDI or the Darkglass Suite².

The built-in tuner is a five-octave chromatic tuner that can tune any note between A0 and A#5, derived from A4 = 440 Hz, one note at a time. You enter and exit tuner mode by pressing footswitches B and C simultaneously, and the pedal outputs no audio while tuning, returning to the last active preset when you exit³.

Bypass mode is also a footswitch combination: pressing A and B simultaneously passes the unprocessed input signal through to the outputs with no processing, with all LEDs off³.

Power and connections

The Photon runs on a regulated 9V DC adapter with a center-negative plug only. Darkglass warns that unregulated supplies or higher voltages may damage the unit and void the warranty¹. The manual specifies a 9V center negative supply with a minimum 500 mA rating, and lists current consumption at ~500mA².

The full connection set²:

When not bypassed, the Level potentiometer controls the instrument volume at all four analog outputs and has no effect on USB, Aux or Bluetooth audio. The XLR DI carries only the instrument output, along with USB output 5³.

USB audio interface and recording

The USB-C port turns the Photon into a USB audio interface, and also handles Darkglass Suite interaction, software updates and access to the Darkglass IR library. It supports 48 kHz and 44.1 kHz sampling rates². On a Mac, no additional drivers are required; Windows users need to download the latest USB audio drivers from the Darkglass Suite page³².

You can record your processed signal to one track and simultaneously record an unprocessed copy to another track, and a stereo track from the Aux input is also possible². The USB routing is fixed²:

The pedal also has Bluetooth: you pair by pressing and holding an encoder while rotating it, the device appears as "Alpha·Omega Photon", and Bluetooth audio is routed to the headphone and balanced outputs².

For cabinet simulation, the Photon supports IR cabinet simulations with 5 cabinet slots on board. The default IRs were selected by the Darkglass Team, and new IRs can be assigned via the Darkglass Suite on desktop or mobile³.

The Alpha·Omega circuit and Jon Stockman

The Alpha·Omega distortion traces back to the original Alpha·Omega pedal, which Darkglass says it developed with Jon Stockman over 18 months of tweaking and tens of prototypes in its then Helsinki headquarters⁵. Aion FX, which traced the circuit, found it distinct from Darkglass's B3K and not adapted from anything else, with no clipping diodes: the distortion comes entirely from overdriving standard op-amps⁷. Aion FX also notes that the Alpha Omega was likely designed first, with the Alpha Omicron as a simplified version, and dates the Alpha Omega's first release to 2017⁸.

The Photon is the latest step in the line. The Alpha·Omega Ultra was demoed at NAMM 2018, and Guitar World lists the Alpha Omega Ultra V2 with a 6-band graphic EQ, dual distortion circuits and USB-editable cab sims. The Photon goes further, folding the preamp, compressor, EQ, cab sims, Bluetooth and the USB interface into one unit⁹¹⁰².

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