tc electronic Dark Matter Distortion

I got to choose this distortion as a birthday present from the bandmates and I did not regret at all. It immediately became a great addition to my rig and tone. I use it to enrich the high end when soloing or as a booster on heavy riffs, where the main drive comes from my amp.
I didn't really get the usage of the little "voice" switch, it cannot make much difference, except for a little boost in the high-mids.
It is actually great that I have a little EQ option with the bass and treble knobs, The distortion is equally reactive on single coils and humbuckers, but sounds more like an OD on single coils, where one can play very heavy riffs with humbuckers.
It looks and feels quite sturdy, body made of metal and the pots move smoothly.
The LED indicator is bright enough, one can easily see in direct sunlight.
I would recommend the distortion to anyone who seeks rich tone and heavy distortion as well as booster and addition to existing distortion.

I am not 'into' boutique pedals, but then again I am also not into 'cheap and cheerful' pedals, but the quality of this pedals makes the price gap between the two even bigger.

Since this is now being sold at 1/3 of the price which originally came out as, the pedal is bargain. The distortion goes from a slight overdrive to an all out distortion, but not clipping to take it into fuzz.

The bass and treble controls give a wide range of tones, and the switch, I now is supposed to be subtle, but to my ears it is so subtle I personally can't hear the difference (maybe also due to years of blasting my ear drums with similar pedals).

Based on the price, you will find pedals which are 3 to 4 times the price of this, but will not sound significantly any better. I don't think it would be my only distortion pedal but for a beginner it is a great starter into the word of distortion, or a player who only dips now and again into the 'dark' world then also a nice to have.

It is very well built, as I have found all of the TC pedals are and are made to last.

But as I say for the price, drop it in the gig bag and one day you might be surprised and find you use it quite a bit for fun. Anyway, it is a common fact that you cannot have too many overdrive or distortion pedals!

Highly recommended

To get a Tc pedal at this price is amazing.

It's well built and delivers exactly as described

**Update after weeks of use

Bass and treble controls help shape the tone, add to that the voicing switch for different mid levels, and you could spend ages dialling this in.

Despite the name and colour scheme, the Dark Matter is not a 'Death metal' distortion pedal. Instead it offers distortion with clarity and crunch that doesn't do the same low end chunk that the name would suggest.

I use it for classic/hard rock distortion and it works perfectly doing so.


Pros
Build quality
Price
Tonal options

Cons
Not death metal ready despite the name!

I bought it some time ago - then I sold it and regretted. After some time I bought it again - I'm not going to sell it again.

I would say it's more overdrive then distortion - with this pedal you can find sound of Marshall JCM800 using Fender style amp - tested!

It's not for metal - but you will find your tone for every other genre. It can be used as a booster/overdrive until light distortion.

There is one con - In my first pedal just after guarantee expired footswitch stopped working precisely - sometimes when I pushed the button it didn't go up and I had to step it again. But I have/had also Mojo Mojo, Ditto, Flashback x4, HoF and I didn't find that issue in any of these pedals.

And it's cheap... cheap and cool!

I bought this pedal after buying two pedals from the T.C. Electronics' range - a Flashback delay and a Hall of Fame reverb pedal - because I wanted to add some dirt to my growing collection. I was so impressed by the first two pedals that I had no problem opting for this one, even though TC wouldn't generally be the first name one hears when it comes to overdrive and distortion. As I was a bit skint, I opted for the Dark Matter option, and I have to say, it was a perfect choice.
The only drawback is that when recording, the click of the on/off switch is audible, whereas on the other two pedals it is not. I was a bit taken aback by this and wondered if it was just the one I was sold, however, I pursued it no further.

As far as quality and build are concerned, there is absolutely no issue with this pedal and the sounds are just right for me - I was looking for fuzzy, Dave Gilmour-type sounds amongst others for the purposes of some shoe-gaze, endless, ambient guitar compositions and to be honest, I was very impressed. Definitely wonderful for seventies style Marshall sounding drives. At that price, there is not much to be expected, but prepare to be very pleasantly surprised! Highly recommended.