DigiTech RP55: review after two days.

[ninjaaron]

[purchase justification at the bottom] I realize no one on this board cares about this, but at least it's out there if somebody googles it.

 

 

I basically got the RP55 for practice and going direct. I was just looking for something with good clean sounds, and relying on my board for the toanz (which is also what I do for amps).

 

Impressions:

 

The amp models: surprisingly good. I didn't compare them to the real things, I just played with them and thought they were good sounding. Even the dirty tones are decent. They sound tend to sound beefy, not buzzy. They are fairly touch responsive as well. I like the cleans a lot. The acoustic sim was pretty meh, but it's alright in a pinch. The EQ responds how I want it to.

 

Pickup sims: I don't know if they do what they advertise, but they add to the tonal pallet in a usable way.

 

Wahs: They sound good. they also add a tiny touch of latency to the signal.

 

Comp and Noise Gate: do what they are supposed to do. Useless for me, but they work. I think the comp actually sounds pretty good, though I haven't played with it much yet.

 

Modulation: Haven't really played with the modulations, as I'm not really into that, but I noticed a couple of settings that sounded nice. Not much tweaking available, but what there is seems to sound alright. I'm not a good judge of this. There are stereo modulations (and a stereo out).

 

Pitch shifting: does pretty much everything that a whammy pedal does. I greatly prefer my PS-5. This setting also adds an annoying amount of latency to the signal.

 

Delay: Has digital, "analogue" and ping-pong. Delay time is highly tweak-able (0-1000ms), but feedback and mix are not (three settings for each)

 

Reverb: not very tweak-able (catching a theme here?), but there are a fair number of modes, and some of them sound pretty good to me (the spring reverb is pretty decent)

 

Cab sim: Bitch to turn on, but I had to have it since I only use it direct and with headphones. If you want it on, you have to hold down the "Drums" button while you plug in the power. I had to email the company to figure this out (and they were prompt with the response). There were instructions that said this (more or less), but they weren't so clear. :poke: Anyway, it sounded good when I got it working. Takes any buzzy edge off the distortions and makes everything sound thick like it should.

 

Tuner: didn't like the feel of it, but it works.

 

Drum Machine: didn't play with it much. Seems to work and have a fair number of possible beats. Easier for me to play with than a metronome.

 

 

Final verdict: Good amp sims, plenty of effects that aren't very tweak-able (but sound decent, for the most part). Using lots of effects or pitch effects causes some latency (small brain in this one, I guess). Fine practice tool, and will pass in a rig as an amp modeler any day. I would recommend discreet stomps for other effects (goes for almost any multi). Works perfectly for what I needed, and that's the main thing.

 

 

Why the hell I bought this: My Yamaha MagicStomp took a dump earlier this year, and that was basically what I used for headphone practice, recording, and going direct to board. I needed a replacement, and I didn't want to spend much since I would have to spend twice as much in Israel as at home. If I'm going to invest in a nice product, I want to do it there. I walked in the guitar store and told the guy "I need a modeling thingy; where's the cheapest one?" He promptly directed me to the RP55 and I gave it a whirl. Bought it a couple minutes later. CSB, right?

[Dr. Goldenglove]

I have an RP50, really enjoyed the Whammy models on it (they didn't glitch, unlike the real thing), but the small knobs are prone to breaking. All of mine fell out.

[Army of Darkness]

Sry, thought this was the Boxxy thread

[|\|\|\]

WATCH OUT M9

[ninjaaron]

I have an RP50, really enjoyed the Whammy models on it (they didn't glitch, unlike the real thing), but the small knobs are prone to breaking. All of mine fell out.

 

The RP55 doesn't have any knobs, just buttons. Maybe DigiTech took note.

 

Also, glitching is one of the things I love about pitch shifters. The RP55 does that weird tremolo sounding thing that cheap digital pitch shifters do to keep from glitching. (the PS-5 has modes that do both. I always use the glitchy mode).

 

But that's not what I didn't like about the shifting. I didn't like the latency. All cheap shifters have some, but this had enough that it bugged me. Still, probably would be usable at a git, since you don't really notice latency as much live (or at least I don't).

 

@army:

 

@ |||: this would probably make a good team with an M9. It's the AxFX that needs to watch it's back.

[jorhay1]

clips?

[ninjaaron]

 

clips?

 

 

Soon... if I feel like it. I probably will never feel like it.

 

Just out of curiosity, what would you like to hear in a demo? I has a lot of (half-assed) features, and I sure as hell am not demo-ing them all. I'd mostly be inclined to demo the amp sims direct, but I could do some other stuff as well. This is all very theoretical. I don't actually have any plans to make this demo.

[jorhay1]

Amp Sims: Clean, Crunch, Heavy

 

Pitch shifting: just 1 whammy type setting to get an idea of it's sound

 

Delay: it's best Feedback, Mod-delay

 

Reverb: Spring, Hall, Room, Mod Verb (or the best 1 of these)

 

Cab sim: A/B=Dry/On

 

Tuner: (just kidding)

[ninjaaron]

 

Amp Sims: Clean, Crunch, Heavy Pitch shifting: just 1 whammy type setting to get an idea of it's sound Delay: it's best Feedback, Mod-delay Reverb: Spring, Hall, Room, Mod Verb (or the best 1 of these) Cab sim: A/B=Dry/On Tuner: (just kidding)

 

 

I'll keep that in mind. I have to DL some recording software (I'm on Linux) and put batteries in my camera before any of this would go down.

[Cassette]

A demo of this would be awesome since I have sort of wanted to pick one of these up for similar reasons

[Dr. Goldenglove]

I meant buttons, not knobs.

And I really liked mine - there's a preset on it with a sitar emulation that I still wanna use in some recording capacity.

[spentron]

I really like my RP155. I don't think I'll ever be without some type of modeler or very-multi multieffect again. I may not use it all the time, I may get a better one instead, but I will have one.

 

Things I most like about it: small, IT'S A PEDAL. Sure, it's bigger than a Big Muff, but any board that can fit it will have lots of room for other stuff. Also there are workarounds and options, for example you don't have to put up with volume loss when switching in reverb like a Digiverb, you can use the DI amp model and even EQ to match it.

 

Biggest letdowns are latencies. One is switching latency. There isn't much dropout once the switch occurs, but you can't switch effects precisely on beat.

 

The other latency is dry tone latency. It seemed like the coolest thing would be to put it in an analog mix loop, add dirt and plenty of other FX in with the dry signal on command (or use 2 amps). But any part of the signal without intentional delay (clean, dirt) comes out the RP maybe 1.5 ms after the dry signal, causing a hollow sound. I haven't been able to match it exactly -- my shortest delay goes down to 3-4 ms, the dry latency through my IPS33B is too short, and unison pitch shifting is too long (i.e. the 33B tends to cause hollow sounds in normal use too).

 

The looper function of the 155 is also dissapointing, not really usable for much anything serious, though still fun and with good sound quality.

[MisterEd1945]

Just picked up one of these. Seems to generate "usable" effects, but the presets are a bit edgy and some are "over the top". I've tried editing some of the factory presets (41 - 80) and storing them into the "user effects" slots (1 - 40), but it's very tedious. I've requested some details from Digitech on the preset effects settings/values. IF I get feedback, I'll post it.

 

There's a descent YouTube demo of the first 20 presets here

 

 

[MisterEd1945]

No feedback from Digitech so.... I compiled my own factory settings charts by going thru all the presets in edit mode and noting the settings for each effect.

 

2-picture Flickr set:

 

[fly135]

I recently picked up an RP155 for $60 for lunch practice at work. I wish the drum machine worked with the looper.

[wartoxin]

The amp models: surprisingly good. I didn't compare them to the real things, I just played with them and thought they were good sounding. ... Wahs: They sound good. they also add a tiny touch of latency to the signal.

 

on my rp355 I thought

 

The amp models: Passable, barely. I actually found the Mesa Rectifier to be well done, at least in the sense that it sounded like a Metalica CD or even death metal pretty easily. Some of the clean sims were really fat founding, so that's good if needed. Also totally a plus that you can do speaker sim with amp sim. No power tube distortion sounds to be had. You can do fuzz/OD pedal into amp simulations which of course is a plus.

 

Wahs: The pedal stair-steps and there's no Q adjustment on any wah I think. It was overkill, no transparency. I could never use them probably.

 

Reverb: the lexicon thing, perfect for space/fantasy/pretty,

 

the vibrato effect (a true vibrato) didn't work well with the pedal...

 

It also has stuff like 2 assignable LFOs, really cool:blah::blah:

[MisterEd1945]

 

 

Demo of RP55 factory presets