DigiTech RP250 Modeling Guitar Processor

[Dragonsoni]

Mark Akin the product specialist for Digitech was doing live demos of the RP250. I don't own one of these units but was impressed.

Obviously, it sounded great in the acoustic environment and the high end monitors with a mixer.

But what really impressed me was the ease to edit the unit with the computer software.

Mark wrote a really cool patch for Van Halen's Eruption. Van Halen tones seem to becoming more popular everyday.

Interestingly, he didn't use the EVH patch but a Plexi amp boosted with a DOD pedal with the warm cab with appropriate effects. He showed me a trick, I wanted to share with you. He used the compressor in an interesting fashion to create more tube feel (i.e. sag). I am sorry I don't have the settings but it really worked.

[turtleheadblues]

Just started using this a straight effects processor live. The effects are cool but the bypass having to stomp both pedals is VERY poorly thought out. I fumbled several times live with it. It almost makes it unusable live for quick changes. I read earlier in this thread about building blank patches around the ones you use. Im going to try that. Ive been using the whammy alot but veery other time I turn it on the amp models turns itself back on after I turn it off. cant figure that out and its frustrating.

[ibanezfoo]

So I picked up an RP250.... I must say I'm not thrilled with it. There are a ton of options, but I just can't get a good distortion sound out of it. I'm wondering what you guys are doing to get decent tones? To me, everything sounds tinny and digital. I'm not ripping on this unit, I do plan on keeping it and I'm sure I'm just missing something somewhere. I have an older POD 2.0 and it just sounds "warmer" than the RP. The effects (chorus, reverb, etc) are much nicer in the RP but I just can't find a good warm and responsive distortion. I usually play though a modified 5150 so maybe I'm just used to it. I got the RP mainly because it had an aux input and I am going to use it to jam through headphones on my lunch break at work. I was able to obtain a fairly convincing oldschool Sabbath tone, but it still has that digitally tinnyness to it.

Any input?

[kalab]

ibanezfoo, there is a switch on the back called Mixer/Amp, or something to that effect. I forget which one gives you that thin digital sound (I know exactly what you mean) but the other setting is pretty decent. I think Mixer is the position you want. Perhaps that has something to do with it.

 

HTH

[Will Chen]

So I picked up an RP250.... I must say I'm not thrilled with it. There are a ton of options, but I just can't get a good distortion sound out of it. I'm wondering what you guys are doing to get decent tones? To me, everything sounds tinny and digital. I'm not ripping on this unit, I do plan on keeping it and I'm sure I'm just missing something somewhere. I have an older POD 2.0 and it just sounds "warmer" than the RP. The effects (chorus, reverb, etc) are much nicer in the RP but I just can't find a good warm and responsive distortion. I usually play though a modified 5150 so maybe I'm just used to it. I got the RP mainly because it had an aux input and I am going to use it to jam through headphones on my lunch break at work. I was able to obtain a fairly convincing oldschool Sabbath tone, but it still has that digitally tinnyness to it. Any input?

 

 

Please be more specific as to how you're using the RP. If going to headphones, you're going to compromise a great deal versus playing an amp as part of the amp playing experience is the sound bouncing around the room and potentially feeling the speakers push air (depending on your volume). HEadphones will never give you that thump in the chest. However, fed into a PA or a mixer with a good monitoring system (not headphones) you'll be able to recapture some of that amp experience.

 

I've dipped my toe in the digital sim world with digtech long ago and shuddered. Tried again with the original Flextone series and things were better but not yet there. Tried the Yamaha DG and Johnson J-Station. Closer. To me this unit sounds very analog. Absolutely comparable to Tech 21 Sansamp stuff which I consider to be top of the line as far as analog "modeling".

[ibanezfoo]

ibanezfoo, there is a switch on the back called Mixer/Amp, or something to that effect. I forget which one gives you that thin digital sound (I know exactly what you mean) but the other setting is pretty decent. I think Mixer is the position you want. Perhaps that has something to do with it. HTH

 

 

Yup, I know about that switch. It was the first thing I went after when I wasn't getting good tone. The mixer definitely sounds better, but still "not there"

[ibanezfoo]

I've dipped my toe in the digital sim world with digtech long ago and shuddered. Tried again with the original Flextone series and things were better but not yet there. Tried the Yamaha DG and Johnson J-Station. Closer. To me this unit sounds very analog. Absolutely comparable to Tech 21 Sansamp stuff which I consider to be top of the line as far as analog "modeling".

 

I'm not exactly a noob with this stuff... been using piles of different gear for a little over 20 years now, I even build my own and modify what I have. I like most of it, even the stuff people say is crap. I always find some sounds I like. There are alot of sounds I like in this RP, which is why I am keeping it. I just want a little less sterile "tinny" sounding distortion out of the RP. I'm not saying it isn't capable of it, which is why I'm asking what others are doing. I've been loading up others' patches, and some sound ok but still a bit tinny. I am looking more for concepts rather than actual patches to copy.

[TexasRocks]

Most of the pre-sets use the expression pedal as volume and wah-wah. The expression pedal does nothing, however, with one of my favorite settings - the "STACK" (unless you want to click it into wah-wah mode). Why is this and, more importantly, how can I make the pedal do volume control?

[rice]

Most of the pre-sets use the expression pedal as volume and wah-wah. The expression pedal does nothing, however, with one of my favorite settings - the "STACK" (unless you want to click it into wah-wah mode). Why is this and, more importantly, how can I make the pedal do volume control?

(sorry for my english, I'am french )
Begin with this factory STACK preset and slightly transform it in user preset with buttom edit by adding pedal expression : press touch "edit" until light on range "expression" ; then follow the indications on the second paragraph, "expression pedal", of page 27 of manuel ; at last, edit with touch "store" (page 12 of manual).

[Deadite99]

Most of the pre-sets use the expression pedal as volume and wah-wah. The expression pedal does nothing, however, with one of my favorite settings - the "STACK" (unless you want to click it into wah-wah mode). Why is this and, more importantly, how can I make the pedal do volume control?

 

 

The expresion pedal is most likely set to "No link" just go into edit mode and go to "expresion" and set it to volume or whatever you want.

[Deadite99]

As I said, I am playing through headphones. Not great headphones, but not cheapo ones either. I'm not expecting a full tube amp experience, I have a real tube amp for that. I am expecting something that doesn't sound like an amp is at the far side of a small metal tube though. The POD doesn't sound like this, it sounds more warm and natural. The sounds may be in the RP, and that was the point of my original post... what are you guys doing to coax them out? I'm not exactly a noob with this stuff... been using piles of different gear for a little over 20 years now, I even build my own and modify what I have. I like most of it, even the stuff people say is crap. I always find some sounds I like. There are alot of sounds I like in this RP, which is why I am keeping it. I just want a little less sterile "tinny" sounding distortion out of the RP. I'm not saying it isn't capable of it, which is why I'm asking what others are doing. I've been loading up others' patches, and some sound ok but still a bit tinny. I am looking more for concepts rather than actual patches to copy.

I know what you mean,When I first got my 250 I went to Digitech's site and downloaded some patches and was less than thrilled.So I gave up and sat down untill I got what I wanted out of it.And on that note i'll try to do you a solid and give you a couple of the settings that I've found to work for me.(Hope you like metal)

Patch name(FADE BL)I made this for the lead parts in Fade to Black(Metallica)

Pickup-Off
Wah-Cry-0/99/0 Only used when toe switch is used.
Comp-CSCOMP/18/99/90
Dist-ZONE/99/60/80
Amp-900JCM/VTG412/0/85
EQ-SCOOP/12/-12/12
Noise gate-GATE/30/0/0
FX-MCHORUS/0/90/99
Delay-OFF
Reverb-LEXHAL/80/99/43
Expresion-VOLPRE-0/99

Patch name(BLKALB)Good for most anything from the Black Album.

Pickup-Off
Wah-Off
Comp-Off
Dist-ODRIVE/60/-/50
Amp-DIGMTL/DIGMTL/80/40
EQ-MIDBST/12/-12/12
Noise gate-GATE/30/0/0
FX-CHORUS/20/70/70
Delay-Off
Reverb-LEXHAL/50/40/22
Expresion-VOLPRE/0/99

This is a few of my patches I have written down so far,hopefully it will get you going.Also since your useing head Phones you might need to adjust the amp and distortion levels.Hope this helps.

[mikews99]

As I said, I am playing through headphones. Not great headphones, but not cheapo ones either. I'm not expecting a full tube amp experience, I have a real tube amp for that. I am expecting something that doesn't sound like an amp is at the far side of a small metal tube though. The POD doesn't sound like this, it sounds more warm and natural. The sounds may be in the RP, and that was the point of my original post... what are you guys doing to coax them out?

 

Use an external headphone amp. The onboard amp is pretty weak. I had the problem that the patches listened to directly from the RP250 headphone outs sounded weak, but when I recorded them into my mixes they sounded great. I discovered that patching directly into my mixer and listening to the RP250 via my mixer headphone outs improved things greatly. Even my Grados, which should sound pretty beefy with any amp, sounded anemic directly from the RP250.

 

If you want that tubey type sound from the RP250, you'll have to use a tube pre into the RP250 and a tube line amp on the output. That combo helps makes most of the stock patches come alive for me.

[jqworle]

Quality headphones do make quite a difference to sound output, my first pair of wired headphones had no volume to them at all which as the Rp250 doesnt pump out a big signal through its headphones was a problem but since buying some Sennheiser wireless headphones which are good quality ,and being wireless the transmitter acts a lot like a amplifier ,the RP250 sounds much better, and definitely much louder.

[Tentaphane]

I've got a Digitech RP 250, I've been trying to record with it through USB using Audacity, and it sounds AWFUL.

The signal is too quiet, so you have to boost it by 30 odd dB anyway, and even without boosting it it sounds distorted and messy, nothing like it does through my amp.

I've tried:
Changing the volume on the unit
Switching the setting to 'Mixer'
Changing recording volumes and devices and everything i coucld think of on audacity
Downloading drivers

My computer's running XP, it's decent, and the sound comes through my Nvidia nForce Sound card out of my 90W Sony stereo, which normally sounds amazing.

What's going wrong? Or does the RP 250 always sound this...bad through recorings? It seems nothing like the sublime sounds i can carve through my amp.

[mikews99]

You're probably recording through the MME or DirectSound drivers rather than the ASIO drivers. The MME/DirectSound drivers have no latency adjustment and they can become glitchy/crackly/distorted if your system is not responsive enough. You'll have to get another program that can record/playback through ASIO to get a clean recording.

[Tentaphane]

I downloaded a free version of 'Krystal' which uses AISO drivers, but I only got it working once and it didn't sound great. It couldn't find any AISO drivers for it most of the time.

Any idea how I could get Audacity to use AISO drivers?

[Tentaphane]

Oh, and can you download the AISO drivers for the RP250 somewhere? I did look once but didn't really get very far.

 

Actually scratch that, they probably come on the unit. The main problem seems to be that the output is just too quiet - should I like run it through my amp before it hits the pedal!?

[mikews99]

Go to the Digitech website and download the drivers and the X-Edit software. You'll probably have to update the firmware too. Once you install everything, load up X-Edit and make sure the preset level (upper right) is set to max and USB Audio (bottom of GUI: "Audio Setup") is set to 50 for the playback mix and 0dB for the USB level. Also make sure your Master Level (rightmost knob on the unit itself) is also set to max and that your pedal (which controls volume for many patches) is fully down.

[Equilibrium8]

Hi, great forum! It was this and Anderton's review on the Line 6 floor pod that made me decide to go with the RP250. I bought a one last week and so far am very happy with it, except for the really high gain 80's sounds and that I still can't monitor the output through my notebook, even with my settings on "recording device:RP250USB" and my playback on the conxenant HD output.

Off topic however, what I'm interested to know is, the ppl using this unit for live work and who need a fair amount of patch changes during songs. How are you setting it up to change between the patches you need? I was thinking of making cycles of "clean rhythm", distorted rhythm" and "distorted lead". I'm just wondering if anyone has a better approach. There really should be some kind of "activate"switch on it, as far as I remember even the Zoom 505, which is cheap and nasty has something like that.

The only other multiFX i have owned was a Boss ME6, which had lacklustre sounds, but was nicer having 5 pedals in front of me. But compromises have to made!

[hjeong1114]

I own an RP250, and the lead guitarist owns a GNX model.
In my opinion the sounds of RP250 seems very sharp and scratchy compaired to the warm GNX tone. When two guitars are played together, I can only hear high scratchy sounds from my amp, so I have to lower the high and mid of the amp way down. I've plugged my guitar into the GNX so I know it's not the difference in guitars. Should RP250 sound more scratchy than a GNX? Or is it just my settings? Thanks in advance.

[Will Chen]

I own an RP250, and the lead guitarist owns a GNX model. In my opinion the sounds of RP250 seems very sharp and scratchy compaired to the warm GNX tone. When two guitars are played together, I can only hear high scratchy sounds from my amp, so I have to lower the high and mid of the amp way down. I've plugged my guitar into the GNX so I know it's not the difference in guitars. Should RP250 sound more scratchy than a GNX? Or is it just my settings? Thanks in advance.

 

I've been tempted to "downgrade" to a GNX3000 myself and compared the units side by side. The following are my results which I posted on a different discussion board.

 

OK, so I went to GC and spent around an hour comparing the GNX3000 and the RP350 side by side and here are my conclusions. I tested using a PRS SE singlecut, which is the same guitar I play at home and used the same display set of AKG headphones when switching between units.

 

The units sound very different side by side yet still retain much of the same flavor, each with its pluses and minuses. I first bypassed the effects on both sides and compared the amp modeling. Generally speaking, THE RP is brighter, more in your face. From a recording standpoint, it's the difference between putting a mic directly on the speaker cone versus micing slightly off axis. Based on your preferences, one might sound better than the other. I personally prefer on off axis sound so over all the GNX sounded better to me. Additionally the GNX is slightly more compressed. This results in a slightly less dynamic sound at the trade off of better sustain, much better in some cases (Highwatt is a good example). On the GNX you can control the sweep of the low eq control where the RP's is fixed. I didn't get a chance to really explore the warp function, but I would assume it's a powerful feature of the GNX which is not included on the RP. The GNX contains many more amp models (including bass) however the RP is kind of a "best of" and includes enough from a guitar standpoint to keep most players happy.

 

From an effects standpoint, I have to say the RP wins. First off, the reverbs on the RP are killer. Perhaps it's due to the brighter overall sound of the unit, but they just kill the GNX. Additionally, the RP contains modeled effects of which the GNX only has the Digitech general flavors. Now, the Digitech flavors are very good in my opinion, but the difference is a bowl of Vanilla ice cream versus a hot chocolate sundae. Both are good, but one has that little extra which kicks it over the top (the RP's Boss CE1, TC chorus, EH small stone, and DOD FX25 Envelope are sorely missed). However, while I love messing with effects I rarely put them to use other than an occasional chorus or rotary sound.

 

There are 3 stomps which the RP has which I wish were on the GNX; TS808, DOD Classic Fuzz, and Demeter Fuzzulator. But overall the tones from both were very similar is this regard. THE DS1 on the GNX seemed to have a little more focused low end, but the difference was slight. Also, the metal zone on the GNX didn't seem to have all the EQ controls like the real pedal (and the RP).

 

I more of a “natural” player from a tone perspective and don’t use a bunch of effects so GNX is attractive. However, when I do occasionally use an effect, it’s the ones which the GNX is missing. Tough decision!!!! So...I'm still torn. But hopefully this post can help someone who might be in a similar situation.

[hjeong1114]

wbcsound, thanks for the excellent reply. This helps a lot. I guess the difference I was noticing was the "in your face" of RP and "off axis" sound of the GNX. BTW, I play PRS SE as well, but mine's not singlecut, its a Custom. I don't use a lot of effects, so maybe I should get a gnx....
Does anyone think the difference comes from the audiodna2 chip on the RPs as opposed to the older chips on gnx? In that case, if they start using audiodna2 on gnx line the sound will become more like rps.

[hjeong1114]

Hi, great forum! It was this and Anderton's review on the Line 6 floor pod that made me decide to go with the RP250. I bought a one last week and so far am very happy with it, except for the really high gain 80's sounds and that I still can't monitor the output through my notebook, even with my settings on "recording device:RP250USB" and my playback on the conxenant HD output. Off topic however, what I'm interested to know is, the ppl using this unit for live work and who need a fair amount of patch changes during songs. How are you setting it up to change between the patches you need? I was thinking of making cycles of "clean rhythm", distorted rhythm" and "distorted lead". I'm just wondering if anyone has a better approach. There really should be some kind of "activate"switch on it, as far as I remember even the Zoom 505, which is cheap and nasty has something like that. The only other multiFX i have owned was a Boss ME6, which had lacklustre sounds, but was nicer having 5 pedals in front of me. But compromises have to made!

 

 

 

I just played a gig with about 6 songs with 1 or 2 patches per song... I made patches (total 9) for each song and put them in the order we were planning to play, so that I have to press the pedal only once during each song... and once or twice in between songs....

[Will Chen]

wbcsound, thanks for the excellent reply. This helps a lot. I guess the difference I was noticing was the "in your face" of RP and "off axis" sound of the GNX. BTW, I play PRS SE as well, but mine's not singlecut, its a Custom. I don't use a lot of effects, so maybe I should get a gnx.... Does anyone think the difference comes from the audiodna2 chip on the RPs as opposed to the older chips on gnx? In that case, if they start using audiodna2 on gnx line the sound will become more like rps.

 

 

hjeong,

 

I ordered the gnx3000 yesterday. My final conclusion is if your ultimate goal is a small unit for effects usage only, the RP series is a great choice. If your ultimate goal is more towards modeled preamps and live switching then the GNX wins. Both units are great, the GNX just works better for my needs.

[boyad]

Im thinking of getting a digitech RP250 or an analog pedal (cause I dont know if I will use 50 effects), Im really looking for a good delay, reverb, wah, booster, and some overdrive/distortions...

 

and...Im not a BIG FAN of the other effects (chorus, flanger, phaser, tremolo...)