Conference napalm::guitar

3260.0. "Digitech RP12" by ASABET::pelkey.ogo.dec.com::pelkey (Professional Hombre) Fri Mar 07 1997 08:41

There's a note here for some digitech stuff but haven't
seen anything on the Digitech RP12 floor console yet..
My sons band-mate has one of these, I asked to borrow
it and mess around with it..   I've read quite a bit
about it in a few of the mail order rags..  They
really hyped it up, 

I plugged it in to the fx-loop on my amp and started 
to mess with it, see what all the hype was over..

took about 10/15 minutes to figure out the menu system,
programing algorythms, and system utilities without the
book..   pretty basic, standard interface, that's good..

about an hour or so later, I came away with mixed feelings..  

While the RP12 has some damn nice stuff in it, there
appears to be some major shortcomings, Some of which
may be programable, but the manual wasn't available, so
I was gropping around, didn't see any fixes for the
following:  

1. When you select a new effect the "Experssion pedal"
   doesn't seem to have a "base-default-0" value.
   Here's the rub. this expression pedal is like a
   mix or effect out control.  Pedal all the way,
   effect is essentially canceled.  Pedal all the way
   down, effect level on 10...  (The expression
   pedal by the way is a very cool idea, and for some
   effects really works well..)

   But, when you change effects, say going from one distortion
   patch to the next, the volume/tone/amount effect JUMPS
   to that patches default.  Very disturbing and not at all
   transparent..

2. There's seemingly a LOOOOONG delay in time, between me
   hitting one of the effect select buttons, and the effect
   actually coming in.. Unlike stomp boxes which are for
   all intensive purposes,, immediate..  This was also
   quite annoying...

3. NO BYPASS BUTTON!!!!!!  ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRG!  (at least
   not one that I could find!)

on the plus side..

the RP12 seems to be infintely editable.  Any value, any setting,
and frequency, all right there editable.  very cool...
There's a multi band parmetric Q for almost every reverb, delay
flange, phase, chours, distorition setting, you name it, you
can 'Q' shift it, increase it, decrease it, cancel it, add it,
what ever it..

It's way more effect than I've used in my life, there was this
one patch called Fusion 4ths..  F*C%ING AMAZING... A Harmonzier
right there..  With some more editing on that patch, it could
have been a scary thing.


/pelksta..

    
      RE: -.1
    
      Item number 2 - the switch program glitch. HATE IT! That's a lot of
    the reason why I sold my GSP-2101. Try switching patches on a piece of 
    Rocktron gear.

yea, the program switch is more annoying the more
I play with it..

I also discovered that the RP12 works ***A LOT***
better straight in line, and not in the FX Loop...

I've decided that clearly, To me: it's not worth the 
$550 bucks that it would cost to buy a new one,, but
If I could get one for chump change ($250/$300) it'd
probably be a good thing to have hanging around.

I still get alot of milage out of my DSP128+,
but the reverse is true for this unit, in that it
almost has to be in the loop to be more effective.
If I plug that 'in line' I really dislike the filtering
it puts on the signal.  One fall back of the DSP128
is the Chours and Flange are sort of annemic..

/pelks..

Well, I think for $250.00 which is what the owner wants
for the RP12, I'm going to buy this thing..

the more I use, the more fun I have with it.  
most surprising was how smart it is.
  
For example, the Harmonizer knows to sharp/flat notes
based on what key, and chord patterns you select. Also 
once you get the feel of the cc-pedal, you can do some neat
stuff with it, but it works GREAT as a volume pedal.

Some other nice features,,, it's really got some nice 
modulation effects, some cool delay patters, there's a few 
gorgeous chorus patches..  and the built in chromatic tuner is 
really a nice feature, and I'll admit, some of the analog
distortion settings are way too much fun to play with, Randy
Rhodes (RIP) had to have something to do with some of them, cuz
a few are dead ringers for the tone he was getting on
the first Ozzie album.

There's a few settings on this thing that come real close to
what I used to pull off when I had my Midi guitar.. Not
that they're too usable, but fun ??? Oh yea,,

all things considered, not a bad toy for the money.  Surprised
myself at deciding to buy it...