DigiTech RP-10

(easy)read your manual and take your time and you will find your sound

yes but that also takes some fine tunning, srv-doyle bramhall-robert cray-pink floyd-gary moore (distortion chorus-very good)i use fender guitars and amps -and you also have to ajust your amp to your effects-noisy? no-invest in some good chords-the sound is good when the mix is right-i use a 68fender twin reverb and a fender deluxe

(yes) (yes)

(no) (no)

rock r&b blues 25years i would keep my eyes open one unit easy to set up i wish the display were larger yes it helps just take your time

No inicio e um pouco complicado de editar, mas com o passar do tempo fica melhor.

Seus efeitos s?o de grande qualidade. O unico problema e a impossibilidade de desligar o equalizador.

Sua sonoridade e muito boa. Consegue-se varios timbres e sons diferentes com ela. Com um paciencia faz-se sons dignos dos grandes mestres.

Considering all the options available in this unit, the programming is logical: within each effect algorithm (there are 33), you scroll thru the given effects and their parameters, tweaking as you like. A difficulty might arise when you come upon, say, the ?flagship? reverb module, if you don?t know what all the parameters are for ? but that?s the complexity of the effect, not the programming. You also have to spend a little time learning how to assign effect on/offs to the footswitches, or how to assign specific functions to the CC pedal (it usually defaults to volume control but it can do much else). I?ve never messed with the MIDI capabilities, and I?m sure they?re as complex as the manual makes it out to be. But the basic programming and tweaking is not difficult once you get into it. It can be tedious though with the more manipulative effects, like the big reverb or EQ.

Ease of use onstage is easy, if you?ve done your preparation beforehand. Assign patch programs to sequential banks, so you can go thru a setlist with a minimum of foot taps. Assign effects on/off switches so you can stay within the same patch, but cut chorus in or out, delay on or off, etc. That?s the selling point of a multi-fx unit in the first place: to replace a sea of pedals and cords with something simpler in bulk and execution. The more time you spending getting to know the unit, the less time you?ll spend fiddling with it when actually playing. A downside is the little blip of silence when switching patches, but there?s no delay when tapping FX changes within the patches.

Rule #1: This is meant to be used in stereo, and it sounds best that way. #2: Amps warm the tone. I run this into two combos. At one point I was using a Peavey Classic 50 and there was a nice synergy there ? warm sound, controllable feedback, etc. I?ve recorded demos direct with the RP10 and that?s where the digital tinny-ness is laid bare.

As for effects, the chorus is great, from a simple mono to a 6-voice stereo. Flanger and phaser are good, and I found a great sound with the dual flanger algorithm. Reverb is decent, very adjustable, and there are cool tricks with the flat envelope option. Compressor has value if you experiment with it, like matching high compression with a low clean level. The harmonizer is digital-harsh, unless you warm the signal before it. Delays are quality, with lots of tweakability. All sorts of secondary effects, like panning and autowah and ducking, do their job. On the downside, the distortions are weak, except for the Heavy Sustain setting. It can be warm and fuzzy if used right. The manual wah is silly, but I salvaged it on one patch by linking it with volume on the pedal for an envelope chorus swell. (That?s the thing about the dud sounds/effects on here ? you can find ways to salvage them, if their normal application is out of the question.) Individually, the effects range from 4?s and 5?s (the wah, distortion) to outstanding (the modulations), so an 8 seems fair overall...with a 9 if you know what you?re doing. The preset patches range from good to obnoxious, and it?s up to the user to dive in and coax personalized sounds from the effects. But it absolutely can be done. I?m addicted to the chorus variables on this and don?t want to use anything else. Ditto the phaser, for that matter. It?s apples and oranges comparing these sounds with vintage analog pedals, but there?s some good fruit here.

Overall, the guitar and amps will play a role in the final sound. And there is digital glassiness to contend with in the RP-10. But it can be computed out.

Only snafu in 8 years: wires connecting CC pedal shorted out; local guitar shop rewired it for 30 bucks. No problems before or since. Gigged with it in smoky bars, dank basements, swank basements?reliable all the time. (thankfully the wire problem occurred at home and not on stage.) Changed the battery once ? no big deal. Note: write down your programs!

I cannot remember the exact details of my conversation with Digitech when the wires went bad, but it seemed enough of a headache and waiting game to turn instead to a local wiz for help. Two days of waiting, opposed to two months.

Why am I writing about a unit I?ve had for eight years? Because I?ve had it for eight years! The industry of digital FX is like the auto industry: we?re told how great this year?s model is, then we buy it, then it?s obsolete and we?re told how great the next year?s model is. Either these things all suck to begin with and constantly need improvement, or it?s a quickfire market where you always have to have new product out there. The point is that the best aspects of the RP-10 have not been significantly bettered by any comparable newer model ? not for my ears and purposes ? and thus I?ve never felt the need to upgrade. Bells and whistles don?t sucker me. I want some good modulation, EQ, reverb options, and this still provides it.

I bought this when I noticed a sea of individual pedals forming under my feet, and it was more convenient. I do like a variety of sounds, and thus my ultimate FX setup would be a logistical buzzing nightmare were I to do it all with individual units. I still use other devices, like EH Microsynth, and that?s another bonus: feeding analog character sounds into the RP10 and coming up with even more unique combinations. Another keeper aspect of this unit is that I?ve found some unique soundscape effects, involving long reverb decays, harmonizers, and delays, which I don?t think I could replicate with any combination of other units/devices. It has exclusive capabilities that I don?t want to lose.

At this point, there are enough multi-fx processors out there to sink a boat, so that the RP10 is probably not worth searching out if you don?t know what you?re missing. Personally, it?s a part of my sound, and it has loads of capability. I used it for rock gigs before; it?s now assisting me in some jazz and abstract situations.

Getting sounds is quite easy, simple to program. Editing is pretty simple too. Lost my manual many moons ago. No upgrades.

I Bought this unit used back in 1993 in a pawn shop for $350.00. After about 3 years of use, I sold it to a friend for $150.00, and he gave me a bass rockman to boot. Fast foward to now "2004" and a few weeks ago I bought it back from that same friend for $50. Back when I owned it the first time, I was really a beginner, and only had small Fender, or Crate 1x12 amps, and it sounded great (as I recall) with those little solid state amps. Fast foward to now, and I use it mostly for recording direct into a Focusrite ISA 220 Preamp into a Roland 2480hd. I also own a Valve FX too. The RP-10 works fantastic for recording direct. Now I own several "toob" halfstacks, but I haven't ran it through them yet.

Before selling it to my friend the distortion switch kept sticking. I figured it just needed cleaning. So I popped off the switch button (the black one) and it broke. After years in my friends posession the switch under the button quit working too. The distortion patch still works and can be toggled off from the menu buttons, but not the switch. Everything else works. I ordered a new button from Digitech, and put it on, but still can't be switched from the pedal switch. But overall considering it's age (11 years, or so) it still cleaned up nicely, and looks almost as good as it did when I bought it.

Working with the guys at Digitech is great. You can order small parts right off their website. Things like replacement pedals for the RP series, and Control One controllers (which I have one of these also for my Valve Fx. Anyway, if something breaks on any of your Digitech gear, just send it to them with a check or money order for a $100.00, and they'll ship it back fixed, regardless of what's wrong with it. Which is great if it's a major fix, but lously if it's just a stuck switch thingy. LOL.

I personally play an assortment of styles from Country, Pop, all the way to nu-metal stuff. I've been playing at guitar for over 20 years. If it was stolen, I probably wouldn't look for another, unless I could get it cheap. But I really do like this unit considering it's time period. This was some hot doody back in it's day. I've owned the folling Digitech guitar fx processors. Started with the RP-10, RP-7, RPM-2000, and the Valve FX. The only keepers of those are the RP-10, and the Valve Fx. The RP-7 was great for recording, but sucked with my amp of the time, a solid state Crate Halfstack. I don't use it for all of my studio work but, it's one of those "go to" units when nothing else is working on the song. I have a nice collection of various Boss, and DoD pedals, and nice tube amps, but for some reason I continue to search for that direct recording tool thats the Shitznit. I've owned the Pod XT, Boss GT-6, an Ibanez virtual amp (theres a handy little box for the studio)and other stuff just for different sound in the studio, any of which will work in the right situation. I don't think it's really the box you use, but more the touch your fingers have with the guitar that makes a particular sound good or bad. Still I search..

I have this one and the Art SGX Nitro, and this one is way easier to configure and to use. One thing I really like about this one is that even if a particular effect is not active for a particular patch (distortion, for instance), you can still hit that switch and it will come on. The SGX Nitro (with the X15 pedalboard) isn't like that. If the effect isn't enabled as part of the effect, you can't add it on the fly.

Excellent sounds. I have seen negative reviews about this one- some complain that everything is obscure, extreme and unusable. Well, have you ever taken the car out of the garage? Nobody uses just the factory defaults. Spend some time with it, setup some patches for your particular songs and program them in. When tweaked, this thing will put out just about any sounds you can dream up.

Awesome. I've had mine for over 12 years, and it just wigged out a week ago. One day, some of the filters stopped working. The next day, when I powered it on, it went into some sort of demo mode and then when I hit a pedal, it would give an error message. I emailed one of the "authorized service centers", and they said it would be ~$100 to fix it. I found a yahoo group for RP-10's, and read through the threads, and I found out that the Lithium battery went bad and corrupted the memory. So, I bought a new battery (3.29 at radio shack), and did a factory reset, and it's back as good as new. I also had a backup of my configs using RPEdit, so I'm set. Otherwise, completely reliable.

Never had to deal with Digitech directly, but this device has been discontinued quite some time ago. They still have the user manual online.

I play a lot of cover stuff, along with some of my own stuff. The music styles and effects vary considerably. As I said before, the factory default presets are pretty much just to show off what this thing can do. They're all extreme, so they're not much use, but it can be customized to do pretty much anything, save a few more modern effects. I setup patches for each song or band style, and since this is MIDI, it can be controlled by the sound engineer from the soundboard for live performances.

It was fine. I Didn't have much trouble.

Some of the effects were very good and some sucked. It was possible to change some of the effect to suit my purpose. The distortion wasn't very good.

Trash. I bought this unit used and it worked for a while and then just quit. I have electronic guy look at it and he said that their were power supply problems along with the possibility of others so I hocked it.

Overall I was plesed with the effects and ability use some many different types but it quit. Electronic guy said most places charge $60 just to look at it and then whatever it costs to fix it. So when you buy this pedal make sure you know where the hech came from and its complete condition and previoius use! Good pedal it it works.

The stock presets are unusable, but are standard in order to show off how extreme the effects can be. Once you make your own settings where every parameter isn't on ten, it is pretty usable. THe manual isn't too difficult until you get to the midi section. I consider myself somewhat intelligent. However, I was floored by the extreme complexity of the midi continuous control and the morphing nonsense.

I had this unit at the perfect stage of my development as a guitarist. I got mine when I had been playing 2.5-3 years. At about the 7-8 year mark, I outgrew it and upgraded to a rack. THis unit taught me how to program anything, how to utilize effects tastefully, and how to achieve a useable sound in a band situation. The distortion sucks. All three of them as a matter of fact. The "grunge" has searing, overboard gain. You will never hear it in a band situation. The heavy sustain doesn't have enough gain, or sustain. The overdrive is okay. The clean is awesome.

I blew it up.

Pretty easy to use, just a lot of crap to go through adjusting parameters abd all - I mean, tweaking one preset to get exactly what ya want can take forever, but persistence will pay off.

I ahev played thru several amps, currently using an Ibanez TB100, and after playing around with the "clean" sound setting on the amp, got most of my patches edited to sound great with it. The effects always sound great - good quality, and the damn Cabinet Emulator kicks ass when going straight to a mixer or computer - which I do a lot. The only GRIPE I have about this thing is that when switching from patch to patch, you get this little 1/2 second delay which is annoying as all @#$&!!

I have beat the crap out of this thing over the years and it's time for a replacement, but it has always been reliable. I will keep it for studio recording, but I think I am gonna go stomp boxes now cause I hate the delay ya get when switching patches in multi-effect units.

Remember what I said about banging it around over the years? One day I turned it on and got an error message. The manual didn't say jack, I called tech support, the guy walked me through resetting the unit, and presto. Of course - I lost all my user-defined patches. But the support was great.

I don't know how the newer units are as far as having a slight delay when switching patches, but for any type of music this thing is great.

This unit IS NOT for total begginners or stomp box users, but when accompanied by the manual, it is for the most part; VERY easy to learn, and user friendly. Towards the end though you can forget about programming the CC pedal to morph simultaneous effects. This part of the manual was like reading a MIDI textbook! Anyway, After 7 years of owning one of these, I was NEVER at a loss for a great or unique sound! So being able to program this unit for probably more than you would EVER need to apply to playing live, or recording; should be of relative ease!

I used this unit through a Carvin SX-200, using my trusted Jackson Fusion Standard.(also have used with Ibanez models, and a Fender Strat. This thing was RIPPIN' straight out of the box!!! Monster distortion, and Very nice sounding acoustic cleans. I was in a guitar/keyboard band when this arrived, and My keyboard partner ran this unit through a CHEAP Radio Shack mixer, and a Dolby Digital Surround Sound home stereo system setup. The ending result within 4 hours later was a smooth jazz song that we recorded on the cassette deck of that stereo, which in turn was submitted to our local jazz station, and was first played on the radio between Sade, and Vanessa Williams. The radio Station did re-mix, and edit a bit, but was mostly the original recording. this was probably the second or third preset that I fiddled around with, and done the first time ever plugging into this unit! Over many years, I was able to sit down for long 4-8 hours stretches and tweak parameters to gain some VERY UNIQUE effects, that became instantly recognizeable in conjunction with my already unique style. Much in the same way that Slash, or Vai can play one or two notes, and you just KNOW!(ya' know?!) Some distortions are VERY noisy, some VERY thin, but the meat is that you can tweak up, and down and find perfection somewhere to your liking! Effects sound A LOT better through recording equipment, P.A., or even a kick'in Digital Surround sound stereo, Than they do through an amp though. For recording this is a VERY inexpensive, and versatile piece of gear to take you to the cleanest definition, without taking you to the cleaners! Note however that you will Only get very FEW of the Satriani, or Vai type of effects.( Go buy an EVENTIDE!) You will get GREAT Queensryche, Fates Warning, Type O Negative, Pantera, Savatage, Orgy, and yes even a little George Lynch! Also BIG smooth jazz, new age, and funk sounds!!! I recommend Pedal Motion factory preset, and Platinum Solo(smokin') factory preset for starter distortions, and Studio Clean factory (I believe it was called.) for acoustic applications. Then have fun customizing effects for years!!!(Note one severe drawback of this unit is the noise between switching times of presets!)

I had my unit for 7 years, and left it on for days at a time for years!!!!There is no on/off swith. just an adapter. This thing gets HOT!!!!!!(but DO NOT panic!) Out of all the years, and being on for days It only locked up maybe a total of 3 to 5 times max. You just unplug the power source, and plug right back in. Unit goes through intro screen, and within seconds, you're back in biz! Back up unit for live playing could be smart, and effects switching times are seconds apart, and VERY noticeable, during live gigs. However, It is VERY UNLIKELY that it is going to die on you, if that's your main concern!

Never had to call!

I've played Metal, rock, pop, funk, blues, classical, jazz, new age, and A little of almost every style imaginable on this thing! Like I said it is very versatile! I've even done bass parts with it! This unit is better suited for some forms, and styles than it is to others, but it does them all to a satisfactory degree in my opinion. I've been playing for almost 14 years, and I now own a Digitech Studio 5000 (In my quest for more Vai like sounds.), but man GIMMIE' BACK MY RP-10!!!!!!! The 5000 minus the impeccable harmonizing, is very limited as opposed to the RP-10, and it is to this factor that it also loses it's fun!(Not nearly as versatile!) I feel an almost emotional bond with this unit, but I am just the kind of person who would never buy the same thing twice. I am always on an endless search to try new things. There is an ABSOLUTE OCEAN of ways to get guitar sound through guitar/amp/effects combinations, and in my opinion you are handicapping yourself by staying with the same ol' thing! I was bonded to the RP-10 for financial reasons(even if it was a pratical unit that served me above, and beyond!) If I were Petrucci, or Satch, I would use ENDLESS amounts of different gear! George Lynch is an absolute prime example of switching gear eternally!! What I loved about this unit is that it was able to give me ALMOST any sound I could conjure! What I hated was the noise between preset switching! My favorite feature of this unit is the ability to shift octaves! This proves for some VERY interesting F/X! I only compared this unit to the RP-1, and some Zoom units.(The Korg G-3 was out at the time as well!) I liked the RP-1! It was my teenage fantasy when I first started playing, but for over $1000 was unattainable. An old guitarist finally let me borrow his for a week, and 4 years later My dream had come true. I was surprised at how easy I caught on, and recorded a whole demo just switching F/X. It was very addictive much like any cool piece of equipment when you first get it! Anyway, I tried out an RP-5, and was NOT impressed. The distortions wee still THIN, and F/X were just too cornball like on the RP-1. So then, I bought the RP-10 on A LOT of good reviews, and blind faith! Boy did it deliver!!!! I'd say the RP/10, and 12 models(virtually the same in every way.) Were the absolute best of the RP line. Today, with the RP 100, and 200 lines I just sit back,and try and figure out WHAT HAPPENED?!?! because these things are a JOKE! Youd think if your product line went from model 10, and 12 to 100, and 200 that it would be 100 to 200 times better!!!! Not 100 to 200 times worse!!! It just doesn't make sense! I must say the built in tuner on this unit is exceptional!!!!

Playing pre-sets is very easy- nothing to it. I agree with other reviewers who talk about the complexity of getting in and programming it, especially if you are used to something more basic like stomp boxes. Having experience in programming synths and other effects, I found it not all that difficult, after getting used to it's internal structure (except for the parametric eq). However, tweaking it "on the fly" or in a live situation is a problem- not like just reaching down and twisting a knob on your pedal. But having all those paramaters to deal with does have the benefit of providing a lot of sound shaping possibilities. The manual is essential to get the most out of it.

From reading the other reviews here, it's obvious that some people love it and some people hate it. I am definitely one of those who love it. In fact, I bought it new when it came out about 7 or 8 years ago and it's still my main effects unit for guitar. This may not seem like a big deal, but I am the kind of person who is constantly upgrading equipment for the latest model and features. Effects are a big part of my sound and I've not felt the need to upgrade from this unit, although I do supplement it with other processors from time to time.

As far as my set-up, I use a variety of guitars: Fender "Roland-ready" Strat. w/ Lace Sensors & Roland GR33 guitar-synth, Fender 72 Telecaster Custom, Fernandes "sustainer" guitar, and a gold-top Les Paul copy with vintage Gibson and DiMarzio humbuckers. From there I go into a Mesa Boogie V Twin tube pre-amp and into the RP 10. Most of the time I come out of the RP 10 in stereo into a pair of 60watt Marshall combo amps. I've also gone directly into the board from the RP 10 which is ok for some kinds of gigs, and great for recording. Sometimes I add an E-bow, Lexicon Vortex and/or BBE Sonic Maximizer to the signal chain. By the way, using it in stereo makes a big difference in the sound. If I were using it in mono into a single amp I would probably not rate it as highly.

I play a wide range of music from classic rock (Santana, Hendrix,Pink Floyd, etc.) to ambient electronic soundscapes, and the RP 10 works for me in all those situations. After a bit of editing I get nice clean sounds, great soaring lead tones, and wonderful Robert Fripp-like special effects. The wah-wah isn't the greatest, but is useable occasionally if I don't feel like using my Cry Baby.

Mine has been totally reliable. I've never had a problem in all the years I've used it. Even so, I always carry a little Zoom 505 II as a back up, just in case.

Haven't had to deal with them.

I bought it when it came out because it was the new model after the RP 1, which I was very impressed with after having seen a demonstration by a factory rep at a trade show. Also, at the time (mid '90's) I was using a rack-mount effects rig with a midi control pedal and it seemed that I could get as much processing power out of this compact floor unit, with less set-up, wiring hassles, etc. And I was right.
As far as criticisms, one of the only things I can think of is that I wish changing banks was a little easier and quicker- especially in a live situation. Mine is set up where the top row of buttons turns individual effects (distortion, delay, etc) off and on, and the bottom row changes patches. This only gives me 5 patches per bank, so I have to use the bank shift more than I would like. There's a bit too much pedal dancing with the possibility of tapping the wrong bank, especially on a dark stage. But obviously, I'm willing to live with this limitation and it hasn't been a major problem.

Although the RP 10 has been a great fx unit for my needs, if it were lost or stolen, I would probably do some serious research on some of the current models available. What I've heard of the newer RP series hasn't been very impressive, but pre-sets rarely are. I might check out some of the models that came out after the RP 10 like the RP 14 or RP 20, or possibly a Boss GT 6. But for now, I don't have to worry about it and will continue to use and enjoy the RP 10.
Highly recommended, especially if you are willing to get in there and tweak the patches.