MGR/Paul Irvine « Digitech RPx400 »
Published on 12/22/03 at 15:00$299 from GuitarCenter, Beaverton Oregon, USA
This is such a great recording unit for musicians who are not recording experts. If you have a computer, even a small laptop, it provides all of the amp modeling, effects processing, and preamps you need to really drive your recording to the next level. It comes with ProTracks - a variant of Cakewalk - which works superbly. You really can throw down a rhythm track, bass track, vocals, and drums in about an hour, mix it and burn it in about another hour. That is fast for a four to eight track recording for taking demos to my band. The sound quality is amazing! I took a 'two hour special' to an engineer friend of mine, and while he would have done more sound processing prior to a mixdown, his first comment was that he was amazed at the signal clarity. Once you have learned a little more about mixing, of course, Cakewalk/ProTracks allows you to do pretty much anything you like such as compression, reverb post effects, slicing and dicing, etc.
This box is the equivalent of buying an M-Box (or othe high quality outboard sound and preamp card) AND a PODXT (or other modeling unit). You also get XEdit librarian so you can catalog and tweak your personal programmed amp/effects setups on your computer (athough the basic editing on the unit with 40 factory presets, 40 artist presets and 40 user presets) is pretty good. You also get a pretty good sounding drum machine, a playalong capability, and it acts as a great stage amp direct to a PA!
For this money, there is absolutely nothing that compares. Digitech has put a lot into a small high quality bundle.
I had difficulty getting the Drum MIDI sounds onto a recorded Audio track, so went back to using my normal LeafDrums software package and importing audio drum tracks.
Like any multi-function do-it-all-and-then-some unit, learning the controls is half ofthe battle. The controls are multi-purpose and depend on modes of operation. It takes a bit of getting used to, but patience is rewarded.
Superior. The case is metal, and buttons are big and footworthy. This unit is as happy alongside my computer on a desktop, as it is on a stage. Everything is laid out well.
For a guitarist/bassist songwriter looking to get into home recording, who is computer literate, but doesnt want to spend $1000+ on a dedicated 8-track or 16-track, this unit is excellent.
It allows rapid development of song ideas to full blown produced demos. With a little care, it could probalby be used to create full production quality CD's. It does everything it says it does, and at a quality that exceeds expectations.
This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com
This is such a great recording unit for musicians who are not recording experts. If you have a computer, even a small laptop, it provides all of the amp modeling, effects processing, and preamps you need to really drive your recording to the next level. It comes with ProTracks - a variant of Cakewalk - which works superbly. You really can throw down a rhythm track, bass track, vocals, and drums in about an hour, mix it and burn it in about another hour. That is fast for a four to eight track recording for taking demos to my band. The sound quality is amazing! I took a 'two hour special' to an engineer friend of mine, and while he would have done more sound processing prior to a mixdown, his first comment was that he was amazed at the signal clarity. Once you have learned a little more about mixing, of course, Cakewalk/ProTracks allows you to do pretty much anything you like such as compression, reverb post effects, slicing and dicing, etc.
This box is the equivalent of buying an M-Box (or othe high quality outboard sound and preamp card) AND a PODXT (or other modeling unit). You also get XEdit librarian so you can catalog and tweak your personal programmed amp/effects setups on your computer (athough the basic editing on the unit with 40 factory presets, 40 artist presets and 40 user presets) is pretty good. You also get a pretty good sounding drum machine, a playalong capability, and it acts as a great stage amp direct to a PA!
For this money, there is absolutely nothing that compares. Digitech has put a lot into a small high quality bundle.
I had difficulty getting the Drum MIDI sounds onto a recorded Audio track, so went back to using my normal LeafDrums software package and importing audio drum tracks.
Like any multi-function do-it-all-and-then-some unit, learning the controls is half ofthe battle. The controls are multi-purpose and depend on modes of operation. It takes a bit of getting used to, but patience is rewarded.
Superior. The case is metal, and buttons are big and footworthy. This unit is as happy alongside my computer on a desktop, as it is on a stage. Everything is laid out well.
For a guitarist/bassist songwriter looking to get into home recording, who is computer literate, but doesnt want to spend $1000+ on a dedicated 8-track or 16-track, this unit is excellent.
It allows rapid development of song ideas to full blown produced demos. With a little care, it could probalby be used to create full production quality CD's. It does everything it says it does, and at a quality that exceeds expectations.
This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com