DigiTech 2120 VGS Artist

How easy is it to get a good sound out of it?

To all you metal heads complaining about this unit not being able to put out a decent metal sound you must be doing something wrong or have no idea about tone. i changed the tubes and started from scratch and now i have a tone to rival any Mesa/Marshall and some Engls


How about Editing patches?
Editing takes a lil patience and trial and error. What sounds good at bed room volume may not sound good at the band room so my advice is to double check your work.

How is the manual for it (if there is one)?

You can download the manual off the web and i highly recommend it.


Do you know the firmware revision number? Has your unit been upgraded?

I know i have the latest ver. and i dont think there has been a upgrade as of yet.

ok so my setup involves 2 Custom Monson guitars, one with Bill Lawrence XL500's and one with Dimarzio Evolutions. Each guitar has its own sound so naturally i am going to get a slightly different sound out of both of em. I run the unit thru a Carvin power amp (a sin i know but im broke) and i use Vader cabinets. I can get any sound i want, a nice clean acoustic sound or straight up death metal and between. The effect section is very broad so have fun. I can make any sound i please. My only complaint is the Compresser.. its a lil weak but i use a out board one. The distortion is all on how you use your gain structure.. Remember even EQ adds to your gain structure

i had the unit hickup once but it wasnt the unit after all it was a faulty power amp

N/A

Over all i think this unit is over looked in the metal scene and i hope to see more ppl using em

if u have questions about how to get a good metal sound email me @ cradleofmine@gmail.com

I've got the latest software version(2:10, the 2:11 is identicall except it allows for computer based editing) I've seen some people complain about how hard it is to use...the thing has massive numbers of defaults if your too lazy to program it and most sound GREAT! AND once you find that perfect pre-amp(or ANY other effect) you can save it in a USER default.And I mean ANY effect; not just one for all the choruses but a bank for chorus, another for quad, yeat anothe for stereo,ect. Frankly I don't see how someone who can't quickly figure the unit out can know enough about the computer to post negetive stuff here!

I have found that the sounds are EXCELLENT. About the only thing I'd criticise is the wah, however, if you link the expression pedal to a paremeter of the parametric E.Q., you can get a really good wah.I use it through a Carvin P.A. head and speakers 'cause I'm also running a guitar synth and I need the full range for the synth so I rely heavily on the amp simulation wich I think sounds nice and warm...a real cab sound!Hint-try linking the pre and post niose gate and dist on/ off to the SAME switch on the footpedal...I prefer one for nice soft fades and the other to quite down the over driveand it's often overlooked that each switch can control multiple paremeters!Look: simply put, lots of control = great sound and this unit gives you lots of control!

I find it (so far ) to be reliable.Once the foot pedal wouldn't return to zero so I opened up the Control one foot controler NEVER,EVER DO THIS!!!!!!!!the pedal is controled with a light-emitting-diode and a reciever with a little cardboard box around it that is almost impossible to reassemble.BUT, after talking to the nice techs at Digitech, I discovered that the pedal AUTOMATICALLY re-calibrates every time you power it up! simply turn it on, pedal down... pedal up and your set!!! SWEET! And the techs are easy to get on the phone; most are guitar players themselves so are helpfull cause they love music, not because thier pay checks ride on it!

way way way way way cool and if they don't know or don't do some thing they will point you in the right direction like web-sites that they know of... all in all I have been VERY happy with all my dealings with this company

look the is a good piece; if it were stolen I might go to the 2101 but the deal is I MUST use the cab simulations and the 2101 only has them thru the xlr outs. I've been playing 33 years and this is my effects unit. period.I like it better than the boss gt9 and 8... I played them; they do alot but when I tried to get alot going all at once the chip would wierd out and clip or make some wierd noises. and the others just can't compare to a lush 8 voicechorus!

This thing has pretty much ever effect under the sun (minus an arpeggiotor.. that would have been nice)

this can be a good thing and a bad thing..

If i want chorus for example.. i gotta scroll thru chorus, dual chorus, quad chorus, chorus/delay, etc etc..

I can imagine this unit is good for cover bands since you can emulate pretty much any effect you need. You can chain them up in any order and control any parameter via the footswitch/expression pedal. This is great becuase almost every other effects unit ever made will have one parameter you can control via an expression pedal.

you can control multiple paramaters at the same time too.. (I had a wah and delay feedback set to the pedal so whn it would raise, it would do a open wah that delays till infinity). You can even hook up 2 other exp pedals for a total of 3.


I'm voting 9 since the features are plenty.. but a bit frustatating to navigate through..

2 12ax7s on this unit control tube distortion and compressor.

i was pretty happy with these tones.

sound quality was pretty adequate on this thing.. well for a multi effects unit. Never noticed noise. Its gotta gates and noise suppressors etc..

Id probably rate it the best multi-effects unit sound that I've heard.. I know theres the $2000 ones out there.. but those dont count

I play experimental rock. I used the unit for recording. For live, Id plug it straight to a fender twin reverb. Pretty straight forward. Good stuff..

Ok here's where my problems come in..

The last post below mentioned the glitchy knobs. I had to sell this unit becuase of the knob issue!!! it was becoming to hard for me to program effects on the fly since the knobs wouldnt respond properly. This killer it for me. I tryed RPedit but it never worked out for me.

I switched to a boss pedal board (7 boss pedals chained up) and Im more happy with it. WAAAAAAAAY easier for me to edit and experiment on the fly.. course I miss the infinite possibilities that the 2120 could give me but sometimes simple is better!

Never dealt with...

This unit matches well with pretty much any style id imagine.

I used it for nearly 5 years before I had to part with it.

I wouldnt have a clue about effeects if it wasnt for this unit.

If you are into multi effects.. save yourself some hassle and get this unit. Anything else is a toy. This is the real deal. Just make sure it works properly.

If you are all about doing things on the fly and randomly.. this unit isn;t the best way to go about it..

I'd give it an 8 overall

It is actually quite easy to get a good sound out of this thing, but do NOT expect the factory presets to be any help.

Random knob turning will get you nowhere, but if you know what sort of sound you're trying to get, approach things in a logical manner, and are willing to spend some time tweaking, this thing can sound amazing.

A few things are hidden in seemingly illogical places, but after you get used to where everything is, editing is not bad.

The manual is not the best, I find it inadequate in many areas, but you still need to read to get started.

All of the FACTORY distortion presets are TOTALLY USLESS GARBAGE. Really not sure what they were thinking..... They're not even good starting points for building your own sounds. I get much better results starting with a flat eq and all of the effects off.

Several of the clean factory presets are very good, and usable with little or no modification.

For distortion, the pre-amp on this thing sounds pretty bad on its own, but when used with the cab sim and parametric eq things start sounding really good. Another thing that I've noticed is that the parametric eq's always seem to sound better than graphic eq's, even when I attempt to boost or cut the same frequencies.

As far as distortion goes, I basically go for 4 sounds: A smooth lead sound with a tight bottom end (kinda 80's metal/YJM inspired). A tight snappy sort of slightly overdriven blues crunch. Heavy thrash type rhythm and a warm fat sustaining overdrive. This box nails all 4 perfectly.

The clean pre-amp is great. Everything from Jazz to funk to county to clean rock sounds. Works very well with the compressor.

The digital effects are (for the most part) really good... You can get some cool subtle chorus effects and the standard delay, reverb, flange etc.

The wammy effect has more lag than I can live with (pretty much useless). The rotary speaker sim is a bit odd... a fast flanger sounds much more convincing.

Also the wah aint no Cry-Baby, not enough boost to get that sound. I can get closer by boosting the highs using an eq, but then the slow tracking of the foot controller becomes obvious... so no shaft theme song.

That being said, this thing does everything that I actually need (or use) beautifully.

Guitars:

American series strat(with Dimarzio HS2/Virtual2/Virtual vintage solo pro)

Godin LGX (With Seymour Duncans)

Amp/Cab:

Marshall 9005 (50 watt per side all tube stereo power amp)
Marshall 1912

It has failed on me once... though I suspect this may have been due to tampering (I left it alone at a small bar gig and when I returned all of the midi settings were messed up and the foot control one was non functional, I was forced to do a factory reset and loost all of my patches)

The knobs on the font of the unit have gotten quite glitchy since I've owned this unit. Quite often the numbers on the screen go in the opposite diretion to the knobs, but I'm still gettng by... and at least there is rpedit.

The build quality of the Control One FC is not good and mine is not aging very well. The buttons are made of flimsy plastic and the small plastic switces under them are prone to sticking due dust build up (a few squirts of contact cleaner helps).

Occasional glitches occur where the volume drops out. Switching between patches corrects this.

Get a backup!

Have not used them yet.

Musical styles: Rock, Metal, Blues, Funk, Pop, Reggae.

Been playing about 10 years. Had this box for about 3.

If it were lost or stolen I probably either try to find a good amp with MIDI switching and a dedicated multieffects box, or give the Rocktron stuff a try (Voodu or Prophesy).

At the moment I'm pretty dependent on the 2120.

At first this unit can seem very complex but after a day or two of fiddling you find its very logical and staight forward to set up great tones, used rpedit for a while, seeing everything layed out in order on a computer monitor kinda helps you get your head around how this thing ticks, manual is really rather good also.

my setup - Ibanez RG1570 - 2120 vgs Artist - peavey classic 50/50 - two 2x12 celestion loaded cabs - behringer FCB1010 midi foot controller. I run this setup in stereo

previous to this preamp I was using a line6 podxt which i was fairly happy with for the most part, the first time i played through the 2120 it was like the cotton wool had been pulled out of my ears, if i a/b both preamps its like there is a big thick blanket over the speakers when playing through the podxt, there is no comparison for sound quality, the 2120 is what the podxt is trying and failing to be.

Like most preamps, the factory presets are not very good, way to wet for my taste but some of them are useful as a starting point for a good tweeking session. I have used this unit for about 6 months now and i have set up 20 of my own patches ranging from beutiful glassy cleans to absolute filth and everything inbetween, I have set up the fbc1010 foot controller to turn on and off effects via control changes for each patch, the 2 expression pedals control gain and volume for each patch. Just with these 20 patches and this amount of control over parameters the range of sounds at my disposal is awesome and I'm not even scratching the surface of what this thing is capable of.

The effects for the most part are very high quality, I find the whammy doesn't work that great and the wah is not to bad on clean patches but gets completely lost on dirty ones

put 2 new JJ 12AX7's in it when I got it, only owned it six months, gigged every week, so far so good

I emailed Digitech support and asked them if there was an easy way to convert the input from US voltage to UK to avoid the need for a stepdown converter and within 12 hours this was their response -
__________________________________________________________________
Dave

Inside the 2120, there is a small circuit board near the transformer. On this circuit board is a small resister. Remove the resister, and solder it to the position with the voltage required for the UK. Along with a new power cable, that's all you need to do.

Cheers,

Digitech Support
__________________________________________________________________

Excellent!!!!

I've been playing guitar for 26 years.Our band plays Metal, Rock, Blues and this preamp covers all those styles beutifully. Over the years I have owned a LOT of equipment, the 2120 vgs Artist along with the peavey classic 50/50 is without a doubt the most versitile, awsome sounding setup I have ever heard, couldn't be happier:-)

Read the manual after that it's easy. I've been gigging with mine for 8 years. I can tweak it onstage in seconds. Right out of the box assuming you get a new one or one that has had the factory presets resored. Dial down the sensitivity on the noise gate and start tweeking that 10 band tube EQ.

If you can't get this unit to sound like a million bucks after some tweeking you have it set up wrong. Never use it in front of an amp. If you do you may as well go buy some cheap ass floor unit cause rack gear is not for you.

Here's the deal...buy a stereo power amp and a good midi controller and run it in to a cab that is best suited for your power needs...stereo 50/50 watt amp run this thing into 50 to 75 watt speakers...tone for days. I can pretty much get about any sound my ears want out of this thing. I LOVE the fact it's not some piece of shit moddeling pre-amp...they all suck and lack the luster of a TUBE

It's not noisey and is just an all around dependable unit. Considering that it's evoled from the 2101 to the 2112 to the now 2120 it's been around a while they've worked out the bugs.

Never had a problem and this thing has been in some smokey nasty beer rat traps. I called them to get an Eprom upgrade and had it in 5 days and got it for FREE.

I play all types of music from METAL to JAM to Jazz to Blues and this thing delivers. Played in many bands doing covers, originals, Instamentals you name it. It does what I want the effects are good. It's not an Eventide effects unit or a super high end T.C. Electonic piece, but the effects sound pretty aweseome for what it is.

I use a Peavey Wolfgang > Digitech Whammy > Zakk Wylde Wah > Zakk overdrive > Boss-TU2 Tuner > MXR Van halen Phaser > Digitech Synth wah > Digitech 2120 > T.C. Electronic G-Major > Peavey Classic 50/50 Power amp > Ear Candy Buzzbomb 212 with a 50 watt and a 75 watt Eminance speakers
Digital Music Corp Ground Control Midi Controler

Bardzo przyjazna obsloga! Latwa i przemyslana dokladnie. Szybki dostep do wszystkich parametrow! Latwe przypisywanie kontrolerow i generatorow do DOWOLNYCH parametrow efektow!!!
System jest po prostu genialny!!

PREAMP.
Zastosowane lampy 12AX7 Sovtek daja ladne lampowe brzmienie czystej gitary. Jako przester pracuje tzw. "hybryda", czyli uklad lampowo-tranzystorowy. Wymiana lamp na modele innych marek przynosi czesto bardzo dobre efekty brzmieniowe. Jesli ktos sie zna na elektronice, to latwo moze przerobic modul przesterowujacy sygnal, co tez uczynilem.

EFEKTY.
Bardzo przydatne, zwlaszcza do homerecordingu okazuje sie dorobienie wyjscia S/PDIF! Projektanci z Digitecha chyba sobie o nim zapomnieli.. Zrobilem taki uklad i dziala wysmienicie! W takiej klasie sprzetu po prostu musi byc S/PDIF ;-)
Efekty sa bardzo wysokiej jakosci, nie wprowadzaja dodatkowych szumow, a mozliwosci ich regulacji sa ogromne! Do tego celu polecam tez edytor na PC RPedit do edycji wszelkich parametrow procesora. To swietne uzupelnienie do sprzetu! Dzieki niemu np. moglem sobie przeniesc moje wlasne presety preampow z 2112 do 2120, po wymianie EEPROM-u.
Symulator kolumn glosnikowych jest rewelacyjny!! Mozna za jego pomoca wpiac procesor bezposrednio do wejscia karty komputerowej, lub mixera. Nie ma wowczas zadnego piachu i zgrzytania w dzwieku z gitary przesterowanej.
Takim jedynym slabszym punktem procesora jest kaczka, ktora nie dorownuje kultowej Crybaby Dunlopa. Ale to nie znaczy wcale ze jest zla. Po prostu kwestia gustu...
Sterownik Control One dziala z procesorem bez zastrzezen. Latwy w obsludze i dowolnie konfigurowalny.

N/A

Nigdy nie korzystalem z servisu Digitecha.

N/A

This thing is extremely easy to get good sounds from. If you can't, either it or you ain't running on all cylinders! Many of the factory presets are really tasty, which seems to be a rarity with many preamps out there. Tweaking is necessary for optimum results (when is it not?). Editing patches was a little complicated at first (I had the manual in front of me for awhile, sometimes I felt like a member of "DENSA-for the rest of us") but, like most things, it gets easier with time and practice. I have a Studio Quad V2, and it is very similar, so this helped a bit to make a smoother learning curve. The manual is informative and...well...NECESSARY, especially at first. RTFM! The firmware is the latest available, I believe.

I use it with at least 12 different guitars. It is not noisy. The noise gate was a PITA at first, and a bloody nuisance at band practice volume levels, now it's dialed in and works fine. The effects are just about what I wanted. I have a few little niggles here and there, but it isn't worth dwelling on. Overall, I really like them, for the most part. I use it with any one of several power amps (it breathes heavily-like a woman in heat, if you'll pardon the simile-thru a Peavey 50/50 with EL84's, sounds great thru a Carvin, close enough to great thru a Valvestate 8004, where it sounds better with the "valvestate" switch off, unlike with where this particular power amp is now, very acceptable D.I.'ed, quite passable thru an older Yamaha-ha-ha-ha S-S reference monitor amp, ok with headphones thru the mixer too) and I've used it to drive two combos thru the effects return (bypassing the preamp stage) with really good results. This "Barney Box" (it's poiple! I luv it! Although I wouldn't mind punting the actual insipid Purple Dinosaur off a tall building or using him as backfill for a Title 5 septic install---j/k, I'm too nice for that---kids love him for some bizarre reason, he's just so sickeningly adorable I guess, but I digress...) contains every guitarist in the world I've ever been inspired to unabashedly pilfer licks from at my fingertips! The pitch effects don't track like an Eventide (no, I can't justify the expense just yet, but when I do...), or even the good version of the Digitech Whammy pedal, the octave is grainier than a Chinese Boss OC-2 (Japanese version BETTER!) and the wah sucks compared to the ones I use, but I will not dare to complain for the price! Dedicating the full DSP to processing pitch effects helps a bit. What I really like, along with the ability to assign different chains to each channel, is the seamless "blending" transitions using the pedal. That just plain rocks! In fact, I was previously thinking of making an A/B crossfade/pan/selectable swell type thingummy out of an old Cry Baby body-now I don't really have to!

The tube pre section sounded MUCH BETTER (Oh, Jebus, did it ever!) after ripping out the cheesy Sovtek WA's (Ptooey!) and throwing in JJ 12AX7's. Big difference! Like going from eating cardboard to your favorite meal! The layering of effects is almost as good as in my Studio Quad v2, and just about all I'd ever want in a Swiss Army knife like this! My favorite artists...oboy...got a week or two?

So far it's dependable. I gigged with it once. I use another rack setup for my main work-horse. I mostly practice and record with this thing. I would not even think about using it without a backup. That's just asking for it to break! Murphy was an optimist!

I haven't subjected this thing to much road use, and I baby the bejeezus out of it, so I won't rate it yet, but I will say "so far, so good".

Had a problem with a piece of Digitech gear once. It was repaired and returned in timely fashion, and they didn't bend me over and shag me for my wallet. Had some spare parts sent from them too. The rep I spoke with was courteous, professional, and personable. Sorry, I don't remember his name. But he was a good guy, and he took care of me. I haven't had a problem with the "Barney Box" yet. I hope I don't anytime soon. I sometimes hook it up to my computer and use RPEdit-works ok for me!

I won't give their support a 10 yet...until I have to deal with them again, then my rating will reflect my overall experience, which (fortunately-it sucks when stuff breaks!)has not been all that extensive.

I play just about anything and everything. This thing is, as I mentioned earlier, a Swiss Army knife! Please don't make me list everything else I own! I shudder to think about how long it may take, and I type PDQ! If it were stolen I think I would start drinking excessively, and I would go on a S+D mission, and inflict mortal disaster upon the soon-to-be-toast perp! If I lost it, I would lose it! Not quite completely, but if you see a fairly large and crazy blond dude with glasses walking in circles babbling in tongues outside some mid Cape Cod area local package store, chances are it's me, I lost it, and am on my way to losing it some more! I would likely rip out the rest of my hair in anguish, which has already started its progress into congenital middle-aged recession! I really like it with the JJ tubes! Bob Pletka (Eurotubes) is a really decent guy. I cannot begin to describe what a world of difference JJ tubes have made for my sound! I have other preamps, but this is my favorite. It nails practically everything I throw at it, and I don't want to be deprived of it! That's why I baby it so much.

I will say this, though: the footswitch sucks bricks thru a straw! A little more than golf balls through a garden hose, and a bit less than cinderblocks thru a capillary! I practically need pointy cockroach-in-the-corner-killer shoes or moccasins to tapdance on it, you can forget about using boots! Ain't happenin', and I'm a size ten, not a barefoot waterskiing Sasquatch! The expression pedal is..."meh", and I wish I had the Johnson Millennium foot controller instead, which is much more gig-friendly. In fact, I am dropping a point just because Digitech didn't use the Johnson pedal design across the board! I wish it had a better tuner, besides the wah (which is not all that great but still useable with tweaking). But I never use the tuner, I have a much better one already. I am a little leery of the tone knobs. I could see one good whack taking a pot shaft right out of the picture, and me getting a parts order and firing up the soldering iron. Nonetheless, they are right where I want them to be for E-Z tweezing, and the pots are detented, which I can't help but like.

If it got in the way (besides the damn footcontroller, which was probably designed in the Dark Ages of Foot-Binding), it would have been sent down the River Styx on a leaky inflatable pool float. Overall, I really am fond of this thing, especially after the tube swap.

I have had a Boss GT-3 and Yamaha DG-Stomp effects preamp/processors prior to acquiring two of these. After gaining some experience programming, the 2120 is fairly easy. Like one guy said below, you would have to actually read the manual if this is your first preamp/processor. It's not like my DG-Stomp to which you just turn knobs and push a few buttons then hit store and you're good to go.

Just to address some issues below this post, this preamp WILL suck if used between a guitar and FRONT END of an amp. If you have to use it that way, make sure that you plug the unit in to the effects return of your amp. Set the return level to 100% (if parallel). Then, turn the cabinet simulator off if you're using regular guitar speakers. If you're using full range speakers, say P.A. speakers, turn the cab sim on. Guys, most of the gears out there sound good no matter the price only if used (or misused) PROPERLY!

=> The sounds are amazing. Most presets are good right of the bat. I have my own heavy rhythm sound and lead sound that I programmed in (be prepared to tweak! it's worth it!). Everything else that I use are presets. I have a variety of guitars from a Washburn Dimebag Southern Cross to an old Yamaha RGX312. All of them work pretty well with the 2120. The only thing I don't like is the noise get is set kind of high from the factory. I have to adjust all of them down to less sensitivity. I use it with a Mesa 50/50 power amp, or sometimes I plug it in to my dual rectifier's effects return. From there it sounds really awesome.

I have not gigged with it. But it haven't crashed on me.

I don't like it not because of my 2120, but because of a whammy pedal I sent in for repairs. I had to send it back twice and it took them about half a year to finally give it back to me. They said that they changed their system and that they kind of lost track of it. They should have prepared better for that system change.

I have been playing close to 10 years now. I own enough gear to make NASA proud. I play metal most of the time. I also play blues, HipHop RnB, top 40, alternative, almost all kinds of music occasionally. This can cover almost all of them.

If you have a nice set of power amp and speakers and are looking for a nice preamp with effects at a great value, I recommend getting this preamp. They are fairly cheap in EBAY.

before i even start, im sure this unit is great. but i bought it and ran it on my marshall jcm2000, and it sounded like sonic ass.
as far as tone goes, its very easy to get a good sound out of it. editing the patches takes a little experience to learn your way around it. the manual leaves alot out, but most of the unit is self explanitory. i bought mine as a 2112 v1.02 and upgraded it to the 2120. not a huge difference but the sound quality was the problem i was having. speaking of...

this thing hisses so bad that it made me want to throw the unit at a small child. like i said i ran it into my marshall amp, not the best setup to have this thing on. perhaps if i were running it through a poweramp it would sound better, but godda**it if this thing doesnt sound like crap through a regular amp. the effects are great on it and the tone is great, but its all drined out by the hiss. first off. its gonna cut nearly half of your volume so that the unit doesnt constantly clip, then when you turn the output past 12oclock, its just gonna aggitate the hell out of you with the hissing, even moreso when you kick it in the distortion channel of your amp.
this unit sucks with a normal amp.

im about to get rid of this thing, i have my amp and it has a great tone, all i wanted the unit for was the effects, instead i got the entire preamp. the 2101 was great because it had the option to completely bypass the preamp. i wish they had put that on here.
im not about to take this thing to a gig. it looks and feels like you could throw it down a staircase so i guess its pretty reliable. but ill stick to the tried and true stompbox setup.

didnt have to deal with them.

overall, im sure this unit is great with a poweramp, but not for a traditional amp setup
i play sort of rock/jazz/metal, its an odd mix (go listen to it at http://www.myspace.com/thisnameistemporary) so all all i really needed were a few simple effects, this unit was probably overkill anyways.
if it were stolen, i would hunt the bastard down and make him pay for it so i could buy something that better suits my setup.
i love the ammount of effects and the expandability/customization of the algorithims, its pretty cool, but the effects themselves could be a little more managable.
i wish you could bypass the preamp completely, if you turn it off it cuts your sound all together.
it seems to just get in the way of the creative process. because the hissing pisses you off.
a few of my friends own this unit, and on a rack. its phenomenal, id suggest it if your looking for a PREAMP, but if your just looking for effects and your running a standard tube amp, stompboxes are the way to go...