DigiTech GSP-2101 Artist

Very logical and straight foward for programming. Just read the manual and you should have no problems. Getting into the unit and tweaking it is as easy a 1, 2, 3. Just like the buttons on the front. Some sounds are a bit harsh but can be tailored to ones individual taste with a little time. Many patches are great right out of the box. For all my research nobody should be without a Dual S-Disc processor based unit running Firmware 3.00.a (which I have). In 15 minutes I had it plugged in and running with all kinds of cool effects.

MIDI setup was a snap, just read the manual. It worked great with both the DMC Ground Control and Rocktron All Access.
A laptop sequencer/storage program is a must to be added as essential gear. Being able to backup my customizations with a sysex or individual program dump to computer is just wonderful. I have had some difficulty with transferring/uploading programs I have downloaded from the internet, but that may be due to the 2nd S-Disc processor and no real factory made application for this function. This is where the real shame is and where Digitech just ignored it's customers. Digitech should follow Eventides patch editor program for examples if it ever chooses to do something like this again.

I currently have the unit setup with a switcher that allows me to switch between my old Randall RG100HT and the 2101LE for inputs. From there I am running all effects parrallel, including an old DSP256xl, Eventide GTR4K, and Alesis Quadaverb. From there it goes to a DBX166xl noise reduction unit and then to a pair of trusty Yamaha P2250's then to 4 4x12 custom cabs. My guitars range from various old Les Pauls to Peavey Vandenberg, Ibanez GEM TOL, G&L F100 series2e custom, and some old Dean Elites & Z's. To many pickup combinations to even get into.
I have found the unit to be quieter than the it's newer bretheren, ie: 2112, 2120, when using the balanced outputs which the newer models do not have. Although the quality of the effects are no where near the Eventides, (especially in the reverb & delay department) I still found my self drawn to some of the pitch shifting effects along with the Wah/Chorus/Flange stuff. Good enough quality for some of the studio sessions I do. Some of the delay effects are not bad either.
One thing I was impressed with was the analog and digital distortions. The Analog (tube) distortions are quite flexiable, and depending on how you tune them, I found them as good as anything I could get with MB Triaxis. I am eager to try a different set of tube other than the Delta Labs 12at7's that the unit came with. As of this writing I am awaiting my GT12ax7R's and hear the difference. I will post an update if this forum allows me to.

This is an area I am still learing about with it. As for date it has held up well in my rack, no gliches yet. I have about 50 hours on it already. About a 1/3 of it live. So far I rate it high.

Cant say enough good things about the people over at Digitech, especially when I have used the email support from being in the studio and from on the road. Thanks guys for the help so far and I will be contacting you in the future too.

I use it for mostly Rock, Progressive and some Jazz and it seems to fill those nees pretty well and is different enough sounding from my Randall that I dont see really any crossover between the 2.
Since this unit, from what I was told, was made personally by one of the engineers inside Digitech, special care was made in the assembly. It does look good on the inside and is easy to find things, especially replacing the tubes. Some mine would qualify as a GSP2101LE, with exception of the GT's, and came with the extra cool chrome faceplate. I can say the more I play with it the more fun it becomes.

Compared to the stop boxes that Digitech is putting out these days, this is a great bang for the buck.

With versatility comes other complications... This thing has quite a steep learning curve... But i gave an 6 because the method of progamming is very logical and straight forward for me... then again programming is something that is not foreign to me... So guys that want quick fixes should steer away.... this thing is no stompbox...

I'm using this with a Crate GX-60 (which just died on me) and an Ibanez Iceman (i play metal)... i totally depend on the GSP's preamp for my tone...so all i need now is just pure "amplification"....the noise gate pretty much handles all the noise here so no issue... the factory setting needs tweaking for personal use... I don't really emulate artists...but the artist patches in this thing is pretty recognisable e.g steve vai's "Wetness" patch was used in The Attitude Song...

Almost everything rocks on this unit but i'm alittle disappointed in their tube distortions (churned out by the 2 12ax7s inside) although they sound great for thick rythymns, they just do not have enough gain to pull off metal solo tones... on the "grunge" distortion is remotely usable... also, without the PPC-210 Card, this unit can't execute seamless changes.... for that it bloody deserves a crappy 7...otherwise it deserves a 10....

note: if you're fussy over high gain distortions, then an additional high gain distortion unit will be need to be purchased....there is NO WAY this thing will be able to churn out a triple rectifier...

It out-lived my 60 watt Crate amp, what do you think?

I would go without a back-up..don't need one.... and if you stopped throwing your stuff all over the place like a freakin' beachball, you would'nt need a backup either..

Nope never dealt with them... but they did'nt manufacture enough PPC-210 cards... so now i'm stuck looking for out of production stuffs...

AND it had to take some other guy out there to compile a patch librarian and patch editor/dumper....

And jeez... i spent a significant amount on the Control One pedalboard too... could'nt the DIGITECH guys have given me an LCD panel rather than some gunky 9 segment led?

WHAT ARE YOU DOING DIGITECH??

I play metal and have been playing for 5 years (not a long time i suppose) and this Unit has given me the confidence to explore more sonic landscapes... i mean, hell, Moonspell and Therion uses it and that says ALOT..... i own a whole set of boss stomp boxes... which i'm considering selling...thanks to the GSP 2102, my tone has been more consistent.... if it were stolen, i'd definately get it replaced...real value for money.... If i can't get this unit, then the next best would probably be the Boss gT-5... then again, i think both units are equally fine..

I'm actually using a GSP-2101 Studio Tube with the Artist 3.0 upgrade. The GSP-2101 Artist, like all of the units in the DigiTech 2101 family, is a very technical piece of gear. I found I could get virtually any sound I like if I was patient in learning and programming parameters. I find the unit is amazingly flexible. With flexibility, though, comes complexity. They are hand-in-hand. The manual is weak, as are most technical manuals. It gives you basic "hows", but not too many "whys" or "whats". Once you have the patches set up you want, it is quite easy to select what you want using the optional foot controller and programmed quick selects on the front panel.

I have two electric guitars I use with this unit: Fender '92 Deluxe Plus, and '82 Gibson ES-347 with 490T/R pickups. For practice I plug this into the Power-Amp input of a Fender Deluxe 85 amp w/12" speaker (bypassing its pre-amp). This sounds great. In a gig, I sometimes use this setup, mic'ed, or I go direct out the XLRs to a sound board, which sounds different but is also excellent sound.

I noticed some users complained of noisy effects. I found that adjusting the Noise Gate threshold fixed this problem quite well.

My experience with the effects, after making my own patches, is that they are very strong if I do the analog EQ and other effect parameters the way I want it to sound. If you are just trying to use the presets, you'll likely think the unit is not very good. But it is truly designed to be customized, and that's where it really shines. If a patch sounds like what you want, but it's lame, you can usually come up with some combination of parameter or effect adjustments to make it what you want.

Another area I read complaints about is the wah. Certainly it does not have the tone of a real analog wah. However, by adjusting some settings and using the "Smooth Wah" effect (SWah) I was able to get a very usable and enjoyable wah effect for mixing.

I don't try to get sounds of favorite artists normally. I just try to get sounds I like for various styles of music, whether I've heard them before or not. The unit has met the challenge so far. :-)

One area that I found unexpected was the compression behavior. There are different ways that compression can be implemented. Strictly speaking, compression does not provide sustain (signal boost with low-end cut-off), but I'm used to units that do that. My 2101 apparently does not (or if it's supposed to, then my used unit has a defect). However, this has not affected my opinion of its sound quality very negatively since I get adequate tone and effect from it regardless.

I bought this unit used not very long ago. It hasn't failed thus far. I still have an old RP-1 and my amp with some stomp boxes as backup if needed.

I did send DigiTech support an email through their web site to discuss how the compression behaves. I got a reply from an experienced technical person, with some engineering knowledge of the unit, within a couple of days, which I found to be very good. Most companies connect you with someone who knows how to plug the unit in and press the buttons, that's it. This guy really knew what parts of the circuit, down to the chip level, affected what sounds. I was very impressed.

I was disappointed that DigiTech still does not sell S-DISC upgrades for this unit. For that reason it gets a 9 rather than a 10.

I play a wide variety of music including folk, classical, modern country, hip-pop, hard or soft rock, etc. I've been playing about 25 years on and off. My other guitars include a Taylor 810 and an Alvarez Yairo signature classical.

I tried a Korg AX1000G and didn't like it. I sent it back. It had some cool sounds, but it was not very beefy and it totally masked the characteristic tone of my instruments. The 2101 does not have that problem. Even on a heavy overdrive I can still hear, if I want, whether I'm using a humbucker or a Lace Sensor pickup, and whether it's the neck or the bridge or both.

What I like most about this unit is its programmability. I wish, though, I could reprogram at what point the external effects loop occurs in an algorithm.

Overall, this unit inspires me to play music that I enjoy. I would buy another if this died or got stolen.

The first time I plug my guitar in the GSP 2101 I thought... What a waste of money. No usable preset, and everything sounded overprocessed and a weak sound, even with no digital effect on.I tried to use a Sansamp in the loop, but no good tones. I had a RP-1, and all the other digitech pedalboards I ever tested, sounded the same: overprocessed and weak sound. I thought that the valves would push it to a warmer sound but....
Well.. them I started to mess around with the device... and.. if the digital effects kill the original sound... and if I ignore them ?
So I tried to plug it from the effect loop send to my amp...
So... this is the key... Wooww... Now Everything sounds great. crunch, lead and clean sounds very tubey... Warm sounds and strong.
I RECOMMEND TO ALL GSP 2101 OWNERS TO TRY THIS...
Surely all will be surprised with the power of this device.
I bought it used and now I have a great tube pre amp, with a great pedalboard with all the midi I need for a real budget price.
Now I looking for a Yamaha SPX to try it with the digital effects I need.

Good sounds, not great ones, abound. Presets are mediocre at best. All must be tweaked to get something acceptable, tweaking is tedious and frustrating. Theoretically possible, constructing new algorithms is near impossible due to the complexity of interconnects and virtual wiring needs.

My setup is custom shop Strat>Snarling Dogs Whine-O-Wah>2101>silver face Fender Twin. It is noisy with lots o' digital background snot that requires use of the internal noise gate. Distortions are generally good as are delays and LFO-based effects. Choruses are good. Expression pedal of foot controller is useless. Get a real wah. Digital snot brings my overall sound rating down.

During countless gigs, sudden bursts of screaming gain boost and static with uncontrollable clipping have made me relegate this thing to studio where we can always retrack. Two trips back to factory, countless emails and phone calls to support has not resolved the issue. Support techs were friendly, interested and supportive BUT, still a problem.

No problems with support, except they still haven't fixed the problem.

My musical styles vary from jazz to classic rock, disco and funk. Theoretically, the 2101 should replace $1000 worth of analog pedals. But it's unpredictability makes me leave it home. It's for sale. You want it? I don't.

If you use the factory presets It could'nt be any easyer but the sad fact it mast of the presets are over kill and just flat out suck. If you want to make your own presets all I can say is good luck and I hope you figure it out before you take a sledge hammer to it. I was really starting to wonder if it would float in the Mississippi river today. Then I was thinking...Well maybe its just me so I called Tech support and was told "Its been a long time since I programed one and I don't really remember how" and then told me where to look it up myself in the manual as though I had'nt tried that! Thanks guys.

I have the GSP2101 artist and I can honestly say most of them are useless The sounds seem to be of good quality just way over processed and the one that you could use could be had with a decent tube amp and a few effect boxes.

Who cares if it works or not if the sounds stink... maybe if you were making a star wars movie the would be some usefull sounds there.

All i want is a simple noise gate, flange and a little delay but the bad boys from Utah could not help me?

I have always thought that this thing would be great and maybe the other models are good but stay away from the Artist model!!!! It seems to me that the actual "artist" who contributed there personal sounds wanted to make sure they gave you something that they did"nt want. I would sell the thing but could not sleep at night knowing how much a useless piece of crap this thing is.

I've had this thing for a few years now and still haven't figured it out!!! You have effects with several inputs and outputs, mixers such as 4x3 5x2 4x2, and a whole bunch more. You can put effects in any order you like and spend days trying to figure out what mixers you need to add in the algorithms to even get a sound out of the damn thing. I've used many effects units from digitech, ART, and a bunch of others. This one is definitely not user friendly. To be fair, if I would put a bit more effort into learning how to use it, I'm sure I would be more comfortable with it, but I just don't think I should have to. This is not what guitar playing is about. To play my guitar and get a sound out of it I like, I don't think I should have to spend an entire week 24/7 with my nose buried in a technical manual. Granted, I have no problems spending years looking for "THE TONE" (I'm still looking) but not years just learning how to get a reverb to go into a delay after a chorus without using 15 different types of mixers in the patch and then trying to figure out why I'm getting reverb out of one channel and delay followed by reverb on the other and no chorus. Hmmmmmmmmmm...Must be something in one of the 50 mixers I had to add to the damn patch............ Nothing wrong with learning how to use a product, but it shouldnt require you to practically become a @#$%$!# engineer!!! If you want this as a studion unit I guess it's pretty good. It certainly does a lot and does it pretty well. I can understand taking time to learn to use a piece of studio gear. For the average guitar player and stage performances however, it blows.

Sound quality is fine. I'm using a Les Paul with Duncan Lynch screaming demon bridge pickup and stock neck pickup. Mosvalve amp and ADA MP-1 and Sansamp PSA-1 preamps. The effects are really nice and it has just about ANY and I mean ANY effect you can possibly want. several multi-tap delays, a million different reverbs and choruses..flanges, arpeggiators, pitch transposers, detuners...you name it... As I mentioned above, it takes some effort to figure out how to get them to sound the way you want, but once you do they sound great. The wah effect is a joke though. Waste of processing power. The distortions are ok if you've never played through a serious amp or preamp. They can't compare to a real preamp or full blown tube amp. I'm using a sansamp psa-1 and it just blows the 2101's distortions out of the water. I use the 2101 strictly for effects. I also found the clean sounds to be a bit flat unless you eq the hell out of it. One thing I don't understand are some of the presets. They are so over effected that I can picture myself in a mushroom induced daze just tripping out going through them listening to never ending echoes and pitch shifts and arpeggios and volume swells. Not very usable unless you need some experimental type sounds. On the other hand, some are pretty damn cool. Overall good job on the sound quality.

Well, at one point one of the patches just died. Every time I would select patch 2, I would get a bunch of static and crackling noises. I tried changing everything on it. I changed the algorithm on this patch to a bunch of the factory presets to make sure I hadn't done something wrong. I even reset it to factory defaults. Still same thing. One day out of the blue it started working again. Not sure what happened but it did scare me a bit.

Never had to deal with them

I have played everything in the 12 years I've been playing. I've played through Marshalls, Crates, Fenders, Peaveys, Tube works preamps, ADA MP-1, Digitech Gsp-21 (unusable distortions), ART SG something or another (real crappy distortions from that one too), Sansamp PSA-1 (best of the bunch), Mosvalve amps, numerous studio effect units, lexicon, alesis, etc... Been in metal bands, rock bands, blues, but primarily original rock in the styles of queensryche to pat benatar to modern english to alice in chains. I've also played covers ranging from ozzy to garth brooks to rockabilly stuff to peter paul and mary. As a studio unit the 2101 is a great match for them all as an effects unit. You could probably even tweak a decent distortion sound out of it if you really tried. For stage and plug in and play kind of stuff where you may need to edit and even create sounds on the fly, it's not the right unit. If stolen I would replace it with something else unless I had to do a lot of studio work, then I'd replace it with one of the newer digitech units. I've seen them and they are a little more user friendly. It does a good job for studio purposes. unless of course you're in a studio with full lexicon effects...in that case just leave it at home and show up with your psa-1 or triaxis. To be fair, I think this unit just didn't meet my needs. For people who need all the features and can take the time to REALLY learn how to use it, not just using the presets, then this is probably a good choice.

The unit is not easy to use if you don't have any experience with multi-fx devices. It is a kind of quantum leap for the stomp-box fans out there. The manual is ok, but you will need lots of hands-on time to get what you want out of it. I have the firmware version 3.01a (after several upgrades). Patch editing is relatively straightforward, but the multitude of parameters (reverb!) can be confusing as the effect on the sound can be subtle.

I use a Mesa 2/90 poweramp which feeds 2 Marshall 1960 4x12s, PRS custum 24 and Ernie Ball Luke guitars. Mic-ing is not necessary, as the ballanced outs can be routed to the mixer (I do go through a stereo tube preamp before going to the mixer). The unit is not very noisy, and a noise gate can be activated for each preset to suit your needs. The distortion section is weak. The only tube distortion that works for me is the clean distortion setting, which adds a lot of nice overtones. Otherwise, I tend to stick with the solid state overdrive setting, which is relatively flexible. Forget the Wah. Pitch shifting only works well with relatively clean sounds. I don't try to get to close to other peoples' sounds, so I don't know how easy it is to do that. I stick with sounds that are right for what I am trying to do musically. The digital section offers a wide variety of possibilities, which I have only begun to explore. Simultaneous, continuous control of several perameters at once gives you huge flexability. This has limits, though, delay time, for example can't be done this way, it glitches while adjusting.

I have had the unit for 5 years. It has been down once. I do some live gigs, and have used it quite a bit. The foot controler has also been down once. A backup is always a good idea, but who can afford it?

I asked a question via email regarding patch librarian specs and updating and got a prompt answer (which didn't please me as it didn't solve the problem). All in all I think the Digitech people quickly dumped must of their support of the 2101 when later models came out. This is a mistake in my opinion.

I play rock and pop from the late 70's to the early 90's, which is a lot of ground to cover. The unit gives me what I need to do this. I have been a player for 28 years. If the unit were stolen or lost, I would probably try to find another one, as my patches are archived. I would hate to have to start over on some very complicated programing. Digital out would be one feature I could use. The cab simulator does not appear to be of much use. I think units of this type should come with PC-supported programing modules, which make programing algorhythms a snap. After a long search, I was able to find one on the net, freeware from a fellow user. Why not from the factory? All in all, though, a great unit.

The GSP-2101 artist is not easy to use. But then ease of use is a trade off for the immense programming power it offers. The manual is lacking in the most crucial section - creating and linking algorithms.

Sound quality is fairly good. The well appointed noise gate takes care of any residual noise anyway. The wah effects are terrible. Certain effects could use some more parameters. On the whole however the variety of effects is great.

Hasn't let me down in public yet. I've had it 2 years. Having said that it totally died 4 months after I bought it. It has crashed a couple of times in practices.

On-line support is good. Took them ages to fix it (about 4 months). They initially sent it back unfixed. I installed the artist upgrade and dual S-DISC myself. Neither installation was near as straightforward as described in the documentation.

The GSP-2101 Artist has an identity complex! Its not a rock guitarist's rack module. It's for avant garde sound experimentalists! i.e. Why would rock guitarists require 10 independent continuous controller linkages. For those who want more power, the 2101 is superior to the 2120. Email me for wacky patches.

The unit is easy to get a good sound from - if you are willing to tweak and tweak until you find what you want. The sounds are in there. After I had the unit for some time, and got used to how things were done, getting a good sound became quite easy.
The preset patches are somewhat useful, especially the Artist patches. However, running through them can be an experience as the volume levels are all over the map.
Editing patches, again once you get the hang of it, is easy enough, despite the archaic interface. And there are enough buttons on the front panel to make it pretty quick to get around. But - it took me nearly a year to get comfortable with the unit and begin taking it to gigs. Once I did take it out, I regretted not doing so sooner, because it sounded to good.
The manual is typical DigiTech, unfortunately.
My unit has been upgraded to Artist level, version 3.00a I believe. Mine has a single S-DISC.

Guitars used are a Carvin Bolt (with Seymour Duncan humbuckers) and Fender American Std. Strat (with SD stacked humbuckers). Past amps include Peavey Bandit Transtube 112 and Peavey Ultra 112. Current amp is a Mesa/Boogie Mark IIC Plus. Also in the rack is a power supply, BBE 462, Korg tuner, and ADA MicroCAB. Primary processor now is the Roland VG-8, which has largely replaced everything else, including the 2101, though the 2101 sounds great with the VG-8 - it's just too much equipment to deal with at times.
The 2101 can be noisy at times, which is to be expected with this much processing power. I don't find the noise to be objectionable for live use.
All effects can be modified to incredible degrees, so they can be made to sound bad. However, I feel most of the effects are very musical sounding, and easy to make sound good.
I don't make much effort to emulate the sounds of my "favorite" artists. However, I have downloaded patches from time to time that came very close to certain "signature" tones, and have found them to be adequate at least in terms of feel, etc. Copying such tones can be an act of futility, IMO, since the player's touch and heart are bigger factors than what he/she is plugged into.
The delays, reverbs, harmonizer, and choruses sound excellent in my opinion. In fact, the harmonizer is so much more musical sounding than what Roland offers in the GP-100/VG-8 (and more flexible in its offered parameters), that it convinced me to compare these other effects - the DigiTech sounded better, though I'm not sure the guy in the third row will ever notice.
I'm not crazy about the tube distortions, and use my amp's distortion voices instead. I've not tried the solid state distortions.

Mine has been very dependable. But - mine leads a sheltered life compared to most other players. Mine stays in one place most of the time, and is not subjected to temperature or handling extremes.
Many horror stories are in circulation about this and other high end DigiTech products to the point where I don't think I'd buy another of their products. It's too bad, since I think they are ahead of most others in packaging, value to the dollar, etc.
I don't play with a backup, per se, but have enough equipment that if it were to go down, the "show" would go on.

DigiTech has always dealt with me in an expedient fashion, and I've found the tech support people knowledgeable. Again, my experience varies from that of others. They've answered my emails within a day or so, mailed manuals free of charge on two occasions (I also have an RP-1, and used to have a GSP-21 Legend), and sent me requested literature within a week or so.
Mine was returned to their factory to repair the headphone jack. The upgrade was done at a local dealer. Both were done in a reasonable time frame and without incident.

I play contemporary praise & worship and Christian country. The 2101 is a very good match for most any style.
I've been playing for 31 years, and own too much gear to name here. The key pieces are named in this review. However, my primary processor now is the Roland VG-8, which has essentially replaced everything in the rack, but I do use everything together from time to time.
I would probably buy something else if this piece came up missing. This is mainly because I think I got a little lucky with this one, and so many other users are having major reliability problems with their DigiTech gear. Interestingly, new 2101s are still available - there are two on display in stores in my area that have never been able to sell the last of their inventory.
I love the sound quality, except the aforementioned distortions. The distortions aren't bad - but it's very hard to find better distortions voices than what a Mesa/Boogie Mark series amp offers. I don't hate anything (though the interface is a pain, and the use of mixers in algorithms is still confusing at times...). Favorite feature would be the ability to control the unit with the Control One, and it's rapid and silent patch changes. It works well live, which is where it's at.
Sound-wise, I think it fares well when compared to units in its price class, and is probably better than most. And it is so feature-laden, that it would be nearly impossible in terms of rack space and money to assemble all the individual gear needed to do so many things, and then I'm not convinced that the sound quality would be noticeably better. A friend with a large rack system has to work much harder to get a good sound going, patch it into his foot controller, and so on - just to get tones that are no better than what the 2101 offers, by his own admission. I'm sure that the $3600 Eventide multi unit is probably better sounding - but will anybody else ever notice the difference when you're playing live?
I wish it had a better interface, but they fixed that on later products, only to take away the XLR outs and headphone jack - not smart. Also, I wish it had real EQ knobs, which again, they added to later units. And the cabinet emulator isn't anything spectacular, but since I bought the MicroCAB, I don't care.
Until I got my VG-8 recently, I believed the 2101 gave me the greatest tones I've ever had, and made playing an even greater joy. It can get in the way of making music because of all the tweaking possible (and needed), but I feel a player can make music very quickly if they want to with this unit.
I feel the 2101 is a classic tube preamp/FX unit, and as such, it is worth keeping around for many years. Many players who have directly compared it to the later DigiTech units prefer the older 2101. That may be the usual guitar player's disease, but it has convinced me that it's not worth "upgrading" to a 2112/2120. For its current market value, I won't sell this one in the forseeable future.