DigiTech RP-355

At present just using it as a effects box. It was bought to replace a magic stomp by Yamaha which was used primarily for chorusing and a harmonizer effect.
It is very easy to get an excellent sound out of it, just make your own patches. The distortions sound better than the ones they emulate (seriously), just turn the gain down and adjust the treble. Even the Metal Zone sounds decent if you turn down the gain and take some of the fizziness out. The rat, 808 and tube screamer are just unreal; I use them before a laney vc 30 and it is the best sound I've ever had in 40 plus years of playing.
The reverbs are decent and so are the echoes, chorus and harmonizer/whammy. Probably not as good sounding as a TC electronics, but not bad either
I haven't fiddled with the amp modelers yet but they must be played through a PA or full range speaker system, just like any modeling amp. Many people swear by them.

Strat- BB preamp-Keeley compressor- RP335- Laney VC 30, one of the best amps around for the money.
Not noisy at all. It has true analog bypass, which does not suck your tone at all.
This board has replaced a very very expensive array of boutique pedals, including a Lovepedal E6, a Fulltone ultimate octavia, a Beano from Analog man and the Yamaha Magic stomp.
I am still using the Keeley, specially on chorusing and so on, it is indeed the very best out there, and the BB preamp is very transparent and nice sounding; so these 2 are my "no digital" straight into the amp effects for those moments I just want analog effects and tube sound, but the truth is, they do not sound or feel any better than the RP, honest to God; it's probably that I feel guilty or stupid for having paid so much money for all those pedals, and then the RP 355 comes along for the price of just one pedal, everything else became
pretty much useless. If you have the patience and time to tweak the distortions, etc, you will produce excellent sounds that feel very authentic and clean up by lowering the guitar volume; it just doesn't get any better. I even have a patch using the DS1 model, and I never really liked the original DS1; it has been setting unused in its box brand new for several years now.
The octavia in the RP sounds better and is quieter than my Fulltone Ultimate Octavia, believe it or not.
The best thing is, every patch is like a completely different pedalboard; in stomp mode, you have a distortion, and FX/chorus, a delay, and the expression pedal controlling pretty much anything you want, plus a decent sounding wha wha.
It is just amazing sounding and a very very good deal for the money.

I only had it for a few days, but next few weeks are looking pretty busy giging. Will comment again after all that.

Judging by other Digitech products, I am prepared to assume it will be a dependable unit.

never had to deal with the company.

I play mostly electric guitar styles, all flavours.
I have been playing for over 40 years on 3 continents, currently in London. My other gear is of no relevance to this review, I play mostly Strats, Teles and Parker, besides, I am going to sell most of my stupidly expensive boutique effects.
Oh yes, the humbucker emulator sounds pretty good for some of the heavier sounds.
I will buy another one even if its not stolen or lost, just to have it, that's how good I think it is.
I love the shockingly amazing realistic sound quality, I hate I didn't discover it before I spent over a thousand quid on my "pro" board full of boutique pedals.
I tried the Boss Vg systems, not even comparable with the RP, it sounds very digital, all the other Boss boards have some decent sounds but not as realistic as the RP.
It would be nice if during preset mode you could trigger amp "B" as another distortion instead of just another amp model or eq. but still, not a big deal, just go to the next patch in which you have programmed another distortion sound.
I am not fond of the acoustic guitar models but I believe they must be played through a PA or full range system. Will comment after I do that, as some of the upcoming gigs are acoustic.
I can honestly say this thing through a decent tube amp replicates the best tube tones you can imagine, including Michael Landau, Scott Henderson, Wayne Krantz and Jeff Beck

This is the Digitech RP355 review...
The unit is VERY easy to get into and edit. So much so that the manual is unneccessary. Audio DNA2 is a marked improvement and the new Black/Silver aesthetic and red LED displays are welcome additions to the units overall feel.

I received the unit with Ver. 1.1 and have recently upgraded it to 1.4. No noticeable audio change occured upon this update, so it must have been a basic firmware update to repair script and hidden bugs?

The Pros:
For modeling, direct recording and as a general practice tool, this unit kicks ***. Audio DNA2 sounds way better than the older DNA1 by far!
Although it colors the sound a bit due to the nature of modeling, it sounds convincing enough through a pair of BOSE computer speakers when noodling. Tie that together with a sub woofer of some sort and you got plenty of practice jam knock.
The acoustic simulators are pretty good and the distortions are close to accurate when combined with an arsenal of different amps and cabinets, although some tones can sound the same and are indistinguishable. The Metal Zone and Digitech Metal 4x12 cabinets are very usable together.
The Wah is mild but nice for color licks, Full wah being the thicker sounding one of the three selections. It is not noisy when using the distortions, and the noise gate does a relatively good job of clamping down bad sounds and garble. Although not as smooth as Rocktron Hush technology, it is better then having nothing at all.
Reverbs and delays are slick.
The drum beats sound improved over the Audio DNA1 chip.
The Compressors are very much needed on everything to support the sustain factor, since the gains are a bit reserved. This is what allows for direct recording, too much gain would get murky recording direct, so I understand the why re: this.
The looper is fun.

The Cons:
Firmware updates are currently blind, in that they do not post on their site waht the Firmware update is bringing.
Audible switching gap between presets.
Distortions may have a little hint of fizz to them, although Line 6 products are notoriously much worse when it come to fizztortion. The DNA2 chipset is a significant improvement over DNA1 re: this though. Firmware may fix with time?
The wah calibration is WAY too finicky. 0-100 adjustability but it reacts WAY to dramatically when setting it higher or lower. Firmware fix?
The EQ needs a cabinet "knock" or reactance feature adjust.
The Tuner goes into mute mode, but sometimes audio leaks through while tuning. Firmware fix?
A midi port would have been cool, to access all presents on the fly with a seperate midi controller...maybe on the DNA3 in the future?

As for the electronics, it seems to be working without
glitches just fine. If the software ever gets stuck upon initial turn on, simply unplug, wait 10 seconds and turn back on...all electronics can do that sometimes. Happened on my RP90 once.

I'd say it is relatively reliable thanks to the metal casing, although the super hard plastic versions are just as reliable IMO.
The screens are very scratch prone and one should never remove the plastic lens cover on them when they arrive new, scratches even when using microfiber cloth.

The flat black paint is also very easy to chip, so you may want to be careful there. I suggest they impregnated the paint into the metal next time around, or use a clear coat to shield it from chips. Maybe use more coats and bake the paint into the metal.

I sent them an E once re: suggestions to improve.
They were very professional and responsive. They forwarded the ideas to their respective internal departments. We will have to wait and see...

Awesome!

Overall, the Digitech RP355 is a scream above it's predecessor.

Audio DNA2 chipset kicks *** in the modeling department and sounds notably improved. Color scheme aesthetic looks serious, depite its sensitivity to chips and scratches.
Digitech seem to understand the concept of Evolution re: tweaking and improving a product to achieve better desired results over time. Also, the idea of firmware updates adds to a continual improvement to the inner workings of the unit with time, even after you have bought it. Great computer interface. For the money, this kills!
Look forward to seeing their future DNA3 versions.

My recently-purchased RP355 has firmware revision 1.3.

I played a solo improv show with the RP355 a week after taking delivery. I ran the stereo XLR outs to the house PA. I used the looper and a half-dozen of the stock patches; I'd say that it's quite easy to get a good sound.

The manual is concise and complete.

It's easy to edit patches: a pair of buttons selects a row in a clearly-labeled matrix; six knobs control parameters within the the selected row. Almost everything can be edited from the unit itself. Only three relatively inconsequential parameters require use of the X-Edit computer program.

The X-Edit program is available for Mac OS X and for Windows. I use a Mac. Connection between the RP355 and the computer is via a USB cable (not included).

The X-Edit program is simple to install and operate. A graphic interface provides access to all of the controls on the RP355. X-Edit also allows you to save individual patches to (and load from) files and to backup and restore the entire unit.

Firmware upgrades are performed via an easy-to-use program which fetches updates over the internet.

I play a two "Custom DL Thinline" guitars made for me by luthier Saul Koll. I play through the RP355 into a PA. At home I use a Yamaha STAGEPAS 300.

The RP355 sounds good and is free from undesirable noise. The noise gate is very effective on higher-gain patches. Even with the noise-gate defeated the RP355 has very low self-noise.

I've played an RP350 for over a year and have never had the slightest problem with that unit. I still have the RP350... it's handy to have on hand for a guest guitarist.

I do use the RP350 without a backup. My style is such that I don't have to depend upon anything except my guitar. I can (and have) performed with my guitar DI'd straight to the PA.

Of course, anecdotes are not facts. I don't expect any problems with the RP355, but then I've only had it for a short time.

I've actually had a couple of email exchanges with Digitech's support staff to answer some obscure questions. Their responses were prompt, courteous and helpful.

I play - for lack of a better description - psychedelic folk jazz. I started playing sometime around 1967, took a 20-year break, then began playing seriously in 1999.

Aside from the Koll guitars and the Yamaha PA mentioned above, I have a couple of pedals, a couple of small acoustic amps, and a bit of other gear that I hold onto for its unique qualities or to use for recording.

I've auditioned and owned a number of other processors. The recent Digitech offerings, based upon their Audio DNA2 DSP, are second to none. I'd definitely replace the RP355 if something happened to it. I consider it to be an excellent value.

The RP355 meet my needs very well. If I wanted more features, or a smaller footprint, or a lower price, I'd select one of the other current-production RP units.

I certainly could have paid more for a processor to get more features and functionality. I've learned over the years, though, that working within limitations can be beneficial to creativity. Look at it this way: I could either use a simple, good-sounding processor that gives me a handful of sounds appropriate to my style and concentrate on writing music, or I could use a complicated, good-sounding processor and spend too much time obsessing about the minutia of the deep parameter adjustments.

Along the same lines, the 20-second looper is simple but effective. There's no undo, no volume adjustment, just a single loop with no fancy functionality at all. I've owned more complex loopers that - by themselves - cost more than the RP355. Still, I find the RP355's looper - because of its simplicity - to be much more conducive to performance.