Rocktron Patch Mate

Easy. Easiest thing I've ever put in my rack. I was a bit worried after reading some of the reviews here, but this is absolutely dead-simple to use.

There's 8 loops. So you can put 8 devices (foot pedals, whatever) in each loop. Putting the devices in the loop is simple - you just need cables for in/out and to patch to the previous/next loops.

Once your devices are in your loops, you configure each midi channel by selecting the loops you want to have 'on' for that channel.

I already owned a Rocktron MidiMate for a foot controller. I run a Midi cable from the Midi Mate on the floor to my Mesa Boogie Triaxis, and then through to my TC Electronics G-Major effects unit. So all I had to do was add another Midi cable from the G-Major to the Patch Mate. One long through Midi signal: Midi Mate --> Triaxis --> G-Major --> Patch Mate.

Select a midi channel like #17. Figure out which loops you want ON and press those blue buttons on the front of the Patch Mate. Those buttons will LIGHT UP when ON. That means that loop is in your signal chain. Hit the RED button on the left front of the Patch Mate to save that configuration. You're DONE. That channel will stay configured that way until you change it.

This could not be easier to use.

Sounds great. Quality cables help, but I haven't noticed any signal degradation at all.

It's a Rocktron. Solid as a rock. I keep it in my rack anyway to avoid damage, and you should too.

Haven't had to talk to them. It was too easy to use this device.

I bought this new now that Rocktron has seen fit to reissue this awesome device.

I like versatility. I need a versatile system where I can get a lot of different tones really easy, which is why I've got a Triaxis and a G-Major and control when with a Midi Mate. I can program 100 Midi channels of unique sounds and switch to them during performances with one stomp on the Midi Mate.

But while the G-major is nice effects unit, it's not perfect, and periodically I like to add additional effects. I've got effects pedals, but I hate having them on the floor - it requires extra setup/teardown and it's just a cluttered mess. I recently purchased a BB Preamp as well, and I absolutely love adding it to my lead tones. But to use it I have to perform too many foot gymnastics. I need my system to switch with just one foot press.

The Patch Mate is perfect solution - I can get my effects pedals into my loop and configured for the proper Midi channels in minutes, and then I never have to touch them again. And the pedals end up in my rack, not on the floor. With the Patch Mate, I'm back to one footpedal - the Midi Mate - for controlling all my tones.

If it were stolen I'd buy another one immediately. Best feature: it's so simple to use. I couldn't believe how easy it was to configure the loops. All I had to do was press the buttons on the front to turn them on or off, which brings that loop in our out of the chain. I love the simplicity of this unit.

What do I hate? That I didn't know something like this existed before!

The only thing I wish it had was a digital display of the Midi channel that it is currently on; just for comfort of knowing it's on the right channel and it got the Midi signal. Sometimes Midi cables get jostled and come out their sockets, and I know on my other gear when this happens right away because I can read the Midi channels and see they don't match between devices. So I know one of the through cables came loose. But other than that, this thing is a dream.

It becomes easy to use if you know what you are doing.I realize that it takes time to get use to.

I purchased mine new and is usa made before rocktron was bought-out and the new ones are made overseas.I use it to switch pedals and i have never had any problems.My set-up is:guitar-buffer circuit-thomas organ wah(w/true bypass)-patchmate,using the hush only for distorted sounds-stereo out into the front end of two marshall silver jubilees-out of the effects send of the amps into dmc system mix+ which runs a t.c.2290,korg dl8000r delay,lexicon lxp-15,yamaha d1500 delay,and out of the system mix+ back into amps retuns.The system mix+ enables me to run my processors in parallel with the dry tone of the amp.the patchmate also does my chanel switching.Sometimes i use a Groove tubes load box to convert one amp including it's power section,into one massive preamp.Please PAY ATTENTION to this:the reason some of you complaining about hums,pops,and sound sucking is:the patchmate does not have a buffer in it like the DMC GCX and that means TONE LOSS when pedals are switched out of the loops.I was going to have bob bradshaw build me one in it but that meant that it would not buffer my wah cause it's the only pedal that it does not go into the patchmate,so i built a buffer and i can place before the wah now.As far as switching pops and hums check your other gear.I don't even use those rubber tabs in my rack,cause it is noise less.My other guitar player has a DMC Ground control into a xxx rectifier and he has switching pops like there is no tommorow.

I found the Patchmate to be rather easy to get started with. I'm running 5 preamp/fx processors, cabinet emulators, bbe etc. I'm soley recording direct in my home studio and wanted to be able to switch preamps and so forth without doing it by hand with a manual patchbay. The Patchmate does this perfectly and without any noise or degredation of any kind. Some of the other reviews stated that they were having problems with feedback from there preamps/amps. I had this same problem at first. I had a couple of preamps that would squeal when brought into the loop. Not knowing what the cause was I contacted Rocktron Tech Support and talked to a tech named Jim. Coolest Tech I've ever dealt with and the guy knows his shit. This is what he suggested I do so if you are having this problem LISTEN UP!
Depending on how many preamps you have, you'll want to get adapters or cables that are two female mono 1/4 inch into one male mono 1/4 inch. Plug these adapters into the input of your preamps and then basically daisy-chain your preamps together so it looks like this: guitar into preamp one adapter, out of preamp 1 adapter into preamp 2 adapter etc until all of your preamps inputs are connected. the last preamp will not need an adapter so for example I used 4 adapters for my 5 preamps. I'm running all mono so please keep that in mind. Next, route the preamps to the Patchmate in this fashion. I run my preamps through the first 5 loops so in loop one run the output of your preamp 1 into the return on loop 1 of the Patchmate. There should be nothing in the input or send of loop 1 of the Patchmate. Now, connect loop 1 output of Patchmate to loop 2 input of Patchmate. Then connect preamp 2's output to loop 2's return on Patchmate. Then route loop 2 output on Patchmate to loop 3 input etc. With the exception of loop one which has nothing in its input, all loops connected to preamps should have something connected to input, return and output but NOTHING TO THE SEND. You'll then want to route your effects and so on in the normal way using both the send and returns of the Patchmate. I'm sorry if this seems confusing but if can figure it out you won't believe the flexability.
Editing patches is easy enough. You just turn to the parameter you want with one dial and adjust it with another. Typical Rocktron format.
The manual is helpful with everything except explaining complicated routing. The routing scheme I just explained is not in the manual but they do explain more traditional routing schemes.
I have two Patchmates and both have firmware version 1.2....no problems with either.

I basically explained my set-up above but I'll expand a bit. I'm using 3 Jackson Dinky Reverses (1 professional, 1 USA, 1 DR7) all with Dimarzio pick-ups of some sort (Tone Zone, Fred, Evolution etc).
I'm running into the input of the first preamp in my loop which is a Rocktron Piranha then Digitech Valve FX, Rocktron Chameleon, Peavey Rockmaster (The king of brutal tone), Boss GX-700, Rocktron Pro Q, Rocktron Multivalve, ADA Microcab II and a BBE 422. The output of this loop is routed to a Mackie 1202 VLZ mixer and output through Roland MA-8 speakers and also to a Delta 66 sound card and I use Calkwalk pro audio 9 for Digital recording. Name a tone.....I can get it!
Like I said, with the routing scheme I use everything is dead quiet.

I've only had these Patchmates for a month or so and i'm only using one (other is a back-up). I have had no problems but I did spray electronic or contact cleaner into the 1/4 inch jacks just in case they were dirty. I would definetley suggest doing this as a precaution.
I don't gig anymore but I would not be using this set-up if I were playing live because it's just too much. This is just for versatility in my home studio. If I were playing out I'd probably just buy a Triple recto or something and rip everyones head off. not very practical for home recording though

Like I said, this Jim guy I spoke to fucken ruled!!! and helped me to achieve the versatility I was looking for. Thanks again Jim!!

I like playing big heavy riff type shit and am really not into playing other styles of music, although, I do listen to alot of different styles of stuff. I can shred a bit if in the mood but am more into aggressive rythym guitar. I don't really try to emulate anyone but I love Dimebag's aggressive tone, Dino from Fear factory, the static X boy's etc as far as current guitarist. Randy Rhoads was the total riffmeister of the past present and future as far as I'm concerned.
I own too much other stuff to list but can sum it up by saying that my gear gives me the versatility that I need. If it were stolen I'd be pissed but I'd get over and buy another.
I love the Patchmate for all the reasons listed above. I have no hate for the Patchmate.
I compared it to the DMC switching thingy and thought it was cool too but you need a separate floor switcher to switch preset loops and it only works with 3 different midi-controllers. The Patchmate works with any midi-controller.
If you have alot of rack gear, do yourself a favor and pick one of these up. There are spendy and hard to find but worth there weight in gold. I'm out!!!

Just to clear up some things, both erroneous and true, that I read in these reviews while doing the research for buying and assembling my own patching system...

1) The patchmate is ideally suited for those with rack effect based systems. If you are using pedals, look elsewhere.

2) Patchmate is noisier (and more prone to ground/hum issues) than DMC's GCX, AXESS ELECTRONICS' GRX-4, and Bradshaw's (CAE) switchers.

3) The GCX DOES WORK with the ALL ACCESS. So do all the other switchers listed above.

4) Big reason this model was discontinued was that these other companies kick it's butt on the price performance scale, and are a lot less problematic.

Hope this helps you...

Like anything with tons of inputs and buttons you have to learn how to use it. They laid out everything as easy as they could for the complexity of this thing. I though it was a breeze to learn and use.

Totaly Transparent. There is no way this thing could add any noise. It uses gold plated relays. The users who reported noise should check there cables and groud lifts and rack ground.

Had it almost 10 years! Kicks Ass

I belive they stopped making these. I am very glad I got one.
Saw one on ebay used for over $500. These things are worth there weight in gold. If you have alot of effect and old stomp boxes you want to rack and midi...then this thing is a must!

This is easy enough to use. Takes a while to patch everything. You ARE gonna spend about $100 on cords!

I have a problem here. With NO pedals.....just going in/out of the patchmate into my Matchless amp, My tone got sucked. It sounded COMPLETLY different! Sounded like my strings were dead. I bought it to clean everything up but it degregaded my inherent tone.

Seems very well made

The Rocktron peolple were cool enough....but it took them roughly an hour on the phone to finally admit that others had noticed this problem. I sent it back and suffered a huge re-stocking fee

Someone please let me know of a switching system that doesn't screw my tone! This product looked and felt good but did exactly what it is used to avoid....a paradox..huh?

I found them easy to use. I have three preamps and a total of over 27 pieces of rack gear and three pedals in my flight case.

Perfect, no loss of tone at all. As for the comments others had about hum and noise with several preamps running, those are probably 60 cycle hum and too many grounds causing ground loop hum. Bob Bradshaw says only have ONE ground per unit, whether that be the AC input, the rack rail, or any of the input/output wires. If you have more than one ground on each unit, you are begging for noise. I lift the grounds on everything but the left input of each unit. I use plastic washers between the rack rail and units and have special plastic rack screws from McMaster Carr so the units can not ground to chassis. In addition to which, since I split my signal into an A, B, or C path to the three different preamps, I also go through a dbx project one gate before the input of each preamp. This way there is NO bleed at all between units and makes massive gain setting a none issue in regards to noise.

I have two in my rack and bought a third as a back up five years ago. The one is still new in box, unused.

Never had a problem with this unit, but I did have a Rocktron product problem once. I sent it over night to them. They fixed it that day and sent back over night free of charge. It left Monday and was back in rack on Wednesday.

Rocktron is the best stuff out there. I have three Chameleons, 3 Intellefex, a Guitar Silencer, a Compressor, a Hush 2, 3 Midi Mates, 3 PatchMates, 2 Velocity 300s to name the pieces I can think of at the moment. It is the best overall stuff, in conjunction w/ Lexicon and Eventide stuff, my rack is awesome.

First thing, this is not really user friendly. Best thing is to map out what you have, and how you want to switch it. Then figure out what kind of cables you will need to make this happen. I just went and bought 50' of cable, and a buttload of switchcraft ends... solderfest! It was designed by Bob Bradshaw and it seems as if he assumed that you know what you are doing, but once armed with the proper cables it's basically up to you imagination..

N/A. 9 stereo true bypass loops, and I cant detect any degridation.

I bought mine used, and it was MINT. After having it for a few months, it's still working, and the buttons are pretty heavy duty. Only thing I could see going wrong with it are the thousand 1/4" jacks in the back dont have nuts on them, they are just soldered to the board, which if you accidentally yank out a cord hard, it could possibly cause a bad solder joint.

I talked to their tech support via email when I was trying to locate one of these hard to find units. The guy answered all of my questions.

I play primarily neo-classical yngwie type rock, and have been playing 20 years. I'm using the switcher to switch between the folloing: Mesa/Boogie Triaxis, Mesa/Boogie Quad Preamp (i use a midi octopus to control the quad), a Lexicon LXP15-II, a BBE, DBX Stereo compressor/limiter/gate, into a Mesa/Boogie 50/50 Power amp driving 2 4x12 half back cabinets. It allows me to use any of the previous items in any combination I want with no popping or added noise.

If it were lost, i'd break out the Glock and go find the idiot. It was kind of hard to find, espically at this price.

I hate nothing about it, other than it's no longer produced, and would be a bitch to get another one.

I was looking at the GCX switcher, but you need to use their pedalboard, and I already have the Boogie Abacus. To me it seems nicer than the GCX as it has a readout so you can name patches, and has buttons so you can quickly adjust the presets, and the hush unit is an added bonus.

I wish it had a bigger readout, or dual line readout so I could name the patches better, or the ability to do parallel patching, other than that it's perfect.

Easy to use. Some problems with cabels. It was a surprise that you need so many expensive HIGH QUALITY stereo/mono cabels. Good manual.

First a very big disapointment because of hum and noise in several pre amps hi gain settings. I already even decided to sell it but after buying high quality cabels and adjusting amp levels very carefully the problem was almost over. Now there are hum and noise only when you use maximum hi gain settings and you can even re-adjust those levels so that it works.Tip: use as short hi quality cabels as possible.Set the noise gate (HUSH) after your pre-amps and before your reverbs and delay efects.

Some problems with noise levels and stereo signal line levels.

On line manual was the reason why I purchased this machine. The manual needs more explanations how to reduce hum and noise !

This is a ideal machine if you have several rack preamps and effects and you want very quickly to change patches during performanse (even via midi). After first disapointment I belive that I can control the hum noises so that these are under acceptable levels.

Very easy of use and intuitive, I didn't need the instructions except for wireing schemes (the cables gets you crazy). Rocktron has the best instructions (online and library of the market), although their units not always are so easy to use (I own an Intellifex and the All Access, and you have to spend a lot of time to get what you want "I love this units",not Patchmate, keep on reading.

This is the part because I`m upset. This unit is not quite as the other rocktron products.I'm using it to switch between three diferent preamps (a Mesa Boogie Triaxis, a Marshall JMP-1 and with the preamp section of a Boss GX-700) and between a Rocktron Intellifex and the effects section of the Boss. It adds a lot of hum to the high gain preams and, in the other side, the hush noise reduction in this unit is not close to the intellifex, and too far from the hush rack systems. With the intellifex the tone is intact and clear.The Patch- mate only lets you to adjust the thresold, and it is enable to cut the hiss without cutting the ends of the sound in clean tones, and with distortion you must set the thresold so high that you lose the sensitive of the strings in soft passages meanwhile the hum is always there. Certainly I found it useless for me.

All Rocktron products are well built, and never they cause me problems.

I found the rocktron help online perfect. But I had serious problems with the dealer in Spain (beware ,it's Bosco!), they send me to hell like an stupid, because some people thinks that some marks are the best of the world, at most if their guitar gods are using it. This is a really stupid position in many musicians. I'll give a 10 for Rocktron support and a kick in their ass for the dealer.

I've been playing guitar for nine years. I enjoy playing rock a lot, but I like and play all type of music, and always I'm looking for the perfect tone for each style, so the patchmate doesn't work for me now. I think that the Mesa Boogie amp switcher is the best for switching between high gain preamps using the effects in series (and the patch- mate for switching rack effects or pocket pedals and like a control switcher under midi programs. Please, forgive me if my english is not good enough, I have spend a lot of time to write my opinion because I think it could be helpfull for some people.