Rocktron Prophesy II

Well, ease of use can be somewhat subjective... But I imagine here it could be best defined as such:
If you sat a monkey down in front of it and told it to tweak knobs while you jam away within seconds you're tone will sound like Van Halen, Hendrix, Malmsteen, etc.
In that regards, it's not THAT easy. Right out of the box you'll be able to pick a preset, and tweak basic eq(bass,mid,treble) and MAYBE be able to select effects. But you WILL have to read the manual to get the most out of this monster. It took me about 2hrs with manual in hand to really start getting the hang of it, and producing the tones I wanted...
But you gotta remember; this is a pro-level processor, with the price tag to boot! For the kind of in depth tweaking that's here there's a level of complexity that you just can't get around!
Hence the 7. However, if you really like to dig deep into submenus and you're a tweaker like me, then that's not a bad thing at all!

Setup: Various BC Rich neckthrus with Seymour Duncan Blackouts, Metals, and a few passives like a rockfield fatass and a x2n copy straight into the prophesy2 into a solidstate power amp. I'm running a BOSS GT6 through its effects loop to take advantage of its harmonizor/intelligent pitchshifter, but other than that it's all the prophesy2.

I've read all the reviews on this product here in harmony central and there's only a handful of guys who really seem to understand this preamp. So let me correct some of the misconceptions/misunderstandings that seem to be really common to the reviewers here.

First the clean channel: Simply put; It's great! It's almost two clean channels because there's an option to flip a "bright" switch in the menu to brighten it up and give it some nice chime. As for its tendancy to distort - that's because the people opperating it aren't utilizing the input gain knob next to the input jack on the front pannel. The knob is there to pad hot input(like my active duncans) and reduce the system's percieved input and clean up the front end. The clean's distorting because they've got the input set too high and/or... I can't believe I even have to say this... they've got their volume knob at 10. Try rolling off your volume and/or reducing the input gain knob and: Voila! Crystal clear!

Now the Texas Blues: It's great for blues, softer rock, etc. Great channel, but I'm a shredder at heart, and rarely use it, if ever.

The Vintage Brittish: Here's the other big misunderstood channel/voice on this amp. I can understand how it's got a bad rap from most of the reviewers here because minus the pre and post EQ options it's really kind of lack luster... But the problem is that no one's given it a chance, because once you learn where the sweet spots are on the pre and post EQ this channel really opens up! I mean wide open! After much EQ tweaking I've got classic crunch to molten modern Marshall mayhem(say that 3 times fast why don'tcha!). It's an awesome channel, you just need to spend some extra time with the Pre and ESPECIALLY the Post Eq.

Lastly the Mega Drive: Not much has to be said here since most other reviewers have said it already. Pure... Absolute... Awesomeness. Heavy distortion, endless sustain, rich harmonics. Just heavy heavy bliss.

Effects: Pristine. They're about as transparent as any I've ever heard. Lush Chorus, Ducker Delay is neat, but even just the regular delay is great. All the modulation effects are fantasic; Phaser, Flanger, Rotary speaker. Barely effects the preamp tone at all. And you can edit each effect to within an inch of their lives - I'm talking ever parameter you could think of is attatched to each effect!
The only complaint I have is with the pitch shifter. No intelligent harmonization. I mean, c'mon already! It's 2009, they're charging nearly 1500 for this thing, and they still don't have a harmonizer built into it? Other than that, no complaints whatsover!

Lastly is the Hush "emulator" they've got going. The manual says it's a digital recreation of their analog unit. Well, I can't tell the difference between the two, and it's just amazing. I've never heard a noise gate like it! It's absolutely seemless! There's no delay between when I stop playing, and when it kicks in! Just as soon as I stop: DEAD SILENCE. Even with the gain and EQs at 11! Pure silence! And it's not at the cost of choking my notes either. They ring, clear as bells, and have a natural decay and then POOF. Nothing. It's amazing! Purely Amazing!

I'd give it a ten if it weren't for the lack of intelligent harmony, but it is what it is! So 9!

Haven't put it through any serious trials yet, so I can't say!

Awesome so far. Every time I email them they get back to me the next day, if not the same day, and it's almost always the head of their tech dept!

Being a shredder, and a proud one at that, I'd recomend this to anyone! If it were stolen I'd have to hunt the poor bastard down give his come-upins!
There isn't a tone you can't achieve with this bad boy, but be forwarned, you're going to have to work the pre/post eq settings to get there! And if there did happen to be something you felt is lacking, it's got a stereo effects loop so you can jam any other outboard equipment you've got in that loop and you're there! It's everything I could have hoped it would be and more! Go get one now!

It's pretty easy to use, once you read the manual of course.
Lots of stuff to tweak here.

I'm gonna break this down into a couple sections
Let's start with the preamp.

Ch.1 Clean American
This channel is pretty good, but it has a tendency to crunch, which I absolutely HATE in a clean tone. If you want a really clean tone, bypass the preamp and just use your power amp.

Ch.2 Texas Blues
I don't use this channel much but its pretty cool for a slightly overdriven clean sound.

Ch.3 Vintage British
This channel sucks! Theres some gain on tap but theres no power what so ever in this channel. It just sounds weak. A better version of this can be achieved by dialing back the gain on channel 4

Ch.4 Mega Drive
Awesome. Tons of gain. Lots of sustain. Throw some delay and chorus in and you've got a great lead tone. But know one thing, you need to know how to work the EQs if you wanna tweak a great tone out of this preamp. This goes for all the preamp channels. The secret lies in the EQ

Now for effects

Ducker Delay: Very cool and I like the ducker feature. Great for solos.
Chorus: Great, very nice sounding.
Reverb: I really like the reverb on this thing, but I love digital reverb so I'm biased. Lots of stuff to tweak here
Pitch Shifter: It's ok, but if you're looking for a great pitch shifter go buy an eventide.
Rotary Speaker: Great
Flanger: Very good, but make sure you use it as a post effect or you'll never hear it.
Phaser: Cool, but I'm not a huge phaser guy so I hardly use it.
Wah: I never use it but its cool if you can hook it up to the ASDR.
Tremolo: Good
ASDR: This is a very cool feature and theres lots of possibilities with it. I really haven't explored it much though so I can't say much about it.

9 for the preamp because of only one fantastic channel.
8 for the effects.

I can't say enough about the reliability of this thing. Its built like a tank.
I even dropped it off my amp at a gig and it worked great for the rest of the night.
Rocktron products are well built

never dealt with them

I play in a thrash metal band, but I play a lot of progressive stuff (Dream Theater, Symphony X, etc) and neoclassical shred (Vinnie Moore, Tony MacAlpine, etc) in my free time. It doesn't have the best thrash rhythm tones but you can get a searing lead tone easily. I've been playing for 8 years but really haven't tried a lot of gear. This is my first rack product and I gotta say I'd build a rack around this thing. I wish it had a better pitch shifter and a not ****** crunch channel. If it were lost or stolen I'd go for a mesa triaxis and maybe another one of these for effects. This is a pretty cool processor though and if you're new to rack gear this is a good place to start.

Actually, I own a Prophesy 1 but according to Rocktron the only differences are the presets, which I downloaded using the sysex editor.

Reading the manual is a definite must, and there are no excuses for not reading it since you can download from Rocktron's website. While it's easy to get a good sound, to get YOUR sound can take some time.

If you are able hook the Prophesy up to your computer and use the sysex editor!!! The software is kind of quirky but it will make things SOOOO much easier.

To get the most out of it you need to understand parametric EQ's and you must keep on eye on your mixing levels. A lot of what people are saying is distortion on the clean presets are levels running too hot causing distortion.

I'm using it for DAW only right now. Guitars are PRS Custom 24 and a Godin LGXT.

I'll go through all the components but I'd like to comment on some of the negative reviews. The review by ex (1/26/2008) was a fair review but when he was reviewing the clean tones he actually had the pre-amp off. You can tell because he said the gain was 0 and it still distorted. If you have the pre-amp on and the gain is zero you will hear nothing. Another clue was that he said the eq's didn't have any effect. If you bypass the preamp you also bypass the eq's, which is one of the things they could improve.

The review by Weathertite1 who gave it a 1 I have no idea about. Could have been a bad unit, of course he said the Voodu Valve sounded thin and digital, also. Go Figure.

Ok, here we go:

Built in presets: Not bad. I find Hoey's presets to be the most usable right off.

Preamp: Awesome. You can get some great sounds just using the preamp. That's the way it should be because you can't start out with crap sounds and make it good with effects, imo. I won't go through all the 4 preamp channels but I will say that for the clean channel you really gotta watch your levels because it tends to crunch--personally, I like a little bit of crunch! My personal faves are the MegaDrive, Texas Blues, and the clean channel.

Responsiveness is great, play softly and it cleans up, hit the chords solid and the grit comes back.

Hush. It's great. No secret there. If you Hush too much it will kill off the sound but it's amazing how good a job it does.

Compressor: Kind of weak, but then again I've never seen (heard?) decent compression on this kind of gear. You're not going to get a Manley, or a Distressor kind of compression with guitar gear. If you have a great compressor then you can use it in the effect loop.

Chorus: Great. Rich and lush, just like you'd expect. There's 4 levels so you can spend a lot of time tweaking it.

Delay: Delay is fine. The ducker is kind of cool and you can just turn off the ducking if you want. Lot's of control.

Reverbs: Great. No spring, as others have mentioned but the ones they have are top notch.

Rotary Speaker is great. One cool trick is to hook it up to the ADSR so that it starts out fast and then slows down--or vica versa!

Wah: Sounds good. I'm not a real big Wah person, fwiw, but you can do some cool wah effects with the ADSR. If you want to have a traditional wah pedal you'll need to hook up a midi pedal to it before you can really use it. Rocktron has the Midi Mate. I use the Behringer FCB1010 and it works great.

Pitch Shifter: Pretty good. Sounds a little metallic when you go way up but it tracks well and shifting down is great. Dedicated units might have better sound and will have more features like harmonization.

The Speaker Simulator is great and there's a cool trick you can do. If you want a really "clean" sound you can bypass the preamp. The problem is there's no eq. Well, you can use the speaker sim to shape the sound when you bypass the preamp.

Controllers: You can assign just about any parameter of any effect to a controller, which in turn can be assigned to ADSR, a foot pedal, or any other midi device.

Overall, you can program this thing to your hearts content and really come up with innovative sounds. You can also dial in "normal" sounds pretty quick. But to really unlock this you should mess around with the EQ's.

I've had it 6 years and no problems. Swapping the tubes is pretty easy.

While it's reliable I don't think gigging without a backup is a good idea. Unless the gig is not that big a deal;)

I've emailed them a couple of times and they always respond back within the next day.

I play Rock, pop, Metal, and some experimental and you can get any sound you want. It might take some tinkering but you can get it.

I haven't compared the Prophesy to modelers in a while so I won't say anything about the current state of Line6, Boss, Digitech, etc. One thing, the Prophesy uses top quality components. Take the tube, for instance. It's not used in the preamp so I'm guessing it's used as a "pre" preamp, like a microphone preamp for switching impedence.

If it got stolen I would look for a used one.

I know these are expensive but what isn't expensive nowadays? I'll knock a point off for that but otherwise an awesome box.

Reading the manual dawnloaded from Rocktron's website was a good ideea, before Prophesy arrived. Browsing through presets was interesting, but I'd say that only 30% of them are worth keeping, including those signed by the endorsing artists.

There are a lot of options for tweaking your own patches. The 3 EQ's are a good addition to the processor, although the last one in the chain was never used yet.

A bit difficult to browse through multiple preset's pages, but once you get the editing logic, it becomes simple. Some shortcuts buttons jumps you to the parameter page, and it helps.

The overal design of the processors seems well thaught and you have to understand how things are linked one to another if you want to get a good sound out of it. Just be prepared: you have to comprehend a lot of information's about how this beast works.

The manual is very concise, and I suggest carefully reading before claim any lacks and/or poor sounds. All parameters are well explained in brief. Probably, would have been a good idea to use more examples, but it's fine.

Mine is Prophesy 2, version 1.0.

I'm using Prophesy 2 as a preamp + effect processor for a Music Man John Petrucci guitar. I use Mesa Boogie 20/20 for amplification and a 2 x 12 Vintage 30s modified and enhanced stereo Mesa Boogie Rectifier cabinet.

It is not noisy and the HUSH really helps for that, especially when using distortion channels.

On clean channels I can hear a grit. Is there, I've been discussing it with Rocktron's staff and they said "is in the software but they couln't fix it yet". They claim that channel 2 has none, but I can still hear it. One thing tough, if the playing volume is big enough, the grit is behind your sound. Also, if you have your clean chorused or phased or reverberated, the grit become less noticeable. But I cannot say that the clean channels are 100% clean. I have a preset where I also by-pass the preamp section, just to get rid of the grit and enjoy the DiMarzio killer sound.

The overdrive channels are cool. I could tweak a John Petrucci sound out of it. Punchy, powerfull, with a lot of gain. I never use the whole gain level, but is good to know is there and available.

Chorus sounds lush. You have to tweak it all voices carefully to make it sound great. A good part of the good sound is a good guitar, so be aware and use a good guitar with this processor.

Reverb seems ok to my ears. Again, you have to carefully set your settings.

Phaser and Flanger are quite good. I use Phaser on cleans and Flanger on crunch and sometimes in lead presets.

I also like Rotary speaker effect. Great in long note sections, expecially on distortion channel.

Delay is fine, and is good the have the ducker as in Eventide or more expensive units. I wish it was dual, or ping pong, but it does the job, no mistake!

Speaker simulation is great! I use it mainly when I practice in headphones (AKG K271S through a Behringer line mixer), and also for recordings. I feel that a mic'ed cabinet would do better.

An interesting feature is the ADSR function which actually detects your pluck and from there you can vary a parameter of your choice. Most common use of such function is Auto-WAH. I have to explore this function in depth at some point...

I'm using it with Rocktron Midimate and Alesis F2 expression pedal. They are both a good complement to Prophesy 2. However, if you have more money available, consider a Ground Control Pro or an All Access controller.

I use the expression pedal mainly to control WAH parameter in Prophesy. It's easy and is good to keep audio signal out of any other boxes. Actually, you can controll virtually all parameters with the expression pedal, including channel volume. You can switch on/off up to 8 parameters in Prophesy (only five with Midi Mate).

You can program a TAP delay on your Midi Mate controller. I did that, but I give up when I understood I could use a double latching pedal just for such a function. The other function that can be controlled is MUTE which places your processor into tuner mode. I must say that sometimes I feel that the built in tuner is not so acurate. However, is good to have one in the same box.

I rate it with a 9 only because of the little grit on the clean channels. If it wouldn't be there, this peace of gear would have been flawless. Another thing I don't like is that the display is placed actually half an inch in depth of the processor, so when standing near the processor, you can't see a thing if is sitting lower than 1 meter from the floor.

Seems well built. Big knobs, easy to handle. Is made in Korea. I didn't had any issues so far.

I had an issue with my Midi Mate. The EEPROM was loosing it's memory. After several mails and replies from Mr. Jim Chawning from Rocktron, he decided to send me another EEPROM or to replace the unit. I live in Europe and they sent me the integrated circuit at no cost. They were very responsive and kind. I really appreciate the help and support received from Rocktron.

I play mainly heavy, technical metal. Shredding sometimes. Not in a band just now, but looking for it. I play for 18 years, but with a long 10 years break. I own a Ernie Ball Music Man John Petrucci 6 Strings Guitar, Rocktron Prophesy 2 Preamp/Effects Processor, Behringer RX1602 Line Mixer, Midi Mate Controller, Alesis F2 pedal, Mesa Boogie 20/20 amp and an enhanced 2 x 12 V30 stereo Mesa Boogie Rectifier cabinet.

Been playing for 15 years or so - Yamaha SG 3000, Ibanez Bob Weir, Mazeti 12 string electrics, Marshall El 84 20/20 stereo power amp, Boss Gx 700, Digitech 2120 Artist, Rocktron Patchmate, Rocktron Prophesy, Marshall 1912 cabs x 2. Play in stereo. Influences - Dead Can Dance, Killing Joke, Cocteau Twins, Siouxsie ansd the Banshees, Middle Eastern stuff.

Boss Gx 700 - superb tonal shaping - but for clean sounds only. Poor reverb and amp simulation. World - class chorus. Easy to use. Very creative.

Digitech 2120 - harsh tone. Poor parametric EQ. Creative, options to use as many simultaneous affects ( 3 delays etc, 4 - voice pitch shifter). Overly sensitive noise gate.

Unnecessarily complicated (I hasten to add, I've just about used every high- end rack processor, so I know what I'm doing). Basic functionality can be ridiculously complicated and ineffective.

I recently purchased the Prophesy 2 as a consequence of rave reviews. I thought (at the price, and by comments here and by Rocktron's own hype), that my search for the ultimate pre-amp/ effects processor would be over. It isn't by a mile. Sound innovation? Forget it. Read on. I'll go through several serious (and less serious) oversights, in no particular order..

1/ Store function - laughable - once selected, you don't have a clue where it's going - the NAME of the patch isn't displayed, just the number - if you can remember the 150 preset numbers you might be ok though and not overwrite your favourite patches. Sigh....

2/ Compression - weak, in a word... 3 parameters to edit only, no overall effect level. You can hardly tell it's on. Check the Boss GX 700 for compression. Powerful, you know it's on.

3/ Pre-amp - the distortion is second-to-none, world-class, I'm being objective here to reiterate. Thick, great sustain. Not sure if I agree with others on the greatness of the noise gate though. Tone- wise, set the pre- amp gain to zero (ie. to get the cleanest possible setting) and it's still gritty and dark - no pristine clarity there I assure you. Set it to off and you lose all volume which can't be compensated easily - all the preset master levels are set at maximum, so you'd have to fuck about decreasing ALL the (distortion) preset levels individually when the pre-amp is engaged and then turn up the output level to make the clean volume adjustment. If you want pristine clean, there's only one rack unit - Boss GX 700 - superb.

4/ Chorus - weak and unnecessarily complicated, just like Eventide -it's supposed to have a 120ms delay which I thought would really thicken it up. Not so. I can't hear any audible difference when set to maximum (and hey, I'm a sound freak and can tell). There's only one - Boss GX 700, thick, lush, easy as hell to use.

5/ Pitch shifter - tracks well BUT - why does it only go to +12 on the positive side (and not 24, as it does on the negative)???? Amazing synthesised sounds can be produced with pitch shifters and combining voices. Three would be a minimum and yes, you've guessed it, on the ultimate sound shaping innovative tool, there are only 2. No harmonizer either.

6/ Delay - There are no ping-pong delays. That beggars belief, in 2008. Why the absurd 4ms intervals on the delays (the same as the Pod XT Pro!)? Why not let the guitarist decide if he wants to use an 18ms or a 90ms delay or whatever?

7/ A ring modulator would have been nice, but that???s far more subjective.

8/ EQ - God help us here - they have put on post/ pre, god- knows how many EQ's all of which are incredibly complicated to fathom out but none of them actually make much difference at all. The EQ on the Boss GX 700 is super-powerful, incredibly easy to use and makes a massive difference to tonal shaping without all the bullshit.

Overall, 10 for the high- gain sounds, 5 for the clean.

No issues to date

Emailed 6 guys at Rocktron to see if they intended to address some of the shortcomings above, no reply.

The Prophesy 2,(next to Eventide), is the highest end pre amp/ processor out there. In it's current design, the Prohesy is not the ultimate tone -shaping machine for the innovator as I expected from reviews, let???s be deadly serious about that, and while, to reiterate, the pre-amp distortion section and overall tone is world ???class and second to none, it???s that and that only, a ???meat and potatoes??? pre-amp / effects processor that will satisfy only standardised playing and most definitely nothing beyond the hyped claims. Rocktron need to address all of the shortcomings above in a future upgrade to be able to truly lay claim to having designed the Holy Grail of rack pre- amp/ effects units for even the most discerning of artists. I've tried the high-end of every rack unit available - (Lexicon, TC Electronics, Eventide etc) and the search goes on.... The bottom line is this - there's not ONE pre/ amp rack effects unit that can replace all the others. What one does wonderfully, it will screw-up somewhere else along the line. If basic guitar tone is your scene, this might be it. Sound innovation? Forget it. Restrictive, no more no less.

Very easy to use. Out of the box there are actual usable presets which is very rare. I've used a POD Pro, a Digitech 2101 and an ADA MP-1 so I have some experience with preamps and the Rocktron slays them all out of the gate. Pretty easy to tweak the sounds except for the fact that the mixer section os far removed from the actual effect you're editing so you twek the effect asnd them have to page over to the mixer section to adjust the level of the effect. Also, some effects (Tremolo) are always in the chain and you have to turn them off/on via the control panel or foot controller.

Awesome. I'm a control freak and this puppy has made me a happy camper. I run the Prophesy II into a Peavey Classic 50/50 all-tube power amp and run the rack into a VHT 4x12 cabinet or a VHT 1x12 cabinet depending on the size of the venue. The Marshall channel needs more gain and you have to do some mixer tweaking to get the super clean channel loud enough relative to the other channels but sonically it is a marvel. Very usable and musical tones. My other amps include a Dr. Z Prescription ES, a Budda Superdrive and a VHT Pitbull. There is some compromise in tone compared to those amps but the payoff is in great effects, versatility and reliability for any musical situation I'm faced with.

Seems to be rock solid. I also have the foot controller and it is built like a tank. It loses a couple of points for having some quirks in terms of the display when recalling presets from bank to bank sometimes the name doesn't appearing in the foot display but the tone is always recalled. Just an annoiance really.

Never had to deal with them.

It gets a nine only because of the lack of gain on the Marshall channel, effect editing trickiness and the foot controller weirdness. Overall, this unit is top notch. The effects are amazing and it is easy to make adjustments even during a gig.

Overall this unit is easy to use and is intuitive. I just got this unit but am impressed with how easy it is to figure out where the presets are and dial it in. The manual seems thorough

The unit sounds great. As you probably know Gary Hoey ,Mustaine, Rusty Cooley have patches for the processor. The Hoey presets are the best. There is more then enough gain and in fact I tend to use lower settings. I owned a line 6 vetta ii previously and it was great but just didn't have that "growl" that tightness to the bottom end, it was just missing something. I play this unit through a Rocktron Velocity and sometimes a Mosvalve 962 and Carvin Legacy cabinets, it sounds killer. I know a lot of people have seen the youtube video on the prophesy review, don't let that review fool you, this thing has more then enough gain to do any kind of metal you want. With the HUSH it's very quiet. I use primarily Ibanez guitars and have a whole bunch of different pickups they all sound good through this processor.

I like the Marshall hot rodded sound and the Mesa sound and would say I like Petrucci's sound. I think you can get that through this procesor no problem. The cleans sound warm. I've read in other reviews that the cleans aren't clean, if you play through a humbucker yes it can distort if you play loud, but splitting a humbucker or using a single coil there is no distortion. The amp responds nicely to your percussive attack.

I liked my Line 6 but this is better, more responsive, tighter bottom end, the effects are good, probably not as transparent as line 6, but good enough for the kind of music I play (progressive, metal, hard rock)

just got it can't comment

just got it

I love this amp. I'm glad I sold my vetta. Maybe I could have gotten the sounds out of the vetta with more tweaking, but I can great sounds out of this unit with no tweaking. I thought about the Triaxis or JMP-1 but with no effects that would be really expensive. I'm very happy with this unit but I've never tried a Triaxis, a JMP-1 sounds great with an added overdrive pedal but I wanted something that sounded great on its own. The parametric EQ acts as an overdrive pedal and can completely color your sound the way you want. It just sounds phenomenal.

Rocktron products are always easy to use from there intellifex(not made anymore)to there new products(Xpression,Utopia pedal etc)
Only issue is you have got to understand the parametric eq of the Prophecy, if you master that its a joyride in guitarheaven.
Users wo give bad ratings to the prophecy can,t program this thing.
I own also a voodu valve and old blackface chameleon and they have the same eq(the Prophecy has also a global eq)
Company presets are okay but can be much better you have to understand that you got to adjust the sound to your own gear(poweramp,combo,stack or direct)

Sounds are amazing, once you understand the parametric eq.
Its very powerfull tool you can go from A to Z with your sounds the sky is the limit.
Sounds that are simular to great tube amps like Soldano,Marshall and many more amps are possible.
The prophesy is so flexeble that you can get good sounds in any configeration(poweramp,combo,stack or direct)
Clean sounds are incredible you can go from acoustic clean to fenderamp clean and i am not bullshitting you because i own fender amps.
Speakersimulator is the best ever made in an effectproccessor.
Directsounds are great and kill every Line6 product on the market.
The differance between most digital moddelers and the prophesy is sustain, prophesy has plenty of sustain, moddelers like Line6, Boss and Digitech don,t.
There noisegates suck bigtime and kill your sustain.
Prophesy uses Hush noisereduction and won,t kill your sustain.
Hush is the best noisereduction system for guitar on the market by far.
Effects are topnotch(prophesy has effects of intellifex and replifex)
quality is close or as good as TC and Lexicon.
I use it with VHT 2/50/2 poweramp but also direct and it sounds killer.

Rockton product are developed in the USA but produced in Korea.
So lets whait and see.
In the old dayes they where made in the usa and products where bullitproof.

Never had any problems

Fantastic product for any guitarplayer who wants total control over his sound.(you have 8 parameters you can control with midi)
You can play any style with it, Hardrock, progressive Metal,symphonic rock and and and.
Realistic ampsounds from a digital preamp with a tube(1x 12AX7)
Forget all moddelers on the market(heard someone saying Line6 Vetta,sorry no way jos??)
When someone who has the patience and the understanding to program the Prophesy its second to none

How easy is it to get a good sound out of it?
Answer: Some of the presets sound great as is, some need minimal tweakage and others you just gotta sit down and read the manual to learn how to tweak to perfection.

How about Editing patches?

Answer: Again you just have to read and memorize this 96 page manual and spend the time to memorize how to manipulate this puppy to get it the way you want it. You'll be very happy you did this and once you memorize how to do everything, it will all be second nature.



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

Answer: The manual is 96 pages long and is very intuitive. It details every nook and cranny of this unit in detail so that you can do whatever is needed to make it worlk the way you want it to.


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

Answer: This is an updated version of the original Rocktron Prophesy with a few new effects and artist patches from Dave Mustaine, Gary Hoey, Rusty Cooley etc.... You can download the update from the website is what I am told although I have not checked yet.

Can you get the sound of your favorite artists? Who are they?

Answer: Absolutely and it wasn't hard to find my way to accomplishing those tones. If I found a patch that was close I just fine tuned it to get it where it needed to be for my taste. It's all in here you just need to find it.

Are certain effects (distortion, chorus, ...) very good? Very bad?

Answer: I've honestly found nothing I did not like so far. There's some way out stuuf here that I would have never thought of using but I am sure I will find a way to use some of the more obscure stuff in the future.


What setup (i.e. what guitars and amps) are you using this with?

Answer: GUITARS: Gibson Zakk Wylde Signature Bullseye (Ordered and will arrive in 12 weeks), 2004 ESP Eclipse II Standard Lawsuit Model modified with a Tone Pros locking bridge and tailpiece and EMG Zakk Wylde pickups reversed so the 85 is in the bridge and 81 in the neck, 2004 Custom Made Ernie Ball Music Man Axis, 2003 Peavey USA Wolfgang Special.

Power Amp: An old Tube Works Mosvalve MV962 running 40 watts per side in Stereo which is plenty loud that I pulled out of the closet,

Effects Etc: Furman PL Plus Series II D Power Conditioner, Sennheiser G2 Evolution Wireless Rackmounted and I go from there into a Zakk Wylde Dunlop Wah and Wylde Overdrive for a boost when needed. Main controler is the Rocktron Midi Mate.

Cabinet: Marshall 1960A 4/12 Slant loaded with Electro Voice EVM12L Black Label speakers. Sorry for the continuing reference to Zakk's signature line it's just that I tried everything and this stuff really does work.

Is it noisy? On what settings?

Answer: No thank God. I just wish the Hush ran at the end of the chain though. It seems more sensible but then again who am I to say anything. It works and that's all that matters.

Are the effects weak or do they always sound great?

Answer: The effects are Rocktron. Rocktron is in a league of their own as far as I am concerned. Always a strong product, but you really gotta experement here.


What amp are you using it with?

Answer: Hey I thought I answered that already? (See above)

Overall it sounds incredible!! I am a very happy camper!!

Can you depend on it?
Answer: Well, I don't know as I have only owned it a week now. However I will say that I have friends who own alot of Rocktron gear and they never had a problem. I'm crossing my fingers!! ;~)

Would you use it on a gig without a backup?

Answer: I NEVER gig without a backup.I have a small older Gallien Krueger block amp for those instances when something may just take a crap on me. You never know what might happen.

If you've dealt with the company, how helpful/friendly were they?


Answer: Very nice people. I talked to them twice before the purchase and they were a great help.


Ever get an upgrade, or try and get it repaired?

Answer: It's too new for that but I will update you as things become available.

What style of music do you play? Is this a good match?

Answer: Right now, I am playing in an Ozzy / Black Sabbath Tribute Band that was just put together about 6 weeks ago and will be out and about on the live scene by this summer. Other than that I am a studio/live session guitarist for anybody and any kind of music. I need a great amount of versitility and this setup is indeed a perfect match for everything I do.

How long have you been playing? What other gear do you own?

Answer: I have been playing professionally for about 22 years now. All my tube gear, pedals, etc are in storage. This unit sounds that good and is a breeze to setup, use teardown and haul around wherever I play. If it didn't sound convincing enough obviously I would still be humping around my analog pedals and tube heads.

If it were stolen or lost, would you buy it again or get something else?

Answer: No doubt I wouldn't have to think twice. I'd buy it again. This is really the schiznet!!


what do you love about it? What do you hate? What is your favorite feature?

Answer: In short I love everything about this unit and hate nothing really. I can get any sound / tone I need out of this once I spend the time to tweak it properly. For instance, with my EMG Eclipse II I have a patch setup that sounds identical to Zakk Wylde's rig in every concieveable way (the tone from the Live At Budukan CD. It even works the same way whereas if you back off the guitars volume it cleans up nicely without losing overall volume. I have a couple of Van Halenesque patches in there too and then, ones for top 40 covers, etc etc.




Did you compare it to other products? Which ones? Why did you choose this one?

Answer: Nope, I heard somebody play one live and was floored. Actually that was an original Prophesy but no matter I knew right away that it was what I was in need of.



Does it help you make music, or does it get in the way?

Answer: It helps me in more ways than making music. It has saved me from carrying a carload of gear back and forth between home, rehearsals, sessions and gigs.

Anything else you'd like to share?

Answer: Sure!! I am a self proclaimed tone junkie. If this unit didn't do what I claim it does so well I would not have put all my other gear into storage. There are so many pluses to owning this in addition to the fact that it sounds so superior to the competition and has great effects, it is a breeze to transport and setup, it's quiet with the Hush, yet very punchy and responsive to every nuance of your playing and overall I think in the long run will prove to be a very reliable and roadworthy piece of gear. Keep in mind that this is only part of the secret to getting great tone. The rest lies in a great number of factors mainly the kind of power amp you use with it. I would suggest a high end tube power amp like a VHT 2 Fifty 2. If funds are a problem you can find a superior amp on Ebay that works as well as any tube amp in my Tube Works Mosvalve MV962. It was made especially for guitar rigs and sounds beautiful. Matter of fact you can find them for under $175 bucks on Ebay and you won't be sorry. Tube tone with no tubes to fuss with!! Guitars play a major part as well and I find that my guitars loaded with the Zakk Wylde EMG's fare better with this setup and require less tweaking than that of my passive pickup loaded guitars like my Music Man and Peavey Wolfgang Special. The latter still sounds great but not as good as with the active EMG's. And then of course you have you cabinet. If you want a sound with a stronger low end a higher wattage capacity larger magnet driver will be what you want. If not you can get away with a Celestion or Eminence driver loaded cabinet.

And finally the final determination of what you sound like is in your hands and no two persons are the same in that category. Keep in mind that what works for me may not work for you. These sites are great but you need to be the final judge.

Horribly a pain: This unit goes into over-extreme depths compared to the Voodu Valve and Chameleon units re: use. Perhaps a technical gear geek's wet dream? Although I am NOT afraid to dial in my own sounds, this unit is a deep pain and has too many overkill-dial-in parameters/features that take you into a feeling of slitting your ear hairs...you start to not be able to hear the differences after all the infinite and unnecessary dialing in, even with breaks. It would scare away average users. The Voodu Valve and Chameleon are just right in terms of ease of use tolerance and TONE. Anything more intense and sudden frustration starts to rear its ugly head.
Also, the new style big knobs are too slick and ergonomically unfriendly. Also, noticed they need to bring back the original grippable textured knobs used on previous units!

Expected this unit to sound better than anything else Rocktron has ever made...WRONG on that wish.
The Voodu Valve is the reigning KING to this very day since its genesis! Compare this to a Voodu Valve if you have the means. A/B The Voodu Valve to a Prophesy over extensive days testing...The Voodu Valve really does have significant cleaner pristeen cleans and more intense in your face distortions. The Prophesy 2 sounds behind the speakers and distant in tone when using the preamp... even when matching up the tones as close as possible. Cleans have some grit that cannot be cleaned up or tweaked out at all, despite all attempts. Despite bypassing all effects even. I read several Prophesy reviews that back up this fact...those people have ears and are right when they say it can't get clean.
Voodu eats this thing alive!
As I hear it...1 or 2 extra BS effects like auto wah and 2+ part added pitch transposer instead of 1+ pitch(all sounds plastic anyway) cannot justify its existance. That's the only noticable effects upgrade. ADSR is ok. Ducker delay sounds unnatural and actually sounds like a constant strong compressor going on or like someone is screwing with your volume knob ever so slightly while playing. Unnatural and unnecessary. Delay ducker sounds nice in theory, but that's where it dies a miserable death. Listen to the greats using delay on leads. Ducker wasn't used there? Right. Because its natural for the delay notes to actual radiate and flow out, not duck. Who's the sucker that invented ducker? Quack to ducker.
Mustain presets sound thin. Like on Gigantour DVD...thin. His sounds DO sound great in studio though, where they further EQ tweak the guitars to add the chunk knock. Must be studio settings he plays out live? Only way I can explain it? Presets never sound great on any units anyway...must always tweak your own.
Also, the HUSH belongs at the end of the effects chain. It seems that they put it at the front of the chain for this unit? Why would anyone want to Hush it at the front? Hushing the entire effects made more sense and cleaned it up much better IMO.
Hands down....Voodu Valve sounds meaner and cleaner! Couldn't believe it, but then again hard to knock down the Voodu unit that's already near perfect.
Original Chameleon and Chameleon On-line has no tube and it sounds better than a Prophesy without question!

Rocktron makes dependable gear. Their gear never fails. Everyone knows this.

They help when you need them. GHS needs to seperate themselves a little more from Rocktron in terms of decision making, Ads, etc... Perhaps they need more room to breathe with ideas and allow the newer pro gear to sound improved over the past gear. Bring back the original Engineers!
Rocktron is a cool company capable of much more!

The Voodu Valve is the ultimate tone machine. Prophesy 2 is a vain GHS attempt at taking Rocktron to a better unit...that and The GHS attempt Chameleon 2000 both demonstrate that its time to go back to the mid/late 90s Rocktron drawing board and stick to their original sound engine plans, but improve on those. The original units are advanced above all others in sound. They sound great.
Prophesy buyers are either unaware of Original Voodu/Chameleon engine and/or haven't spent time to actually A/B the units, or they're trying to justify their $1000 purchase, or have no ear to begin with, or have no idea having not heard the other units. Without question more tone with The Voodu Valve and you get what you pay for. Again, couldn't believe it, but then again hard to knock down the Voodu...it's already near perfect.
This was tested heavily prior to leaving feedback by pro level experienced ears.

just like any digital preamp....you have to tweak the presets to work in harmony with your cabs,poweramp,or mixer...all can have a sour effect if you don't put your own spice on it..does take time can't just plug in and play.

I really wanted a more practical rig,also I live in an apartment...I was getting sick of pedal,wires,cables hauling equiptment around..I sold a bunch of my stuff and donated some stuff also. I decided to start from scratch, I did alot of research. Ordered the prophcey along with a all access midi controller...plugged into a mosvalve poweramp running stereo into 2 seperate 2x12 carvin modified cabs...the sound is rich,warm,sustain for weeks, I can play at low volumes in my aparment and and get saturated tones..plug in at practice and get super loud with no unwanted noise. so many switching options with out tap dancing, I can go super clean channel to any thing else imaginable with a click of one button...(think dragon force crazy sound effects) or listen to the new megadeth albums Dave is the man!!! now I have a practical easy to carry rig that sounds perfect I can set it up in 10 minutes!!!

so far sooooogooood

never needed support so far. If I did, I'm actually close to the rockton corp. in battle creek.... how ironic!!

I play metal,jazz,80's hair,lot's of megadeth covers. I also play progressive at home..macalpine,friedman,petrucci,gilbert,satch,vai..
I can get all these tones pretty damn close through my current simple rig..at low volumes or cranked. the notes just flow like melted butter, makes playing so easy and inspirational. this is the most expressive tone I've ever accomplished. I've been playing 14 years...played through lots of gear over the times heads,combos,preamp,poweramps,pedals, got sick of searching for "the sound in my head" sick of buying rack effects and pedals...now I'm happy,not only do I have "my sound" I have almost every other sound too...obsessive tone search is stressful and time consuming..glad its overwith

Good sound. Manual is ok...DEEP editing parameters on the Prophesy II. It's not that bad once you play with it awhile.

you can find most any sound you want out of this thing..just tweak away for days and you'll find it. i'm running my prophesy into a vht 2/50/2 power amp...sounds great through my genz benz g-flex 2x12 cab.

good so far

i had a question and emailed them. they responded within 1 hour.

it's a little pricey for a preamp but so versatile..many sounds can be had from old school to modern metal, jazz, country, blues...whatever your style you can find it...i suggest a tube power amp.

Rocktron interfaces are fairly intuitive. Once you've had one, you can figure out any of them. I had to check the manual a few times for specifics, but with the presets I just selected some that were close and tweaked to my taste.

THe MIDI mapping is the easiest I've ever had with a MIDI preamp (ADA MP-1, Marshall JMP-1).

I have found my sound. Run this thing into a tube power amp and you're there. While the "Clean American" voice isn't the Fender-iest tone, it's clean and usable. It's the *ONLY* draw back in the preamp section. With the Hush activated, you can dial in crazy amounts of gain and remain quiet at performance levels. The Mega Drive and British Vintage (perfect brown sound) voices are my mainstays and they are warm, lush, and wonderful.

Most of my guitars have EMGs and they sound great with this set up... I play in an 80s metal cover band and this covers every sound with ease. I finally gigged out with it this weekend and it was a godsend. Best live tone I've ever had. The previous review claiming the tone is "thin & digital" is very confusing to me. Out of the box, this thing was amazing.

Rocktrons are very dependable. I gig without a real back up, but I do use a POD XT Live for switching so I could turn to that if need be.

Great manuals, but I've never needed support.

I could never steer anyone away from this preamp. Best one out there.

PROPHESY I:

What???s new? Glad you asked ??? I???ve had a Rocktron Prophesy for several years now that has been an OK unit that I???ve used occasionally to dial in certain things, but for the most part has sitting around in the rack in the 2d string lineup as an EFX processor exclusively and not preamp until I downloaded all the Gary Hoey and other presets and editor from the website last weekend based on the new ???Prophesy II??? they are selling.

I???ve tweaked this thing out and it is absolutely amazing and I???m just blown away!!! And being that I???m not a huge fan of Rocktron products, dude this thing has totally impressed me and not too much does in the audio world these days. It has moved up to 1st string in usage and is going on everything now thru my dual Marshall EL 34 50 50s along with my beloved JMP-1 layered in the dry center.

The operational term for this is: WOW!

Well that???s my news up here in NJ

~skygod~

Dual Marshall EL 34 50/50s into dual Stereo (G12-75M) 1960A Marshall 4x12 Cabs, or dual Avatar Custom 2x12 Eminence Red Coat Tonespotter Stereo Cabs, or all four depending on size of venue

I've had it for over 3 years in and out of the studio now w/o a glitch, but of course protected in a shock rack with other high value rack gear

I emailed them to inquire whether I needed an eprom upograde and was informed immediately by Cust Spt via email that all I had to do was download the editor and patchbay persets.

Note: A previous attempt to use the editor three years ago failed under Windows mellenium, but on a Dell E1505 laptop WINXP SP2 it works like a charm thru a Midimate 4x4

I am so very happy with this unit, and I cannot describe my joy. I knew there was hidden magic in this baby but as an active touring guitarist four months out of the year, and the remainder of the time running numerous mobile and fixed installation recording and mastering studios worldwide just did not have the time but held on to it for so long regardless and I am so glad I did! Slaute to the good folks who had and took the time to unveil the magic.

If you play high energy rock or heavy metal or tasteful rock a la Vai or Satriani or Van Halen or Eric Johnson or Gary Hoey or too many others to list here, please do yourself a favor and look into this gem. It is absolutely marvelous and the sounds inside your head are all here.

Be patient. Rocktron created a DSP based technology that is as complicated to program as Eventide products and it is very difficult to dial these patches, hoewever, Gary Hoey and Dave Mustane particilarly broke the Omega Code on this baby. Take it from there and capture your tone!

IMO this unit went from a 6 to a 10 rating in all categories with the patches alone that I used as a basis to formulate my studio and performance banks, keeping all the jazz presets that I moved up to the 60 and above block and a handful of others from the factory presets that I liked a lot and further tweaked.

The nice thing about the editor is that you can individually upload each preset to whatever bank/patch location you desire versus a bulk upload overwriting everything all at once. I strongly recommend that you backup the original patches into a [Factory 1.sys] file, and then down load all the Rocktron patchbay stuff from the website all archived as zip, unzip them into a folder, and load all these overwriting the factory presets and then save it as [Factory 2.sys].

After you listen to all of these and play them and tweak them for a while, come up with a plan on paper how you want to configure the unit, move everything around as you desire, then when satisfied and come back and add back in your factory prestes you decided to keep and then save all your work as [UserModified.sys]. You still have the other two SYS files you can go back to anytime and add something back in later.

Best regards to all -

~skygod~

Easy enough for what you can do. Stripping a preset down to basics, then setting up a good sound is really easy. Ofcourse, exploring all the possibilities in detail takes a lot more time. My only complaint would be, that you can't mix the FX loop return AFTER the cabsim: I use the loop returns to mix synthesizer output in the box, then everything out to stereo looper. This may mean carrying an extra mixer to the gig. But then again, you can't have your cake and eat it, can you?

I was looking for an all-in-one preamp that sounds good in the mixing board. In view of the difficulty in finding a place that would demo it, I bought it DEAF, just based on online reviews and experience with other boxes (thx people!). I'm active in the fusion/jazz/prog/acoustic league. Oh, and I??m *NOT* a metalhead :)

My qualifications for the Prophesy II:

- Great dynamics
- Responsive
- Full of CHARACTER
- Very effective components
- Flexible architecture
- Silent operation
- No useless features

Distortions are GOOD: they sound both warmer and more direct than all of the popular modelers.

Crunch/light drive is OKAY: this will always be the most difficult sound to get right. Not bad.

Cleans are TOTALLY AWESOME: the sound slaps you right back in the face. It has none of that flat, sterile digital character the cheap boxes exhibit. One reviewer has mentioned the nice articulation, which I agree with completely. Very nice colors, great dynamics. These can also be recognized in the distorted sounds.

I also use the Prophesy with a piezo equipped nylon strung guitar, preamp and cabsim disabled. The results are VERY NICE, with slight compression and subtle colors from the tube section, yet still very clear and dynamic. You cannot get this subtle effect with EQ's. It's a lovely combination and demonstrates the effectiveness of the analog stage of the Prophesy. Using the preamp and/or cabsim in the chain also produces some very interesting sounds (Ever tried Vintage British with nylon strings? It's BIG FUN! WEEEH I WANNA HAVE A FRETLESS JUST LIKE PAT METHENY!).

Effects: reverb, chorus, phaser GOOD. Rotary AWESOME. ADSR has some interesting possibilities. I don't care too much about the rest, but nice to have. Four locations for assignable FX is PLENTY: if you need MORE, pay for GUITAR LESSONS instead!

Ofcourse, the Prophesy is not perfect. However, it definitely should have a much higher rating soundwise than any Boss GT (OUCH! 40 amps, 30 distortions, all PAINFUL!) in here. So it gets a 10 for sound. Very expensive (and expansive) dedicated components will sound better for some things. So what?

The Prophesy II is relatively expensive in Europe, so I'll knock two points off just for that. I just happened to have saved the money: as long as it keeps working and gives me what I need, you won't hear any complaints.

The design of the Prophesy is almost 10 years old now, it doesn't have the 9,999 amp models, 9,999 insert FX, loads of digital ins and outs, ultra high sample rates (POD) and other gimmicks of the cheap processors (fast digital hardware is CHEAP nowadays, just think about that). But it really doesn't matter. It has a good analog pre stage and good converters, an adequate and flexible selection of ampsounds, FX and EQ's, so for the next ten years it will sound more real than a POD or a GT, no matter what their professed sampling rates may try to confer.

I found it pretty easy to use. Have had rack mount stuff in the past. Manual explains pretty well and is pretty straight forward.

Tried this unit with 3 different guitars, Les Paul Standard, Les Paul Custom, Ibanez 540R, ProphesyII plugged into Mesa 2:50 stereo power amp then into earcandy buzzbomb cabs, one loaded with red fangs the other loaded with govenors, 8ohms mono 16ohms stereo, all connected with monster cables from start to finish. Could not find one sound out of the box that didnt sound thin and digital. Tried changing the eq's and still sounded thin and fake. With 127 presets thought I could find at least one that sounded like something I could work with but alas was comepletly disapointed. Tried a vodoo valve before this and pretty much the same outcome. In my opinion my desk top tonelab sounds better and is more natural sounding and at 1/3 the price. Maybe I got a bad unit but it sounded a lot like the vodoo valve just cost more. This was a gift for Christmas but alass it was returned to Guitar Center in Rockford of which I seriously dont believe I will do business again thanks to the assistant managers reluctance to do the return and the whole process my wife was gracious enough to go trough to obtain it.

Didnt have it long enough to find out. It went back to Guitar Center.

I give them a 5 because before I got this I asked some questions via e-mail of which all were responded to within a 24 hour period and sometimes sooner.

I play just about anything I can besides country. I have been playing since 1969 off and on with about a 10 year break when I was young and dumb and running around the country working and partying. I have owned a fender twin, art sgx, ampeg, marshall tsl, crate, peavey, vox and mesa. Still in pursuit of a great tone and sound. Maybe not perfect but at least enjoyable. I am by no means a pro and after all the years still think I suck(my wife and kids think I'm great)but I know what I like and this was not even close. Found it to be quite dissapointing and comepletly steered me away from rocktron and also Guitar Center in Rockford.

Some people have had a hard time trying to program rocktron effects... I never tried though the unit itself... I have had mjor success using the midi program to make all the adjustments.. there are some really good sounds out of the box, but if you're creative you can make much better ones than what comes as presets.

Hands down the best preamp system I have used to date... I bought it for the effects to use with my Randall RM-4 tube preamp... now the Randall stays in the studio collecting dust.. I have gigged and recorded with the Prophesy II and I gotta tell ya.. I'm a gear snob and have always been in search of my "perfect" tone.. I have foun it! The only thing missing is why not a spring reverb in the effects section.. the halls and plates are great mind you... but if you're trying to recreate anything from the 50's or 60's you need the characteristics of the spring reverb.

I have only had mine for 3 weeks, but I've gigged with it 11 times and recorded with it for 12 hours.. dropped it 3 feet from the counter in the studio.. still kicking with no noticeable issues.

I actually haven't talked to support for any issues on my end... they actually contacted me after I submitted some presets for the "patchbay" section of their website.. They liked my new presets and I will be contributing about 15 of them with mp3 demos in the next few weeks.

I play everything from country to 80's to Rush and Dream Theater.. this unit nails all of them.. I had thought about the tube preamp and eventide proccessor route but I think it's just too much to spend.. The only updates I'd do for the Prophesy III is add spring reverb to the reverbs and possibly they could make the pitch shifter an intelligent shifter for those of us out there who can use them.

Very easy to get a good sound out of it. There are 127 presets. They cover the all types of music from trash metal to surf music and everything in between. It has a good manual that comes with it. It is laid out good and is easy to access to section you want from the table of contents. As of 11-06, the manual on line is for the Prophesy and not for the Prophesy II and there are some differences.

There is a patch bay section on rocktron's website to be able share rocktron and user settings with each other. There are a lot of settings to customize your tone. The down side with this it takes some time to learn how to use them. I had a Chameleon 2000 before this, I was some what familiar with what the settings do. Much easier than the Chameleon and the Vu Doo Valve to access the settings.

Once you master the settings, which there are a lot of, there is not a amp tone that you cannot get out of this! You are paying almost $1000 for it so it better get great sounds. I bought this after owning a Rocktron Chemeleon 2000 for the past 2 years and loved the sounds that I could get out of that. The effects are transparent and lush sounding. I am running this through E-MU 404 sound card into my computer and out of there digitally, through a fiber optic cable, into a Pioneer DTS, Dolby surround sound receiver. The speakers are high end stereo speakers and JBL 2500's for the rear ones. To be able to play your guitar in surround sound takes your sound to another level! The definition of the sound, for a modeler is excellent. It uses three separate processors to create the sound. I think it is the most advanced modeler on the market. It also has a picking attack circuit to create the dynamics of light and heavy picking. That is were tube amps shine and modelers in the past could not match. There is a 12ax7 tube in the preamp. I don't how much this make a difference. It is a little warmer than my Chameleon.

It has three different EQ stages. You can adjust the tone before the distortion stage, Parametric EQ after the distortion and EQ on the effects. The tone shaping possibilities are endless! There is so many things that it does you need to go to their website to see it all. This is the holy grail of modelers, IMO. I have a Mesa Boogie Mark II c tube amp and don't really play it anymore. I am sold on this.

It looks like it is built very good. It is a rack mount made if steel and not plastic. The jacks, knobs and buttons seem solid.

Based on my Chameleon 2000, it has been very relibable.

Don't know, I never had to use it.

I play jazz, blues, rock, 80's metal and dinner music. I have been playing for over 30 years. My guitars are a MIA Strat with dimarzio virtual 2's PU in the neck and middle, with a pearly gates in the bridge, a Fender showmaster SSS with Dimarzio virtuals 2's in all three positions and a 1976 Gibson Les Paul Custom with split coils in it.

It fits me perfect. To create these sounds on a tube amp you would pay much more. You would have to buy a good amp and about ten high end effects pedals. You would have issues with noise introduced from all the connections, plus the hassles of dragging everything around. A MIDI foot pedal puts everything at your feet. Zero lag between presets.

I do computer recording with Sonar 4. It has balance stereo XLR jacks to go straight into a mixer. It sounds very good with zero noise.

This preamp does create my perfect tone(s). There is really nothing else I could want from a preamp. There is nothing else that I can think of that you would need to make it complete. The weakest link will be what ever you use for a power map and speakers. But with the tone shaping possibilities even if you have average amp, you should be able to get a good sound from it. It works well through a good home stereo. If you used a good tube stereo power amp with a couple cabinets, you would have the ultimate setup! The 10 rating is not hype. I deserves it!

If it was stolen, I would lose my sound. It would be very difficult to find something else that could re create it. My preferred tone is well defined liquid distortion with a light airy feel to it, with delay and reverb and different MIDI settings foot switch settings that add flange, phase shift, Wah and light pitch shift on seperate foot switches. very jazzy, bluessy and marshallish.