Rocktron Prophesy

This unit is incredibly straightforward to use and program, you don't even need a manual. Almost every effect block and function has a dedicated button to bring you to that edit page immediately, and the multiple "amp-style" knobs give you instant (and comfortable) access to the parameters on every page (no scrolling around). The manual is excellent, written very clearly BY native English speakers and FOR English speakers (unlike all those horrendous, useless wastes of trees distributed by companies like Yamaha, Roland, etc). For reference, however, I am a studio engineer and thus have A LOT of experience w/ effects boxes, processors of all kinds, synths, plug-ins, etc etc so to me a guitar preamp is about as simple a box as I see in a given day. However, that being said, navigation proved exceptionally fast with this unit, and I had the signal chain mastered (and memorized) within an hour.

I ran all kinds of guitars through this, Les pauls, PRS, Ibanez, Carvins, Schecters, etc etc. I used this direct to disk in the studio as well as through a Mesa 20/20 power amp on stage and got great results in both cases. The range of sounds you can get out of this box is truly phenomenal, and I fully support Rocktron's statement that this is the best "all-in-one" guitar processor out there. Definitely in a whole different class than all those "digital modelers" and puts those Digitech 2112 boxes to shame. Like any preamp, however, you need to run this through a tube power amp to really get the most out of it. That being said, this is one of the few "digital" preamps or modelers that I have used in the studio that did not create very audible "artifacts" in the higher frequencies, though under extreme test situations (maxed out treble, gain, and presence on clean channel with no speaker simulation) I did manage to pick up some digital aliasing on my high fidelity near fields. It suprises me, though, how few reviewers on this site ever report these type of artifacts in other boxes like the Digicrap stuff, the Voodu Valve, etc etc, as I have found those boxes perform horrendously under the same test conditions. I guess because most users only run these things through guitar cabs or home setups and have never really scrutinized them in a hi-fi professional studio environment they never pick up on these artifacts. At any rate, the Prophesy performed admirably and as I said before the lowest level of this type of digital high frequency distortion of any box I've tested yet, and you'll never notice it through a standard setup. This box gets crystal cleans, nicely driven blues, Marshall grind, and over-the-top searing "mega drive" and sounds very warm. The effects are excellent and comprehensive, though not as crisp or deep to my ear as a dedicated high-end unit like the G-Force. However they are more than adequate and the only thing I found myself really missing was Multi-tap (and multi-pan) delays and a better compressor (I'm very spoiled in this dept and just can't settle for less than a RNC these days). The Hush Noise Reduction works like a charm and I wish I had it in every processor I own.

Very dependable, thick metal faceplate, sturdy construction, the OS never so much as burped in the studio or in a club. I use it live without backup, enuff said.

Rocktron is fantastic in my experience, they always call back and spend as long as needed on the phone with me. When they didn't have the indepth specs I wanted for comparison (processor speeds, AD/DA conversion algorithms, etc etc) they looked 'em up and got back to me pronto. Very helpful.

I have been playing for over 10 years, owned too much gear to list. This is the best all-in-one rack solution I've ever used, and I highly recommend demoing one if you can find one. Unless you're willing to shell out ~$1000 for an Egnater IE4 preamp and then add over another $1000 for a comparable effects processor (G-Force, Lexicon MPX-G2) this is the best you can do for the money. Highly recommended.

Although some say it's a straight forward device, I tend to think that it requires some serious reading of the manual. Once you become familiar with some of the basics, you can starty to enjoy this piece of equipment.
The presets could be cooler. Most can get you started but some are waste of space. The key pad on the front saves you from ripping your hair out of your scull.

It would help to have a good knowledge of equilization. You have 3 parametrics and a constant basic eq. Once you get OR if you already have this knowledge, THE SKY'S THE LIMIT !!! The tone is has got to be the most important fearure on this processor and the transparency of the effects. Whatver sound you can create will be your true tone.

YES!!! Depend on it. It's never crapped out on me for the last 2 years. NEVER.

I've called for advice on alot of technical stuff and the folks at Rocktron have always been friendly and patient with some of my lack of knowlege. For some reason emails take forever to get answered and sometimes not at all. My advise, CALL.

My rig :
Guitar: ESP Horizon to Prophesy ( controlled by Digital Music Corp, Ground Control ) to Digital Music Corp System Mix Plus Guitar Audio mixer to Amp: Mesa/Boogie Stereo Simul-Class 2: Ninety back to Digital Music Corp GCX Switching System. Cab: Mesa/Boogie Rectifier 4x 12.
I like to rockout and this sucker can definatelty provide the muscle I need for my sound. I also like to experiment with sounds too, and it delivers( I'm still trying to figure out the ADSR though) . A word to the wise, this is not for beginners or some intermediates like me at the time I bought it. In my opinion it is a professional processor with a ton of features that I'm still discovering on a daily basis ( and I've had it for 2 years ). Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to trash the prophesy or scare anyone away... there really is alot to know about it. To me the key to enjoying and recordindg from the Prophesy is learning how to configure the EQ's. My favorites is the 4 voiced chorus which can sound ultra lush. Also the Direct Recording features like speaker type, mike placement etc are convenient. I've done a lot of my recording by simply usi ng this feature. My wish list would be for Rocktron to make some type of manual available or provide information on their web site ( not just swap presets )on how to create some sound recipes that explain some of Rocktrons effects capabilities/ possibilities, like Line 6 does with the POD. Would stereo inputs be too much ask, for like a drum machineor something ? How about a headphone jack and a digital out? It does cost over a grand, mind you. (these maybe some thing to ponder for the next Prophesy?) Despite some of my gripes if somehow it were stolen I'd go out and get another . I don't think I could do without it. Were in love.

You kind of need to get used to it at first, but once youve learned the basics of the unit you'll get better and better with it. Tweaking the eq's are kind of a pain in the ass if you're a perfectionist about youre sound. It may take a little work, but once you've got it, you've GOT IT.

As far as my guitars that I use with it, I have an Ibanez jem, and a custom fender strat with seymour duncan pickups. My other toys along with that include a BBE sonic maximizer, a stereo compressor, a hughes and kettner 4x12 cabinet, and a line 6 300 watt head which I use to power the prophesy with. I am heavily influenced by guitar players like Eric Johnson, John Pettrucci, and Vai, and believe it or not, lots of great blues players like Buddy Guy, Michael Hill, Stevie Ray, and Kenny Wayne Shephard. I'd have to say the hardest tones for me to get are the phat blues tones which are originally produced by some of the finest vintage amplifiers of our time. But by means of using the pre and post eq's in the prophesy, you can come pretty damn close to some of those down home vintage sounds. The only thing that annoys the hell out of me is that the prophesy does'nt have better factory preset's; with the exception of the "Dimebag" preset. But overall the preamp section is pretty good, and the post effects are pretty tricky to figure out, but can't really complain because of the amount of flexibility that it really contains.

So far I've only had it for about a month, but it seems like a sturdy little unit. But of course its always nice to have a backup if you can afford one.

I've actually dealt with rocktron twice in fixing my velocity 300. There was so service charge, but the fact that I had to keep sending it in made me realize that I'm only interested in their processors.

I enjoy ALL styles of music but my heart is in Progressive rock. I'm 22 and have been playing for 10 years. I have went through several amps, pedals, and effects processors and have always had a beef with something. I compared this processor with the digitech 2120, which sounded like I was playing inside of a tin can, and a mesa dual rectifier which I sorry, it just did'nt have enough gain for my taste.
The prophesy may not have the most ripping distortion but it comes close and still maintains a crisp sound and has plenty of nice sounding effects, even though they need to make them a little more user friendly to tweek. I think if it was I could spend more time making music rather than making presets all day.

once you play with the unit you can dial in great tones it seems to be set up so you have to have some type of studio knowledge in order to dail in stuff. i did not get a manual (im never going back to guitar center.)

im using a vht 2/90/2 tube power amp an evintide ds/x harmonizer and a 300 watt 4x12 stereo cab. without a tube poweramp the unit was weak the recording outs sound horrible the clean so far is kinda thin

its been good out live so far

i asked for a manual cause i never got one and they brushed me off f%$k them

A little complicated,especially for the plug in & play amp head player. Most players will not need or use half the sounds available.Although it's nice to know you'll never get bored.
Rocktron has come very close to real tube sound,but when you strip all the cool effects-and there are alot-the basic distortion just ain't the same as the real thing to my ears. Words like harsh,brittle come to mind in the high end.It's still digital no matter how you slice it.But if you're into heavy effects, these help cover that up.
Not the amp for the purist.But awesome options,EQ,& processing power.And the manual is simple & to the point but could of explained more of how what effects what sound wise.
Editing is easy & well layed out.

Used mine w/Marshall 20/20 sounded good most of the time.But not awesome.If you have amazing patience & don't mind scrolling through endless screens/menus/EQ's & effects paramaters you'll probably eventually find some sounds you'll be very happy with.

Very dependable.

Excellent support.

Been playing 20yrs & like the accessability & midi control & overall editing features but don't have the patience it takes to get the personal sound I'm after.
But anyone who does have that kind of patience and can live w/digital distortion will love the power & options available!

The Prophesy can be a little confusing but once you become familiar it gets better like any other new gear. Rocktron hit the mark again,this guitar pre sounds great, and alot of the factory sounds will get you off and running and give you a starting place for your custom sounds.

The Prophesy,s sonic qualitys are stunning. The modling technology delivers four popular amp sounds to build and construct your own blazing sounds. "Hey, would it not be great if there was a site we users could access to find new sounds from other users" Just a thuoght? Anyway a great guitar recomendation "The Parker Fly" was made for this pre. Im using a 3/4 back Mesa 4/12 cab with a volocity 120,BBE Sonic Maximizer, TC M-1,DBX DDP and a Korg Tuner which makes it sound o so good mun.

Very well constructed,however any thing could go wrong at any time with any thing.Back up is always a good idea.If I could afford two I would have two.

Have only had the Prophesy for a short time but I have heard that Rocktrons tech support is bullet proof. And this didnt come from the guy who sold it to me.I had to find out, I bought a demo.

I think this guitar pre is a fine piece of equipment. I believe the Prophesy is a great overall value, its like having a room full of killer amps. Bottom line is that it sounds great.

This is not the easiest amp in the world to set up, That's for sure. But dialing in your tone on this thing is something like that of programing a VCR. If you don't like all the technical shit, then save yourself some trouble and go buy a Rivera Knucklehead. But if love to tweak and tweak, then this thing is for you. It's extremely complex setup is what allows it to produce ANY tone that you desire. You just need some knowledge of parametric equalization to get it. I'm an electronics major and this thing is perfect for me. If you don't have a broad understanding of frequency responses, bandwidth, and various other electronic big words, then this might not be for you.

WOW!! I've always been a little skeptical about these little preamp gadgets. I have always used good ole tube amp heads and have been very happy with the results, but I found that I had trouble getting all the sounds that I wanted. I wanted something I could program multiple sounds and not have to step on 12 pedals.

The moment I plugged this bad boy in at Guitar Center, I knew that I had found my dream amp. I play a lot of hard rock, so the distortion and overdrive tones had to be great. And they are more than great, they are truely breath taking. I can't tell a difference between this thing and any other kick ass amp in terms of quality of sounds. I own a Rivera Knucklehead and a 5150.

Clean sounds are incredible. This thing will do immaculate clean tones, country, blues, rock, hard rock, metal...etc. It has everything in it.

The effects are very good. They are not perfect, but they are very good. Sure, it's much easier to put a boss CE-1 chorus in your effects loop and turn some knobs, but you won't be able to apply different chorus settings to each preset. When you get a feel for the effects, they can be very inspiring.

I was very impressed with the presets. Several are very very good. There is an almost pefect "Eruption" tone. My jaw dropped the first time I heard it. There is an excellent Dimebag Darrel setting as well. I was able to take several presets and just tweak the standard tone controls to my taste and was very impressed. What was really cool was the AC/DC tone. I've found that the preamp gadgets have a very tough time reproducing medium gain sounds, but this amp did it with flying colors.

The way that the Parametric eq's are set up, this thing can match just about any sound that you like. You can scoop some mids before the preamp to give your Les Paul a better clean sound. You can cram lots of mids into the overdriven preamp to make your guitar have more screaming bite. You can increase the bandwidth on the parametric eq to boost the mids before the pre amp and give you a Zakk Wylde like Marshall tone.

I'm currently playing this preamp through a VHT 50/2/50 power amp and a Marshall JCM 800 4x12 cabinet.

This thing will do it all.

So far so good.

I've always got immediate replies about any questions that I may have had.

I play hard rock. My tone I go for is something like a combination of early Van Halen, Slash, and Metallica. I am totally happy pleased the tone of my Prophesy. It has all the crunch, bite, and warmth you could ask for it. This thing fits the bill. But it has jazz presets and all kinds of other bullshit. It is virtually flawless, you just have to have the knowledge to get the most out of the unit.

I've been playing about 4 years. I also own a Rivera Knucklehead, 5150, Lee Jackson head, I use custom shop Ibanez guitars, as well as Fender Strat USA's and a Jackson Kelly Ke-1.
If it was stolen, I would sell a kidney and buy another one the next day.

I tried a Sansamp PSA-1 and I couldn't rid of that fizzy, fake, digital distortion-like sound. I just didn't have a natural tube sound that the Prophesy does. I could have went with a Tri Axis, but there were no effects, and no parametric equalization. That means you are stuck with the voicings that it comes with. The Prophesy has infinite voicings because of the parametric eq. That's how the Van Halen and Dimebag Darrel tones were created using the modern channel. The only way to get a cranked old Marshall tone and a solid state Randall tone with the same channel is to play with the voicings.

This thing really has too much shit on it. I spend more time tweaking than playing. That's the only bad part. Lately, I've pretty much stuck to my favorite settings and have done more playing though.

Like anything new it took a little fumbling around to figure out how to setup patches. The manual helped out a little to start, but really just fumbled around myself for the learning curve. Knobs for each respective parameter are sweet. The eq part took a little time to tweek out having to scroll through all the parameters for pre, post and global eq respectively. Lots more to learn on/about this unit, mainly ignorance of functionality of some items, but overall ease of use a 8. Being a powerful unit a little learning was/to be expected.

Incredible! Incredible clean and powerful to say the least, the added Hush is the key to killing all the bad noise. Messed around only a little with clean sounds but the distortion is amazing, very punchy and lots of room for fine tuning. I run it through a Marshall EL34 100/100 power amp, Rocktron ProQ, Art Dual 15 band EQ, and then a BBE Sonic Maximizer. I play an Ibanez RG540. Currently running it mono through a Marshall 4x12 Stereo cabinet, until fall when I can get a second cabinet and run true stereo. Get an awesome crunch distortion-wise. Play mostly Metal/Speed Metal/hardcore. Get a sweet Deftone-like sound. The effects of adding a little delay/ chorus/ flanger add to the sound and doesn't change the original tone. To get the the sound I like I think the BBE (a must for any instrument esp. guitar), along with the ProQ and 15-band Stereo EQ are a must for me, which really tighten the sound the way I like it. Gives me a stiffie every time I play.

Haven't gigged with it. Just an in-house stress managment tool right now. Would have no problems placing all faith in it for a gig with no back up, and if money were no issue then I would have an identical setup for backup also.

Haven't had to deal with customer support for it. But did have a pleasant experience with ordering a power supply for my ProQ a little bit ago. Very friendly.

If anything happened to it in any way I wouldn't hesitate to replace it. Has more functionality in it then I have currently explored or for that matter probably need. It is kinda hard to explore the other features when I am having too much fun playing on sounds I have already created. For those who are looking for an all-in-one preamp/effects unit the Prophesy is definitely one KIND piece of equiptment. The integrated Hush is the kicker, love that crunch, then when between chords and muting strings...absolute silence. Very slick looking quality constructed item. Definitely the Rolls Royce of preamps. I do wish the way that the effects (delay, chorus, flange, reverb, etc.) are assigned was different. It would be nice to just push on the respective effect/button then have it go right to the parameters for the effect, instead of having to scroll through other parameters to the section to add the pre/post effects for the patch then add it...that is my only dislike.

Obviously interface design for any multi-effects processor in the digital realm is going to be page driven. I must point out however guitar players don't tend to think or work very well that way. I was disappointed to see no support for continuous controllers in the midi implimentation...that would have made a big difference in the practical use of this device. Creating a preset for every single contigency you might encounter during a gig is extremely impractical. What would have made this unit truly amazing would have been the capability of assigning various parameters to continous controllers. (ie expression pedals, swiches etc.) Can you imagine how awsome this thing would have been if you could, at the touch of a pedal, sweep the gain or reverb time or just do wah moves. Oh well opportunity lost.
Dont' get me wrong, it's not a particularly difficalt interface to use...it's just very impractical.If you've got a 20 minutes to go fishing for a sound, you should have no trouble getting it. If your on stage though, your pretty much screwed.

Very impressive sounding gadget, frankly I would say it's one of the best I've heard direct to desk. When I demo'd it in the store the sound was really what impressed me with it. Getting it to my studio I wasn't unhappy at all with the tone (unlike the previous post). I don't think I'm going to keep it though simply because it log jams the creative process with too much page tweaking.

Had it less tha week...so far so good.

Apparently not avaible at the time of day your most likely to need it. i.e. in the evening

If you've got the luxury of keeping a unit on hand that sounds amazing but is a little tedious to work with and pretty much worthless a heavily dynamic live environment, it's really not a bad unit to own. For the price I had really hoped Rocktron would do better.

For the features, it is wonderful. The knobs make it very easy to adjust! The manual is nice, too.

Try it! I use it mainly with a custom Strat copy that I made from Carvin. Ebony fretboard, maple neck, alder body, stacked humbuckers. I also use it with a Carvin DC200 6-string for metal and speed stuff. I play through a Carvin Vintage amp, usually. It is wonderful, clean, and versatile.

You can get any sound you like, I believe.

So far, just like my Chameleon, flawless.

Call 'em and see. I just chatted for 20 minutes one time (and learned a lot).

I play from Holdworth to Vaughn, with Vai and Ackerman in between, and George Benson and Joe Pass on the side.

This is how a unit is supposed to be.