Rocktron VooDu Valve On-Line

You ll need some time to learn about EQing ,then you ll hear the most amazing guitar sound even if you own a very bad guitar.. Manual is simple.. there are 3knobs and everything is quite apparent. You neednt know any tips cause its clear to know what to do. Just needs an upgrade about the midi section in the manual..

I use an Ibanes-erd470 with a diMarzio and a push pull.. Hush option is perfect, cutting all the noise when needed. EQ is super.. It can demonstrate any guitar sound from any guitar and cabinet..Just need to learn it.. The only handicap is that you cant use a wah with a chorus.. The perfect preamp with good effects.. I get the petrucci sounds with my Ibanez on Stage, no more to say I think... Just buy a wah and rocktron..

Its too much valuable for me.. So will be for you when you hear and use it.. so use a rack cover... afterall never had a problem...

I ve mailed them once.. They re helpful ,they solved my problem..

Never gonna give up on rocktron,, I ve tried zoomgfx,mesa v-twin,pod..
All have good sides and bad sides.. But the perfect preamp on stage and record is rocktron...

I own too many nice guitars, mostly strat style with humbuckers in the bridge & neck positions. They all sound great through the VV. You can really get any sound you've ever heard with this thing. You just need to get familiar with how the EQs and gain settings work. The EQs are parametric, which means you can set the frequency, level, and width of each EQ band. The pre-EQ is located before the gain stages, like in a black face Fender amp, and has a big impact on the overall feel & shape of the sound (especially when the gains are increased). The Post EQ comes after all the gain stages, like in a Marshall amp. This is the best place to boost bass & cut the mids & highs. Note: you can bypass any EQ band by setting its level to zero. As for the gain options, try the following: for pristine clean sounds set the tube gain & digital gain to low & use low settings on the gain control; for warm clean & blues set the tube gain to high and the digital gain to low & use low to medium gain control settings; for hot blues, classic rock, or hard rock set the tube gain to high and digital gain to low & use medium to high gain control settings; for flesh pealing death metal & modern buzz set the tube & digital gain both to high and let her rip. Unlike Rocktron's Chameleon, the VV responds very well to pick attack & guitar volume. This is due to the tube input stage, which responds like any good tube amp. The Factory presets are okay, but you'll probably need to tweek them to achieve your dream sounds. The effects are all outstanding, except for the wah wah, but a crybaby work well in front of this preamp.

I own the Voodu Valve Online model. My friend owns the original Voodu Valve. They are both exactly the same, except for cosmetics. Features include tube distortion, digital distortion, pre-EQ, Post-EQ, High/Low tube gain settings, tube power amp simulation, speaker cabinet simulation, hush noise reduction, reverb, delay, flange, chorus, wah, pitch shifter, tremolo, phaser, ... everthing you'll ever need in one compact package. It has 254 preset slots, with seemless preset switching via MIDI. So it's like a 254 channel amp! This is the most versatile preamp on the planet!!!

I've owned this preamp for over three years without a glitch. However you really need to keep it in a good rack to keep it safe.

They reply to emails right away, and offer excellent advice.

I've been playing for about 12 years. Since I bought this preamp I've sold all my other amps, including a Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier head, VHT Pitbull 45 combo, and a Fender Champ. I don't miss any of them, because I get their sounds with my VV. The VV works well through any decent power amp & cab. I'm using a VHT 2x50 watt tube power amp and a pair of vertical 2x12 cabs with V30s. The separate cabs really help with the stereo effects imaging. The VV also sounds excellent through headphones or into any home stereo, when the speaker simulator is enabled. If this preamp was lost or stolen then I would definitely find another one. I love it!

Too easy, I feel as if I got a big brain (hehe)
editing patches is so easy even a monkey can do it.
The manual is the best, it guides you step by step
No i didn't even know ther was an upgrade for it?

I use gibson les pauls with an ADA bi-polar power amp.
No noise on any setting. I love it especially the broken,mack2
the effects are strong and sound great.
ADA bi-polar power amp.
the sound i get is great the same as eddie van halen, zakk wylde, korn
I love them all.

I would not use anything else ever again.
Yes without a doubt.

No never had any problems with it.
So far no upgrade i don't think i want to mess with a good thing.

I play a wide varity of music styles from rock, metal, blues. great match.
I've been playing for 18 years. other gear is a volume pedal and a tuneing pedal.
I would by it all again.
I love everything about it not one bad setting.
The one thing i wish it had was a built in expression pedal for a whammy pedal.
It actually gives me more ideas fro creating new music.
People always say i love your sound and i find myself selling the product.
My other guitar player even bought ine and he thanks me almost everyday for the advise.

You need a drool-catcher and a helmet if you cant figure out how to operate this. Easy to follow insturuction and practical layout make this a breeze to operate.

my setup is Jackson->Voodu->Mesa 295 power amp->Randall XL cab. Great setup for me. METAL RULES. The hush is THE best noise reduction system in the world. The gain and distorion in this deal are bad assed and the rest of the effects are top notch also. If your into Death/Megadeth/Slayer/Children Of Bodom/In Flames this is a good investment. The highs and presence when you first get it can annoy you so youll probably have to back them off a bit.

Dropped it 3 times before my new rack came in the mail. Works fine.

??????? im sure they are nice.........

Like I said I play METAL. Good Metal. Iron Maiden style, harmonies, long indugent passages, good shxt. This is real Nice. I had to save a while for it and if it were stolen id buy another one (gimmie a break im only 17)Ive had a few marshall heads but i like the voodu and the mesa. Ive tried a few digitech preamps and the Big Red Peice o shit The POD pro. DOWN WITH THE POD PRO!!! I hated that thing. I wish it came with some adult film stars as an added bonus but.....ohh well. So anyway.... if you like metal and kickin ass buy it its bad. METAL RULES!

it is fairly easy to use it and set params, which are clear enough to understand to though a beginner might not understand all the features.
I haven't upgrade it but I downloaded some sounds off the net and was pretty easy to follow the instructions in the manual.

Mesa 50/50 amp with a les paul .
it's not noisy and it's even not enough noisy, I bought and electric guitar I want it to make noise not to hush,
hush is really a feature for sissies, besides that the sound is way to flat, it sounds better with a bass than a guitar, I am very deceived.
overall it's crapy

I don't want to depend on it,
and I would not use it as a backup!!!

it does turn to on every time i flip the switch so thats a good thing

This was not made to play rock n roll ( I mean loud, AC/DC, Electric Chairs or Supersuckers kind of rock n roll - eve 6 is not rock )
I am very deceived by this device. First, it lacks one of the most important feature in guitar playing: sustain. Even with the hush ( what a feature for dummies ) turned off the sound dies faster with the Rocktron and it's not due to the guitar a Les Paul with Dimarzio X2N has more sustain than mostly whatever I heard before, and the amp I use ( Mesa 50/50) is more than just ok, it sounds awfully rich with the marshall JMP 1. The voodu valve sounds flat, there's nothing that can be done, I don't care about sounding like van halen , it sucks.
The device sounds better when I play bass guitar in it.
If you want a good guitar preamp/effect/disto, I suggest you go buy boss or tubeworks instead unles you want to kill the character of your instrument.

It is easy to adjust parameters using the four large encoder wheels. The display is easy to see on stage. The unit also has extensive MIDI control capability. I give it an 8 because it is missing an important feature: a tuner.

This unit has a unique signal path that allows you to dial in virtually any sound. However you must learn to use both sets of EQ (Pre & Post), and use the gain sparingly.

The Pre EQ comes right after the input stage, like the EQ on a blackface Fender. Therefor it has a large impact on the remaing gain stages & the feel of the preamp. For great BF clean sounds or vintage overdrive try boosting the Pre bass and cutting the Pre mids. Note: cutting the Pre mids also helps to reduce the gain dramatically, just like on a BF Fender. Try 100-150hz for the Pre bass and 350-500hz for the Pre mid. Also, start with bandwidths of 1.5-2 octaves. For a Marshall sound cut the Pre bass and/or boost the Pre mids. Use the lower frequency settings for the bass, and about 1-2khz for the mids. Keep the bass bandwidth low and the mid bandwidth wide. This gives you a tight & ballsy sound. You can also bypass the Pre EQ by setting the levels to zero.

The Post EQ comes after the gain stages. So it can be treated as a typical EQ - to balance the lows, mids, highs, & presence (extreme highs). This is also the best place to notch out the mids if you're into metal. It is also a good place to add highs to your BF Fender sound (try 1khz-2khz with a bandwidth of 2 octaves).

These Parametric Pre & Post EQs take some getting used to, but they are well worth the effort. They are much more versatile than your typical passive tone stack, or fixed frequency graphic EQ.

The gain in this unit goes from sparkling clean (1-12) to overdrive (13-28) to distorted (29-40) to extreme (41-52) to ludicrous (53-70).
These numbers are based on my Les Paul with PAFs. You should expect a cleaner & more useable range with single coils, and quicker distortion with hot humbuckers. Also, the Pre EQ settings have a huge impact on the gain. Boost the signal with Pre EQ to drive the gain stages harder, or cut the Pre EQ to lower the gain. Be careful - if you boost the Pre bass and use high gain settings the sound will get very muddy.

Also, use the hush sparingly. Turn it off completely on your clean and overdrive presets. Keep the threshold as low as possible on your high gain presets. By doing this you will increase your sustain.

And Finally, lower the effect levels. Most of the factory presets have way too much effect on them. Turn down the effects - you're playing a guitar not a synthesizer!

I've owned the original VV since 1995 and it's still working perfectly. This new VV On-Line was purchased recently as a back up. I expect it to hold up just as well.

They have Free MIDI software on line. Use it to back up your presets to your computer.

I play a wide range of music. I'm currently gigging in a wedding band, and I write progressive rock tunes. I also jam with a classic rock band. This preamp sounds great in all scenarios. It also sounds a little bit nicer than my original Voodu Valve. It could be better digital converters, or even the tube. Any ways they're both great preamps for live and studio use. Just make sure you run it into a tube power amp for the best live sound. The Mesa 20/20 is an excellent choice. Use good speakers too - Celestion Vintage 30s are decent.

In my opinion it's very easy to use.
I had a Chameleon before,I'm rocktonized.
It's not easy to get good sounds at the beginning, 'cause you've got a lot to change, if you want. The ablility of using eq's is very satisfying in regard of the quanty ( quality too ) , but it takes some time.
You can change patches in every parameter, there are no standard steps.
The manual is good, very good. There are no advertising texts and unneeded misinformations, its easy to read and on the point.
You can upgrade the sounds via rocktron.com , at the moment i use the taboo artist presets , great.
You can store and change via software , just plug it to midi.

If tested nearly every preamp for guitar, pod , pod2 , all the digitechs , marshall jmp-1, mesa tri axis, behringer v-amp , j-station, chameleon , taboo artist, yamaha , boss , and more, no joke.
I spend some years in doing this shit.
The yoodo valve online is the best one.
It does every sound from vintage to grind sounds.
The joke is that the noise reduction eliminates every unwanted noise.
Other units try to do this , but the sounds looses quality.

I use it live with a engl poweramp and a 1960 a 4/16 at 16 ohm mono , i've a jackson dr-2 us and a b.c.rich assassin us , this sound like a metal setup, but i can get all sounds of the guitar world.
For homerecording i use the xlrs to my isis, sounds good .

Many units , like pod2 ,for example , sound good with headphones or into a recording unit , but they suck live.

All the endorcers , like fear factory talk about pod , but what do they paly at night ? muaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhaaa

can depend on it

Good support , my chameleon was ill , they repaired it very fast., it felt off my bag while drunken ( one week )

Playing 10 Years , every style , this unit is me.

Don't buy anything else before you've checked this.

the easiest of all the units I have ever seen with this kind of depth. you set to the program you want, then adjust 3 knobs. you pick the function you want to tweek with the "function" knob,(such as delay, reverb, etc.)then pick the parameter of that particular funtion with the "parameter" knob( such as the delay time, etc.) then tweek that parameter all you want with the"adjust knob. super easy, which is what you need with a device of this complexity and depth. this unit gives you complete control of ALL functions and ALL parameters.nothing is left out of this puppy.

sound quality is among the best I have ever heard.this unit produces sounds I thought were unobtainable to me due to cost. I was blown away by it.I would have to agree with the most recent submission below that it is geared towards the 80's hair band sound. it will do it to perfection. It will do pink floyd type leads as well as all blues type leads. in fact, almost ALL leads in my opinion. Does a seriously good van halen sound as well. clean sounds are very good. no noise to speak of either. very quiet.the built in effects are good but not great in my opinion. with the exception of the delay which smokes! better keep your stomp boxes, I feel they are better.

so far so good

I have dealt with them before on a rocktron tsunami chorus pedal. they will charge you the big bucks to repair anything. by the way, do not buy their tsunami pedal as you can get an old ibanez super chorus cs-5 soundtank far cheaper and it sounds better. DO NOT buy the purple haze octivider, it is a major turd!

I like to play everything except country and western.I also own an rp 2000 from digitech and have owned quite a few other devices over the years. I run every thing thru my pa setup. I also own a crate gx130c stereo chorus amp. I own 3 guitars, a gibson sg, an ibanez 520qstb and a dearmond s67 7 string.( it must have the world's best humbucking pickups in it because it sounds so good for a low priced guitar)Anyway, I have played all this stuff extensively for over a year and in my opinion if you want to play van halen, pink floyd lead, blues, and all other 80's hair band sounds then there is no other choice as the rocktron is in a league all its own. However, if you like to play grunge, joe satriani, tool,pantera and all 90's sounds then you will need an rp 2000 from digitech because the rocktron can't touch these sounds anywhere near as good as the rp. the rp also does clean a little better. fortunately, I own both and can switch between the two as needed. one more thing, while the voodu valve does pink floyd lead better than the rp, the rp does pink floyd rhytm better than the voodu valve. the rp also does joe satriani lead far better too!

The unit is well designed. It would be nice to have knobs which permit you to change the important parameters directly, but I can live with the "select parameter and adjust" paradigm. The difficulty inherent in having so many EQ options is balanced out by having good presets right out of the box. If you download the Chameleon On-line patches from the web site and add them, you'll cut your tweaking time down by half. The provide many good ones. Gary Hoey's patches are a blast! The clean levels on the presets aren't matched to the high gain ones, so you have to fix them one at a time. That's a pain, but you only have to do it once.

I'm sending my guitar straight into the Voodu and from there right into a Tubeworks MosValve power amp. I'm running two 1x12 cabs with the 75 watt Celestion speakers. The raw, uneffected preamp sounds very good. Cleans are bold and have a nice top end sparkle. The high gain sounds are great. Good response to playing dynamics, and note clarity. No muddy distortion or buzzing anywhere. These sounds make it hard to put down my guitar. The effects are the best I've had, and I've used stand alone rack effects before. I play through a POD for low volume practice, and the Voodu puts it in its place. By comparison, the POD is a nice toy but the Voodu instantly became my main live rig. My only complaint is that there is some digital glitching on high gain patches with the guitar volume all the way down. It's not bad enough to diminish my overall enthusiasm, though.

I just got the Voodu, but I used to have a ProGAP preamp and it was bullet-proof. I have no worries about reliability.

Don't know.

I'm a hair band fanatic, and this box nails the late 80s/early 90s hair band tones dead on. Since that's what I wanted, I'm 100% satisfied. I love the sounds, but hate having to carry the rack. I briefly considered a POD Pro, and this blew it away for half the money. I wanted a box which combined an outstanding preamp and high quality effects for the light weight and convenience. I didn't want to build a monster rack with a mixer and separate effects units. Also, I don't want to maintain power tubes....the MosValve sounds fine. To the best of my knowledge, the only real competition is from the Rocktron Prophesy. I haven't had a chance to try one. I've been playing guitar since '77...electric since '85. Took a long break from '92 to '98. If I had to replace this unit, I'd take a long hard look at the Prophesy...but I've heard mixed things about it. For the money, I'd probably end up with the Voodu again.

You can dial up just about any sound that you can imagine. The unit is very quiet, even with very high gain settings. The effects are among the best that I've ever heard. The modulation effects are very deep & rich sounding, like good old analog stomp boxes. Delay, reverb, and tremolo are also very nice & vintage sounding. You get a lot of control over tube & digital gain, so you can find many different sounds & responses, and store them to any of the 254 preset locations. Best of all there is no drop out when you change presets.

This is a DSP guitar preamp that uses a 12ax7 tube. It has adjustable pre & post (distortion) parametric eq, tube gain, digital gain, and many high quality effects. It also has an excellent cabinet simulator for direct recording. Another plus is that is has both 1/4" & XLR balanced outputs. The XLR outs have their own separate volume control. The only thing that it is missing is a guitar tuner.

Bought it in 1998 and haven't experienced any problems at all, but it uses a tube which may eventually need to be replaced.

They are quick to respond to email. They also provide schematics free of charge.

I've been playing guitar for well over 10 years. I initially bought this preamp for direct recording, but it's great for club gigs too. I run it into a Mesa 20/20 and a 2x12 cabinet, with Vintage 30's. (The Mesa 20/20 has a fat mod). I also like to run it direct to the mixing board, which the sound man really likes. I highly recommend this unit to anyone looking for a great rack set up. IMHO - It puts the Line 6, Digitech, ART, & Johnson stuff to shame.