Rack Effect Processor

Can anyone suggest a decent rack mount effect processor for the RM 100?

I'm planning on running two heads into two different cabs. I was leaning more on the TC ELECTRONICS GMAJ2. But, after some research, it seems that they are cheap and not worth the cash.

So far I only have a BBE 882i SONIC MAXIMIZER for my rack gear.

Thanks

i've been using the gmajor (original) for years without issue. Primarily for reverb, delay, and gate. At this point though i am considering the rp1000 and the four cable method this would eliminate my rack (gmajor) and my boss pedals...

What effects are you after?

Nope, G-major and G-major 2 are good bang for the bucks, especially used. You just have to take care of the knobs that may have to be replaced from time to time if you're often on the road...

Otherwise IMHO you may look to the old rocktron FX line (replifex, intellifex, multivalve) that is pretty low priced at this time and very good sounding.

And last but not least what I use is a lexicon MPX G2 that sounds awesome to my ears...

chacal said:

Nope, G-major and G-major 2 are good bang for the bucks, especially used. You just have to take care of the knobs that may have to be replaced from time to time if you're often on the road...

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That's mostly the G-major though right?
A big reason for the G-major 2 was the update to the knobs... afaik

I guess it depends on what your after, also Studio use or live.
Live use I say go with the Rocktron Intellifex or Xpression.
If all your after is some verb & delay the above will still work great, but there are great reviews out there for the Lexicon stuff.

Hamner1 said:

I guess it depends on what your after, also Studio use or live.
Live use I say go with the Rocktron Intellifex or Xpression.
If all your after is some verb & delay the above will still work great, but there are great reviews out there for the Lexicon stuff.

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Lexicon sounds good, but is not meant for a live rig.
They switch too slowly.

So if you have it in series there's a gap when switching.
If you have it parallell it's fine, but there's no killdry option so you have to keep the mix at 100% at all times ...

A Digitech GSP1101 has Lexicon liscensed reverbs and delays though, and the preamp loop.
I use one and am pretty happy with it. Not all the time (for instance it lacks a reverse delay.. forcing me to keep my MX200 in the rack..)
But check out the effects on it, if that's all you need it's a good unit.

m0jo said:

Hamner1 said:

I guess it depends on what your after, also Studio use or live.
Live use I say go with the Rocktron Intellifex or Xpression.
If all your after is some verb & delay the above will still work great, but there are great reviews out there for the Lexicon stuff.

Click to expand...

Lexicon sounds good, but is not meant for a live rig.
They switch too slowly.

So if you have it in series there's a gap when switching.
If you have it parallell it's fine, but there's no killdry option so you have to keep the mix at 100% at all times ...

A Digitech GSP1101 has Lexicon liscensed reverbs and delays though, and the preamp loop.
I use one and am pretty happy with it. Not all the time (for instance it lacks a reverse delay.. forcing me to keep my MX200 in the rack..)
But check out the effects on it, if that's all you need it's a good unit.

Click to expand...

Yeah I should prefaced the Lexicon remark with Studio use.

I'm mainly looking for a gate, reverb, delay, echo, and chorus. Not a whole lot, but I just want something that's going to last and isn't going to break down.

Lexicon MPX G2? I'm not a fan of the gate in it though..

MPX G2 gate is too sensitive, but used in CC mode it's very capable of live use

But are you sure you want to gig with a 10 year old proccessor that isn't supported by it's manufacturer anymore?

I'd say G-Force, or on a budget Intellifex
Though I'm not sure how they would handle a 2-amp setup

GuitarGod87 said:

I was leaning more on the TC ELECTRONICS GMAJ2. But, after some research, it seems that they are cheap and not worth the cash.

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I have a GM2 and can confidently say that the unit is worth the $$$. The switching latency issues people complain about are generally due to switching the fx routing between presets (i.e. series to parallel). After switching the global fx routing parameter I have had no issues and it works quite well for my applications. I predominantly use the delay and reverb though the tri chorus is a great effect also.

GuitarGod87 said:

I'm mainly looking for a gate, reverb, delay, echo, and chorus. Not a whole lot, but I just want something that's going to last and isn't going to break down.

Click to expand...

Intellifex

chacal said:

GuitarGod87 said:

I'm mainly looking for a gate, reverb, delay, echo, and chorus. Not a whole lot, but I just want something that's going to last and isn't going to break down.

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Intellifex

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I just looked up ROCKTRON for the first time in a while. i found the XPRESSION and pretty interested in it. How old are the INTELLIFEX?

Anyone own the XPRESSION? Any comparisons between the XPRESSION and the G MAJOR 2?

The Xpression is nice, but you have to know that it is china made. The older rocktron units are USA made and may be more reliable...

chacal said:

The Xpression is nice, but you have to know that it is china made. The older rocktron units are USA made and may be more reliable...

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thanks a ton for that CHACAL. That does make a lot of sense. I heard a lot of this analog thing in the XPRESSIONS, that's why I'm pretty interested in it. I also heard it doesn't affect the tone the way the GMAJ2 does.

Yup, and it is same on older rocktron units. They keep a dry analog signal path that means no tone loss .

Anyway the Gmajor sucks some tone but at the time I owned one I never felt this loss as making my rig sound bad. Maybe a bit less of dynamics but Nothing that could bother you if you are in high gain tones. Just my 2 cents anyway.

I owned G-major, replifex, intellifex LTD, lexicon mpx G2, korg A3, peavey tubefex, art SGE mach II... Actually I play a G2 using parallel routing (no tone loss and no switching latency problem) and user separated boost and gate...

chacal said:

Yup, and it is same on older rocktron units. They keep a dry analog signal path that means no tone loss .

Anyway the Gmajor sucks some tone but at the time I owned one I never felt this loss as making my rig sound bad. Maybe a bit less of dynamics but Nothing that could bother you if you are in high gain tones. Just my 2 cents anyway.

I owned G-major, replifex, intellifex LTD, lexicon mpx G2, korg A3, peavey tubefex, art SGE mach II... Actually I play a G2 using parallel routing (no tone loss and no switching latency problem) and user separated boost and gate...

Click to expand...

What's paralell routing. I've never owned a rack and i only have a sonic maximzer right now. I think the maximizer thinned the sound out a bit. I'm not sure if I'm still going to keep it or not.

Well, a FX rack converts your signal from analog to digital to process effects. In most cases that is the conversion that sucks some tone. In Rocktrons (and lexicon G2) you can let some dry and not converted signal go direct to the output and let the unit only affect the "wet" signal.

Also, you can use any fx unit in the parallel loop of the RM100 and then got the same result. The only proble is it wont allow you to use some functions such as gate or EQ that need to be in serial.

IMHO, the best way to use the FXs with the RM100 is:
-gate, EQ into the serial loop
-reverb, delay, chorus into parallel loop.
FBut this way you need another unit (or pedals)for the serial loop

Concerning the maximiser, I don't like using such units with guitar rigs. It is hard to cut out in a band mix if you set it too high.