Finished the RP250/350 patch set
I’m delighted to announce that my patch set for the Digitech RP250/350 is now available. Thanks to all my beta testers for their feedback on early versions of this set.
The set includes:
– 21 patches for the Shure 545SD mic
– 16 patches for the Fireball V mic
– 15 patches for the Bottle o’ Blues mic
– 10 patches for the Astatic JT30VC mic
The patches are of course optimized for particular mics, but many of the patches designed for one mic work well with one or more of the others also. The Shure 545 and Fireball V patches work well with a wide range of “stick” vocal mics, and the Astatic set works well with other bullet-type mics. The fact is that bullet-type mics just don’t have the frequency range to do clean sounds very well, so the sets for the Astatic and Bottle o’ Blues are focused on amped tones, while the Shure and Fireball sets include a range of clean tones as well.Â
Every mic set includes basic patches for blues and rock, plus patches with widely usable effects such as an octave shifter and rotary (Leslie) speaker. I’ve also created a few patches that are pretty extreme, just to show what can be done with the RP250/350. Within each mic grouping, I’ve done my best to keep feedback away and make the volume from patch to patch as close as possible. With a good PA or keyboard amp on the back end, the results are terrific.
The patch set ships with a spreadsheet that lists all the patches in the set and gives hints on how to use them, plus a README file containing more information on how to get the most out of the set and the RP250/350.Â
RP250 users can load the entire patch set as a bulk load in a single step with Digitech’s X-edit software (available from Digitech’s web site). For RP350 users, the set is provided as individual patches, organized both by amp model and by microphone, and these also can be loaded (in this case one at a time) via the X-edit software.
I have decided not to convert the patch set for use with the RP150, in particular because many of the patches won’t work as designed without an expression pedal. If you’re an RP150 owner and wish to use the patch set, please contact me offlist.
A license to use the patch set can be purchased for $25. This license entitles the buyer to any future upgrades or enhancements to the patches I offer for these four microphones at no additional charge. (This offer does not extend to patch sets I design in future for mics other than the Shure 545SD, Audix Fireball V, Astatic JT30VC, and Bottle o’ Blues.) The license gives the buyer the right to use the patch set for personal music-making purposes, including performance, recording, and any other music-making activities, compensated or otherwise, without restriction. The license does NOT include the right to transfer the information contained in the patch set, in whole or in part, to anyone else, in any form, whether or not the licensee is compensated in any way for the transfer of that information. Doing so is a violation of international copyright law. So, for example, you can’t give copies of the patch set or individual patches to anyone else, you can’t post the patch data or links to the patch data to your blog or a web site, and you can’t sell your RP250 or R350 with this patch data inside it (in that case you’d need to reset the RP to factory specs using the factory reset procedure before you transfer the device to the new owner).
In other words, a buyer can do anything with the patch set except re-sell it or give it away. This is a pretty normal license for music software, and we hope our buyers understand that we can’t afford to sell the patch set at low prices without this kind of licensing arrangement.
I’ll be posting sound clips made with the patch set to my website in a few days. In the meantime, if you’re interested in buying, please contact me at turtlehill@earthlnk.net.
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Richard,
I’m a blues harmonica player in Bangalore (INDIA) and will be visiting USA (Richmond, New York & Chicago) in April 2013. I’m a performing musician and I play in both electric / amped set ups as well as open acoustic gigs. For a while now, I’ve been curious about the RP 250 and the patches you’ve developed. I’d really like to get my hands on both and try them out!
I need some clarity on the x Edit software. Do I need to purchase that? I’m planning on acquiring a used RP250 from eBay / Amazon. I need to know how all this works? Do I download the patches on to a pen drive and then feed them into the RP 250? Why would I need eEdit? If I get the patches from you, can’t I feed it into the RP 250 directly?
Also, are you open to loading all the patches onto an RP 250 if I have an RP 250 shipped to you? Of course, you will have to ship it back to my cousin in Chicago, and I’m willing to pay the courier / postage charges.
Please let me know if we can work something out.
Thank you for what you do!
Cheers,
Dev
Hi Dev,
The RP can ONLY be loaded from a computer running Xedit. There is no self-loading mechanism on the RP, so you can’t put the patch files on a thumb drive and load the RP from it.
The Xedit software is free from Digitech.com. You look up your device and download whatever you need for that device plus your computer and operating system. (If you’re running on a Mac, you download Xedit only. If you’re running on a Windows computer, you download and install drivers for the RP, Netupdater to update your RP to the latest firmware, and Xedit.) If you’ve ever downloaded and installed any piece of software, the process will be familiar and simple. Note that Xedit does not work on Mac OSX Lion and later, so if that’s what you run on your computer you need to find a different computer to do the job.
I don’t load people’s RPs with patch sets. Among other things, I think it’s important for my customers to have the ability to change, backup, and load configurations of patches in their RPs without my help, and for that they need to use Xedit. I repeat that the process is simple for anyone who has installed software on a computer, and you probably know people who can do that even if you can’t yourself.
Let me know if you need more information. By the way, the best place I know to get a used RP right now is guitarcenter.com, in the USED section of the site. Any Guitar Center will ship anywhere in the USA for a relatively low price, so you can ask them to ship to your cousin in Chicago. I’m sure you can find an RP250 for much less than $100 there; I’ve picked up RP355s for less than $100 there.