RP500 problem.

[TheManMadeMan]

It seems I can't get a good tone or overall quality from the RP through my 6505+'s dirty channel. The clean channel sounds near great, but when I switch to the dirty channel my tone sounds like a cat scratching a chalkboard and has no sustain, the reverb sounds awful, effects like chorus are non existent, and the delay volume is wayy too high even when on 1 and it ends up flooding everything. I've messed with it a lot, and it doesn't help.

I connect in this order: Guitar>isp decimator>RP500>amp input. The RP still sounds the same with or without the decimator.

Is there a better way to make this work, or should I just sell the RP and get something else like it or separate pedals?

 

[VBCheeseGrater]

You need to have the rp in the effects loop for the effects you mentioned in the dirt channel. Look up the 4 cable method or just put the rp in the effects loop

 

[TheManMadeMan]

Will try, thanks.

 

[fwd0120]

Okay, so you are trying to get effects (mods, verbs and delays, not wah or distortion or amps) with your RP500 and your amp, right?

Here's what you should do. First, Ignore the decimator right now. What you have to do, is disable the amp/cab modelling. there is a button on the right side of the recessed part of the RP500, right below the right corner of the display. make sure that it is set to BYPASS.

Now, the reason your effects with the RP500 sound bad is, because it is in front of the distortion, the effects are getting distorted.

So what you have is effects getting distorted. What you want is your distortion getting e(a)ffected. (<Grammar Nazis help me)

You need to put the RP500 in the effects loop of your amp. This puts it after your distortion, so your effects will be clean. *

*Note I'm pretty sure your amp has an effects loop. If it is an amp head and does not have a loop, do not put it between the head and the cabinet! You will blow up all of your gear, really!

So yes, basically, for just effects, you need to have the RP500 in the effects loop.

_______________________________________________________________

Now, here is something else you need to know. The RP1000 (as well as many other modelling pedals) let's you fully integrate all features of the pedal with the tone of your amplifier. It has extra jacks which route "post-amp" (IE; chorus, delay, reverb) to your amps effects loop, as I described above. This will also enable you to use the "pre-amp" effects (IE; distortion, compression, wah) just plugged into the amp like normal, with the amp and cab emulation bypassed.
This is called the "four-cable method". Obviously because this method uses 4 cables for all the routing.
The RP500 does not support this, so it only has the regular I/O you would expect from most pedals.

Also, on your amps clean channel, you can use the RP500 amp modelling to certain extent. You should probably disable the cab modelling (in the RP500 edit mode, scroll to the amp sim category, press the button on the knob, you are now in cab mode, scroll all the way clockwise, and it will read "DIRECT", you are now bypassing the cab emulation for this preset).
There is also a button in the I/O section on the back of the pedal, experiment with the amp/mixer button. Each will give you a different character. Find which one works best with your amp, just use your ears.

You can do what I explained in the last paragraph if you want to use all of the features of your RP500 with your amp. This comes at a cost though, you forfeit the distorted tone of your amp.

One more thing to know, the RP500 has a noise gate that does a decent job. Do not set the threshold over "25" though. I use a lot less gain than I used to, and rarely use it these days.
So I know you have an ISP noise gate, you can use this in conjunction with your RP500s gate to your advantage, to get that djenty goodness Bulb always talks about.
What you need to do is, if you have the RP500 in the effects loop of the amp, put the ISP between you and the amp. Or, you should do the opposite, if the RP is in front of the amp, put the ISP gate in the effects loop.
It is important to understand that in the RP500, the noise gate is routed "post amp". In the RP500 you cannot change the routing of anything, except you can set the effects block to pre-amp, or post amp. I don't know exactly where it puts it in the chain on the Pre-amp setting, so you should refer to the manual. For the post-amp setting, it puts it right after the gate, but before the delay and reverb.

I think that is everything, and I hope I didn't overwhelm you. Just take the time to read this closely.

I hope this helped, good luck!!!

EDIT: Just got hard-core 'd but a 2 sentence post.

 

[TheManMadeMan]

Okay, so you are trying to get effects (mods, verbs and delays, not wah or distortion or amps) with your RP500 and your amp, right?

Here's what you should do. First, Ignore the decimator right now. What you have to do, is disable the amp/cab modelling. there is a button on the right side of the recessed part of the RP500, right below the right corner of the display. make sure that it is set to BYPASS.

Now, the reason your effects with the RP500 sound bad is, because it is in front of the distortion, the effects are getting distorted.

So what you have is effects getting distorted. What you want is your distortion getting e(a)ffected. (<Grammar Nazis help me)

You need to put the RP500 in the effects loop of your amp. This puts it after your distortion, so your effects will be clean. *

*Note I'm pretty sure your amp has an effects loop. If it is an amp head and does not have a loop, do not put it between the head and the cabinet! You will blow up all of your gear, really!

So yes, basically, for just effects, you need to have the RP500 in the effects loop.

_______________________________________________________________

Now, here is something else you need to know. The RP1000 (as well as many other modelling pedals) let's you fully integrate all features of the pedal with the tone of your amplifier. It has extra jacks which route "post-amp" (IE; chorus, delay, reverb) to your amps effects loop, as I described above. This will also enable you to use the "pre-amp" effects (IE; distortion, compression, wah) just plugged into the amp like normal, with the amp and cab emulation bypassed.
This is called the "four-cable method". Obviously because this method uses 4 cables for all the routing.
The RP500 does not support this, so it only has the regular I/O you would expect from most pedals.

Also, on your amps clean channel, you can use the RP500 amp modelling to certain extent. You should probably disable the cab modelling (in the RP500 edit mode, scroll to the amp sim category, press the button on the knob, you are now in cab mode, scroll all the way clockwise, and it will read "DIRECT", you are now bypassing the cab emulation for this preset).
There is also a button in the I/O section on the back of the pedal, experiment with the amp/mixer button. Each will give you a different character. Find which one works best with your amp, just use your ears.

You can do what I explained in the last paragraph if you want to use all of the features of your RP500 with your amp. This comes at a cost though, you forfeit the distorted tone of your amp.

One more thing to know, the RP500 has a noise gate that does a decent job. Do not set the threshold over "25" though. I use a lot less gain than I used to, and rarely use it these days.
So I know you have an ISP noise gate, you can use this in conjunction with your RP500s gate to your advantage, to get that djenty goodness Bulb always talks about.
What you need to do is, if you have the RP500 in the effects loop of the amp, put the ISP between you and the amp. Or, you should do the opposite, if the RP is in front of the amp, put the ISP gate in the effects loop.
It is important to understand that in the RP500, the noise gate is routed "post amp". In the RP500 you cannot change the routing of anything, except you can set the effects block to pre-amp, or post amp. I don't know exactly where it puts it in the chain on the Pre-amp setting, so you should refer to the manual. For the post-amp setting, it puts it right after the gate, but before the delay and reverb.

I think that is everything, and I hope I didn't overwhelm you. Just take the time to read this closely.

I hope this helped, good luck!!!

EDIT: Just got hard-core 'd but a 2 sentence post.

Thanks for taking the time! Very in depth response lol

By the way, in my effects loop I have a sonic maximizer, do I put that before or after the rp?

 

[VBCheeseGrater]

EDIT: Just got hard-core 'd but a 2 sentence post.

haha i didn't want to type a novel on the phone. Your post is way more helpful to someone trying figure all this out!

Great point on NOT trying to use the speaker out as an effects loop. I could see how someone might try that...bad idea!

 

[WarMachine]

Thanks for taking the time! Very in depth response lol

By the way, in my effects loop I have a sonic maximizer, do I put that before or after the rp?

I would try it after the maximizer. But then again you could play with the eq or the RP and maybe not have a need for the maximizer. Like said above you wanna make sure you run this in your loop. The reason why the delay/chorus/reverb sound so overpowering is because you are pushing it past your preamp, you wanna run those through the effects loop.

 

[fwd0120]

Thanks for taking the time! Very in depth response lol

By the way, in my effects loop I have a sonic maximizer, do I put that before or after the rp?

Hey thanks!! I love trying to help people!

I would put the sonic maximizer the last thing in the chain, since it is supposed to modify phase alignment or something like that. The RP500 in the end of the chain could undo that, so I would put the BBE last.