Relic Gear Reviews Episode 1: Rocktron Chameleon 2000
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- Опубликовано: 23 июл 2024
- The Chameleon series was a popular line of guitar Pre-Amps/FX processors introduced by Rocktron in the 1990's. After 20 + years, where are they now?
This is Relic Gear Reviews. I find old processors and pre-amps that were once a staple in studios and guitar rigs from the 1980's and 1990's, then explain how they work and give some examples of how they sound. Feel free to subscribe to my channel for more episodes!
Music: "The Gathering" by Burning Hash.
In the days before modeling preamps this was it. Really you have to look at this unit in context of the technology at the time. You said that it was a shame that the Chameleon didn't progress past the 2k version but that's not accurate. Rocktron developed the Prophesy as an evolution to this preamp and there was also the Prophesy II. These added a 12AX7 on the front end, as was a popular practice on rack preamps at the time, and lots more effects. I consider this the last hurrah of digital preamps before the amp modeling age took over. The Chameleon was the proof of concept and the Prophesy was the completion. We're now spoiled with modeling plug-ins on laptops giving us convincing simulations of every amp in existence, but these units are designed to gig flawlessly night after night - no software crashes or glitches. The sounds are more than adequate for most uses. Guitarists tend to forget that almost nobody who just enjoys listening to music can tell you what gear is used on their favorite song, but they can tell you how that song makes them feel. That's what counts.
I used the Cameleon 2000 way back when and it was ok in a band mix.
I subsequently bought an original Chameleon at an estate sale. I have opened both of them up.
Both use the Motorola DSP56000 series DSP. The original has a 33 MHZ version, the 2000 has a 40 MHZ version.
Contrast this with the current Fractal AXE III running two 1 GHZ DSP's.
Things the original had: XLR balanced outputs with level control, a separate foot switch control input, phantom power output for external midi / footswitch controller, a light on the FP indicating when Speaker Sim was active.
The original software had pre and post equalization of the distortion stage whereas the 2000 had amp types with fixed pre/post eq.
Both types had a single 64k EPROM with an 80C32 controller that had to load up the DSP and perform user I/O.
Although Rocktron claimed 24 bit audio, that was only the processing path in DSP.
On the 2000, the output D/A was a CS5335-KS which is a 20 bit converter, so you were not getting 24 bit audio out.
The distortion section was crude by current standards. I believe it used a shifted quadratic curve to simulate a tube input with pre and post filtering.
There were no cabinet IR's, just standard filters to approximate speaker roll-off.
The best part of the 2000 (and probably the original) were the output FX. I have not found anything to match the DualFlange patch. It is stunning on a clean guitar.
Later versions of Rocktron hardware actually put a vacuum tube in the input, and I would think the preamp distortion would be far superior to the Chameleon's.
Very cool you guys are into this monster. Ive owned the original for years don't have it in front of me but from what i remember is my original has a pre and post eq. In there I think one is a 24 band and other is 7 you also can control the band with of each slide. It was fairly simple but complicated also as some of those band widths were meant for Full meaning the house PA. I run mine through a mesa simuclass 290 so each channel delivers a different sound if you want ex. ch1 no effect ch2 delay or both channels with a presets that bounces or waterfalls. On my youtube channel is a sticks and stones solo its factory sounds going through by buddies cheap homemade studio. So its the Chameleon doing all the work. Hope I've helped the discussion.
Thanks for posting this. Well done review. I'm looking at one at a local shop now. Think I might grab it.
Thank you very much! It's a pretty cool unit, and they usually aren't too expensive.
I loved the video, maybe I'll buy one at some point, I'd like to know what signal chain you used?
You Mentioned pitch shifting is it polyphonic? Because that is one thing the HX stuff i use falls short with not being poly so playing single notes is fine but chords don't translate as well .great video dude
Thank you! Its only dual voiced at one time, so just two pitches on a given patch.
Can u hook it up into a interface and like record with it cus I’m having trouble doing so and if u can can u tell me how to
Absolutely. In that sense I would plug the outputs into channel 1 and 2 of the interface
I have voodu pod hd pro and axe fx ultra. Voodu is a main gear for playing gigs with my band Warhead from Russia.
All of those are great units! I'll have to check you guys out
The pod pro HD is awesome i used it for a while
@@g.a.m.productionsgambinaau8325 used it too man. For demos recording.
can u send me or post ur lead preset?
When I get home from work ill get it for ya!
@@g.a.m.productionsgambinaau8325 thank you 🙏
I had to type this 3 times, youtube kept closing the reply window on me!
Lead settings used in the video:
Global
outptut: stereo
speaker sim: unlock
hush offset: +9
mute: off
Mixer vol - 127
left out: 8
right out: 8
mix: dir
@@g.a.m.productionsgambinaau8325 Thank you! I appreciate this a lot because i have been trying to find the perfect lead tone and you just gave it to me so thank you 🙏
The 2000 is not like the original it's pointless to make a video on that unit sorry just my opinion
Thanks for chiming in!