Korg Pandora PX5D
Contents |
General Information
Weapon: Personal Multi-Effect Processor
Make: Korg
Model: PX5D
Price: $180-$230
Sounds
As you probably (hopefully) already know that Multi Effects Proccessors have more than 1 sound, In fact the Korg Pandora PX5D has 100 Preset Sound Effects and gives you another 100 channels to do with what you want. Editing these channels is just one push away! Literally!! To edit you push the korgs curson button to the right at any given time. The editor gives you 6 different effects you can edit!! Each effect you can edit the effect type and change the parameter values.
The 6 Effects
Dyna: Dynamics and Pickup Modeling There are 29 Different Dynamics and Pickup Modelings you can chose from. Here I will list them out | DYNAEXC | VOX WAH | WAH UP 1 | WAH UP 2 | WAH DOWN 1 | WAH DOWN 2 | SLOWATK | AC SIM | RESO | OCTAVE | RING | RING UP | RING DOWN | CRUSHER | HUM > SGL | SGL > HUM | HF TONE | PHASEOUT | B COMP | LIMITER | B Overdrive | B Distortion | B Fuzz | PREAMP 1 | PREAMP 2 | BALANCE | LOWCUT | FRETLESS | COMP
AMP: Amp Modeling There are 15 Guitar Amps, 10 Bass Amps, 3 Guitar Synths and 3 Bass Synths. BTQ CLEAN | BTQ OD | TWD 1x12 | TWD 4x10 | BLK 2x12 | AC 15 | AC 15TB | AC 30 | AC 30 TB | UK BLUES | UK '70s | UK '80s | UK '90s | UK MDN | US HI-G | US MDN | FUZZ | OCT FUZZ| BASS: |VALVE 1 | VALVE 2 | CLASSIC | SCOOPED | LA STUD | GOLDPNL | JAZZ | STUDIO | AC 100 | UK MAJOR| GSYNTH 1 | GSYNTH 2 | GSYNTH 3 | BSYNTH1 | BSYNTH 2 | BSYNTH 3|
CAB: Cabinet Modeling. Cabinet modeling is the effect that simulate the acoustic characteristics of an amps cabinet. There are 11 Guitar AMP Cabinets and 12 Bass AMP Cabinets Once again here is a list of all the cabinets.
Guitar: | 1 x 8 TWD | 2 x 10 BLK | 4 x 10 TWD | 1 x 12 TWD | 1 x 12 VOX | 2 x 12 BLK | 2 x 12 VOX | 4 x 12 VOX | 4 x 12 CLS | 4 x 12 MDN | 4 x 12 VIN |
BASS: | LA 4 x 10 | MDN 4 x 10 | MTL 4 x 10 | CLS 8 x 10 | UK 4 x 12 | STUDIO 1 x 15 | JAZZ 1 x 15 | AC 2 x 15 | US 2 x 15 | UK 4 x 15 | LA 1 x 18 | COMBI |
MOD: Modulation and Filter Effect Modeling
Now we get to the modulations, 57!!! Great Mods to choose from!!!!
| CHORUS 1 | CHORUS 2 | FLANG 1-4 | PHASER 1-3 | 12 STRING | U-VIBE 1 & 2 | TREMOLO 1-3 | AT PAN 1-2 | ROTARY 1-3 | PICH 1-4 | MAJE UP | MAJE DOWN | MINE UP | MINE DOWN | PER4TH | PER5TH | MAJ6TH | FEEDBACK 1-4 | FILTER | FILTER UP 1-2 | FILTER DOWN1-2 | TALK 1-4 | RANDOM 1-4 | DRONE 1-2 | ENVPIT | ENV ECHO | INFFL1-2 | INFFL PIT 1-2|
DLY: Delay Time The Delay Time is just how it sounds. Its a Delay modeling effect.....
REV: Reverb Modeling The Rever Modeling conists of 11 different spaciousness sound effects these include: | DRY AIR | WET AIR | ROOM 1-2 | PLATE 1-2 | HALL 1-2 | SPRING 1-2 | BRIGHT|
NR: NOISE reduction
You can Increase and Decrease this value from a scale of 0.0 - 10.0 The lower you have the setting the less the noise reduction. The higher you have this value the higher the noise reduction. Pretty simple eh?
Finally you have *WRITE* which lets you name your multi effect you have just created this includes symbols numbers and the whole alphabet!
THE RHYTHM AND THE BASS There is a rhythm and bass mode!!?? WHAT IS THAT??? you ask! Well I'm gona tell you all about it! The Pandora PDX5 Gives you around 130 different rhythm and bass patterns for you to JAM with!! The PDx5 also lets you connect 1-16 partterns so you can have a consecutive playback experience!! Once you press the rhythm button on your PDX5 IT gives you 3 different Rhythm and Bass modes!!!! You have your PTN ( Pattern Play ) CHAIN (Chain Play) and SONG (Song Play) now I will breif you on what these 3 will let you do.
PTN (Pattern Play) The Pattern play lets you select and play one rhythmic and bass pattern! To select a rhythm you just scroll using the Value encoder which is on the right of the LCD Screen (WoooW LCD Screen!!) So in your PTN ( Pattern Play ) you have 3 different variations.. well 2 different variation and one basic rythmic pattern. The basic rythm patterns consist of metronomes (16th beats 2/5th beats etc....) while the variation patterns play different musical style beats from SAMBA - MetaL!!. Your probably thinking "Well what about the tempo of these beats" well thats an easy solution the PDx5 Lets you change the tempo of the beats from 40-240bpm's! Your probably also thinking "well what key is the variation pattern in? can I change it?" well.... ofcourse you can change the key. from C-B all you need to do is scroll the value encoder. If you would like you can also change the Level of the rhythm and bass track or the Reverb on the Rhythm and Bass track! but enough about the Patter Play lets move onto CHAIN PLAY. '
CHAIN (Chain Play) "what is the chain play?" your wondering. The chain play is 2 or more rythmic & bass patterns that are connected in a sequence to form a chain! The Chain Play feature lets you edit a chain and play it!! (pretty cool eh?) How many patterns can these "Chains" play? 16! yeah 16 not 15, but 16. the Korg Pandora PDx5 lets you select from 20 chains! You can edit the tempo, the level, reverb on these chains if you would like. And just like the FX edit you cn name it what you want. But enough about these "Chains" lets talk a bit about SONG ( Song Play )
SONG (Song Play) "song play? what the heck is song play?" Well.. song play is a lot like the chain mode however there are 3 preset songs that Korg has set for you. These songs consist of different chord progressions. One of them even sounds like the song "Blackened by MetallicA"! Like everything on the Pandora PX5D you can edit the Tempo, Reverb, Level! you can also specify the transposition and loop the song!
All that in ONE Button!!!! pretty crazy. The next button we're gona look at is the Phase Trainer!!
Phase Trainer Mode The phase trainer lets you record a phrase from yor guitar or bass and it will loop back to you. This is a great way to practice a riff, or a scale or some chord progressions your having problems with. If you want you can slow the play back speed if your having trouble maintaining the progression. To begin recording you press your phase trainer button then press the Enter/Rec button when you begin recording it will show your recording time on the LCD screen. WHen you stop recording it will play your recorded track and loop it.
The big Playback"
When you enter playback mode it will playback the recorded track as a loop. When you are in playback mode you can use the up and down curssor buttons to select a desired program. The LCD screen will show you the playback time of the track and your current playback speed in a numerical percentage. The cool thing about the playback feature is that you can change your playback speed percentage and it wont effect the pitch level one bit 
! There are 6 levels of playback speed |100% | 90% | 80% | 75% | 66% | 50% | You Can Pause || << Rewind | Fast Forward >> and Resume Play >.
the Handy Tuner There is a Bypass button on the Korg Pandora PX5D that lets you active a guita tuner!!! neato.
Increasing/Decreasing: GAIN/MID | BASS | TREBLE | VOLUME you can increase/decrease all of these with the 4 given turning wheel assinged to each one at the top of the PX5D
Feel
THE Korg Pandora PX5D has many different feels to it as you should be able to tell if you read the above text. All the different FX can create many different feels in the sound that will come out of your amp/headphones/speakers. You can custmoize it so it has your own personal feel or you can customize it so it has more of a Metallica feel to it or any band you want. The decision is up to you :D
Overall Impression
The Korg Pandora PX5D is a great Multi FX Processor. I Recommend it to any guitarist. It includes so many different FX and cool Recording and Rythm Features its definatley worth the buy
Extra Bang for your Buck
Well you thought I was done blabbering about the Pandora PX5D well I'm sorry but not quite yet. The PX5D comes with a USB port and a Mac/PC CD software program. This CD includes the Korg MIDI-Driver to install onto your Harddrive and also Live Lite 6 Korg Edition, you can get a free update to Live Lite 7 Korg Edition when you install this program. This program lets you Edit the Songs Chains and Rythmic Beats in your Rythm and Bass section. But its main feature is that it is a recording software. You can use your PX5D and record a full song by yourself. Using your Processor to have a Acoustic Effect sound. a Rythm Distortion Sound, And a sweet Wah Solo sound and record a 2-3 person song all by yourself !
