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GMC Forum _ GEAR & PRODUCTION _ Pocket Pod Or Pandora Px4d?
Posted by: Nighthawk1 Sep 25 2008, 09:02 AM
Hi there GMC,
I am really struggling to make a decision between these Multi-Effect devices. I've read all the great reviews on this site but I am still incertain...maybe you can help me a little?
So I see some major maybe subjective advantages and disadvantage on both hands
I love that the Pandora has rhythm tracks to jam along to which is absolutely great which the pocket Pod doesn't have right? There are also some nice effects like an intelligent pitch shifter which isn't included in the Pocket Pod also.
On the other hand it bothers me that the Pandora is no usb device...so you can't download and share tones, and you can't programm your tones over the pc! I have toneport UX2 and it would be great to put some gearbox tones on the Pod as well. But, as I already said, it also bothers me that Pod has no Rhythm tracks to jam to. The Pocket Pod is also 30euro cheeper but that's just a little minor advantage...maybe you can help me out with my iinconclusiveness 
Thanks a lot
Posted by: Smells Sep 25 2008, 09:16 AM
Personally I`d go for the Pandora, I had a pocket pod for a while and was not that impressed with it to be honest, it does kind of depend on what your looking to do with it.
The Pocket pod doesnt work with gearbox to edit the programs, it uses a different editing suite altogether, which is just as easy to use as gearbox, it also uses the same tones from the POD 2 so you may be limited on the tones you can transfer to the pocket pod.
If your after high gain crunching tones DONT buy the pocket pod, it didnt have anywhere near enough drive etc for the tones I wanted, however if your just wanting rock type rhythm guitar tones then it works fine, if you want metal type tones then forget it, it just doesnt do it.
I agree with you that a downside of the Pandora is the non USB enabled editing, but having had a little play with bondy`s pandora a while back we managed to get some decent tones out of it fairly quickly, in the main I generally only use a couple of patches that I tweak depending on what I`m doing (more delay or chorus etc) so the editing is just a small side to it imo, its how the unit sounds 
Out of the two get the Pandora, who could be a better advert for it than Muris??
Posted by: Nighthawk1 Sep 25 2008, 09:33 AM
Out of the two get the Pandora, who could be a better advert for it than Muris??
[/quote]
Well yeah, but you don't know what Korg is paying him to do so ?! 
Just kidding, real artists aren't corruptible...
So thanks for your answer that really helps. Didn't know that it isn't compatible with gearbox for instance and I don't want another program for that purpose on my mac! You said with a little handling you got decent tones out of it but the presets are pretty already, aren't they?
Further recommendations are welcome..!
Posted by: Smells Sep 25 2008, 09:40 AM
Further recommendations are welcome..!
Do you mean the Pandora? to be honest I`m not fully conversant with the Pandora, Craig (Bondy) bought it over with him and I had a little mess about with it before we set off to London, so I couldnt rezally tell you what the presets where like, kinda tweaked some tones that Craig already had programmed in
The Pocket Pod tone presets I dont recall being that great, there where one or two that where "ok", I know a couple of guys use the Pocket pod on here, but for me, I generally just found it disappointing.
What about the Pandora PX5? I nearly bought that instead of the PODXT, that has USB editing capabilities and a lot more features than the PX4, more cash I know, but .. ya gets what you pays for
Posted by: Nighthawk1 Sep 25 2008, 09:47 AM
...Yes I was talking about the Pandora.
...Well the PX 5 is an awesome device I would have bought it already if I hadn'T already the ux2 toneport as a recording device and that's the main additional aspect of the px5 that you can record with it, right?
Posted by: Torben Sep 25 2008, 10:03 AM
I got the PX4 some time back and really like it. It´s easy to use and I like both the jamming tracks (use them quite a lot) and also the recording feature. Really helpful if you want to practice playing over some progression.
I have never tried the POD, but guess it all comes down to your needs. Personally I can see the value of an USB connection, but only if it was important for me to try out other peoples settings. Usually I get along by experimenting a bit, which I find very instructive.
Good luck.
Posted by: Smells Sep 25 2008, 10:10 AM
What are you looking to do with it exactly?
You`ve got the UX2 Toneport, so you`ve already got a multitude of tones at your disposal through your PC
Posted by: Nighthawk1 Sep 25 2008, 10:15 AM
Yes, I was not looking for tones but for a Pod in order to play it through the amp and to be mobile with guitar and headphones only you know 
I think the px5 would have been the better choice than the toneport because here you got a pod and a recording device all in all! But I didn't really have a clue about all this when buying it
Posted by: Canis Sep 25 2008, 10:17 AM
Your toneport and Gearbox on a laptop?
Posted by: Smells Sep 25 2008, 10:20 AM
Rightio, yer thats what I got the Pocket Pod for originally so I could practice away from the PC
Yer would be the Pandora all the way for me without a doubt then, and for that reason I would probably scan ebay for a cheap 2nd hand PX4, other than that I cant think of any other devices that woud take my fancy
Posted by: Nighthawk1 Sep 25 2008, 10:23 AM
OK thanks so far...really helped me 
Posted by: Muris Varajic Sep 25 2008, 11:49 AM
I can't speak a lot about pocket Pod
but I can say a few things about Pandora tho,
and Korg dosen't pay me to do that btw
This is just in my case tho,
it might not work for someone else.
I have pretty descent audio card (E-MU 1820m)
so I don't need an audio card and recording device in one,
like some Line6 products.
I also don't need USB cause I record everything
using audio inputs on my card.
And PC interface is also something I don't need cause
I can edit any patch I want directly on Pandora.
Talking about patches,presets are useless in 90% of time
just like sharing patches with someone else,
you must have the same guitar,same rest of the gear
and you must be 100% the same player to get the same sound.
Pandora has pretty enough gain(it's still fully digital device)
and serves my needs nice so far,
considering the size and the price.
Posted by: DeepRoots Sep 25 2008, 11:56 AM
Couldnt agree more- the only good sound i've had the patience to dial in is based on your settings.
Posted by: Nighthawk1 Sep 25 2008, 12:35 PM
Thanks for the considerations Muris !
Posted by: Fran Sep 25 2008, 01:41 PM
I've got both pocketpod & Pandora PX5D, and Pandora totally owns the pocketpod.
There are certain amp models such as the insane from the pod which I liked, but since I got the Pandora I never went back to the pocketpod. It's much easier to dial the sounds in Pandora with the USB program (only px5d, not px4d though).
Another good thing about pandora vs pod is the backing tracks, not awesome but good enough to jam over without the need of an external ipod on the aux input to get a backing. And best of all: you come up with an inspiring riff and you can record it and jam over it just like that, either because the pandora is already connected to the PC or in the 80 second internal memory of the thing. Really cool.
One last thing, Pandora has a pitch shifting option which lets you change the key of the external sound you input. So, let's say you are practicing one of Lian's lessons (half step down tuning), well, you can just transpose it one step up and play it without downtuning your guitar following the same exact tabs.
My advice: go PX5D. I also bought a pod & toneport back in the day, now I almost only use Pandora, it's just so simple all in one gadget.
Posted by: Smells Sep 25 2008, 01:51 PM
Darn! I knew I shoulda bought one of them instead of the PODXT (desktop version!!)
Posted by: Fran Sep 25 2008, 02:45 PM
I was comparing it to the little pocketpod, I'm sure podXT is on a whole new level tonewise, probably better than PX5D, so don't worry
Posted by: Ivan Milenkovic Sep 25 2008, 05:24 PM
I would say Pandora in your case, since you already have Toneport, there's no need to buy pocket POD. DL and sharing tones is a cool feature, but this is not something that is very important IMO. Most of the time you will wish to make your own presets that will go along nicely with your gear, preferences etc.
Posted by: kjutte Sep 27 2008, 04:50 PM
I am really struggling to make a decision between these Multi-Effect devices. I've read all the great reviews on this site but I am still incertain...maybe you can help me a little?
So I see some major maybe subjective advantages and disadvantage on both hands
I love that the Pandora has rhythm tracks to jam along to which is absolutely great which the pocket Pod doesn't have right? There are also some nice effects like an intelligent pitch shifter which isn't included in the Pocket Pod also.
On the other hand it bothers me that the Pandora is no usb device...so you can't download and share tones, and you can't programm your tones over the pc! I have toneport UX2 and it would be great to put some gearbox tones on the Pod as well. But, as I already said, it also bothers me that Pod has no Rhythm tracks to jam to. The Pocket Pod is also 30euro cheeper but that's just a little minor advantage...maybe you can help me out with my iinconclusiveness
Thanks a lot
A toneport is fine.
If you want to improve further, you have to buy a tubeamp and set it up by DI or an attuenator. (well, or miccing of course.)
Don't waste your money on more digital stuff.
And, regarding the backtracks.
If you use your toneport as a soundcard, you can easily jam to any song from the computer, in the same headphones.
However, wether you decide to get a tubeamp or stick with your toneport, you should definitely get a soundcard like muris proposed.
I also have an Emu external card, and it absolutely rocks.
Direct monitoring, superb sound quality, et cetera!
Posted by: jdriver Sep 28 2008, 03:09 AM
I second what Fran said, the PX5D is awesome. The sound quality is very good. i was able to dial in the sound I was looking for very quickly, and can tweak it just as easily. It works great as a direct input to Reaper or other DAW, and you can plug headphones into the out jack and monitor the audio in and out of the DAW. Patches very easy and intuitive to edit
Posted by: Igorrr Oct 6 2008, 08:10 PM
Did the sounds on the PX5D improve compared to the PX4?
That would be sweet!
I had the PX3 actually before and hated the sounds. They are as bad as on the BOSS Micro BR. But nonetheless I'd recommend the pandora over the pocket pod simply for the fact that it is a much better practicing tool when you're travelling. Especially the rythm machine / metronome and the option to do short recordings (e.g. to create your own backing loop or play with harmonies) already beats the pocket pod by far.
I would'nt consider any of these for PC recording since there are a lot of free guitar amp VSTs which sounds better than these pocket/micro effect solutions.
Posted by: Sami Oct 6 2008, 08:20 PM
That would be sweet!
I had the PX3 actually before and hated the sounds. They are as bad as on the BOSS Micro BR. But nonetheless I'd recommend the pandora over the pocket pod simply for the fact that it is a much better practicing tool when you're travelling. Especially the rythm machine / metronome and the option to do short recordings (e.g. to create your own backing loop or play with harmonies) already beats the pocket pod by far.
I would'nt consider any of these for PC recording since there are a lot of free guitar amp VSTs which sounds better than these pocket/micro effect solutions.
I'd suggest the PX4 i have the pocket pod and i hate it now, it has a lack of features.
Posted by: Sentenced Oct 6 2008, 09:07 PM
Got my Korg PX5D some days ago and its just insane. I have already a G9.2tt but this little thing is amazing. I just use it through my PC Speaker and it sounds great, clean, crunch, metal everything works and yes Muris is right some preset sharing can help you find some good tones but you have to adjust yourself, but its easy with the Pandora.
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