Korg Pandora PX5D Review
Contents |
General Information
Original Author: Casper
Weapon: Personal Multi-Effect Processor
Make: Korg
Model: PX5D
Price: $200-$250
Introduction
I picked this badboy up yesterday, and It took me about an hour to figure out how to use most of its settings. This new version of Korgs pandora comes with 100 Preset Effects Channels for you to try out. Just scanning through them I see they have a preset Linkin Park, Metallica, Pink Floyd, Good Charlotte sounds. They give you 100 spaces to customize your own fx and make your own personal sounds. This FX processor has recording capabilitys to up to 53 seconds. You can Enter rhythm sections by just 1 click ( Metronome, A ton of Chains that sounds really cool, Songs) You can edit all these and add more by installing the computer software it comes with (Live Lite 6 Korg Edition ) With this program you can put your own Chains and Songs in there that you can record over. Comes with a stander tuner. Some Utilities which im still yet to read up on. Usb capabilities obviously, Input output..., a Foot Swich insert so you can connect your favorite pedals to it And an Aux input so you can plug it into a speaker system.
Now enough of the basics lets get into the heart of this thing
I'll Explain Each button and breif you on what it does and what you can do with it
Rhythm
This button lets you chose Metronome, Chain and Song. The metronome comes with every single Back Beat you can imagine from a standard metronome (single beat, 8th beats 1-4, 16th 1-4, 2/4 1-3, 3/4 1-3, 5/4, 3/8 1-2, 5/8, 6/8 1-4 Etc it just goes on. Then the metronome also lets you chose back beats from House(techno beat) - Metal Beat and Everything inbetween (Ska, DnB, Samba, Latin, a bunch of Fills). Now thats just the metronome Section. Press the Rhythm Button 1 More time you get 20 Different Bass and Drum Chains (really cool stlyes and speeds). Press the Rhythm Button a Third time and you get 3 Preset songs, One that sounds just like Blackened by metallica. And the great thing about all these Rhythm Features is that you can edit them on your computer to your liking! .
Phrase Trainer
NExt we have the Phase Trainer Which Lets you records with the Rhythm Selections and some Aux stuff ( still to figure the aux out probably somthing cool tho)
Utility Button
After the Phase trainer we have the Utility Button ( It lets you turn the LCD backlight on if your in the dark and are having trouble reading your pandora, Activate your FootSwich, Send Files by USb, Receive Files by USb, Aux>Usb(whatever that means) and some other stuff that confuses me but ill figure that out soon enough
Then we have 4 "favorite FX" quick buttons. A-D so you can have quick access to your 4 quick fx without having to go through the huge list!
Next is the Record/Enter button, Exit Button, and the .Tap -bypass button which is your tuner.
Knobs
At the top of the Pandora theres 4 turners that let you increase/decrease (Gain/Mid, Bass, Treble, Volume) When you are selecting through the 100 User Effects that you can edit, press the right cursor button once and it Will take you into edit mode. you can edit in this order (Dyna,Amp you want it to sound like,Cab (the acoustics i beleive), Mod, Delay, and Rev and finally you can name it what you want by using the scroll wheel to cycle through Symbols, Numbers, Letters.
Now I will get more in Depth about the FX you can edit
FX
(Dyna) You have a selection of 5 Wha's, Distortion, Fuzz, Clean, Over Drive, Phase, Half Tone, Octave, Ring and lots of other cool sounding effects. (AMP) 19 Different Guitar amps and 13 bass amps. (Cab) You can chose from Various VOX, BLK and TWD cabinets, 11 Guitar and 12 Bass Cabinets. (MOD) There are lots of Mods from Chorus, Talk, Phase, Drone, and lots of other cool effects. (Delay) You can add lots of different Delays from Slap to RVS Delay. you can also edit the delay time to what you want (REV) you can customize the sound to make it sound like your in a different environment (Dry Air, Wet Air, Room, Plate, Hall, Spring,Bright) (Name) Finally you can name your effect whatever you want, you have 7 spaces to spell.
Software
Like i briefly mentioned before the PX5D comes with Live Lite 6 Korg Edition, This lets you records stuff from your pandora to your computer, It also lets you edit all of the rhythm section sets on your pandora. I still havent played around with it too much since my OSX is outdated to pickup my pandora, but i played around with it without recording my guitar and its a sweet music editing program.
I picked up my pandora for 190$ at my local tomlee. Amazing price for everything it comes with. Definatley worth buying if you dont have an fx pedal
