All user reviews for the Korg PX4

Having had a good look around at what was available, this seemed to be the best option (price aside). I bought this from Sound Control in Bristol UK for £149. I've had it about 18 months and no problems and recently I have used it every day.

It is only after having 'outgrown' the PX4 that I can say just how good it is. I recently bought a Boss GT6 and a Pod 2, BUT having gone back to the PX4 I can state that the presets (the sounds/patches) it comes shipped with are truly exceptional. There are many sounds that my GT6 simply can't easily emulate and I find myself using the basic PX4 sounds for recording far more than anything else.
Its size is a great plus point, very small and portable, but don't drop it - it will easily break - a nice rubberised or armoured wrap-around guard would be a nice extra to have available and I'd even welcome more durability for a slightly larger footprint.

You must accept that this is not a gigging tool, you simply would not be physically able to switch any settings in the heat of a gig although you can attach it to your guitar strap and if you have cordless headphones, you can do an impression of EVH by playing around the house with no cables as the PX4 has infra-red output.

The built in tuner is excellent as is the phrase trainer - but there should be a timer that allows you to physically start the record mode. This is a real blip in that I might lay down a backing track (anything up to the full 32 seconds available, but having pressed the start button, the time it takes to get my hand up back on the fretboard means there is a second or two delay and if I wanted the sound to loop - it simply wouldn't.

Back to the sounds available - Melissa and Piezo are truly phenomenal, very atmospheric. I would say that the cabinet modelling is a bit gimmicky though - and all that 'Wet Air' and 'Hall' stuff is a bit daft.

I took it on holiday with me together with my Speedster Traveler guitar and to be able to sit anywhere, on the beach etc, and slap some headphones on and simply play was an experience.

EVERY electrical appliance that needs a seperate power supply should come supplied with one and not as an extra - the PX4 falls into this camp = pants. This said - this isn't really the unit as such.




Construction could be a trifle chunkier.


For the guitarist of any level - the PX4 is a great tool but not being a floor based effects processor, it is strictly a desktop recording device or garage rehearsal tool. I would say that as the presets are so good (really they are) - you could be pretty stuffed attempting to emulate the identical sounds on stage. So if you hit upon a superb sound that 'makes' a song really special - be prepared to not have that available when gigging. I found this when recording my own version of Fleetwood Mac's 'Green Manalishi' - I put a much softer down tempo section in the middle with congas with a solo over the top using the PX4. It took the song to a different place - but I was unable to reproduce the sound outside of my home studio setup. I could have taken the PX4 on-stage, but as I said earlier, this wasn't practical as things move at such a frenetic pace during a gig. I got close to the sound using my GT6, but no cigar.
Of course it depends on what you want an effects processor to do - it certainly creates a range of interesting, varied and in many cases unique sounds, plus the extras are useful and functional - but it does have its limitations.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

i purchased this item form guitar center for $199 because i was tired of my digitech floor effects processors and was wanting something more for just sitting around the house and for traveling.

This unit is awesome.the sounds i can get from this little unit are tons better than any of digitechs rp models in my opinion.the presets are fantastic.I havnt even started programming my own sounds yet.but it seems pretty simle to do so.the drum tracks are very realistic and very easy to record with using the phraise trainer mode.

the only thing i can think of that i dont like about it is in a live setting.im not saying it couldnt be done.i just think it might be a little difficult.

the construction and quality seem really good.but you would want to be careful not to drop it on a hard floor.but over all i think it will hold up quite nicely.

great unit especially for the price i paid for it.i think it will help tremendously in my practice sessions.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I picked up the Korg Pandora PX4 at a Guitar Center in Plymouth Meeting, PA the first week of December. It was "on sale" for $199. That's weird because its advertised for $199 on every website and magazine out there. No way I was paying more than that. I heard about the Korg PX4 through a friend who recently bought a Fender Jazzman Bass guitar. I asked him what type of amp he bought and he said he got the Korg Pandora for Bass. He though it was super cool. After he told me about it I became very intersted and checked out the Korg website. There you will find a streaming video of a live demo. Slick advertising. But I still tested it in the store for about an hour before I bought it. I really didn't look at any other models or do any comparison shopping, I was sure this would do the job.

The PX4 rocks because of the small size. Its about the size of a deck of cards and probably weighs less. You can take it anywhere. I used it last week to jam with a friend. I ran it through his Marshall 100 watt head to 2X12 cabinet. Sounded sweet. A week before that I played a mini concert at a small private party through a set of PC speakers. It worked out fine. It really saved me from lugging aroung the old amp.

The other cool thing is the selection of amp models, cabinets and effects that come with this thing. There are so many possibilities that sometimes when I am teaking a specific tone I get so deep into playing with the various combinations and settings that I forget what I was originally going for and end up with something completely different but still awsome. No problem I just save the setting and start again. You can save 50 personal settings. I though that was plenty for me but I'm begining to have doubts as everyday I find new tones that I want to save.

Not only that, but walking around the house with the headphones on and jammin on my Tele is a liberating experience. I used to have to sit in front of my amp to do that. Now I can go anywhere in the house.

Oh and the first set of batteries lasted about three weeks - unbelievable!

I have been playing the heck out of this little box for about a month now and I have been very happy with it. The only thing that has been negative is that when I connected an AC adaptor all of a sudden there was a lot of noise coming through my guitar pups. I blame it on the single coil pups and not the PX4 but its still a negative thing for me. And it would be nice if they threw in the AC adapter.

Plus who really uses the "Ring" effect? This is a useless tone (for me anyway). Kork should get rid of it and add some other sick effect like "crybaby surf pedal".

Overall the construction seems decent. But I wouldn't get rough with it and I would avoid dropping it on the floor. The on/off switch is teeny and a little difficult to control. I almost always push it a little too hard and start in backlight, which is the second click when I mean to start it at the first click. This is just a slight nuisance.

I love it. It's a great practice tool and lives up to everything Korg advertises it to be. The price is right too. It will provide endless hours-o-fun in the woodshed. It's a great buy. Go get one.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I purchased this locally at Keepers Music for $199. I mainly wanted a personal headphone amp for my Steinberger, but once I heard the effects, I had to have this box!

The box has a ton of effects for its size. The noise gate is much better than my Korg AX1G effects pedal. The multitude of knobs and switches allow you to change things without scrolling through a menu. The small size allows packing it, plus extra batteries, cables, adapters and bud headphones in my gigbag storage pocket. I'm still on my first set of batteries, probably because I haven't used the backlight very much. That backlight is a nice touch as my AX1G pedal I use at church is difficult to see. The PX4 comes with a clip that hangs itself upside down on your guitar strap, so moving through the house under battery power while jammin' is possible. The clip would also allow you to hang the PX4 on the top edge of a solid music stand. The rythm and bass lines are fun to practice with to get your lead riffs fine tuned. Thirty seconds of recording built in to loop and jam along. Or plug in your CD player, record, and learn to play along at a slower pace. For something different, try the E-L-P or SYNTH setting.

I'm not sure you could gig with it as easily as a pedal board. When it hangs from the guitar strap, you can't see the display unless you twist the unit more horizontal. Could be a cool design in the PX5 to provide a swivel display! ALso, gigging possibilities would be improved if a footswitch input was provided to allow hands-off capabilities.

It's a plastic case contining electronics so it's not meant to be thrown, dropped, stomped on, or have something spilled on it! But the metallic blue facing looks sharp and works well for my needs. Many people have commented to me on how such a tiny box can have so many sound variations!

I thought about just a headphone on mini amp when looking to suppliment my Steinberger. After trying the PX4, I have found new opportunities for expanding my level of playing. A few design changes in the future could make this a perfect unit. But if it was stolen or broken, I'd buy another...or maybe wait for the next generation (with footswitch???). I give it a 4 for size, usability, and design.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I picked up this bad oscar after reading a review in Guitar World. I'd checked out previous incarnations of the Pandora, and while I liked the concept, the execution left me pretty unimpressed. Then came the PX-4. Whoa. Picked it up at the local Guitar Center for $199 ($250 suggested list).

This is the sickest little box yet. A virtual "Swiss Army Knife" for anyone serious about improving their guitar-playing. How is it gonna improve your playing? By allowing you to spank the electric plank ANYWHERE not prohibited by law. The PX-4, your ax, a guitar cable, headphones, 4 'AAA' batteries and you're done. Add a CD-player, or better yet, a MiniDisc player/recorder and you've achieved a state of guitar practice bliss. You'll be so far gone, someone could drop an A-bomb on your house, and you'd still be going for those 32nd-note triplets.
The ToneWorks people have lived up to their name with the PX-4 because the most outstanding feature of this unit (other than it's ridiculous size) is how good it sounds. It is jam-packed with TONE. Gobs and gobs and gobs of rich, authentic, inspiring, soul-satisfying TONE. And that's exactly what you want. If it doesn't sound good, it doesn't matter how inexpensive, convenient, or feature-laden it is; it's gonna start collecting dust, pronto. The raunch tones are nothing short of amazing. Thick and harmonically-complex, they will produce pretty much whatever you're going for with very little in the way of tweaking. One of the things I require where distortion is concerned, is the ability to produce satisfactory pinch-harmonics and the PX-4 serves them up effortlessly. The clean tones are just as amazing. There are a few clean factory patches that had my Les Pauls 'sparkling and shimmering' - not always an easy feat for heavy, humbucked guitars, but again, the PX-4 delivered in spades. Now that the meat and potatoes have been served, how about some serious gravy? Try chowing-down on all of this: 16 amp simulators; 11 cabinet sims; 16 effect types, including, dynamic/compression controls, octaving, various wahs, ring modulators, acoustic simulators, synth effects, and pickup modeling; 31 modulation effects (more if you include variations); 5 delay types with 5 variations each; 10 reverb types; and Noise Reduction.

And it doesn't stop there. The features that make the PX-4 and invaluable practice tool are the Phrase Trainer (record up to 32 second loops from your guitar or auxilliary input and slow them down to half-speed without pitch alteration. Also transpose keys in realtime from an auxilliary source), built-in 'drum' machine (39 beats from basic 8 Beats to Sambas with or without bass lines transposable to any key), metronome and tuner. If you want to drop a few extra scoots for a pair of wireless headphones, the PX-4 even has a built-in infrared transmitter to deliver the goods through thin air.

The labrats at Korg must have had one butt-kicker of a shoehorn, because they managed to fit all this stuff in a box 3" x 4.5" x 1". Welcome to the 21st Century . . .

What don't I like about this unit? Nothing. Is it perfect? Nope. But for what it is and how much it cost, it's pretty darned close. If you consider what it was designed to do, how great it sounds, and how little it costs, this thing is nearly flawless. There may be some complaints from some tweezerheads that there's not enough 'control' over some of the effects, and that might be true for the dyed-in-the-wool knob twiddlers. For example, with the time-based effects like reverb and delay, there's no tweaking parameters like early reflections or pre-delay, or any number of other components of the effect that you would find on a more expensive, dedicated effects processor. Also, and this is true with just about every digital "phrase trainer" I've ever goofed with, when you slow loops down, the sound gets pretty choppy. Depending on the source material and how much you're slowing it down, the lines you're trying to pick out can become almost unintelligible. But none of these things are really a complaint for me. I didn't buy the PX-4 to achieve the ultimate guitar tone, or to replace the rackful of signal processing and digital recording equipment I already own. I bought it so I could practice anywhere, and to this end, the PX-4 is superior to anything I've tried yet. Can you play live with it? It's certainly technically possible, although I haven't tried it (and, in all likelihood, probably won't). Can you record with it with good results? Ask Steve Vai. Evidently he's recorded entire tunes with his.

In all fairness, when you consider what the PX-4 is and what it was meant to do, there really isn't anything not to like.

The PX-4 is all plastic, but appears to be very well constructed. As with anything like this, I'd be real careful about not dropping it on a hard surface. There are just enough knobs and buttons on this unit to get the job done. Especially useful is the row of "familiar" knobs across the top: Gain, Bass, Treble, and Volume (there's a midrange control too, but you have to push another button and scroll to it), as is the wheel on the front that allows you to instantly change amp simulations. The other knobs/buttons allow for patch changes, master volume control and other functions. All functions not accessible from the front are achieved 'virtually' through scrolling, but control over these is simple and intuitive for anyone even vaguely familiar with digital effects processors. The good-sized LCD display is easy to read and provides a very effective, useful back-lit mode. The owner's manual is comprehensive and very understandable. I've only had this unit a short while, so I can't attest to how well it will hold up over the long haul, but since Korg has been at it for a few years now, I'm assuming it will do just fine.

I recently took this baby on vacation with me. There I was: Palm Desert, CA. Warm, moonlit night. Lounging poolside playing my little heart out. A few curiosity-seekers stopped to check out this little box I was plugged into. I handed the headphones over to them and chunked out a few riffs. It was a pleasure seeing the look of stunned disbelief creep across their faces. They asked for my frigging autograph.

Bottom Line: If you can afford two bills for what is arguably the best portable practice rig yet, and you don't go out and get one . . . you're an idiot.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

Lots of effects, the routine for these devices now. For bulk effects: chorus / flangers and reverbs, delays of (TAP), etc. ..
The rest of the amp simulations, simulations of high talk, a noise gate should forget etcJe full but there is the Korg website for those who want the list in full.
A tuner, a mini box rhythms (with a fixed number of fixed patterns), a phrase trainer etc.
Between 6.35 and between instrument jack For 1 / 8 ".
I fed with a game of rechargeable batteries (a food a lot this machine).

UTILIZATION

The configuration is fairly simple.
From memory, most of the time effects on a single adjustable paramtre. The simulation as the ct ct effects, the choice is always limited and easy to ACCS.
No difficulty in gnral (only the enchantment of rhythm problem DIFFERENT wonder, I still do not know if it's possible, in any case, I did not happened and it is the only case where all I see in the manual, not great by the way).
I found comfort being able to act on the wheels with real effects, and acting on the grain and legalization with real buttons. On this type of device is plutt rare. In addition, the screen is clear and wide (the size of the unit well sr) and moreover, it is also visible in the dark.

SOUND QUALITY

What about the sound quality?
This is the Korg, so more comfortable in the saturax in finesse. It is easy to carve trs sounds good but as a general rule, it is not always subtle trs. However, I got up to the sober blues with little effect (I branch above a Start), and even good when I get there.
Note: the names donns for the simulations are indicative, I do not think either the trs Fidler MODELS (total subjective opinion), but the ability to gain and rglage EQ can always get a rsultat convincing. So a good point.

OVERALL OPINION

I use the Pandora PX4 for 1 year in Swiss Army knife when I go on ouikende. I connect between a Start and a small amp lamps. With this set, I have a suuuuper ratio "of its quality / size." Obviously, one can always find smaller, or better sound quality but the one I trs good compromise.
I put the batteries in the Korg, a jack for the receiver (or headset if you want to nerver neighbors), I plug in, I play, I have fun.
I had to pay 1700 USD: for what was proposed, it is not really theft.

The blame? The phrase trainer too short, the impossibility of CRER its own rhythmic pattern (it is confined to presets), the battery consumption (which is why I put the batteries, can be supplied by transformer if one is not afraid no electrical connection more), short, not much rdhibitoire. PX4 = good bobotie.

I should make the choice today, and with the exprience, I would look for his little trs prs ERRF the PXR4 that can record four tracks on board. For me that I use it as a craft work sentences or pieces, or to work the rhythmic chorus on a grid, the PX4 is a bit limited in duration of the sentence.

124 possible effects, 7 simulans max. More than enough!
50 preset factory, 50 user.
They are all modifiable but only registered users can be (logical ...)
An input, a jack in outpout + std input into the jack 3.5
The case is ultra COMPCT: a big pack of cigarette with a ladle
I forgot, there are also rhythms (not editable) and bass accompaniment (we chose the tone) and also a chromatic tuner.
Big interest of the thing as well: the ability to record from either input to either the guitar live and to retake the while loop with the ability to slow down without changing the pitch!!

UTILIZATION

The use is relatively intuitive, but reading the doc (very poorly translated and unclear) is essential for certain functions.
All functions are controlled primarily by three button two "arrows" and a scroll wheel. Simple and effective.
The doc is really bad and I recommend reading the English version.

SOUND QUALITY

I do not speak here only for rendering output on headphones, it goes without saying that it will be very different certainnement output amp.
I plug in, in most cases, a Squier Standard Stratocaster above.
For my part I find convincing effects and effects while using fairly light (blues) I think the record is good (or presets MORE MELISSA friendly enough ....)
For against the rhythm "blues" is a horror, I prefer by far the "8beat/shfl"

OVERALL OPINION

I personally use the Pandora "nomad" on headphones. For this use it is fine with me. I use it for two weeks every day and I have not tested everything.
Listed price is a bit expensive (€ 225 with a personal headset IR) but the concurrency in "ultra compact" is, to my knowledge, very limited: apart from the zoom PFX 9003 a bit cheaper but much worse in terms of sound quality (it sounds digital amp and this lack of presence) there is not much ...
The importer is (I think) I have not found one much less than € 220, below, it will go to Germany for example ...
However, if it again ... I resign!

For effects, see the website of the manufacturer. It is pretty much in that in not enough.
Very interesting: the amp simulations and famous speakers.
Rhythms (with bass) and a relatively short loop: minimal, but has the merit to exist.
In short: no fat: that of utility.
The presets are quite usable (I like More and Softweed)

UTILIZATION

It is very easy to edit. Few parameters, very intuitive.
A very valuable addition of this model is that it has knobs on the amps as gain, volume, trebble, middle, bass. Very handy.
It is very small, battery operated many hours in short, is the ideal companion for mobile guitar and / or discrete. The machine is perfect with headphones, but it also denies an amp (I plug it on a small Roland Cube 15X when I travel).

SOUND QUALITY

If there is any doubt: it is clear that this is not a device "fi" for studio recording. We hear a little breath, the dynamic is average, but who spoke plug it into a Twin Reverb?
The amp simulations and effects are realistic. Personally I am rather in the light or the crunch and I really enjoy.

OVERALL OPINION

I use it for four months. I bought OCCAZ and I can not do without. I use it more than my amp, because I often play at night or on holidays. The sounds are pleasant, you can train on simple rhythmic foundations, he is very versatile. Much more practical to connect to the headphone amp on a small model (which I did before).
If you find a used one, go for it!