Korg ToneWorks PX4D Pandora Guitar and Bass Multi-Effects Processor
200 Programs. For Guitar Or Bass. Jam Along To Your Favorite Music.
Overall User Ratings (based on 49 ratings)
Submitted July 9, 2007 by a customer from optonline.net
"Good tool for practice"
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I do not think I will need to replace this unit. It does what I expected it would as a headphone / practice system.
Sound
The sound is perfectly fine for usage as a practice headphone amp. Unlike some of the other reviewers, I had absolutely no issue with noise with this using.
It mixes the feed from the aux cable in perfectly well, so you can jam along with your favorite bands quite well, which is the main reason I bought it.
Features
The built in bass and drum machine is quite nice. You can adjust volume, time, tempo, rhythm, and even the key that the bass is playing in. So you have an assortment of backing tracks to suit whatever guitar parts you are working on.
The phase trainer is outstanding. My only issue with it is that if you record up to the maximum time (32 seconds), the compression used to maximize memory takes away too much from the sound. But recording a phrase in 16 or 8 second slices allows for better resolution.
What I love most is the ability to slow down a phrase while not changing pitch. You can throw part of a guitar solo or lead on there in a 16 second loop, and drop the tempo up to 50% speed. This allows for a great way to analyze and learn those faster solos you are working on. Then slowly bring the speed up to 100% over the course of time. Works great.
Ease of Use
All of the settings and controls are pretty intuitive. The manual is a bit sparse, but it has not been a problem. It is very easy to configure your own tones if you aren't happy with the presets.
Quality
The plastic housing makes it seem as if it will break easily. I use mine only on the couch while practicing, so I don't abuse it. I do not think it would take a lot of punishment to ruin this little device.
Value
It was worth every penny to me. I have made very good use of the phrase trainer.
Manufacturer Support
I haven't needed to deal with Korg on any issue.
Musical Background:
Hobbyist
Musical Style:
Rock
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Submitted March 24, 2009 by a customer from bellsouth.net
"Royal Albert Hall or The Filmore, and Nearly Any Guitar Sound in Your Shirt Pocket. Korg PX4 Pandora."
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If it dies, I will buy another immediately...with the hope Korg includes a footswitch in newer models.
Sound
Playin through '74 Fender Twin Reverb, PeaveyBackStagePLus and Gretsch Electromatic. LP Studio and SG. Have only used the PX4 and Digitech RP100 which is fine, but the PX-4 is heads above it. The range of factory presets sound is better and easier to adjust to create your user presets. I've had the PX-4 about 3 years and only used the RP100 a couple of times since and I play at least 1 hour everyday. Take advantage of the Gain,Treble,Bass and Vol adjustments to trim in any of Presets when the venue accoustics change from where you normally set them up. Also there's easy access to clicking through the "change settings" (my term) on any preset, can alter the sound tiny or knock out the walls.
Features
Features. Great instant Amp Modeling with big thumb wheel to turn your selected sound into monster or lullaby. Wish it had more record room at high bit rate, but it still lets you laydown a lot of measures to jam to. That's another thing I like, the jam with yourself or to external inputs. Another great thing is the Bass progression that plays in the Key you select in the Jam feature and rhythm.
Lots of other features as in product description.
Batteries last, but less with the excellent backlight display. I always use wall power unless at a friends and then batteries last about 6 hours without backlight.
Negatives: Control button/knob labeling text too tiny.(I used a WhiteOut pen to label some knobs more clearly. Needs standout mark on G/T/B/V knobs to see where they are set.
Clip on carrier is secure, but when put on guitar strap, you can't see the display without twisting it around. Clip on will slide onto waist band or belt but presents the same display problem. (I use a big black office paper clip to hold mine to the edge of a music stand, and leave it there. And I have put velcro on back of PX4 clip-on and the face of my music stand. This arrangement is quite secure. This is brings us to one thing that would be great for this baby... a jack to accept a footswitch to scroll the presets.
Ease of Use
This baby has a lot of different levels of adjustment, but after just a little noodling around it mostly becomes automatic and easily adjusted on the fly. The RP-100 mentioned above drove me crazy trying to dial in what I wanted.
Quality
Made Well? It is plastic, but I swear to you, I have dropped it from table top level at least 10 times and a couple of times it hit the floor when the music stand fell over face first. The case has even popped open. Each time I have thought OMG this has to be the end, but unbelieveablly it keeps right on performing exactly as it did when new. It is beyoud rugged. My only disappointment is the slide selector switches on the sides for Hi/Lo pickup and Off/On/Backlight.
These gave up after about a year, but were prob. do to the above mentioned belly flops. I just leave the pickup set at Hi for Humbuckers...and a toothpick or push pin works on the other slider.
Value
If you are a performer and need hand free switching of presets, this isn't the tool. But for home and garage players this is a very powerful tool and really makes one guitar sound like one thousand other setups. Amps, Cabinets, Pick-ups, Miles of effects, Rhythm,Bass,Tuner,lots more.
Manufacturer Support
Contacted them about slide switches mentioned above. Helpful, steered me to supplier for parts, but cost+shipping wasn't worth it.
The Wow Factor
I'm not much on needing the coolest look, I want performance and the PX4 has it in a cool package about the size of a cigarette pack.
Musical Background:
Hobbist
Musical Style:
Rockn'Blues, Pop Standards
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Submitted March 5, 2006 by a customer from msn.com
Korg PX4D Pandora Effects Customer Review
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It's a keeper.
Sound
Great sounds W/ a variety of different amps. It is very cool to jam w/ or practice although the volume could be increased just a tad.
Features
plenty of features that make it easy to plug in and play. If you want to sit there and tweak all day, go buy a podxt (I have this for recording, and the Korg for practicing on the couch or when traveling)
Ease of Use
It has all the sounds I could want and they are extremely easy to dial in.
Quality
Light weight and made of plastic, but what isn't these days. I have no plan of stepping on it and I take care of all my equipment anyways.
Manufacturer Support
have not dealt w/ them.
Musical Background:
Hobbyist
Musical Style:
rock
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Submitted October 14, 2006 by a customer from yahoo.com
"Very good multi-effects processor in a tight package"
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I'm quite pleased with this one from Korg. If they only made an accessory foot switch for live use...
Sound
Considering it's small size, this one from Korg has quite a lot of features and sounds very good.
Features
Tons of presets..the ability to Jam with a variety of pre-made rhythm riffs is definitely the coolest feature. It makes practicing a lot more fun and I think it will enhance anyone's playing ability.
Ease of Use
Very simple use. Has dials to tweak the cabinets, tone and gain in the right places. My only beef is that it lacks a MIDI interface to allow for rapid program changes on the fly. This makes it good for practicing but not for live performance.
Quality
Good overall quality. Get the AC adapter as it soaks up batteries pretty quickly. It comes with an adapter for hooking it on to a guitar strap, but the hole is too small to fit mine.
Value
Very good deal for the dough..
Manufacturer Support
No experience.
The Wow Factor
I bought it and I'm addicted..
Musical Background:
Active Musician
Musical Style:
Rock and Jazz
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Submitted November 12, 2005 by a customer from yahoo.com
"THE BEST!"
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I've been using the PX4 for years and I couldn't be happier!!
Sound
Come on.This is a no brainer. You can't get a better sound or a better value in ANY product out there in this catagory. I own both PX4 & PX4D and I wouldn't live without them.
Features
This unit has more of the modern cutting edge sounds but if your an old schooler like I am you'll fit right in with the Pink Floyd old Santana sounds!! The drums on this unit are also more with the times and plenty of beats to choose from!
Quality
It's great sound quality but a very delicate unit so you must baby it. It's easy to do just treat it with respect!
Value
Not a better value ANYWHERE so don't bother looking! At $169.00 retail you will change your whole outlook on practicing.
Manufacturer Support
Sent me a new belt clip on the house!So far they're good in my book! ;>)
Musical Background:
pro
Musical Style:
many
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Submitted November 7, 2005 by a customer from yahoo.com
"Did not meet my expectations."
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I'll wait until Korg pulls this off the market and see what they come up with next, as I said before, my old PX3B is fantastic so I believe Korg will be able to work out the performace flaws in the PX4D.
The thing that I like leastly about the unit, is the quality of the phrase trainer, especially the auxiliary phrase recording feature. Normally when recording a phrase off of a CD (Aux Source) with the PX3B, you simply push the Phrase Trainer button once, "Aux" will appear in the LCD window (if you continue to push the Phrase Trainer button, the other recording source options will appear). Then, with the auxiliary source (CD) playing, you hit the "Enter/Rec" button and after the phrase is recorded you can either hit the button again, which ends the recording and begins looping the recorded phrase, or you can wait until the unit records the maximum measures it's programmed to record and looping begins automatically.
When the unit is functioning properly, after the unit has recorded the phrase and the looping of the recorded phrase begins, the Aux source is muted and you only hear the recorded loop, which then you may play along with to learn the phrase. When I attempted to record a phrase off of a CD with the new unit, the recorded phrase is garbled, and the Aux source isn't muted. Of course the simple solution for canceling the Aux source is to hit pause on the CD player, but that doesn't help the fact that the recorded loop is uselessly garbled.
Since the phrase trainer function of the unit was the primary function I needed, and the noise level made it inadequate for recording, the combined deficiencies make the PX4D useless to me. But as I implied before, it might make a nice Christmas toy for a beginner to get with their starter guitar/bass package.
Sound
A little to noisy for direct recording, but suitable for practice along with auxiliary source. Some fun tones to noodle around with.
Features
Possibly to many features for the little unit to handle, quality seems to be less then what Korg previously offered in the old PX units.
Quality
I returned mine, quality inferior to its predecessors. I purchased the unit because I also own a PX3B bass trainer, and in my opinion the PX3B performs much better for my application. The older unit is cleaner, and the auxiliary record function performs much better/clearer on the old PX3B.
Value
I was disappointed with the PX4D performance, especially when I own and use daily the PX3B with fantastic results.
I ranked its value at 5, not suitable for the discriminating user, but it might make a nice toy for a starter guitar package.
Manufacturer Support
I didn't need to correspond with Korg, however the store I purchased the unit from contacted them and received a very timely responce.
The Wow Factor
It would be a great product if it performed better, I returned the product.
Musical Background:
Active Musician
Musical Style:
Adult top 40/pop, hard rock, reggae, R&B.
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Submitted December 15, 2005 by a customer from adelphia.net
"Too cool."
I own a GNX4 for effects and multiple amps for live sound. This unit was bought to fill a different, specific role. It does that, I see no need to replace it.
Sound
Presets are so-so but tweakable. I bought it to replace my ancient Rockman for headphone practice in front of the TV. The sound is not suitable for prime time (recording or live) but is fine for what I want.
Features
I am reviewing this as a headphone amp, not a multiFX. As such it packs a lot of stuff into a little box.
Quality
Seems a bit fragile but not too bad.
Value
I bring it along to gigs, in a pinch I would be too embarassed to hook it up if my main rig failed.
Manufacturer Support
Dunno...
The Wow Factor
I wanted something to jam on informally while couch potatoeing. It is the bomb for that.
Musical Background:
30+ years of bar band
Musical Style:
Rock
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Submitted July 15, 2008
"Excellent product for its price point and feature depth. Both guitar, bass, trainer, and drum/bass synth? Nice, but is there a"
Overall, it is a very good product.
I wish I could see how it stacks up to the obsolete PX4.
I wonder if the PX4 offers more of what I want simply because it is more focused on being a guitar effects product, and not try to be both guitar , bass, and have all these crazy trainer and false backup band features.
Seeing that you can get a used PX4 for half price, I would be terribly disappointed if I paid twice as much to get less of what I want.
Sound
For what it is, and the price point, it is a fantastic product.
I am not sure if making a single device do both bass and guitar is a great idea, as I think that the bass effects/cab sims are pretty much useless for guitar. In my opinion, it would have been better to make the product better for one thing or the other.
I was worried that this product would not do that one thing and do it well, because of that. But, it turns out to be ok.
My biggest gripe is the fact that you can only combine certain sound categories.
For instance, I want to combine "B OD" and "wah down" and there is no way to do that because they are grouped into the same class.
Unfortunately, most of the effects that I WANT to mix cannot be mixed. Like "humbucker to single coil" and "compression".
So in that respect, it is not all that well designed.
Because of this, I find it hard to really duplicate many other professional artists sounds more accurately in such a way where I can make the most of the compensating effects that such a product would supposedly offer.
Features
No power supply? But otherwise the guitar strap mount fixture is not too bad.
It would be nice to see a tripod stand accessory for it, where it can be used while standing and you can have it situated in front of you, rather than corner-eying it on your guitar strap.
For features, again, it would be nice to not be so limited with what effects can and can't be mixed.
Otherwise, this is packed with many more features than what I would expect for a similar product, and overall it does them very well.
Ease of Use
Once you get the hang of it, it is pretty easy to use.
I would have those presets lined up in the perfect order ahead of time if I were to do anything realtime like go live with it. But it wasn't really made for that anyway.
But the sound is good enough to make you want to do it.
Quality
Id say it is well made for what it does.
It was not really built to be a stage performer, so with that in mind it is well made.
Value
For the price range, I think it would be hard to beat for the wide range of what it can do for you all in a single package.
However as I stated below, Seeing that you can get a used PX4 for half price, I would be terribly disappointed if I paid twice as much for the PX4D to get less of what I actually wanted. (noting the limitations that I have listed here).
The Wow Factor
It has very good appeal, or in my case, excellent appeal because I don't have very many effects. This covers the gamut for me. Being an analog junky, this digital piece is still good enough to be in the "I want it category" for me.
Musical Background:
Hobbyist
Musical Style:
Classic Rock/Metal
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Submitted December 11, 2007 by a customer from gmail.com
"Hard to beat the features for the price"
Sound
Amp simulation, basic effects, basic presets, all sound great. Some of the presets with lots of effects piled on are blatantly hissy. Cranking up the noise reduction helps some.
Features
I bought it for amp models and effects, but I've found myself addicted to the rhythm patterns. Bass, in any key, can be added to the drum tracks. Tuner is handy. I still haven't used the phrase trainer. There's way more here than I expected,
Ease of Use
Basic operations are easy: tuning, changing presets, starting rhythm. Twiddling with all the sub-options of each setting requires a bit of fiddling to remember all the details. Could be a bit easier to use.
Quality
It's plastic, yes, but feels very solid. I'm not worried about it breaking.
The Wow Factor
It's a slick little box.
Musical Background:
hobbyist
Musical Style:
Blues, Rock
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Submitted October 16, 2006
Korg PX4D Pandora Effects Customer Review
Features
Play along, metronome (and drum patterns( slightly chessy..but beats playing along to the metronome).
Pitch shifting reverb and delay all excellent
Quality
dropped a dozen times and it still works
Value
Shopp for it and you can pick up a perfect second hand model for
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