Korg PX4D

[ted s]

Hey folks, I've had this

http://www.korg.com/gear/info.asp?a_...&category_id=6

for a few months now, quite happy with it, however, in any mode of operation other than by-pass for tuner there is slight noise/hum if no playing is going on, almost like it is processing the low quiet signal input ?? The only thing I can think of is some kind of AC noise when running off the AC adaptor, but then it should make noise even in by-pass..

Any ideas ?

thanks

Ted.

[Justaguyin_nc]

probably obvious... but you did test it with batteries to see if the hummm goes away? If so.. maybe another AC adaptor or line filter might help.

[ted s]

Hey Justa, thanks for the reply. I tried batteries only, same deal. I guess it's not really a hum, more like electronic silence if you know what I mean, hard to describe.

[SuperSwede]

Have you tried to duplicate the problem on another unit? My old Korg Toneworks wasnt quite silent either, could be "normal" on these low cost machines.

[jpfeifer]

Hi Ted S,

I'm thinking of getting something like this unit or one of the Zoom boxes to use with my travel guitar. I'm looking for something that is compact (to fit in my laptop bag), can be battery operated, and has a built-in drum machine with bass too.

Does this unit have all of this?
Do you like the guitar sounds? How about the drum and bass patterns?

Mostly I want to find something that will allow me to plug in with a set of headphones and practice. Having the Traveler guitar is nice, but it would be even better with some kind of practice box to go with it.

Thanks, -- Jim

[ted s]

Hi Jim,
this unit will operate on 6 aaa batteries as well as an AC adaptor. It has an aux. input for a CD player etc. 1/4" jack input from your axx, 1/4" output to your amp or a set of headhones. There are LOTS of canned rythms and drum beat pre-sets, a dozen or so amp models and over 100 preset tones. No bass but will record and sample for a slow down. I tried that once, it wasn't super quality but it would get the job done. The ability to create your own tone or modify existing as well. Gain, bass, treble and volume adjustments via dials. It's a little larger than a pack of smokes. Battery life is decent if you run with the display backlight off. Almost forgot, built in tuner that works great. All in all I think it is a great little unit, I paid around $200 Can. new.
Good luck with your choice.

Ted

[jpfeifer]

OK. I just received mine this past Saturday. I absolutely love this thing! It's just what the doctor ordered! The guitar tones are excellent, especially the AC30 and Fender sounds. I've started messing around with some of the settings and I'm really impressed at how good it sounds for a pocket-sized box.

The effects are incredible, although they have limited parameter controls. Some of the filter-based effects are really fun to play with. They have a few settings that imitate the sound of a Talk-Box and they do a great job at that. (Frampton Comes Alive) It's fun to practice leads with these Talk-Box effects just for a change of pace.

I'm really liking the built-in drum machine and bass player too. Although you can't change the drum or bass sounds, they give you a lot of built-in patterns to play over and you can change the volume, key, tempo, and reverb setting for the bass/drum-machine separately from the guitar sound. It's kind of a lite version of Band-in-a-Box. I was happy to find that they have a 12-bar blues for one of the built-in patterns.

I tried this box with my travel guitar yesterday and it sounded great. But I think that I'll be using this thing alot at home too. To my ears it sounds at least as good as my PoD (2.0) but I haven't tried an A/B comparison yet. I would like to try some recordings with this box and see how they turn out. All the interesting effects would be fun to track with.

-- Jim

[Robert****]

Does it provide a stereo head phone out? That's one thing I don't like about my Valvetronix amp - the head phone out is mono which is no fun when you use effects like chorus, etc.

[ted s]

Sounds like you're a happy camper Jim, but does it make electronic hum like mine ?

[jpfeifer]

Ted,

I haven't heard the AC hum that you're talking about. Although I haven't tried to record with it yet. But I have not noticed any hum so far. (Maybe my hearing is not good enough to detect it :-)

But, I wouldn't expect this device to have very good shielding seeing that it is a plastic housing, etc.

Do you have any sources of hum near you when you're trying this? Are you sitting close to any transformers, flourescent lighting, or an computer monitor (not an LCD screen)?

-- Jim

[jpfeifer]

Robert,

Yes it doese have a stereo headphone out.
This is the same output that you use for connecting it to a mixer or amp too. It does not have a switch to turn on/off the speaker(cabiniet) emulation, so I wouldn't expect this device to work very well as a stomp box with a guitar amp since you wouldn't be able to disable speaker emulation, but it should work great as a direct box for recording.

-- Jim