Korg AX3000B review.

[tomvelsor]

a little backround..ive spent a lot of time/money building the pedalboard of my dreams, always around 12-13 pedals, mostly all boutique high end good pedals. recently i started looking for something to do some octave-up stuff, and i mentioned it to my teacher. he said how "that korg unit behind you does some pitch shifting stuff, i was thinking about maybe selling it too." when i saw it was a multi pedal i got kinda turned off, thinking..well i already have almost everything id ever need, why spend so much extra on a multi. i gave it a shot anyway..

when i first plugged it in, it was set to a bank of all chorus/modulation patches that my teacher had programmed. the chorus alone goes head to head with my analogman chorus. and on top of that, you can set the expression pedal to control any parameter you want- for example, the expression pedal can make you go from dry to wet, control depth, or speed, of the chorus. then i started looking at all the other effects in there, all the modulation type stuff was absolutely top notch (though digital, diddnt sound very digital. a lot of warm sounding modulation stuff on this unit.) the synth sounds are actually really good, but doesent do as much synth stuff as my G5, but what it does do is on the same level as a G5/deep impact. the only things on there that i diddnt go gaga for were the fuzz/gain type things, wich werent all that terrible either.

i told him i'd think about it and left, then later that night was looking at it and saw theyre only $200 brand new. i rushed out to his house the next day (yesturday) and bought it from him. then i got a chance to spend more time with it making my own sounds..very easy to figure out, i only needed the manual to figure out how to assign any given parameter to the expression pedal, wich was also easy to do. this thing can easily replace a digitech whammy, pog, oc-2, your chorus, your flange, your phase shifter, your envelope filter, your wahwah, if you have a ring modulator it can even replace that too. it can do moogerfooger weird space things, and all sorts of other unique things that ive never heard before.

not only does this thing do all the octave stuff i was originally looking for, if fills in every gap you can immagine..flange, univibe, tremelo, all things i wouldent have bought a specific unit for. considering the chorus alone is head to head with my analogman chorus, that was more expencive than this, this thing is definately a 10/10.

so in conclusion to this story, ill never go shopping for another effect again, and ill never find a case big enough to fit all my pedals in it..

[Marill]

Originally Posted by tomvelsor

ill never go shopping for another effect again, and ill never find a case big enough to fit all my pedals in it..

good review, but to that statement... heh heh I give you 2 months, by that time, you'll probably have bought another effect

and you can thank TB for your GAS

[tomvelsor]

Originally Posted by Marill

good review, but to that statement... heh heh I give you 2 months, by that time, you'll probably have bought another effect

and you can thank TB for your GAS

haha this is likely, but i did not mean it litterally, i mean i have a huge selection of every type of effect there is, and theyre all very high quality..

adding to my review from before, ive been messing with it all morning making more and more discoveries. the leslie sound ive got going on is better than the rotosim i used to swear by (DLS effects i believe?) and it even has ramp/accelorate time..theres another $200+ pedal replaced by the korg...

A++++++ to this thing.

[tomvelsor]

following up on my review, after gigging with it + using it for a bit longer.

the dirt/fuzzes defiantely arent as good as i originally thought, after gigging with it i decided to take out any patches with distortion/overdrive.

the chorus, phase, filter, suboctave, and certain synth sounds, are all among the best on the market. specifically, the envelope filter has really impressed me..the cool thing about the filter is that you can program the "control" footswitch to turn on/off a suboctave, and when you kick it on the suboctave doesent mess with the dynamics of the filter. normally when id kick on my OC-2 into the DOD FX25 id have to play softer cause my volume was louder. very cool.

i feel compelled to post some soundclips from the gig the other night, so more people can discover the gold mine of funky sounds that are in this thing...will probobly do so in a day or two

[(b)Assman]

good stuff

[tomvelsor]

http://media.putfile.com/AX3000B-chorus

thats one long sample of two patches..recorded with my yamaha pocketrak on the foor, with a mexi jazz bass that has some annoying fret buzz in some spots..

the first patch is chorus / delay / reverb. the second patch is a leslie emulator, with slow/fast speeds (and ramp time between the two) and the foot controller to bring up the gain on the tube screamer copy.

if i ever get around to it ill make samples of some of the funk settings.

[Marill]

i heard the synth sounds are very good. if you have the time to sapre, can I request for synth sound clips?

[tomvelsor]

SOUND SAMPLES.

i recorded these by plugging the headphone out of the pedal itself into the mic input on my pocketrak. seemed to work..well..good enough for sound samples. the overall quality is really unprocessed and not that great but itll let you hear these effects that i've gone ga-ga over.

recorded with a carvin XB76.

a lot of these patches are set up to have the expression pedal change something, for example to blend in a chorus or to change the attack of a synth. keep in mind i wasent using my hands to fiddle any knobs..

and one last note, even though i really dont like the distortion/fuzzes on the AX3000B, i used them in a few of these samples. for those sounds id normally use my own fuzz/gain type things, but i wanted to keep this just the AX3000b.

http://media.putfile.com/chorusechoanddeley chorus, echo, delay.
http://media.putfile.com/lesliesim leslie simulation
http://media.putfile.com/highresonanceflange flanger / fuzz
http://media.putfile.com/filterandoctave envelope filter with on/off suboctave
http://media.putfile.com/synthfun1 synth number 1.
http://media.putfile.com/BOOOOTSY set up for a mutronIII-ish thing.
http://media.putfile.com/synthfun2 another funky synth
http://media.putfile.com/octup1 one octave up, adjustable soft attack.
http://media.putfile.com/8stringsim simulating double-strung sound
http://media.putfile.com/lead-guitar-39 one octave up+gain+wah lead guitar.
http://media.putfile.com/2octupweird a strange 2 octave up sound.
http://media.putfile.com/synthfun3 some more funky synth.
http://media.putfile.com/chameleon-41-85 synth chameleon sound
http://media.putfile.com/evilsynth222 synth/drive/flange/im not really sure
http://media.putfile.com/oldschoolsynt12 oldschool synth (this is a preset.)
http://media.putfile.com/ringmodd ring mod
http://media.putfile.com/whammy1212 whammy sort of thing...
http://media.putfile.com/phase-shifter12 phaser
http://media.putfile.com/univibe12222 univibe
http://media.putfile.com/talkmod vowel-like synthy sound
http://media.putfile.com/moresynthfun111 synth preset
http://media.putfile.com/portraitoftracy1 this chorus/amp sim preset is called "jazz"
http://media.putfile.com/cellosim1 preset, simulates a bowed-instrument
http://media.putfile.com/wahwah11 preset wahwah.

i diddnt even listen to all of these back, but i did hear some spots where the recording clips..try and ignore that..

[Bellbass]

Thanks a million for the review and the clips! Just saw one for sale, heard your clips and got it.

Need to find the right power adaptor and I'll be good to go. As I'm not relying heavyly on effects, and was convinced by your opinion and clips, this is a much simpler (and cheaper) way for me than to use the 4 or 5 pedals I would normally have to plug (I was going to build a pedalboard - which would also have been a hassle). If the experiment is conclusive, I'll be selling a few pedals that are worth at least 3 times the cost of the AX3000b!

Thanks again
Charles

[tomvelsor]

Originally Posted by Bellbass

Thanks a million for the review and the clips! Just saw one for sale, heard your clips and got it.

Need to find the right power adaptor and I'll be good to go. As I'm not relying heavyly on effects, and was convinced by your opinion and clips, this is a much simpler (and cheaper) way for me than to use the 4 or 5 pedals I would normally have to plug (I was going to build a pedalboard - which would also have been a hassle). If the experiment is conclusive, I'll be selling a few pedals that are worth at least 3 times the cost of the AX3000b!

Thanks again
Charles

haha glad someone benefitted from my clips

i just did a recording using the synth/flange/overdrive patch and everyone was stunned at how nice it was in the mix...

im still on the honneymoon with this unit.

[wagstaff]

Got the korg and have to +1 (x5) all on this review

[FreaqyFrequency]

I'll start by saying that your playing is great, and your bass sounds great Tom!

I've owned this board for almost two years, I really really liked it at first and would never play without it.

Now that I've had time to let the new-toy-syndrome settle out, I'll offer what I can only say is my most objective view of it.

For the money, it is impressive what Korg was able to produce. The wah and filters sound very rich, amp modeling is decent, delays and reverbs are good and warm, I like the modulation a lot and the ring mod is fun to mess with. The chassis is also pretty tough, it's been out a number of times without too much damage.

That, however, is about the end of what I like about this piece of equipment. The compressor sounds harsh, the exciter sounds harsh as well, and the synth, pitch shifter, fretless simulation and "slow attack" are pathetic. I don't know how you got your Chameleon track to sound so rich, but I could never get mine to sound anything close to that musical.

As Tom has mentioned, the distortion section is very disappointing indeed.

The thing I like least about this board though is the bypass. I thought I got a pretty good sound when I ran a "LA Studio" sim into a reverb, and then bypassed it. I liked the wet tone much better.

Then, I plugged straight into my amp. The proverbial "veil" was lifted from my tone. The sound is so much more alive without the board in the chain.

For people who want to mess with some fun effects, this is an excellent board. However, if you're trying to go for a professional sound and a bypass worth its salt, I would reccommend that you continue your search.

All the best,

-Sean

[tomvelsor]

good point about the bypass..it definately is messy..id definately not have a problem with getting a true bypass loop for this unit though. ive had it for quite a few gigs and a ton of rehearsals now, and im still really diggin it.

im really suprised you dont like the synth sounds. im really into synth bass pedals, i own a G5, and used to own a deep impact as well, and the synth in here is just a bit less tweakable than those units - but it still comes fairly close to that quality of sound. id give my G5 a 9/10, and these synth sounds 6.8/10, for referance.

[Mugz]

thanks for the review but i'm having trouble hearing the clips, when i click on them i get taket to a "cant find server" window, if you could fix this it would be greatly appreciated

[Crystalman85]

I've once had a korg ax3000b. it was a great sounding multi-effects processor. I should of never sold it. the only reason why I did sold it at the time I had it was because I wanted something portable. thankfully I bought a korg ax5b on ebay a few weeks ago. I saw it on ebay for $50 and decided to buy it because I miss owning a korg processor for my bass. it has some pretty cool sounds. it's a keeper for me.

That's pretty cool that you got some sound samples of the korg ax3000b. I got some sound samples of the korg ax3000b myself. I've posted them on my soundclick website. here's the link.

SoundClick artist: Crystalman85 - page with MP3 music downloads

Feel free to check them out.