Pandora PX3B

[Rick Martin]

I just got the Korg Pandora for Bass and I'm stymied. There are 50 pre set programs with names like Jelly, Corn, War, Alpha, Razor, Alien and 44 others. I've listened to how they make my bass sound and some of the names are logical. For instance, Alien sounds like some sort of computer distortion. Most of the others don't make much difference in sound that I can hear through my little practice amp. The little book that comes with the unit doesn't explain squat and believe it or not, I called Korg USA and the tech guys there had no real experience with the PX3B, so they were without clue. I bought it from American Musical Supply and the phone tech guys there didn't know anything about the unit. I would expect the manual to have a legend that describes the fifty different programs. Anybody here at TB hip to this jive?

[eurus]

Well, being an engineer by day, I know it can be tough to write a good instruction manual (which is probably why people usually never use them). But I wish they did have some sort of explanation as to what each of the effects names mean. I totally know what you mean. They have some sort of arbitrary abbreviation in the effects and they show the same abbreviations in the manual too! weird... another thing you might try to hear the effects clearer is to use a good pair of headphones. They seem to work real nice with the PX3B.

[Rick Martin]

I'm having a big time playing with this Pandora. The drum rythmns are making practice a blast, but so far I don't really like the effects. It seems like 50 different ways to distort my clean sounding bass. I'm new to the whole world of effects, so maybe I'll live and learn. I went to Radio shack and got the little patch cord to connect my Discman type CD player to the Pandora, but the volume is way too loud coming through my bass amp. Turning the volume slide on the CD player down doesn't do it and my amp's volume control is labeled 'pre gain'. If I turn this knob down to get the CD volume within reason, then I can't hear my bass. If I turn 'pre gain' up to hear the bass, then the CD is way too loud. Any advice for this? If I can use this Pandora as a drum machine and head phone amp and also play along to CD's, I'll get my money's worth, for sure.

[eurus]

The Pandora has a master volume level on it (which controls the output of your bass). It might be set kind of low, so you're not getting sufficient volume from your bass. Also, it has that switch on the bottom side for active or passive basses. Make sure it's set to the passive mode (since you have a MIM Jazz bass).

[spoolie]

I've had one for about four months and never use it with a bass amp (it sounds very cheesy with a good amp). However it sounds terrific through a set of powered computer/AV speakers with a little subwoofer. I have Yamahas. For low/medium level practise there's nothing like it. You can control the CD volume by using the headphone jack as the output and using the CD volume control. This is a first rate practice unit but is useless connected to real amplification. Most of the presets are cool through headphones but nasty sounding in actual use.

[fg140]

Look, the PX-3B ISN'T, is not, ain't, a STOMP BOX.
You don't plug it in to the front of your amp.
You use it either as an earphone amp, OR ...

1). Get from Radio Shack a Stereo-to-Mono 1/4-inch
plug converter.

2). Plug the bass into the INPUT of the PX-3B.

3). Put the converter plug on one end of another
cable.

4). Plug the converted end of the cable into the
OUTPUT jack of the PX-3B.

5). Plug the other end of the cable into your
effects-return input of your amp's effect
loop. If you don't have an effects loop in your amp,
well, you still have a good earphone practice amp in
the PX-3B, but it ain't ever gonna be useful for you
live onstage, I think.

6). You are now using the PX-3B as a preamp. You use the
PX-3B's Volume and eq's and effects, etc. not your
amp's front controls anymore.

NOW, you can properly judge the unit. NOW you're giving it
a chance to do what it does. And NOW if you want to call it "cheesy", etc. you may. But at least give it a shot, ok? I'm not affiliated with Korg in any way, but I'm a big fan of both the PX-3B and the guitar version, the PX-3.
Some of the stuff *still* sounds not too cool (the Chorus
stuff especially) when done the way I've described, but some of the other stuff sounds great. Give it a try, and
good luck to you.

[spoolie]

Yeah, I agree with the above, that hookup will give much better level matching to a bass amp. However, Korg does promote in their ads and in the manual that the output be connected directly to a bass amp (among other devices) and I think many people will naturally take them up on it. Unfortunately it doesn't sound very good that way but the fact remains it is a very good practise tool and probably does very well as a recording device.

[Rick Martin]

Now that I have the basics figured out, I can't imagine life without my Pandora. My Microbass amp only has one input and the Pandora sounds great plugged in there. I keep it on the Blues program which seems to let my bass sound as normal as any of the programs. Lots of them sound wacked to me with all sorts of echo and distortion, but I don't know jack about effects, and accept the idea that these Pandora programs sound good through good headphones or the effects loop of an amp. The type of blues and boogie woogie swing music I play probably don't go with a lot of those effects anyway. Or do they? I guess if I was gonna do "Spirit in the Sky", I might need one of those mechano fuzzy programs. Anyway, as an intermediate student, I'm getting tremendous benefit from the drum rythmns and headphone amp features. I havent tried recording a sample of a CD yet and slowing it down or changing key.

[fg140]

Heh. sorry if my little rant above came off too strong.
Fundamentally, I guess, I'd beg anyone who uses the PX3B,
at the very least, to buy the 1/4 inch stereo-to-mono
converter plug before you plug the unit into your amp...
in any-which ways that appeal to you ...

But, heck, cover the Pandora with creamcheese and call
it a bagel if you like! The idea is to have fun and make
le sonique cool, n'est ce pas?

[reedith]

I just picked up the Pandora last week, I traded in my Zoom BFX 708 which I never used, and this unit has been great for me. I'm not much of an effect guy myself but it's funny how when using a certain effect, it can bring out a different creative side in your playing than another effect, or playing dry might. The main reason I bought it is so I don't have to tote my amp around when there's no place to practice at school, and the thing is so incredibly small that I've made myself believe that I really needed it. Yeah, I guess I'm pretty naive...

I'm not too sure if I would ever use it live though, if I did it wouldn't be for more than one song. All in all though, you get a quality Korg tuner, metronome (which we all probably don't use enough, but I'll speak for myself), drum machine, and a great sounding headphone amp. Not to mention a bunch of useful/useless features it has, but it has inspired me to practice more and really listen to what and how I'm playing. Just my opinion.

Oh yeah, as far as some of those effects go, I think the M'M and J'P are supposed to be the Marcus Miller and Jaco Pastorius sounds. Useful? Maybe. Cheesy? Hell yeah!

[Rick Martin]

Marcus and Jaco....amazing bit of code cracking, Mr. Holmes.
All of the effects sound weird through my little Microbass amp or cheap headphones. I did take the Pandora to a shop and tried it out through the Bassman 60 and things made a little more sense. Can you decypher any of the other secret program encryptions? We might need that old WW11 "Enigma" machine.

[ChristianOnBass]

Thank you for the info. "It is not a stomp box." I am glad I didn't buy one. I don't need to entertain myself on headphones Great forum!